Jeffrey Gitomer Speaks To PCCE Exhibitors In Keynote Address
Sports memorabilia addict and sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer believes collectors have a right to expect better from dealers. His keynote address kicked off the 2008 Premier Collectible Conference and Exhibition in Chicago. He’s an avid collector who believes hobby dealers have plenty of room for improvement when it comes to their relationships with customers. His hour long talk opened the PCCE, a show that included a gathering of some of the sports memorabilia industry’s top auction houses, dealers and collectors.

Heritage Auctions In Progrss - Ends May 2nd and 3rd
One of the most famous of all baseball collectibles, a 1909-era Honus Wagner card, is among the fabulous array of vintage sports trading cards and memorabilia offered by Heritage Auction Galleries in their Signature Auction in Dallas, Texas and online, May 2 and 3, 2008. Bidding is currently underway and offers hundreds of items of sports memorabilia and sports cards. The trading card portion of the auction will end on Friday, May 2nd in an Extended Bidding format, each lot closing individually after thirty minutes of bidding inactivity following the 9 PM CST cut-off. The memorabilia will be sold May 3rd in a Live auction format beginning at 12 noon CST, with bidders able to participate in person, by telephone, or online at www.HA.com/Live.

SCP Auctions & Sotheby’s - Auction Starts Today at 2:00 PM Eastern
Sotheby’s with SCP Auctions April 24 Live Auction of Important Sports Memorabilia and Cards is today! Auction Begins at 2:00 pm (EST) There are three ways to bid in our April 24 auction. If you have any questions about bidding in this sale please call SCP Auctions at +1 800 350.2273. Phone Bidding: Many of our clients have found phone bidding on the day of the sale to be convenient. Please call the Sotheby’s Bid Department now at +1 212 606.7414 to set up your phone bidding account.

James Spence Authentication Schedule & News Update
Check out all of the new Public Appearence Scheduled for James Spence Authentication. Stop by any of the events or call to make an appointment to have your items authenticated. This Week JSA Authentication will be in New York, NY and Overland Park, KS doing on site authenticaton. For all of our upcoming events, please make sure to check out our event page. Also, JSA Authentication is looking for those who think they can become an autograph authenticator. If you think you have the expertise and skills to authenticate autographs, please call JSA Authentication now to find out more.

Reporting from PCCE - Autograph Authenicators Rely on Experience, Exemplars
They all started young, but collecting autographs has never gotten old for Jimmy Spence, Kevin Keating, Ron Gordon and Rich Albersheim. All four have stayed with their hobby long enough to turn their passion into a business. The three were on the Autograph Authenticity panel discussion at last week’s Premier Collectible Conference and Exhibition in Chicago, discussing hot button issues in the industry and why they feel qualified to render opinions on autographs dating back decades.

Memory Lane Offers Pre-War Cards, Early Mantle & Mays
Memory Lane’s spring auction has opened with some high grade and rare vintage baseball cards among the 1400-plus lots. On Wednesday, 23 April 2008, Memory Lane’s spring auction will open with some amazing items. Memory Lane Incorporated has released its new auction catalog with a wide spectrum of sports cards featured in a newly-launched auction. Earlier the company had announced it would handle the sale of papers from the court martial of Jackie Robinson during World War II as well as a Babe Ruth home run ball, and PSA 8-graded Ruth autographed ball. Only a handful of 1951 Bowman Willie Mays rookie cards exist in PSA 9 (mint) quality but this ultra popular card returns to the table, a year after Memory Lane sold one at auction for $93,412,50. Bidding begins at $30,000 when the auction opens April 27.

Sportsfest 2008 Announces Autographed Line-Up
Sportsfest will be at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel & Convention Center in Schamburg, IL again this year with the nation’s leading sportscard & memorabilia manufacturers and dealers. The autograph line up has been announced and it includes:

Consignment Deadline is April 26th for May Auction
Accepting Consignments For May 2008 Auction. Deadline is April 26. Visit www.PremierAuctionsOnline.com to contact us with your consignment list. Highlights for the upcoming auction include: LOT #1: XL Super Bowl OPUS MVP Edition Autographed Book, Retail Price: $40,000 - Starting Min Bid: $15,000. Our auctions start the 15th of every month & close on the last Thursday of every month. Seeking Large Collections for Purchase or Consignment from every genre: Sports, Entertainment, Presidential, Historical, and Space. We would love to earn your business!

The Lelands.com April Internet Auction Is Now Live
Lelands.com April internet auction is now open for bidding. 397 lots of amzing sports cards and memorabilia up for bid at www.lelands.com. The auction will conlcude on May 4th. The auction highlights include: 1949 Bowman Jackie Robinson Rookie Card, Richard Nixon Single Signed Warren Giles National League Baseball, Mickey Mantle Signed Stat Sheet Lot (10), Alex Rodriguez Game Used Shoes, and much more. Check out the auction.

MHCC Extra Innings Auction Continues
Many great items are available for bidding by going to the company’s website at www.milehighcardco.com. The `Extra Innings` auction will culminate April 30th. Mile High Card Company accepts bids either through its real time auction software or via phone or fax. To register and participate in this special collectors event call (303) 840-2784 or visit the company’s website. Mile High’s next premier catalogue auction is slated for late July and August and the firm is actively pursuing consignments at this time.

New Pitch For A Sports Marketer
As the downturn saps fans’ buying power, Mastro Auctions will start selling art and antiques. On a sweltering night last August, more than 300 sports fans packed the House of Blues in Cleveland—partly to party, but mainly to bid on 83 pieces of sports history offered at Mastro Auctions’ first live sale. The opening item, a nearly complete set of Pirate Cigarettes baseball cards from 1912, sold for $960,000, an all-time high for such a collection. Douglas Allen, Mastro’s president and COO, was pleased but not surprised. After all, the company had been breaking price records on sports memorabilia through online auctions pretty much since it began.

Prized Yank Mementos To Go Up For Bid
This is the gear of legends: baseball bats belonging to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle, a rare Joe DiMaggio jersey and balls signed by the Babe himself. The Yankee memorabilia going on the auction block at Sotheby’s on Thursday will make sports history buffs foam at the mouth. `It’s an embarrassment of riches,` said Leila Dunbar, Sotheby’s director of the collectibles department. `There are so many great pieces.` One of the most sought after items will be a home uniform issued to the Yankee Clipper in 1936. It was his rookie year and the only season he wore No. 9 before switching to 5. The uniform is expected to fetch at least $250,000.

Barry Bonds Record-Setting 762 Home Run Ball Sold For $376,612.00
The record-setting Barry Bonds 762 home run ball was sold Saturday in an online auction at scpauctions.com for $376,612.00 to a buyer who elected to remain anonymous. Bonds’ record-setting 762 home run occurred Sept. 5, 2007 at Coors Field in Denver off a 99-mph fast ball thrown by Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez. Jameson Sutton, 24, Boulder, Colo., retrieved the ball in a three-man scuffle and placed 762 in a safety deposit box until coming forward on March 13. Sutton did not believe he had Bonds’ final home run ball, expecting Bonds to hit another home run in the last three weeks of the 2007 season and thinking Bonds might play in 2008. Due to a serious illness in the family, Sutton decided to sell the ball with SCP Auctions.

May 2008 Mastro Catalog & Connoisseur Auction Now Open For Bidding
The May 2008 Mastro Auctions Current Premier Catalog And Connoisseur Live Auction Event is currently open for bidding online at www.mastroauctions.com. With 2446 lots available, you should be able to find something that strikes your fancy in this auction. Have fun and bid often! Session One Lots (1 - 744) will close on Wednesday, April 30th. Session Two Lots (745 - 1844) will close on Thursday, May 1st.

Honus Wagner T206, Other Baseball Card Rarities in Heritage Auction
Dallas, TX : One of the most famous of all baseball collectibles, a 1909-era Honus Wagner card, is among the fabulous array of vintage sports trading cards and memorabilia offered by Heritage Auction Galleries in their Signature Auction in Dallas, Texas and online, May 2 and 3, 2008. “This will certainly be the ‘can’t miss’ auction of the season for the serious card collector,” explained Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Collectibles Auctions for Heritage. “From the rarest and most coveted tobacco cards to outrageously high-grade bubble gum sets, there is something to excite even the most seasoned hobbyist.”

Yankee Legends Pace Huggins & Scott Sale
From wedding memorabilia to baseball cards, virtually anything related to the most famous Yankee names attracts a crowd. Huggins & Scott’s latest sports memorabilia auction offered proof once again that there is still more demand than supply for baseball memorabilia and pinstripes. Perhaps the most unique piece was a chalice from the wedding of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, which sold for $14,000. With the 15% buyer’s premium added, the realized price was $16,100. A 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, graded PSA 4, sold for $14,950. A single-signed and personalized Babe Ruth baseball brought $10,925 while a black and white Lou Gehrig signed photo (7×9) reached $8050.

It’s Old, And We Hope It’s Valuable
There’s no promise the figurine your grandmother left you or grandpa’s collection of signed baseballs will be worth thousands. We’re betting the owner of this Lalique Alicante vase knew it was valuable before Mastro Auctions in Burr Ridge sold it for almost $50,000. But if you’re curious about the value of something you inherited, purchased or found, the auction house will give you a free evaluation. The second Monday of each month is “Consignment Monday” at the auction house, 7900 S. Madison St., Burr Ridge. On April 14 and every second Monday, you can bring in two items from 1 to 4 p.m. Appraisers will look them over and give you an idea of their value.

Just Collect Maximizes Consignor Payments for PSA Cards
Just Collect, Inc. (eBay ID: just_collect) is eBay’s largest consignment seller of vintage cards and memorabilia. Each week, the firm sells tens of thousands of dollars of high-end graded cards and memorabilia on consignment for collectors, dealers, and investors across the country. Just Collect has built its reputation around professionally maximizing the value of its clients’ consignments and providing a higher bottom line payment than any other auction house.