The National and Ron Santo's Legacy - Give to JDRF

This summer, the National Sports Collectors Convention should partner with Ron Santo's favorite charity, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

On Monday I blogged that I would dedicate the next several posts to ways the National can improve. Partnering with JDRF in honor of Ron Santo is a great first step.

Santo was a Chicago legend, a hero to many fans, and an inspiration to millions of Americans suffering from Diabetes.

I'd like to see the National partner with JDRF to raise money for the foundation. Some ideas to do this:

• Turn the Preview Night (4 hours on Wednesday) to the JDRF night - all admission funds go to the foundation. 
• Host an auction of memorabilia donated by some of the vendors attending and friends of Santo.
• Host a dinner after the Wednesday night show to benefit JDRF

There are several things that can be done to raise money for this charity. With the National in Chicago, you have a collection of fans who had a connection to Ron Santo, cheered for him when he played and cried when he lost his final battle. Let's give his fans another opportunity to think of Ron and the causes that were close his heart. The National can:

1. Provide focus on one cause for one person's legacy
2. Grab the attention by making it a one night event or proceeds from the entire weekend 
3. Engage and focus collectors
4. Make it easy to take action by having an auction, a dinner or proceeds from the weekend donated. 

There is plenty of time to make this happen.

Why Care About Foursquare?

I'm new to the foursquare adventure, but I'm really into it.

I've only been working with it a few weeks. If you're new to foursquare, it's a pretty cool application that gets loaded on to your smart phone. It allows you to tell your friends where you are (or you can choose not to) and awards badges, titles and points as you check-in to different locations via your phone. Your friends/followers can get notified of your doings via Twitter, facebook or friends on foursquare.

So far, it seems there are 3 basic types of foursquare users:
1 - Those that use it as a game. You get points for "checking in" to locations and receive different badges based on where you've checked in an how many times. Think of it as XBox 360 achievement points. A couple of great blogs dedicated to this are: the 4Square Badges Blog and the About Foursquare blog.

2 - Those that use it to see where friends are and hang out. When you check in to a location (which is simply launching the app from your phone when you get to the bookstore, bar, mall, etc, and select 'check in) you can choose to notify your friends on foursquare, twitter and/or facebook. The application will tweet or send a facebook wall posting saying where you are. If you're following me on twitter you'll see that I'm a huge Dunkin Donuts coffee fan!

3 - Marketing professionals should love this application. As a marketer, your biggest challenge isn't always getting new customers, but it's getting repeat customers and turning them from customers into evangelists. Recently, companies are offering discounts to people who have 5+ check-ins at the American Eagle store, or Ann Taylor in NY is offering 25% discounts to mayors (those who check-in the most in a 60-day span).

What does this mean for the sports card/collectible hobby? It means card store owners need to embrace this new mobile marketing faster than they started to embrace social media. Card stores are perfect for this... you can reward returning customers and allow them to tell their friends when they are at the store.

I blogged about how sports card stores can, and should embrace this a few months ago. They should launch incentives for % off packs and boxes. Becoming the "mayor" of a location is a huge badge and a sports card store could offer the mayor a framed photo in the store, 1/2 price for a box, special discounts, etc. Signing up on foursquare > businesses, they'll send you some free window clings like the image in this blog post.

I think the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore should use this for their next show. Here's a great article about using foursquare at a convention to bring people together and get everyone to check out the booths. 

There are some other mobile marketing 'check-in' applications like gowalla, but I haven't tried it yet. If you have a smart phone, give foursquare a try. If have a smart phone and you're on twitter, then dive right in. If you own a business or market for one, get listed and add foursquare to your next campaign.

Sports Cards Stores Need Foursquare

Foursquare is an awesome mobile application that allows you to notify your friends of where you are, what you are doing, and awards badges, titles and points on the way. Your friends/followers can get notified of your doings via Twitter.

I think it would be a great social gathering tool for card stores. If I knew when my friends were going to the card stores to open some packs or video a box break, I'd head over there to hang out, see what they get and join in on the fun. The only problem today - I can't find any card stores on it!

Millions of users are signing up to Foursquare every month. Our hobby sports cards stores need to be on Foursquare.

Businesses use Foursquare to create incentives for returning customers. It would be great to launch incentives for % off packs and boxes. Becoming the "mayor" of a location is a huge badge and a sports card store could offer the mayor a framed photo in the store, 1/2 price for a box, special discounts, etc. Some more business ideas are here.

Foursquare isn't the final solution to bring more collectors in the store, but it should be part of a campaign to bring customers back.

Mr. Mint Episode II: Revenge of the Sith

You've seen the smile, the ads, and the videos of Mr. Mint (Alan Rosen) and he's back for more. This weekend Mr. Mint is back in New York after a 10 year hiatus.

According to the NY Daily News, Rose is doing the memorabilia show in Queens as revenge to a rival promoter who claims he reneged on a deal. "That's the main reason I'm doing this show, to rub a little salt," Rosen said of his feud with promoter Jim Ryan, who runs competing conventions in Nassau and Westchester counties.

MM left the NY scene because of what he perceived as "greed" in the industry. Hello Kettle?

To me, it seems a little ironic that someone promoting them selves as "Mr. Mint," while paying cash to buy collections and then flip them for a huge profit is using "greed" as an excuse to not attend a NY show.

Sports Cards Hobby New Frontier - Mobile Apps

How do I find the closest public restroom?
There's a mobile phone application to find the answer.

What's the latest movie review?
There's a mobile app for that too.

What's the latest Upper Deck product review?
There isn't an app for that answer. You need to go home, start your PC, go on the web and search your favorite blogs to see if they've reviewed it yet.

Where are the sports cards mobile applications?
How would you like to use your iPhone, iPod Touch, or Blackberry to:
- View product release details
- Read message boards
- Check out the blogs
- Review card values
- Make card trades
- Chat with hobby leaders and friends?

I think this is the next step in our sports card and memorabilia hobby. Yes, you can do all of those now without a smart phone application if your have a mobile browser on the phone. However a mobile app notifies you when there is a new message board thread, trade proposed to you, new blog post and new product review all within a single application. You can view it all without having to navigate your mobile web browser.

I started thinking about this after reading an announcement by Blogging the Boys. They created an app for readers of their blog to see FanPosts, pictures, stories, etc. This particular application is $1.99 from the iPhone app store. Most mobile apps are free or cost less than $5. Check out the screen caps from their app.

Imagine if you're at a card show or store and see the latest retro product by Topps, but can't remember what people were saying on your favorite message board. You could launch the app, and search within it to see what hobby leaders are saying and what price you can expect to pay.

Who Will be First?
Right now, it looks like the Freedom Card Board could be the first to launch a mobile application. FCB confirmed with me via Twitter they are targeting a launch for their app by the end of 2009! Tracy Hackler and Chris Olds at Beckett Media said a mobile app was an idea being discussed, but a target date had not been confirmed. Tracy suggested they could have one in 2010. Don at the Sports Card Forum said they do not yet have a mobile phone application project started.

I think this is the next logical step for hobby. Perhaps we'll hear some product announcements and demos at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore next summer.

Would you pay $1.99 for an application like this?