CHAT
This past weekend marked the debut of a new major card show, SportsFest '98. Philadelphia was the city chosen by the hosts, Krause Publications, but if you couldn't make it to the east coast look for one in Chicago in 1999. SportsFest '98 featured 500 dealer tables, 33 corporate booths, a fun & games section for kids, and a large autograph pavilion. While slightly smaller in size than the National, SportsFest had an advantage in that every major sportscard manufacturer was in attendance.
The show began with a Sneak Preview on Thursday evening that I heard wasn't well attended. I was unable to get down until the weekend, but I have a feeling that the $50 admission price to the Preview might have kept others away. Friday evening marked the official start and it cost $10 to get in from Friday to Sunday. A weekend pass was available for $25 that would get you in all three days. While the price is a bit more than your regular weekend card show the reward is much greater, especially with the manufacturer booths.
MANUFACTURER BOOTHS
The entire front of the show is lined with corporate sponsors and filled with collectors trying to get whatever promotional items were available. I enjoy getting "freebies" as much as the next guy, but I also love the manufacturer booths as a place to see some cards you might not get to see while opening packs. Wondering about some of those wild Pacific inserts you've never seen? No problem as Pacific had examples of most of their cards available. Topps, Playoff, and Collector's Edge all had uncut sheets of their cards lining their display areas so you could even see how they look before they go into the packs. Of course most people were visiting the booths seeking something for nothing.
PACIFIC
Pacific had its popular embossing press out again and this time it was a special SportsFest '98
die that was being embossed into the cards. Anyone who bought a pack of any Pacific product
at the show could take it to the booth, open it, and pick one card from the pack to be embossed.
Also, if you took a complete, unopened box of Pacific's new Paramount Baseball to the booth you
could open all 36 packs and select 36 cards to be embossed, plus Pacific would give you an
Inaugural Day card numbered to just 20! The Inaugural set consists of 50 players and the
1000 cards are each stamped in gold with a special mark commemorating the release date of their
first MLBPA licensed product.
Look for both the Inaugural and embossed cards to carry a good premium as they become available
from dealers.
UPPER DECK
Upper Deck had a nice corner section where they
were showing off both UD cards and Upper Deck Authenticated memorabilia. Promo cards were
available for a few products including SPx Finite baseball promos which came in silver packs. Each
card was Ken Griffey Jr., but you could find ones in different colors each numbered and rarer than
the previous color. The Finite set, due out in a couple months, will feature 180 cards, each
numbered (including a 1 of 1 parallel). The UD booth also was signing people up for their new
Collector's Club.
You've seen the signup cards in all UD products, but here at the show you could sign up and get
your membership pack immediately. A friend of mine joined the Motorsports club and for $25
got a box of UD Road to the Cup (40 packs!) plus a hat, commemorative card, and membership
card. Not a bad deal at all.
COLLECTOR'S EDGE
At the Edge booth you could play "Pack Wars" with their new Supreme Season Review football
product that debuted at the show. If you brought three unopened packs of Supreme to the
booth on each hour, the Edge reps would announce three statistics (highest weight, lowest
jersey number, etc.) and if you had the best fit for that stat out of all the people at the booth
then you could win prizes that included their special 25-card Super Bowl set and even uncut
proof sheets! Lucky for me I pulled a Jim Kelly card when the category was oldest player and I
brought home an uncut proof sheet.
PLAYOFF
Playoff brought their gold foil press to the show
along with a special SportsFest Liberty Bell stamp. As with Pacific, you could bring an unopened
pack to the Playoff booth and pick one card from the pack to get the special gold stamp. These
cards came out really nice looking and I'm sure we'll see some high prices on singles.
PRESS PASS
One of the toughest promotions to complete was the Press Pass football promotion. Bring 20
unopened packs of Press Pass Football to their booth and they would give you a special SportsFest
card autographed by Peyton Manning. Only 500 of these cards were available. What made this
promotion so difficult? Not many dealers carried Press Pass football (As I explain in my
product review)
and those who had the boxes quickly marked their prices way up. If paying too much for 20
packs of football didn't interest you, you could bring 10 packs of racing or basketball and score
some other nice autographs.
DONRUSS
Donruss had big lines throughout most of the show
with people waiting to get packs of Priority Hockey and tins of Preferred Baseball and Hockey.
You could also redeem wrappers at the booth for a special Scott Rolen card or autographs of
other players (including Curt Schilling). Since we were in Philly these were very popular
promotions.
FLEER/SKYBOX
Fleer/Skybox was also giving away promo cards
and a chance to spin their wheel to win other prizes (key chains, cards, etc.)
PINNACLE
Pinnacle was giving promo cards of its new
Zenith "Dare to Tear" baseball which was available at the show. They were also playing games
with Score cards, giving a card out to everyone at the booth and then announcing a winning
statistic. If you had the winning number the prize was a box of Score cards.
TOPPS
Topps had a nice display where you could check out
their recent Chrome releases as well as next week's Bowman baseball. They were giving out
Chrome cards to everyone who walked by and I saw more than one happy face who got a big
star or rookie for free.
Don't get the wrong impression. SportsFest wasn't all just give-aways and manufacturer promotions. Stay tuned later this week for part two of our look at SportsFest where we look at what was selling, who was signing, and I get to spend some time interviewing a Hall of Fame football player!
CHAT