Macmillan Publishing Co., publishers of the book "Card
Sharks," an inside look at the card industry over the past few
years, claims that three leading collectors magazines backed out
from running ads for the book. Jeanine Bucek, Director of Sports
Books for MacMillan, told THE SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY that the
three magazines -- Sports Collectors Digest, Sports Cards and
Beckett Baseball Card Monthly -- all had accepted advertising
dollars from Macmillan and were scheduled to run ads for "Card
Sharks" in their June and July issues. However, Macmillan
recently received letters from each magazine either asking to
review the book before publication or telling Macmillan that
books could not be advertised. Bucek: "They basically were
saying they had to review the material before the ad ran." Bucek
said the book's content is particularly critical of Upper Deck,
and suggested that someone may be behind the "abrupt" refusal by
all three publications to run the ads. Buckek: "It didn't seem
normal for this to happen." Macmillan plans on running the ads
in other baseball publications (THE DAILY).
AUTHOR ON TOUR: "Card Sharks" author Pete Williams appeared
on CNBC last week and said the card market will never see the
success it did in the early '90s. In '91, trading cards were a
$2B-a-year business, but by '94, that figure had fallen to $700M
a year. Williams, citing the MLB strike and the NHL lockout,
said card manufacturers suffered losses of up to 50% last year
("Sports View," CNBC, 5/12).
