Some people collect media guides. The Milwaukee Bucks don't cater to them. They don't sell old media guides, keeping them only for reference.
Publicity director Bill King II says he was just trying to do something to liven up the cover of this season's media guide. He never realized that a hologram on the cover would attract collectors as well as the book's usual buyers, statistics fans.
King is a longtime collector who began with baseball cards in the early '60s. But, although he worked with Upper Deck on the cover, he wasn't designing a collectible.
"I didn't really think about the collectors' market, but to do something to jazz up the cover," King says.
The cover has a hologram of All-Rookie forward Vin Baker and a photo of 1994's top draft pick, Glenn Robinson. King says when he looks around the Bradley Center during a game he sees fans turning the guide around to see Baker's expression change -- and he sees reporters doing the same thing.
The project began before the 1993-94 season when King contacted Warren Molee, Upper Deck's vice president of creative technologies, about putting a hologram on the cover. Molee thought the Bucks' idea could make use of Upper Deck's new HoloView technology and agreed to videotape several players when the team visited Los Angeles last March.
Baker and others were videotaped while rotating on a turntable, changing expression when asked. The videotape frames were synthesized to make a 50-degree, three-dimensional image.
"The whole thing fell together so well," says King. "We hit the No. 1 player in the draft" and Baker was named to the All-Rookie first team. Carrying out this theme, the NBA lottery balls drawn by the Bucks are on the back cover.
"Sales were not taken into consideration," King says. "But when we did the mock-up, we did order extra copies."
They've been needed. When the hologram media guide is written about, there's a surge of orders. "On individual days, we're beating an entire year's order," King says.
But success comes with a price. "The problem is what to do to top it," King says.
To order a guide, send a check or money order for $12.50 to: Bucks Boutique, Milwaukee Bucks, 1001 N. Fourth St., Milwaukee, Wis., 53203-1312.
NBA predictions
Upper Deck's NBA basketball Series 2 features Predictor insert cards. If the player on the Predictor card wins MVP or Rookie of the Year (hobby) or leads in rebounds or blocks (retail), the card can be redeemed for all 20 hobby or retail cards. If the player is second, the card can be redeemed for the 10-card set of that category. Series 2 has 180 regular cards (with Michael Jordan draft analysis and then-and-now subsets) and Special Edition silver and gold and Shawn Kemp dunk stars inserts.
Snider, Musial bobbers
Sports, Accessories & Memorabilia has added Duke Snider and Stan Musial to its lineup of bobbing head dolls. Production is limited to 3,000 of each, and each sells for $44.95. Call (800) 4-TEAMHDS.
Maxx for '95
Maxx, like the NASCAR season, returns this month. Series One has 180 regular cards and three insert sets featuring the top 10 finishers in the World Cup Crew Championships, the first cards for NASCAR's newest division (SuperTrucks) and cards in a driver's license format with space for an autograph. There will be no hobby sets. A 10-card Dale Earnhardt insert set, Chase The Champion, begins with card No. 1 in Series One. Other
cards will be inserted in other Maxx products.
Coming events
Through Sept. 5, "Babe Ruth: An Artistic Perspective," Babe Ruth Museum, 216 Emory St., (410) 727-1539.
Today, card show, Harundale Mall (expected signers include Harold Baines, Walter Wilson, O. J. Brigance), noon to 5 p.m., (410) 760-5052.
Today, card show, Columbia Holiday Inn (Routes 1 and 175, I-95 Exit 4A), 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday-next Sunday, card show, Hunt Valley Mall (I-83, Exit 20A), mall hours, (410) 529-1624.
Friday-next Sunday, card show, Colonial Park Mall (expected signers are Greg Lloyd and Darren Perry), Harrisburg, Pa., (I-83, Exit 30E), (717) 939-1075.
Saturday, sports card show and auction, Holiday Inn-Cromwell Bridge, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., auction 2 p.m., (410) 795-0033.
Saturday-next Sunday, card show, York (Pa.) Galleria Mall (expected signers include Tippy Martinez), Feb. 18, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Feb. 19, noon to 5 pm., (717) 225-7188.
CARD OF THE WEEK
Fleer Ultra baseball puts the accent on inserts in Series I. Each pack has one card from seven insert sets as well as one from the Gold Medallion parallel set. The 250 basic cards are stamped with three foil colors. Look for them later this month. (Shown is Matt Williams.)