Bond's stuff not exactly hot at memorabilia show
Asking sports memorabilia dealers if they have any Barry Bonds memorabilia for sale is kind of like walking into a Chicago sports store and asking if it has any Brett Favre jerseys. For one, it isn't exactly common, and second, you're bound to get a few strange looks.
A day after Barry Bonds was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for telling a federal grand jury he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs, sports memorabilia dealers had mixed opinions about how the indictment will affect sales of Bonds' memorabilia.
Indictment or not, most of the vendors at the sports collectible show at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont Friday agreed on one thing: There aren't many people outside of San Francisco and Oakland who were all that eager to buy autographed Bonds memorabilia in the first place.
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"Barry Bonds is useless. I couldn't sell his autograph or memorabilia before this," dealer Alan Rosen said. "I had a guy who wanted to sell me a box of his rookie cards for $2 each today. Collectors just don't like him."
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"The cards are newer, and there's lots of them so there was never a huge market for them in the first place," dealer Joe Tauriello of Elma, N.Y., said. "Supply and demand will rule more than his personality."
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"People have already decided whether they like him or hate him anyway. Everyone's already picked sides in that battle," said dealer Pat Blandford of Maumee, Ohio.
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"[Thursday's indictment] completely killed it," Xavier Rivera of Des Plaines said. "I got stuck on a couple things, and the indictment certainly didn't help. I hope I sell them. If not, I will sadly have another Barry Bonds thing for myself. He's not a nice guy, and the whole steroid cloud … you just start losing interest."
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"I think it's going to hurt sales substantially," said dealer Mike Stoner of Atlanta, Ga. "I think if the guy were a great guy, there would've been a lot less adverse thinking of him. Now people just say, 'I told you so.' I'm not going to invest in it, because it's not going to do well."
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"I don't really believe it's going to be different. He was already guilty, so it's not going to make a big difference," said W.R. George of Bradenton, Fla. George, who has been selling sports memorabilia for 27 years, said people who collect 500-home-run-club balls will have to buy Bonds' ball regardless of how they feel about his personality.