Making Strides With The Resurrected Trade Conference

Posted on 02/03/2010 by gellman

Most of you are probably not that familiar with the former Hawaii Trade Conference that was held every year for distributors, stores, and manufacturers to exchange notes. This conference’s purpose was to bring together both sides of the spectrum to provide the brick and mortar with as much valuable information as possible, as well give them essential expertise from industry leaders to thrive in their ventures.

Although the conference is no longer in Hawaii, they are still putting together an impressive agenda in Las Vegas for the participants to attend. I was invited to the event by the coordinator, Kevin Isaacson, and it would have been a great learning experience as someone who is looking to expand my scope. However, because of the due date of my future son, I am unable to go, but would like to give them a great plug to get them some publicity.

Im sure you have seen the Donruss Black Boxes that sometimes make their way onto youtube and ebay

. These boxes are promotional items that have become collector favorites due to the unique pieces you can attain, and Kevin is actually one of the originators of this concept. This is one of many opportunities for any person involved in the industry to gain an understanding of the products and concepts presented by each company, as well as other entities that are also attending to inform and learn.

One of the more interesting guests of the conference was just announced, and I am sad that I am missing it. Former Yankees PR Chief Marty Appel will be in attendance, someone who has invaluable insight into the hobby and the sports we love. The release says that, “Appel’s presentation will draw on his 17 books, and appearances on ESPN, HBO, MLB, and YES Network, his friendships with Mantle, Berra, Martin, Rizzuto, Ford, Murcer, and Munson, his days as MLB spokesman under Bowie Kuhn, his consulting roles with 61* and The Bronx is Burning (in which he also appeared), and his memories of the original Yankee Stadium.” Sounds amazing.

If you are interested in going as part of the industry side, please shoot me an email for more info on how to get in contact with Kevin.

Shameless Plug: ARPlatinum Is Raising Money For Cancer

Posted on 12/28/2009 by gellman

If you are on Youtube and watching card videos, you are familiar with ARPlatinum. Although a controversial figure in the hobby, he has run more group breaks on the ‘tube than many of the other users combined. He breaks everything from Baseball to Hockey, and his followers are loyal due to the amazing pulls he has had.

For these breaks of cases at a time, AR makes it very clear that due to the time to organize and cost of shipping, the people who join his breaks are not going receive unnumbered base cards with their teams. When you do as many breaks as he does, you get the point pretty quickly that base cards truly are a roadblock to getting things out on time. Instead, he is going to be auctioning them off to raise money for the V Foundation and Cancer Research. Yes, 100% of the auction’s price will go to the foundation, and I think that its a great idea for useless cards.

Per AR, there are over 24,000 cards, many of them in the form of complete or nearly complete sets. These cards can surely benefit some people who are in dire straits, and I encourage you to bid early and often. The auction goes live tonight at 9pm, link will be posted on his Youtube channel.

If you have any questions on this auction or future breaks, email him at platinumempire@gmail.com or through his youtube account. He is a very nice guy, and will be happy to help you out.

EDIT: Auction can be found here.

Shameless Plug: The SCU Store Is Now Open

Posted on 08/28/2009 by gellman

Taking a page from Fire Joe Morgan, I have put a few designs in the SCU store. There were minimal options, so I did my best.

Im not expecting to sell much, if any, it was mostly just for me and a few people who have asked for the shirts to wear around the shows and at shops (yes, I couldnt believe it either).

All this stuff will come from cafe press, and a percentage of the money will go to the site.

If you have image designing skills, and want to design a cool shirt, Ill put it in there. I may even be able to send you some stuff for your trouble.

Thanks!

Shameless Plug: The Fan Zone In Willmar, MN

Posted on 07/25/2009 by gellman

I know I havent posted in the last few days, but actually it was for a good reason. I have been home to attend the wedding of one of my wife’s family members, and for a small town, they have pretty much everything – including a card store.

A few months ago, John from the local radio station emailed me about some questions he had on a product bust they were planning at his local store. Funny enough, he was from Willmar, where my wife was actually from, and I remembered the store he was talking about. Its really got everything a small town collector would need to avoid the retail crap at Wal-Mart and Target, and the guys who work there are quite a good bunch to shoot the shit with.

I found some time to stop by today, hoping to talk to John, but unfortunately he wasnt there at the moment. Instead I stayed for a while, busted some packs and talked about the recent trends of the hobby with the guys at the store. I found out they read SCU daily, which was a surprise, so we talked for a while about how they stumbled on it.

I also managed to pull a nice James Laurinaitis jersey auto #5/25 out of my packs which was pleasant outcome to the disappearance of my money.

Most importantly, if you live in the Willmar area, go check out the store, I guarantee you it will be worth your time. They have a great selection of stuff and good prices, as well as some pretty sweet autographed bats and jerseys. Be sure to tell them I sent you, as I know I will be going back next time I am in town.

One Last Twitter Plug

Posted on 06/23/2009 by gellman

Its been fun on Twitter the last couple of weeks, I really encourage you to join up. I really had a bunch of horrible things in my mind once the Twitter boom happened, mostly stemming from my annoyance with CNN and others using it as a news source. Either way, many of the people in the CBN have joined up, and its starting to be a second place to check for card news.

Click on the sidebar to follow me on Twitter or you can check out my page.

http://twitter.com/SCUncensored