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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 5, 2001
With a volatile economy and markets fluctuating wildly, there's a new twist in online investments this week. What is the American public putting money into? Bonds.
That's Barry Bonds, and Albert Pujols and other IPOs -- "initial player offerings" -- as part of a new level of sports card trading launched Monday at etopps.com.
The program allows fans to buy from a finite number of cards, which are traded publicly at auction site eBay.com after a one-week IPO. The first batch of 10 baseball players available this week includes retiring greats Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn, as well as budding stars such as Pujols and Rafael Furcal.
"The real goal is to expand card collecting to beyond people who already collect," said Warren Friss, vice president of Internet business for Topps, a leader in the sports card industry for 50 years. "We don't think of this as an investment. You're not going to get rich or poor from this, though some people will probably try to do that."
Each player was allotted between 5,000 and 12,500 cards, and Topps will destroy what doesn't sell when the IPO window ends today. For a sense of the market, collectors are trading a test run of football cards issued last year. A Peyton Manning offered initially for $9.50 sold for $78 on Tuesday.
"If you think Andruw Jones is a future Hall of Famer, you could certainly take a position in him," said Friss, who set opening values between $3.50 and $9.50 a share, depending on the player.
Topps won't release numbers on how the IPOs have sold, but Friss said nearly 10,000 collectors have registered for the program. He said one player's entire IPO is already gobbled up -- no doubt Bonds, who hit his 70th home run Thursday, tying Mark McGwire's record.
The real fun starts Monday, when the cards can be publicly traded at auction. A similar system has been in place for months at thepit.com, a site that includes a continuous scrolling ticker, somewhere between ESPN's Bottom Line and CNBC's stock-market crawl. Bonds' most actively traded card there was at $58 Thursday, down $4 from Wednesday against a 52-week high of $85.50.
The listings at etopps.com will add 10 more baseball players for each of the next six weeks, and starting Oct. 14, 10 football players will be offered. Bucs tailback Warrick Dunn is among the opening week's lineup, with Keyshawn Johnson and Brad Johnson debuting in November and Mike Alstott in January. Similar programs for basketball and hockey will be added early next year.
CYBER-SMACK: As if the Vikings needed motivation before Sunday's victory against Tampa Bay, Minnesota players pointed to comments Keyshawn Johnson made about Minnesota cornerback Robert Tate at realteam.com, where Johnson writes a weekly column.
"What bothers me about Tate and players like him is the way they try to make a name for themselves off a prominent player," Johnson wrote in response to Tate boasting about causing a Johnson fumble in a Vikings win last season. "Don't try to use me like that. You didn't shut me down, I fumbled once. Don't go running your mouth, talking trash, trying to make your name off me. I don't appreciate it."
Johnson, even before Sunday's loss, points out that he had a better game last year when the Vikings came to Raymond James Stadium.
"I torched him in the second game: six catches, 121 yards, one TD," Johnson wrote. "And then I told him about it. When I was done, he knew he'd been abused."
TID-BYTES: Longtime Tampa Tribune columnist Tom McEwen is writing a column each Tuesday for tampabaylightning.com. His work can also be found at heytommcewen.com, where he has filed regularly since his retirement in January. His site has a link to the site for WFLA-AM 970, but no link to the Tribune's site. ... Bucs fan site redtidenews.com has a strange but amusing video short entitled "Buc Park," with Warren Sapp and Co. starring in a riff on South Park. Brad Johnson can't be pleased with his casting as the oft-killed Kenny.
-- If you have a question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest, e-mail staff writer Greg Auman at auman@sptimes.com.