USA Baseball and the Topps Company, the leading creator and marketer of sports cards, today announced an exclusive multi-year licensing deal to make Topps the Official Baseball Card of USA Baseball. Topps will have exclusivity on USA Baseball trademarks, logos and other intellectual property, for use on cards featuring USA Baseball players.

Heisman Trophy winner and college legend, Tim Tebow has signed an exclusive agreement with Press Pass for trading cards. Under terms of the agreement, Press Pass Football and Press Pass Portrait Edition will be the only “draft pick” products to contain authentic autograph cards and trading cards of the former Florida Gator star.

With the hobby landscape changing rapidly before our eyes in recent months, many questions have arisen. How will the new exclusive licensing agreements affect collectors? What card companies will be producing what next year? What does the future hold for each company? These are just a small sample of the questions we hear everyday so Tuff Stuff went straight to the top to provide our readers with some answers.

It didn’t take long for card companies to get early photos of Brett Favre as a member of the Minnsota Vikings for upcoming products. While not quite the media ordeal as last year when Favre jong the N.Y. Jets, card companies still wanted to get shots of Favre as early as possible.

Autographs of Steve Prefontaine, Lou Gehrig, Turkey Stearns and Walter Johnson, a rare Batter-Up premium (shown), a scarce 1888 book on New York baseball and a high-quality 1938 Churchman “Boxing Personalities” set are among the highlights of Collectible Classics’ CCA25 auction, which is online now at www.auctionscc.com and closes Aug. 25.
Collectible Classics specializes in collector-friendly auctions with affordable lots. The current auction offers 284 sports and non-sport lots, with most minimum bids set at $100 or less.

The MLB Players Association has unveiled details of its latest hobby shop promotion, which will offer prizes to collectors such as Majestic baseball jerseys, autographed photos and other licensed products.

A photo from Woolworth's in 1952 sent this sports card collector scurrying for a calculator to figure what 231 boxes of 1952 Topps Baseball might be worth. In case you're wondering, the 1952 price tag was $277.

Catch the first pitch of the 2009 eTopps baseball season with Allen & Ginter president cards.

Heading to the GTSM Show in Kansas City this weekend? If you're also looking to consign items to an auction house while you're there, Collect.com Auctions will be attending and is currently taking appointments.