A few weeks ago, I commented on Brian Gray and Leaf suing the Industry Summit after being banned from attending, despite having a written agreement in place. The reasoning behind his being banned stemmed from lack of league licensing, only to prompt more questions about other manufacturer’s status at this annual event. Today, Dr. Brian Price posted an open letter to the organizers of the summit, asking for further clarification. It looks like another part of the “industry” wont be attending either.

If you arent familiar with Dr. Price’s work, you should definitely check it out:

2010 Sport Kings Muhammad Ali Auto Gold

2008 Sport Kings Joe Montana Auto Patch

2013 In The Game Decades Mario Lemieux Auto

2006 In The Game Ultimate Sidney Crosby Auto Stick

In the Game and Sportkings have garnered a cult following over the years, created by a person who was a collector himself. It has led to a commitment to his customers in building out a great amount of top products over the years. Dr. Price is known industry wide for his dedication and his interaction with the collector base, and his company regularly attends events like this to help build further awareness for his way of doing business. His redemption programs are pretty notorious for being pretty cool:

2013 Sport Kings National Convention Ken Griffey Jr Relic

2008 Sport Kings National Convention Joe Montana 1/1

The crazy thing is, he hasnt yet been told he will not be welcome, instead being forced to wait for a response from the summit that may never come. On his blog, he details being relatively ignored in his requests for clarification, which doesnt surprise me. I doubt Dr. Price was an intended target of Gray’s banning, but because of the licensing language used in reasoning, the ripples are definitely finding him. Similarly, because the lawsuit is still in the process of being sorted out, the Summit organizers would be pretty stupid to grant him access.

All that being said, they shouldnt leave him hanging either. It costs THOUSANDS of dollars to get set up for an event like this, and its clear that ITG and Sportkings wants to attend, regardless of the situation with leaf. Now that they are getting the cold shoulder from what I read, I would guess Dr. Price is not going to be making such an easy decision. He, nor Brian Gray, should be in a position like this, considering how many products they put on shelves.

My thing has always been – is it really an Industry Summit, if a contingent of willing attendees are not allowed to attend? I have never been a fan of this event for many reasons, but this is just icing on the cake. Dr. Price and Leaf should be able to attend, regardless, and I am disappointed it has gotten to this point.