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Tri-Star San Fran show busy for
everyone
By Ross Forman
July 5, 2002
Richard Tsai drove about 50 miles from his home in Saratoga to the Cow Palace in San Francisco for the inaugural Tri-Star Productions’ Memorial Day Weekend Classic. He attended Saturday only, and for only one reason. Actually, Tsai had 35,000 reasons for his visit.
The 21-year-old collector/college student went for a meeting with Tim Hudson of the Oakland A’s. Tsai had his picture taken with the right-handed pitcher, then had it signed. And after Hudson signed for about an hour, Tsai had one more private photo-op with Hudson.
Tsai is, you see, without question, the biggest Tim Hudson fan around. Sure, Tsai knew about Hudson’s recent eBay auctions of personal artifacts, such as beard trimmings, and passed. But Tsai has spent more than $35,000 on Hudson cards.
That’s right, more than $35,000 on Hudson cards.
It isn’t some wacky collection of, say, 500 of one card. But rather, an admitted “crazy” drive for top-rated graded cards. There have been a reported seven PSA-10 Ultimate Victory rookie cards from the Population Report – and Tsai owns every one. He also has many BGS 9.5s of his Chrome rookie.
In all, he has about 80 graded Hudson cards – none lower than an 8. His collection includes:
· Upper Deck 2001 game jersey cards No. 9, 13 and 14 of 15. And each is graded an 8.5 or 9.
· Upper Deck MVP 2001 signed cards, numbers 1, 6, 7 and 23 of 25.
· Upper Deck SP Authentic 1 of 15.
“Most people would say I’m crazy,” Tsai admitted with a smile. “But, I have believed in Hudson since his first season, obviously. And I think I prove that fact.”
Tsai’s financial backing came from stocks and his dad, plus working. He also has traded and bought items on eBay, all for future Hudson purchases.
He has never sold a Hudson card. And never will.
So, the obvious question, why?
“Because it’s never been done before,” Tsai answered without hesitation.
Tsai’s greatest Hudson card also carries one of Tsai’s greatest tales of persistence and – believe it or not - failure, which he was quick and proud to relate to Hudson at the Tri-Star show. In late-1998, Tsai lost an eBay auction – his only one ever for a Hudson item – for an Ultimate Victory ’99 rookie, PSA-8, 1-of-1. It went to a collector in Japan for $650, which was $50 more than Tsai’s limit at the time even though he never then had purchased a card on eBay for more than $20.
Distraught, but determined, Tsai started emailing the winner. And kept emailing the Japanese collector, five times per month, until the foreign fan relented and agreed to sell.
For $850.
“I didn’t know what to expect when I met him, but he’s a nice guy, very down-to-earth,” said Tsai, who attends about 30 percent of the A’s games and watches the rest on TV.
Tsai – who watches eBay daily for Hudson items, even while on vacation – also has two signed 8x10 photos, both Hudson give-away bobble head dolls and countless newspaper clippings.
What’s left on his wish-list?
A game-worn, signed jersey.
Hudson was joined at the Tri-Star show by four Oakland teammates – Chad Bradford, Scott Hatteberg, Billy Koch and Mark Mulder..
The San Francisco Giants also were well-represented at the show, with the appearance of Benito Santiago, Ryan Jensen and Damon Minor, all of whom signed free autographs.
Also appearing at the three-day show: Kenny King, Roger Craig, Eddie George, Johnny Rodgers, Mike Rozier, Dave Casper, Eric Crouch, Wendell Tyler and Tom Rathman.
“San Francisco definitely has a strong collector base. The hardcore collectors came looking for current products and vintage cards, and this was a wonderful market for vintage cards,” said Tri-Star Director of Events & Marketing Mandy Fuerst. “San Francisco sports fans are very loyal to their sports teams and superstars, and we had a very nice response to the area players.”
The most popular weekend signer was Santiago, who appeared hours after claiming Player of the Game honors against Arizona. He signed more than 500 autographs.
Eddie George signed more than 300 for the public, while Roger Craig signed about 350 free autographs.
Ten of the 17 guests at the show were free, some were part of the highly-successful wrapper-redemption program.
“The wrapper-redemption program was wonderful at this show. It truly was a win-win opportunity for everyone – dealers, collectors and us,” Fuerst said.
About 2,000 attended the show.
“Sales were great,” said Mike Williamson of Bryan’s Collectibles (Raymore, Mo.) “Saturday was within $100 of my best day ever. We couldn’t have handled any more business on Saturday. We didn’t have any more room in our booth for people. If they had gotten more people in the building on Saturday, I couldn’t have handled them.
“The Bay Area has more collectors than anywhere, by far.”
Williamson sold about 30 boxes of five different Spider Man cards. “That stuff has been selling very well for the past six weeks or two months,” he said.
Also selling: factory sets. “That’s a very good sign because I usually don’t sell that many,” he said. “I guess that means the discount outlets don’t have ‘em anymore, so collectors have to come to shows to get ‘em.”
Williamson said hockey, despite being in the middle of an exciting playoff run, was slower in San Francisco than all other sports. “By far.”
Paul Sjolin, a vintage dealer from Spring, Texas, said Mickey Mantle was a hot seller in San Francisco. Common cards, too. “Saturday was great. There was a real good turnout,” he said. “They came in early with their wish-lists and were ready to spend money. Hands-down, San Francisco is the best collectibles market out there.”
Carl Gerjes of T&C Investments (Alvin, Texas) noted strong weekend sales of Sammy Sosa, Jason Richardson, David Carr and Josh Beckett. He also did well with Oakland superstars Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez, Barry Zito, Mulder and Hudson. “I sold more high-end graded cards than I would have expected,” he said.
Jeff Hoekstra of Modesto (Calif.) Sports Cards sold hundreds, maybe even thousands, of boxes of unopened product, but still not as many as he would have liked. “The product just wasn’t moving like we thought it would. We’re usually several-deep (at the table) during the peak hours of the show. Not this time.” Baseball was the top-seller, followed by football and basketball.
“I think everything was about price this weekend,” he added.
Hoekstra’s top sellers:
· Upper Deck Authentics 2002 (hobby edition). At $50, he sold more than 80 boxes.
· SP Authentic Basketball 2001-2002. At $85, sold about 35 boxes.
· All three Upper Deck golf releases, ranging from $22 to $75 per box.
· Diamond Kings. Started the weekend selling at $68 per box, finished at $75. And Hoekstra sold more than 5 cases of the product.
· Finest Baseball.
Kyle Boetel of Kyle’s Sportscards (Aurora, Colo.) also had a successful weekend with vintage
cards – and clearly noticed a change in the collecting cycle.
“The shift is on, from collecting 1950s cards to 1960s,” he said.
Boetel had two large sales of ‘60s cards, mostly non-graded cards. Such that, Boetel was forced to buy supplies (cardboard boxes) to give the buyers their cards.
“It was a pretty good show overall,” Boetel said. “I hit my (financial) goal, almost did it after two days in fact. San Francisco is a very solid market, always has been. I drove 21 hours to get here .. and it definitely was worth the drive.”
Tri-Star returns to San Francisco Aug. 30-Sept. 2 for the 15th-annual Labor Day Show. Already confirmed to appear: Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, George Foster, Dave Parker and others.
Tri-Star’s next show is June 28-20 in Cleveland, followed by July 12-14 in Houston. And both shows are loaded with all-star autograph guests. Cleveland’s lineup includes Luis Gonzalez, Ron Dayne, Pete Rose, Eric Crouch and Earl Campbell, among others. In Houston, Ricky Williams, Eddie George, Desmond Howard, Lou Brock and Jabbar Gaffney are already confirmed.
Tri-Star’s summer season of private signings is loaded, too. That list includes Mark Prior, Kazuhisa Ishii, David Carr, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Jim Thome, Kerry Wood and Tom Brady, among others.