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MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. - Sports card company Upper Deck has won an auction to take over rival Fleer's name and its toy car business.
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The Upper Deck Co., a privately-held company based in Carlsbad, Calif., bid $6.1 million for the intellectual property and die-cast toy business of debt-ridden Fleer, according to the Web site of Warren J. Martin Jr., a lawyer overseeing Thursday's auction.
Saddled with nearly $40 million in debt, Fleer went out of business in May. Lawyers for the Mount Laurel-based company said that the rising costs associated with putting sports memorabilia into packs of cards, coupled with dwindling interest in the hobby, led to the company's demise.
A state Superior Court Judge in Mount Holly was to be asked to approve the sale to Upper Deck.
Upper Deck burst onto the scene in 1989, when the hobby was at its hottest, and introduced $1 packs of cards on high-quality stock with top-notch photographs.
In 1995, as baseball and baseball card collecting were smarting from a strike, the company started putting premium goodies, such as swatches of uniforms, into cards. Card-watchers say the move revolutionized collecting.
Fleer's remaining memorabilia — items ranging from a 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 — is to be auctioned later.
The proceeds from that auction and the one held Thursday will go to a list of creditors that includes dozens of professional athletes.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Upper Deck Co., a privately-held company based in Carlsbad, Calif., bid $6.1 million for the intellectual property and die-cast toy business of debt-ridden Fleer, according to the Web site of Warren J. Martin Jr., a lawyer overseeing Thursday's auction.
Saddled with nearly $40 million in debt, Fleer went out of business in May. Lawyers for the Mount Laurel-based company said that the rising costs associated with putting sports memorabilia into packs of cards, coupled with dwindling interest in the hobby, led to the company's demise.
A state Superior Court Judge in Mount Holly was to be asked to approve the sale to Upper Deck.
Upper Deck burst onto the scene in 1989, when the hobby was at its hottest, and introduced $1 packs of cards on high-quality stock with top-notch photographs.
In 1995, as baseball and baseball card collecting were smarting from a strike, the company started putting premium goodies, such as swatches of uniforms, into cards. Card-watchers say the move revolutionized collecting.
Fleer's remaining memorabilia — items ranging from a 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 — is to be auctioned later.
The proceeds from that auction and the one held Thursday will go to a list of creditors that includes dozens of professional athletes.
