A Special Message To All Of Our Customers: Thank You!!!

As the 2001-02 hockey card campaign winds down, I feel this is an appropriate time to thank all hobbyists who have supported our efforts throughout the year. And what a year it has been!

It began last August with our first release of the season, the 2001-02 Memorabilia Series and only recently concluded once the 2001-02 Update Series was issued on June 21. In between, we were busy with four other brands including Parkhurst, Between the Pipes, Signature Series, and the Ultimate Memorabilia 2nd Edition. These six products marked an increase over the four we produced in 2000-01.

In the Game is a relatively small company compared to the other hockey card manufacturers. Yet we are all very passionate about our products. We focus on cards from the sport that is nearest and dearest to us and I believe that gives us an edge over our competition. Day in and day out, we try to do our job and do it well.

Our mandate is to not only produce high-quality cards that hold their value in the secondary market, we also take pride in being the most innovative manufacturer through concepts and programs that distinguish themselves in a competitive market.

One year ago, we announced that every game-worn memorabilia card we produced for 2001-02 would have a stated production run of under 100. We also announced that we would be the only hockey card manufacturer to sequentially number all of our cases. We introduced exciting and interactive insert concepts such as NHL Draft Redemption cards (in Memorabilia Series), Parkie Reprint cards (in Parkhurst) and the Certified insert program (in Signature Series).

Despite the enormous challenge, I feel we improved on our highly-successful Ultimate Memorabilia First Edition. We reduced the production quantities for these cards to no more than 50, down from a maximum of 90 last year. In addition, every card was professionally graded by Beckett Grading Services. Our "Made to Order" redemption cards in that product are the first "one-of-one" collectibles in which the collector actually chooses who the player on the card will be.

Perhaps the product that created the loudest hobby buzz, however, was our Between the Pipes set. From the day of conception, we were very excited about creating the first set to feature NHL goalies exclusively. We also heard from "concerned" hobbyists and skeptics who believed a brand that deliberately left out the likes of Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Eric Lindros and Ilya Kovalchuk would not fare well with collectors. Our faith was rewarded, though, and Between the Pipes sold out very quickly.

It's one thing to have confidence in your own organization and to deliver the message that we produce impressive hockey cards but you don't have to take our word for it. In the August, 2002 edition of Beckett Hockey Collector, our products won seven of the 15 categories in the magazine's annual Readers' Choice Awards. That represents nearly 50 per cent of the accolades despite the fact we issued less than 20 per cent of the total number of hockey brands in 2001-02. When the readers of the hobby's premier hockey card magazine have so many positive things to say, we are honored to say the least.

All that being said, we are already focused on our lineup for 2002-03. This past year has been very successful in a competitive environment. Despite this, we are confident we can do even better in the new season.

We have two specific collecting concepts under review and we would like to solicit your input in helping us make a final decision regarding their future.

One is our He Shoots-He Scores decoy card and redemption point program. We have included these innovative decoy cards in most of our brands for more than a year and we know they help discourage pack-searching. We also felt assigning point values to the cards helped provide extra value in each box, especially since they could be redeemed for scarce memorabilia cards. Many hobbyists have indicated they like the program.

However, some feel that the value of the redemption card is not equal to the amount of points needed. Naturally, if we decreased the number of points needed, we would have to increase the number of redemption cards beyond 20 of each which would lower their value. Some of the other card companies are now using decoy cards with advertising on them and have no redemption program. I applaud them for joining us in preventing pack-searching and wonder if we too should stop the redemption aspect of the program and leave the cards as decoys only. Let me know your thoughts.

I also welcome your comments with regards to all our Ultimate Memorabilia 2nd Edition cards being professionally graded. To all of you who purchased this year's version, I would like to hear whether or not you think this made the product more appealing.

When the decision was made, we felt that a grade of "8" would be our base for memorabilia cards. We considered "8.5" a parallel, "9" a limited parallel and "9.5" a very limited parallel. Making a memorabilia card is not like printing a regular card and simply cutting and packaging it. Each one is hand-made and since we use many different types of memorabilia to ensure collector value, some cards are thicker than others. In addition, we didn't take the easy way out and make all our cards with white borders to ensure better grading. We stuck to our innovative designs but this caused grading problems.

I personally made the decision to grade our Ultimate Memorabilia 2nd Edition. We sold out of our 1st Edition and I wanted the 2nd Edition to be bigger and better and spared no expense in doing so. What are your thoughts?

It will not be easy to improve on what we have accomplished, but just like a player trying to defend against Mario Lemieux, we welcome the challenge and are anxious to succeed. And speaking of the "Le Magnifique," you'll want to watch for an announcement from In the Game regarding this hockey great in the very-near future.

Again, I wish to thank all of you as well as the Be A Player staff including Tod in production, Baron in marketing, Fabio in product development, Ken our memorabilia-card man, June in administration, and Margaret and Brad in customer service for their tireless efforts. I can't wait to bring on the 2002-03 hockey card season.

Yours truly,

Dr. Brian H. Price
President
In The Game, Inc.

To email Dr. Price, click here.