One of the longest legal battles in the sports card industry isn’t officially over, but it took a big step toward conclusion this week when a judge declared a patent for memorabilia-based trading cards to be invalid. The decision came in a lawsuit that charged Upper Deck and Donruss with infringing the patent. Read More
Author Archives: Scott Kelnhofer
UD Exquisite Values Continue to Soar
When Upper Deck launched its first Exquisite Basketball product in 2003-04, there were many in the hobby who did not believe collectors would be willing to pay $500 for the product. Thanks to demand for LeBron James and the other … Read More
Topps Reports Another Quarter of Strong Card Sales
Topps announced that domestic sports card sales increased 11 percent for the third quarter of the company’s 2007 fiscal year (ended Nov. 29), marking the fifth consecutive quarter the company has recorded an increase in its sports card sales. Revenues … Read More
Card Companies Happy With Increases at Retail Chains
Card companies view mass-market retail stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Meijer and others as important outlets for attracting new collectors to the hobby. With card sales at larger retailers having increased in 2006, with some brands seeing increases of more … Read More
Grand-Prize Winner Announced in NFL Player of the Day Contest
More than 20,000 NFL card collectors participated in the 2006 NFL Player of the Day promotion at more than 680 hobby shops nationwide and thousands earned prizes. But only 18-year-old AJ Andruszkiewicz of Jacksonville, Fla., parlayed his lucky pack into … Read More
Texas Card Shop Wins NBA Makeover Promotion
SMP Sportscards of Grapevine, Texas, has been chosen as the winner of the NBA’s Hobby Shop Makeover promotion. As the grand prize winner, the store will receive a makeover from Michael Moloney, one of the designers from the popular TV … Read More
Hancock To Be Honored In Special Topps Factory Set
Topps will add a special “In Memoriam 1978-2007″ notation to the front of the Josh Hancock card that will appear in the Topps Baseball factory sets that feature the St. Louis Cardinals logo on the packaging. Hancock’s card is one … Read More
Editor’s Blog: Card Licensors Stay With Less-is-More Philosophy
There were a variety of news and notes to come out of the recent Hawaii Trade Conference/Mainland Edition (which is the rather clumsy sounding name for the sports collectible industry’s annual trade conference). One of those newsy tidbits that didn’t … Read More
MLB.com offering GU jerseys from Jackie Robinson Day
Major League Baseball has launched the auction of many of the No. 42 jerseys worn by players to celebrate the recent 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s entry into Major League Baseball. The auction began Aprili 30 will continue over the … Read More
More free cards up for grabs in Tuff Stuff’s “Who Said It Game?”
It’s time for the newest version of TUFF STUFF’s “Who Said It?” Game. The object is simple: We give you a quote that appears in the current issue of the magazine. You tell us who said or wrote the item … Read More