ESPN PROFILES THE FALL OF THE SPORTS CARD INDUSTRY

     ESPN's "Cover Story" on Friday focused on the collapse of
the trading card industry following the '94 MLB strike.  Pinnacle
Brands CEO Jerry Meyer estimates losses at "about $40 million,"
while Upper Deck President Brian Burr claims baseball business "
was down over 50%."  According to ESPN's Keith Olbermann, the
strike also "doused the fire" of investors, or "speculators."
The answer to rejuvenating the industry, Olbermann reports, may
be the man who "fueled the original boom" -- Mickey Mantle.
Topps reproduced each of its old Mantle cards and inserted them
into its 1996 series, causing "collectors to come in waves to buy
out Topps' Mantle-laced issues."  But according to collectibles
exec Norm Klemonski, sales for Fleer, Donruss and Upper Deck this
year "have not increased at all."  He adds, "As a matter of fact,
they've probably decreased.  People that bought the Topps cards
for the Mantles, we've lost sales in the other brands"
("SportsCenter," ESPN, 6/28).