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After Bankruptcy, Fleer Heading to Auction Block
Baseball Card Giant Went Out of Business in May With $40 Million in Debt
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, AP Sports
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (July 13) - Baseball card giant Fleer has disappeared like so many collections left in parents' attics.
On Thursday, it will go on the auction block.
The Mount Laurel-based company went out of business in May. Fleer's sports card and die-cast toy businesses will be auctioned off Thursday.
The proceeds will be used to pay a list of creditors that includes dozens of current and former professional athletes. Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko, for example, is owed $5,000; Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench is expecting $14,350.
Fleer's downfall came as a result of intense competition, waning interest among adolescent boys with more options on what to spend their allowances on and rising expectations from the hard-core collectors who remain.
"Today, kids want of-the-moment," said Victoria Babel, co-owner of J&A Sports Collectibles. "They want autographs. They want autographed rookies."
And putting autographed cards, along with pieces of game-worn jerseys, splinters of basketball floors and other memorabilia into packs of cards was ultimately too expensive for a company that used to offer nothing more than sticks of very sugary gum as an enticement to buy. According to court filings, Fleer has debts of nearly $40 million.
Lawyers are trying to figure out the best way to sell the company's sports memorabilia collection, which includes items from a game-worn (and never washed) uniform from Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh to a box of baseballs signed by retired pitcher Sparky Lyle to pingpong balls used in an NBA draft lottery.
Fleer, the candy company where bubble gum was invented in 1906 and that had occasionally issued trading cards, entered the baseball card business in earnest in 1981. More companies soon joined, taking the business increasingly upscale as the sports collectibles market boomed and manufacturers tried to outdo each other with ever more elaborate - and expensive - card sets.
By the end of the 1980s, cards were swapped less in basement rec rooms and school playgrounds than in hobby shops and weekend shows in hotel ballrooms. But in the early 1990s, the bubble burst and many of the collectors who saw cards as commodities left the hobby. Then there was the 1994 baseball strike, which turned off still more collectors, card experts say.
Dealers said that Fleer, bought in 1999 by Rite Aid pharmacy founder Alexander Grass and his son, Randy, made things tough on customers.
Helen Thomas, who has owned Skywalk Baseball Cards in downtown Cincinnati for 16 years, said that earlier this year she quit ordering from Fleer because the company was printing far fewer of some cards than others in the same sets.
Some critics also said the company was too fast to start and stop new lines of cards.
The company struggled so much that by late 2003, it was seeking bids from competitors.
The best one came from Upper Deck: $25 million. In a hearing in state court last week, a Fleer official said the company rejected that offer because business was starting to improve.
Upper Deck agreed to start the bidding in Thursday's auction. Its offer now is $2 million.
07/13/05 18:42 EDT
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
After Bankruptcy, Fleer Heading to Auction Block
Baseball Card Giant Went Out of Business in May With $40 Million in Debt
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, AP Sports
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (July 13) - Baseball card giant Fleer has disappeared like so many collections left in parents' attics.
On Thursday, it will go on the auction block.
The Mount Laurel-based company went out of business in May. Fleer's sports card and die-cast toy businesses will be auctioned off Thursday.
The proceeds will be used to pay a list of creditors that includes dozens of current and former professional athletes. Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko, for example, is owed $5,000; Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench is expecting $14,350.
Fleer's downfall came as a result of intense competition, waning interest among adolescent boys with more options on what to spend their allowances on and rising expectations from the hard-core collectors who remain.
"Today, kids want of-the-moment," said Victoria Babel, co-owner of J&A Sports Collectibles. "They want autographs. They want autographed rookies."
And putting autographed cards, along with pieces of game-worn jerseys, splinters of basketball floors and other memorabilia into packs of cards was ultimately too expensive for a company that used to offer nothing more than sticks of very sugary gum as an enticement to buy. According to court filings, Fleer has debts of nearly $40 million.
Lawyers are trying to figure out the best way to sell the company's sports memorabilia collection, which includes items from a game-worn (and never washed) uniform from Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh to a box of baseballs signed by retired pitcher Sparky Lyle to pingpong balls used in an NBA draft lottery.
Fleer, the candy company where bubble gum was invented in 1906 and that had occasionally issued trading cards, entered the baseball card business in earnest in 1981. More companies soon joined, taking the business increasingly upscale as the sports collectibles market boomed and manufacturers tried to outdo each other with ever more elaborate - and expensive - card sets.
By the end of the 1980s, cards were swapped less in basement rec rooms and school playgrounds than in hobby shops and weekend shows in hotel ballrooms. But in the early 1990s, the bubble burst and many of the collectors who saw cards as commodities left the hobby. Then there was the 1994 baseball strike, which turned off still more collectors, card experts say.
Dealers said that Fleer, bought in 1999 by Rite Aid pharmacy founder Alexander Grass and his son, Randy, made things tough on customers.
Helen Thomas, who has owned Skywalk Baseball Cards in downtown Cincinnati for 16 years, said that earlier this year she quit ordering from Fleer because the company was printing far fewer of some cards than others in the same sets.
Some critics also said the company was too fast to start and stop new lines of cards.
The company struggled so much that by late 2003, it was seeking bids from competitors.
The best one came from Upper Deck: $25 million. In a hearing in state court last week, a Fleer official said the company rejected that offer because business was starting to improve.
Upper Deck agreed to start the bidding in Thursday's auction. Its offer now is $2 million.
07/13/05 18:42 EDT
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
