Still a Strikeout With Investors
Despite lingering fan resentment, are all those trading-card makers about to score at long last with the strike-delayed baseball season finally set to open this week?
A new Smith Barney research report suggests that a lot of kids will lose interest in POGS and other substitute items they have been collecting in lieu of cards of Mike Piazza, Ken Griffey Jr., Greg Maddux and all the other major league stars who walked out in a dispute with owners last year.
But investors appear to need convincing.
The Wall Street firm’s analysis came in a report upgrading the stock of Marvel Entertainment Group on the logic that the end of baseball’s strike bodes well for Marvel’s sports trading-card business.
The cards, which sell under the brand name Fleer, account for 35% of comic book publisher Marvel’s estimated annual revenue of $650 million.
In a normal year, Smith Barney said, baseball cards contribute $100 million of that amount, although the number may only be around $30 million this year because of the season’s late start. Eventually, the firm reports, a recovery to normal levels is expected.
Still, investors trading in Marvel’s stock, which closed at more than $17 at the beginning of the month, seemingly remained unconvinced. Marvel’s stock has dropped another $2 in the past three weeks alone to just over $15.
And the bearish Overpriced Stock Service, a newsletter for short sellers who bet stocks will drop in price, added Marvel to its list of stocks to bet against, citing the strike effects and a glut of firms in the trading card business.
End of the Ride
In an accidental case of bad timing, the just-published April-May edition of the Tourist Attractions & Parks trade magazine features a question-and-answer section with Robert Pittman, the soon-to-depart chairman of Six Flags amusement parks who also has served as the company’s television pitchman.
Parent Time Warner last week agreed to sell 51% of Six Flags to investment group Boston Ventures, which agreed to pay $200 million and assume $800 million in debt.
In a surprise development, Pittman, a former MTV executive who organized the transaction with the goal of leading it, dropped out of the deal at the last minute following a disagreement over how much equity he should get. He also said he plans to leave Six Flags altogether after the company’s peak summer season ends.
In what could be called a premonition, Pittman revealed in the interview that he won’t be doing any more Six Flags television commercials.
A Healthy Side Business
For $10.95, there’s the “vertebra mug,” a white coffee cup with a handle designed to look like the lumbar vertebra.
For $19.95, there’s a one-pound chocolate shaped like a real human heart made with artery-clogging “fresh butter, pure vanilla, gobs of whipping cream.”
For $25.95, there are “anatomical ties,” neckties featuring motifs such as brains or beating hearts.
The latest from Sharper Image?
Actually, the products come from the gift catalogue of the American Medical Assn.
