At Wednesday's Meet The Industry event Topps presented its upcoming product lineup for the remainder of the year which will mark the return of a couple collector favorites. Clay Luraschi, Topps director of product development, said the idea behind the 2009 new releases was to "turn the focus back to collecting sets instead of having collectors prospecting for the one big hit."

Scott Fragale
Editor
Tuff Stuff magazne
tuffstuff.com
1.800.726.9966

Had a few guest speakers to start off the festivities today with F&W Media's Director of E-Business Development, Tim Langlitz kicking things off by discussing a variety of ways to maximize your website and generate successful e-mail marketing campaigns.

Some of the suggestions discussed during his presentation were how websites need to be ever-changing and constantly updated. Unlike books, magazines and other physical titles, websites need to be updated as much as possible and should never be left stagnant or viwers will find alternative sites and traffic will be minimal. Other suggestions included not being afraid to try new ideas and options on your sites and never be afraid to fail because much of what you do on the web is trial and error but the key is to learn from your mistakes.

SportsCardForum president Mike Silvia was next up and offered tips on how to build the traffic on your website and information on how to make your site relavant on search engines such as Google and other similar sites. He pointed out why its so important to get involved in online sports card communties. He added how its also important to blend the physical world (eg. store sales, magazine advertising) with the digital world (eg. websites, online communities, forums, blogs etc.).

Silvia emphasized why its so important to utilize online communities with examples being: little or no fees atatched to using the service; thousands of customers at your disposal; not being restricted to local customers; you can interact and negotiate with your customers; you can conduct polls and research information and target your marketing efforts and you you get to today's youth who are web savvy. 

Silvia, who's site receives more than 11,000 unique visitors each day, also provided a top-10 list of how to be successful online which is as follows:

1. Be active in online communties, grapevine with other online sports card forums, sites etc. and make sure you promote your events online

2. Build up your affiliates/partners, use reciprocal links and partner with other sites.

3. Traffic conversions for affiliate/advertising programs

4. Produce original high-quality content

5. Optimize your site (Google)

6. Use social bookmarking sites and social networking sites such as Digg.com, stumbleupon.com, Buzz.yahoo.com and Facebook and Twitter, etc..

7. Research other sites and mimmick their success

8. Offer more and be different from other sites

9. Create a user-friendly site with corresponding newsletter system

10. Don't fear the Internet, embrace it.

Later today I will have updates from the card companies (Topps, UD and Panini) that will detail their product release schedules for teh coming year including new products and the return of some of your favorite classic sets. Stay Tuned. 

Just get done with several Retailer Roundtable seminars including Upper Deck's, Press Pass and Panini. The following is a brief outline of what each company brought to the mix.

Upper Deck: Upper Deck's newest creation is UpperDeckU.com, an ever-changing virtual world of online gaming in which players can use codes on a variety of UD products to create your own avaitar, exchange in real-time chats with others players, in-game e-mailing, play dozens of different games within the main game, collect and trade with other players. The basics of the game are similar to other virtual world gaming with the exception that the concept is collecting based and should help increase trading card collecting in the sports card categories as well as create a new demographic of young collectors which will ultimately grow the hobby.

While this idea isn't new and others have tried with other degrees of success, I now believe they have created a formula for success with their version, and from the numbers of users already on board, it seems to be a big hit even in its early stages. In the first six weeks of the game being live, more than 100,000 players have participated and more than 15% of those who played are now registering card codes for upgrades and more gaming options. While you didn't hear it here first, this is going to be big for the hobby, so much so that while here I plan to talk with the Upper Deck reps to see how we can partner up with this in some way because I believe it will succeed that much. Stay Tuned.

I was only able to catch a portion of the Press Press presentation but the jist of it was about an improved NFL product. Meaning more content, better autograph combinations featuring all of the big-named rookies-to-be and a redesigned look to the product itself. More on this later.

One of the most well-attended presentations of the day was for the new kids on the block, Panini. Many in attendance are curious as to what the sticker-based global company would be bringing to the table now that it has the exclusive rights to the NBA card category. Donruss/Panini execs admitted they're learning to adopt the practices of their new parent company on the fly and are ironing out details for future plans as they go with one basic concept remaining in place: they want to continue to produce and provide products with more value than their competitors, but they will also be implementing several formulas of success that Panini had in place for years. Panini's overseas philosophy has been to provide the masses with samples with their sticker albums and then sit back and wait for those same masses to come looking for the stickers to fill those albums. It's been working for them for 51 years and that, coupled with a huge promotional campaign, is in the future for their brand new Basketball card category formula.

The staff that was part of Donruss has now been given the financial freedom from the billion-dollar Panini company to implement the ideas and strategies that they couldn't previously. They plan to put stickers and cards in the hands of children across the country in much the same way that they have overseas to grow the category and get children back into collecting mode. The also plan to produce 6-7 new Basketball products by year end but that number is still a work in progress and is subject to change. That number and the question about how the exclusive players such as Jordan, Wade, Kobe and others and how they would be handled in the future with their rights belonging to UD and Topps. Panini execs said they are in talks with NBA officials to try and work out a deal but couldn't provide many more details at this point. My best guess is that a deal to purchase those exclusive rights are in the works with those companies but UD and Topps are holding out for top dollar because they are holding all the cards. We'll see.

Another important question addressed was that all Redemption cards offers in Donruss products will be fulfilled by Panini (if within the desiganted time frame). This was agreat relief to many of the dealers in attendance because slow sales have them sitting on a lot of product right now with no sales likely coming any time soon. Panini officials alos said there main objectives will now be Marketing, upgrading their existing websites while maintaining the quality and affordability of their products. Will see how that plays out but with the strong financial backing they now have I predict it won't be long before Panini becomes an even bigger player in the hobby.

Speed Retailing session is up next. The idea is to have retailers sit across from other retailers and share successful ideas they've had. They start in one chair and chat for a few minutes before moving onto the next chair and new retialer. Once the session is over they have a forum and discuss the best ideas of the bunch to implement in the future. We'll see how that goes and I'll get back to you with more details later.

If you have any questions please let me know and I'll do the best to answer them. Stay tuned.

Reporting live from the Hawaii Trade Conference (held this year in Palm Harbor Florida) this week so the regular routine will be somewhat different than a normal week, but I did want to get you the results asap so you can see how you fared.

The Blogger posted another dismal week, correctly picking just four of the 10 matchups so there should be plenty of you in the running for the prize. While I will be posting the results to the matchups, I won't be able to post our winner of the week until I return on Friday. At that time (FRIDAY) I will post the winner and post the new matchups so please remember to check back a little later in the week to participate in this week's Beat The Blogger contest. As always, good luck and thanks for playing.

Results

(MLB) Cleveland vs. NY Yankees total runs: 6 or less/7 or more (7 or more)

(MLB)St. Louis vs. Chicago Cubs More HRS: (TIE) PUSH

(MLB) Arizona vs. San Francisco total hits: (San Francisco)

(MLB) Milwaukee vs. NY Mets total errors: 1 or less/2 or more (1 or less)

(MLB) Chicago White Sox vs. Tampa Bay total stolen bases: (Tampa)

(NHL) Calgary vs. Chicago total goals: 4 or less/5 or more (5 or more) 

(NHL) Anaheim vs. San Jose winner: Anaheim

(NHL) Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia more penalty minutes: (Philadelphia)

(NBA) Detroit vs. Cleveland Total points: 185 or less/186 or more (186 or more)

(NASCAR) Higher finish: Jimmie Johnson/Carl Edwards (Johnson)