URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/08/28/SPORTS12462.dtl

NOT SO long ago, you could find a card show anywhere in the country just about any time you wanted.

You often have to look hard now to locate one in a changing sports memorabilia landscape in which a lot of business is moving away from shows, shops and live auctions and on to sites on the Internet.

By most accounts, the recent National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlanta was a bomb, in everything from attendance to attitude. And some blamed the intrusion of the Internet into the commerce of cards and collectibles for that.

But Jeff Rosenberg of Tri Star Productions, Inc., one of the few remaining major promoters in the nationwide market, said:

"Unequivocally, I don't think the Internet hurt attendance at the national. I think the Internet is one of the best things that is happening to the hobby, in fact, because it's bringing more collectors into it. But if you don't put on an incredible event, people will stay home and do business on the Internet."

Rosenberg, who is staging 14 shows coast-to-coast this year, including the 12th annual Labor Day show at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco Sept. 3-6, believes that diversity is now a key if a promotion is going to succeed.

"You have to make it an experience," he said.

Rosenberg will bring in more than 200 dealers from across the country and the usual array of Hall of Fame and top-name autograph signers. Fifteen minutes before their regularly scheduled signing appearances, the athletes will be available to pose for photos with fans.

The Tri-Star show also will offer door prizes and free promotional card bags. Bowing to the non-sports crazes of the moment, Rosenberg also will have a section for collectors of bean-bag and plush toys and Pokemon cards.

And, for the first time, Tri-Star will be offering holograms and certificates of authenticity on autographs signed at the show.

"The whole key is consumer awareness," Rosenberg said. "You have to make people aware that there are reputable companies out there. I think the whole hologram thing has changed the autograph marketplace, just as PSA has changed the way people look at cards."

PSA is Professional Sports Authenticator, the country's largest third-party grading service, which will do card-grading on site at the San Francisco show.

PSA and the other grading services remain a subject of controversy in the hobby, but Rosenberg is a strong proponent.

"I think they've kind of regenerated interest in trading cards," he said. "Collectors are getting cards graded, and so are a lot of dealers and what I'd call quasi-dealer collectors. Grading has brought a lot of new money in.

©1999 San Francisco Examiner    Page D 10

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