Some Olympic stories from our recent autograph signing with Bruins star Patrice Bergeron. 

Bergie’s roommates in Vancouver were Sidney Crosby and Shea Weber, his 2005 World Junior teammates.  Each Canadian player was given up to 6 tickets per game, but requests had to be made by mid-January.  The players had to buy their own souvenirs.  Luckily there was a store set up in the Athletes’ Village, so the players did not have to spend four hours in line like most consumers.  While their daytime itineraries were pretty full with practices, meetings, and video sessions, the players were able to spend a lot of time with friends and family, usually after games.  Since Team Canada games started at 5:00 p.m. local time, games were finished before 8:00 which allowed for plenty of down time. 

 

After the gold medal game, Bergie said most players partied at Molson Canadian Hockey House for a while, before dispersing to do their own things.  He was up all night and got no sleep before he boarded a plane the next morning. 

Jonas Gustavsson told me that he received so much swag (t-shirts, caps, etc.) as a member of the Swedish Olympic team; he couldn’t carry it all home.  So he left a duffle bag full of goodies in his room when he checked out of the village.  AAARRRGGGHHH!!!  I lectured him that if a similar situation should ever arrive, to call me and I will send a personal valet to help him carry his items.  I love that kind of stuff, and can’t believe it went to waste.  How cool would it be to have an actual Team Sweden Olympic track suit or the like?

 

I told Patrik Elias this story, and he told me he did the exact same thing.  Elias bought so many souvenirs for people that he had to leave a pile of his Team Czech Republic goodies behind due to lack of space in his luggage.  I’m thinking whoever was responsible for cleaning out those rooms made out like bandits.

 

I learned that as a bowler, the aforementioned Gustavsson is a pretty good hockey goalie.  I was privileged to watch The Monster take on teammate Fredrik Sjostrom in a friendly post-season bowling match while they were stranded in Toronto awaiting the volcanic dust to clear over Europe.  Sjostrom beat Gustavsson by the menial score of 89-83.  Jonas told me he was just warming up, and I commented that was a good thing, since I didn’t think he could score any worse.

The 2010 Boston Marathon was won by Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot in a course record time of 2:05.52, breaking the previous record of 2:07.14 set by Kenya’s Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot in 2006.  Believe it or not, the two men are not related.  Wouldn’t that be akin to Wayne Gretzky’s scoring records being broken by another man from Brantford named Wayne Gretzky?

An oldie but a goodie – Clark, the Canadian Hockey Goalie.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdf4GeT4ELA

Hopefully everyone has received Frozen Pond’s spring mailing over the past few weeks.  We are offering the largest selection of 2010 Team Canada Olympic signed items available anywhere, and these items are HOT!!!  For those yet to receive a hard copy, a digital version is available at http://www.frozenpond.com/download/fp_spring2010.pdf.

A hearty “Mazel Tov” to our friend Vinnie Lecavalier on the birth of his first child.  Victoria Lecavalier was born May 3 and checked in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces.  She will be eligible for the NHL Draft in 2028.

Speaking of Vinnie, please enjoy this story about Frozen Pond friend Hayden Allison’s recent encounter with his favorite player.

A Bobby Orr rookie game-worn jersey recent sold at auction for the astounding price of $191,200 U.S. How long until a Sidney Crosby jersey surpasses this amount?

There are a lot of rumors circulating about the short term viability of Upper Deck.  The company that once dominated the sports card industry is now fighting for its survival.  They lost their license from Major League Baseball in 2009, but continued to produce cards regardless.  This resulted in a lawsuit that cost UD over $2.4 million in settlement fees.

 

This came on the heels of another settlement with Konami, where UD admitted they stole intellectual property by fraudulently manufacturing and distributing Yu-Gi-Oh cards without a license.  That settlement was also rumoured to be well into seven-figures.

 

Upper Deck also lost their basketball and football trading card licenses, as well as their exclusivity to produce NHL hockey cards.  This has left the company with only a fraction of their previous revenue streams.  Players are complaining about not getting paid for autographs signed, and the MLBPA went so far as to “strongly advise” players not to return any signed cards to UD until payments were brought up to date.  The union also recommended against signing any new agreements with the company.

 

The above happenings coupled with the fact that UD laid off a good percentage of their staff makes you wonder how long they can continue to operate.  Established in 1989, Upper Deck helped revolutionize the trading card industry and became the most powerful player in the history of the sports collectibles hobby.  But some bad decision making and rumors of inappropriate business dealings has haunted them in recent years.  Look for Panini America to take over as the new company of choice for hobbyists.

Panani did make a brilliant move by hiring Al Muir as their hockey brand manager.  The former editor of Beckett Hockey Magazine has kept a low profile since being unceremoniously let go almost two years ago.  Muir has been in the industry as long as anyone and is extremely knowledgeable of the marketplace.  I’m expecting great things from this company.

 

The NHL Alumni took all the sticks from an end-of-season Leafs game and auctioned them off to raise money for their internal charities.  I love examining results such as these, because they are a near-exemplary “apples to apples” comparison of player popularity.  Here are the results:

 

Beauchemin - $300
Bozak - $151

Caputi - $110

Exelby - $132

Giguere - $215

Grabovski - $211

Gunnarsson - $142

Gustavsson - $721

Hanson - $142

Kaberle - $210

Kessel - $253

Komisarek - $142 (game-issued)

Kulemin - $170

Mitchell - $110

Orr - $120

Phaneuf - $1050 (plus helmet)

Schenn - $170

Stalberg - $130

Wallin - $100

 

Not counting Phaneuf, whose selling price was skewed due to the inclusion of a helmet, is it surprising that Jonas “The Monster” Gustavsson’s stick sold for almost 2.5X as much as the next popular Leaf?  Not to me.

This one is rated PG13, but had to be included here since it involves two of my favorite things – Hank Azaria and baseball.  It is also unbelievably hilarious.

http://www.funnyordie.com/hank_azaria

It’s nothing to do with anything, but I really like this song - Fireflies, by Owl City.  Not a huge fan of the video though. (I think this blog has set an all-time record for number of included links.)

 

Some follow-up on a couple of recent industry happenings…

 

Mastro Auctions has ceased operations.

 

Imagine Christie’s (or Sotheby’s) auction house shutting down one day and announcing it was going to reopen under a different name.  What about all the goodwill behind the name and all the past business associated with their brand?  Has this all now become worthless?

This is what it seems has happened to Mastro Auctions.  Three of its principles have taken possession of Mastro’s assets and will be reopening under the pedestrian name of Legendary Auctions.

 

While the press release spun this changeover as an evolvement for the betterment of the company, that mistruth is far from reality.  The fact is that the sports memorabilia industry’s largest auction house is still at the center of an FBI investigation into shill bidding, card doctoring, and other allegations of fraud that have damaged the company’s image, obviously beyond repair.  While the company was recently quoted as saying they will continue to generate $50 million in annual sales, industry sources have reported the company had crippling credit line and cash flow problems.  Consignors have complained they have not been paid for items sold at auction several months ago, and one can only guess how many lawsuits the company is facing from deceived past bidders.

 

Imagine placing a $10,000 ceiling bid on an item and winning it for $9,500, only to later find out that next legitimate high bid was $1,500 and it was company employees themselves that bid it up in order to generate higher profits.  It would be extremely difficult to prove such an allegation, but this is obviously what the FBI is investigating.  How can a company that charges a 20% buyer’s premium on $10 million auctions, and sells their own items at considerable mark-up, be having such serious cash flow problems?

 

I have written this before but it bears repeating.  Do not think this is an isolated case of an auction house bidding up its own items.  I have spoken to several past and current employees of the larger auction houses in the industry, and apparently this kind of activity is prevalent.  Always keep in mind when bidding in such an auction that you may, in fact, be bidding against yourself.  The exception to the rule is auction platforms such as eBay or NHL.com, where the sellers have no access to the proprietary software and do not know what is going on behind the scenes (they do not know how much a customer has bid over and above the current amount).  Whenever a company uses their own auction software, they have full knowledge of all bids placed and have the ability to manipulate the end results.

 

Pocklington Arrested

I chuckled when I heard that former Edmonton Oilers owner, Peter Pocklington, was arrested last Wednesday on allegations he concealed assets during bankruptcy proceedings.  He is accused of making false statements in bankruptcy and making false oaths and accounts in bankruptcy. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in federal prison.

Pocklington filed for personal bankruptcy last year. He is accused of failing to disclose to a bankruptcy court two bank accounts as well as the contents of two storage units. He claimed to have debts of nearly $20 million and assets of only about $2,900. To partially satisfy a court judgment, Pocklington gave a creditor a piece of art, a rug and desk that were collectively worth about $80,000 and located in one of his storage units, court documents said. 

I have not seen this reported, so I thought I would share the information.  Brad Sullivan, who played Mo Wanchuk in the movie “Slap Shot”, passed away on New Year’s eve at the age of 77.

What made Sullivan’s portrayal of the foul-mouthed Wanchuk all the more ironic is the fact that he was an unwavering Christian and hated the character he was playing.  Hopefully he is relaxing at a Palm Isle on a nearby cloud.

It was just pointed out to me that Colorado goaltender, Peter Budaj, has a drawing of Ned Flanders on the back of his mask.  Budaj is apparently a devout Christian and the team trainer gave him the nickname “Flanders”.  If you look closely, you can see that Flanders is waving the Slovakian flag.

 

International Medical Corps recently held a charity auction where a celebrity would record your outgoing voicemail message on your behalf.  The message would be recorded within six months and could be up to one-minute long.  You would not get to speak to the celebrity directly, but you could make suggestions as to what they could say.

 

Here are some of the prices realized:

 

Chris Rock - $1,005

Borat - $777

Brooke Shields - $551

Elizabeth Banks - $542

Jennifer Garner - $453

Deion Sanders - $132

Marshall Faulk - $53

The reason I was paying attention to this auction is because another celebrity being auctioned was Hank Azaria, the voice of Chief Wiggum, Apu, and dozens of other Simpson’s characters.  I was, of course, the underbidder for the lot which closed at $259.  How cool would it have been to have Moe or Comic Book Guy recording my voicemail?  “Worst Answering Machine Ever”.  Or Dr. Nick Riviera – “Hiiiii Every-body.  You’ve reached Hersh.”

 

Letters to the Editor.  When I get a chance, I am going to try and answer a question or two that we have received from an interested collector.

                       ——————————————————————-

Do players appreciate the hobby and enjoy signing autographs or do many consider it somewhat of a chore?

 

This is a bit of a loaded question.  Some players truly appreciate their fans and go out of their way to meet them and sign autographs.  Fan popularity can only lead to good things down the road, such as endorsement deals and contract offers, hence it is in the players’ best interests to meet as many admirers as possible and make sure they go away with a positive experience.

 

Other players only do autograph sessions because they are contractually obligated to do so, or their agents are advising it.  We have had players signing that make it very obvious they do not want to be there.  Luckily these occurrences are the exception rather than the norm.

 

What both examples have in common is money.  It is never considered a chore when they are being paid.  While many players do free appearances for charity, it is doubtful they would be doing any hobby signings were it not for the almighty greenback.  Time is money, and if they are going to be on the clock, someone will have to pay for it.

 

 

Do you think that lasting fame changes a player’s attitude? 

Yes – definitely.  The first player that told me fame would not change him has probably changed more than any player I know (he will remain nameless).  When a player is a rookie, he appreciates the limelight and the attention being thrust upon him.  He is fan friendly, eager to please, and knows his time in the spotlight may be short-lived.

 

Success and money change people though.  Soon these players have precious little free time and have enough money to be able to do whatever they want.  They no longer have the desire to please everyone, nor to do the little things that used to be such a big part of their existence.  So the niceties and pleasantness that existed earlier in their careers are now a thing of the past.

 

Not all players are like this.  There are some that are still amazing with their fans and receive a lot of press for it.  Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick, Joe Thornton, Vinnie Lecavalier, and Martin Brodeur are some of the nicest guys you will ever meet.  This does not mean they will stand and sign autographs for hours each day, but they definitely have not forgotten where they came from.