EBAY SLASHES JOBS, MAJOR CUTS AND OVERHAUL
VOLUME 2, NUMBER 194
**HOT**BUTTON**STORY**
(TRI-STAR CROSSES THE LINE INTO WRESTLING TRADING CARDS!!!)
** 125 LOSE JOBS AT EBAY
** TRI STAR SIGNS-ON WRESTLING MEN & LADIES
** UDA BRINGS BACK JORDAN & MAGIC TOGETHER
** TOPPS GETS INTO THE GAME IN HITS PER BOX
** MICHAEL VICK HITS NEW LOW
** THE BUSH'S 41 SIGN ON WITH DONRUSS ** NTC SET TO GO MARCH 29 **
All these and more in today's edition of TBR: The Brill Report...
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(EBAY CUTS 125 JOBS, 70 AT HOME BASE)
More than 100 people worldwide are losing their jobs with eBay as the company rushes to restructure under John Donahoe. Donahoe, the new CEO replacing the resigning Meg Whitman, announced earlier he was cutting fees in some area's and raising fees in others. The latest move involved 125 people of the $15,500 eBay employees worldwide. 70 of those jobs are at the San Jose based headquarters.
(eBay doesn't mean what it used to.)
It is not known what kind of positions were eliminated domestically although eBay just finished a consolidation of the service groups for eBay and PayPal. It is assumed many of the positions were from these areas due to redundancy. Either way even a one-percent job cut is high. One official explained it was more streamlining than cost cutting.
In an attempt to get people to return to eBay many changes were implemented in the last month. Sellers for the most part of lower end items are not happy about as eBay raised fees charged on lesser dollar items. However, reaching certain levels qualifies sellers for listing discounts.
Once the darling of Wall Street, eBay, has fallen from grace in the past year as listings were not growing as fast as before and more people were going on-line to purchase items from other sites rather than take the time to bid on eBay. Donahoe's attempts are to stop the bleeding in that aspect but heightened competition and eBay losing it's luster, it will be a hard road to hoe.
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(TRI-STAR INKS TRADING CARD WRESTLING DEAL WITH TNA)
Tri-Star proved it could make strong and valued trading cards with it's minor league series and now is jumping over the top rope and into the ring with wrestling partner, Total Non Stop Action (TNA). The first card series, "TNA Impact" debuts this spring, with two other series to follow.
(TNA Wrestling's Christy Hemme)
"TNA is ecstatic to partner with Tri-Star for it's trading card category," said Jason Walker, Director of TNA Licensing. "This is a very important high profile category for TNA and we're thrilled to see the high tech Tri-Star will do."
Tri-Star has produced very strong and innovative trading card products based on it's license involving the minor leagues. Wrestling however is a different matter.
"We are very excited to have been selected by TNA as the exclusive company to have the rights to produce it's trading cards and memorabilia," said Tri-Star president Jeff Rosenberg. "TNA is gaining a partner in Tri-Star with vast experience in the creation, production and collectibility of trading cards, and we look forward to working with TNA to showcase their stars in a new and collective way."
(TNA's Traci Brooks in action shot. TNA also has men wrestlers but you see them all the time.)
Tri-Star will do memorabilia cards and autographs much like it has done with its autographed series of cards. Something which did not go un-noticed by TNA executives.
"Many of our fans are card collectors," added Walker. "So we wanted to make sure our trading card partner delivered the best range and and quality cards available in the marketplace and Tri-Star will give it the attention it deserves."
There will be three series in 2008 with Impact due out shortly, Cross the Line this summer and TNA Knockouts featuring the women of the sport in time for the holidays. The show brings in 2.3 million viewers to Spike TV every week and remains one of the most popular shows on the network.
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(UDA BRINGS BACK JORDAN AND MAGIC AGAIN)
Michael & Magic are back together at Upper Deck Authenticated by popular demand. The company is offering the two signed side by side on the court for an SRP of $1300. Dealer price is just under $800.
There continues to be a demand for Jordan and UDA has him locked up for years. The on court photo of MJ and Magic is one of the most frequently sought photos carrying their autographs.
The framed 16 x 20 photo was produced again in limited editions and UDA officials say they had Jordan in signing feverishly recently. It shows as the company is now offering Jordan Basketball and other items as well.
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(TOPPS FINALLY GETS BASE BOXES INTO THE GAME WITH 1-PER-BOX HITS)
Topps base brand Jumbo Packs (formerly called Collector Packs) have always done well, so well in fact they've hurt hobby store sales of base packs. Those 36 pack boxes are much harder to sell than Jumbo boxes as the Jumbo's not only give you more cards they yielded two hits per box. Topps finally saw the light.
Officials at Topps announced the Series 2 Baseball base boxes will contain a relic or autographed card. Upper Deck an Donruss have done this for several years. Not that a jersey card will help spur sales but the chance for an autographed card will make the difference. Topps base has never guaranteed a hit per box.
"It will make it easier to recommend a box of Topps as well as Upper Deck and not just the UD boxes when low end collectors ask which box should they buy," said one dealer. "It has been tough to tell a customer asking about boxes to buy the Upper Deck because they will get something over Topps where they may get something."
Topps has traditionally been slow on these matters while being in front of the curve with technology. Photographic paper, UV coating, Chromium technology all of which Topps was either first or not far behind. Jerseys, autos and other items Topps has lagged for years.
In addition to the bumping up of regular boxes, Topps will also increase the hits in Jumbo boxes to three instead of two. The basics call for one autograph and two relics. The wholesale cost will remain the same too.
Many dealers would not buy Topps base brand preferring to try to get Jumbo boxes on line or from distributors. Buying and selling Jumbo's has always been at a premium even when the content did not warrant it and regular hobby boxes were certainly the better buy. This new move should increase Topps direct sales slightly and pump up the price a bit on the secondary market as well.
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(UPPER DECK GOING FIRST AND LAST WITH $150 FIGURES)
The price tag may be too high for collectors despite the idea they are getting figures depicting a specific moment in sports. Upper Deck is now offering a Michael Jordan "Final Shot," and Tiger Woods "Fist Pump" at the first Masters he won in high end figures.
There are two problems with these. First off, "16 inch Hyper-realistic Poly-Resin on a modern poly-resin base" is still plastic, or a form of it. It's not metal, wood, or even ceramic. Will collectors balk at paying $150 each for these "poly-resin" figures? They might.
(New UD Jordan & Tiger carry $150 price tags.)
As with the other UDA figures these are pretty good. Some collectors and dealers balked at the real likenesses saying they should have been done better. Others like them just fine. The packaging as usual is very high end and in some cases does exceed the need to showcase the item itself.
One UD official told TBR not long ago the packaging is part of the marketing and believe it or not isn't cost prohibitive. Making the packaging very nice doesn't really add to much to the bottom line so the company chose to do it. Available in October.
Dealer cost is $90 per item.
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(NATIONAL TICKETS ON SALE NOW)
Tickets for National No. 29 in Chicago are on sale now. You can buy them and print them on-line at the National Website. The show runs from July 30-August 3
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(HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? MICHAEL VICK LOW)
Dreams Corporation is going pretty low. Even in announcing the offering sakes rep Adam Kramer must have felt embarrassed with this offer:
"OK, we all know Michael Vick is not the most popular man in the world these days, but Mounted (Mounted Memories) has lowered its prices to BLOW OUT PRICING!! So just in case you have one of those customers who enjoys these "off" autographs," the email proclaimed. "Mounted offers the following..."
(Michael Vick at his lowest $10.)
So how low can you go? How about Michael Vick signed 8x10's $!0, 16x20's $15, mini-helmets $35, Footballs $60, Replica Helmets full size $75 and Pro-LIne Helmets $150. Shoes and jerseys $75. The cost of the blank Reebok jersey is normally $135. Add the signature of Vick and it loses $60! Wow.
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(MARCH 29 NATIONAL CARD DAY SHIPMENTS IN HAND)
Dealers received their packs for National Trading Card Day this week. The actually event is scheduled for March 29, the last Saturday of the month. The card packs, to be given away to fans and collectors will contain 6 UD cards and 6 Topps cards plus an informational cardboard casting.
(Two of the chase cards in the NTC Packs.)
"We're really excited about National Trading Card Day," said Evan Kaplan, Category Director for MLBPA."Building a baseball card collection is a great way to kick off the 2008 Season."
The cards include UD spokesman Derek Jeter and best friend and Topps spokesman, Alex Rodriguez. Each one also has a UD and a Topps Rookie card or a chase card.
Stadiums hosting the final exhibition games of the spring will have the card packs to hand out as well as participating hobby stores. You can also get a pack by going to MLB.com/cards and there will probably be some available on the Internet. The Internet is not the place to buy them though as MLB and MLBPA have worked at ways to keep unscrupulous dealers from selling them on-line. They are a promotional give away and after the first year the sponsors pulled out because dealers were selling them on eBay. It took a couple of years but the program is back.
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(BUSH AND DONRUSS MAKE A NICE THREESOME, MINUS THE "W")
Don't county on George W. Bush being acclaimed any time soon but daddy & mommy Bush are out in front in trading cards. Both the senior George H.W. Bush and wife Barbara signed cards for Donruss Celebrity Cuts. The 41st President of the United States and his wife each signed 41 of their cards.
(George Bush 41 to sign for Donruss Celebrity Cuts)
"We are extremely excited that Donruss was able to confirm the industry's first official trading card agreement with a former president," said Scott Prusha, Donruss Marketing Director. "This year's political race has been so compelling and garnered much media attention, so the fact that Donruss was able to contractually obtain the first official autographs or memorabilia from a president is something we believe will set our products apart."
Now if you are wondering about all those autographs of presidents and a slice of George Washington's hair Topps pulled out, we have to think Prusha is talking about actually getting them from a former, but living president. There are some fine lines going on here but you get the picture.
(Former First Lady inks Donruss Celebs deal.)
Among the items obtained by Donruss is a Barbara Bush scarf and a Texas A&M T-shirt from the former president. George Bush 41 played first base at Yale during his college days and a card of him was issued at the Republican National Convention in 1992. By the way Mr. & Mrs. Bush will sign five cards together for the card set.
Meanwhile Topps announced in Series 2 Baseball each of the candidates will have a Letter Patch relic card, with a manufactured patch for a letter in their name.
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(GLOBAL WITH NEW WEB SITE)
Global Authenticating seems to be back up and in business with a new web site. The old site was down for quite some time when the company apparently shut down over rent dispute. Company officials explained to TBR what happened and now it seems GAI is back in business.
The web site seems much easier and better although the newer versions of Acrobat Reader will be needed to download submission files for card grading. For card grading GAI is offering any card for $10 for a ten day service.
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