Interview with Scott Kelnhofer – contributing editor to Tuff Stuff and Sports Collectors Digest
This interview was originally posted on The Bench earlier this year. Some of these questions were asked by members of The Bench. This interview is used with permission from The Bench. Scott Kelnhofer is a contributing editor to Tuff Stuff and the Editor of the Trade Fax andamp; Card Trade, and F+W Publications. He has worked on Tuff Stuff, Sports Collectors Digest, and all of their sports card publications over the past 19 years. Thank you Scott for taking the time to answer our questions!
Interviewer: Thank you again for your time answering our questions!
How did you get the job you are in today? Is there a particular college degree or specialized skills needed? What advice would you give to someone seeking a similar position?
Scott Kelnhofer: I joined Krause Publications in 1989, four years after graduating from
Marquette University. I had never worked in print journalism before this job; before this, I had spent time working in local TV news. But I had a real interest in sports and collectibles, and was lucky enough to find this opportunity.
As for wanting to get into this type of job, obviously a knowledge of the hobby is important. Writing skills are, as well, and having any professional experience is great. Today, I think employers in the journalism industry don't necessarily just want to see experience with other "traditional" outlets like newspapers, magazines, etc. Today, with websites and blogs delivering valuable content to readers, even experience with that background is helpful.
Do you use eBay now to help give prices to cards?
-- Yes, eBay is used because it's such a vast marketplace, and it's such an immediate reference tool. But it's not the only reference. We still consult with a number of dealers around the country to see what cards are selling for at the shop level.
Do you and Beckett work together at all to talk about their pricing or give each other feedback on pricing?
-- We do not consult with Beckett about pricing. They're competitors, so we do our best to come up with accurate pricing, and they do their best. We have tremendous respect for the staff there, and enjoy meeting with them at various industry functions. But it's still a rivalry, albeit a friendly one.
Shaquille O'neal, do you see his stated retirement after this season with Phoenix hurting his value if they don't win it all or is his almost shoe in as a Hall-of-Famer going to hold his "value" or rise?
-- A title certainly wouldn't hurt Shaq's values, but it's not going to influence whether he makes the Hall of Fame. He's got his spot reserved in Springfield. As for his memorabilia values, I don't see any dramatic spikes in his stuff in the near future because so many of today's collectors are focused on players like LeBron, Kobe, Kevin Garnett and even Dwyane Wade, to some degree. I have a feeling that once Shaq retires, his material will soften just a bit due to the traditional "out of sight/out of mind" effect.
As the "history" of the hobby isn't really represented on the web, does Tuff Stuff sell back issues or have any plans for an online archive of it's past articles similar to, say, the New York Times?
-- We've looked into it. Unfortunately, there are some rights issues with the magazines published before we took over ownership in 1998, meaning certain photos and stories were only contracted for usage on a one-time basis. And some of our older issues aren't stored electronically, so it's kind of labor intensive to get those issues into an electronic format. We may end up creating "hobby history" features online that would be separate from merely reprinting old issues.
Since Tuff Stuff is basically the only other source for card pricing other than Beckett what are their plans to try and gain more of a market share of this business? With Beckett becoming more concerned with making money off the collectors than helping them I would think now would be a great time to make a move.
-- Our goal is always to gain more of a market share of the magazine business among collectors. One of the problems both Beckett and our publications are facing is the lack of advertising revenue, which is vital to the health of any print publication. There are fewer card companies and fewer dealers who can be solicited for advertising, and many of those companies now utilize their own websites to reach out to consumers. In fact, just about any magazine in any field is facing the same challenges as it relates to growth.
How do you choose the athlete for your covers? Do you go by sport seasonality, current hottest player, player with the most hobby "buzz?"
-- Picking cover subjects is absolutely the most imperfect science in the publishing field, especially for sports collectibles. Obviously, we want to pick someone who will help sell the most magazines. To accomplish that, we try to select someone who is top-of-mind among collectors and who is recognizable so that the average fan can glance at an issue on the newsstand and immediately realize who the player is. Of course, you always take a risk with a monthly magazine of something happening once the magazine goes to press and before it hits readers. For instance, had we selected Tom Brady to be on the cover of the issue we sent to press in late August, it would have hit newsstands at the start of the NFL season. How many people would have been looking to buy a magazine with him on the cover at that time?
One of my hobbies is Photography. How are the photos selected? Does Tuff Stuff have a dedicated photo staff? If so, how do you get into the biz?
-- We utilize a variety of professional photo services for most of our athlete photos. If we need a Brett Favre photo, for instance, we can go online to one of these companies, search their database for photos, and pick the ones we want for a fee. Photos of cards and memorabilia items are either submitted by the card companies, shot by our in-house photographer, or are sent to us from our various writers.
With so many autographs of current baseball players, do you think are we headed toward a late 1980's overproduction of cards?
-- There will always be demand for autographs of hall-of-famers or other superstars. I don't know that autographed card values will hold up over the years as more and more cards are produced, especially of non-stars. At the same time, some of these athletes don't sign much material outside of the card market, so for some collectors the cards will always be a reliable source for authentic signatures.
Are Tuff Stuff magazines made from recycled material?
-- Most of the magazine is printed on newsprint, and that type of paper is typically made from some recycled paper. But I don't know the exact ratio of recycled material to new material.
Are there any rules at Tuff Stuff that forbids employees from collecting cards/memorabilia?
-- There are no rules against collecting. In fact, it's encouraged to make sure we're on top of what's going on in various aspects of the hobby. There are rules about how and where we buy and sell, and obviously we can't sell anything that comes to us for promotional use from the card companies or any other manufacturer.
What are some new innovations we can look forward to from Tuff Stuff SCD?
-- We'll always be adding little tweaks to the print versions, but I think you'll see some of the cooler stuff take place with electronic/digital offerings in the next year or so. Our parent company is really pushing the offerings in that direction, as are most publishing and media companies.
Do you have a stable of copy writers and/or do you accept "free lance" work from collectors?
-- We have some in-house writers, and a number of outside columnists. We accept freelance work, but suggest you contact us ahead of time to see if we're interested in a story and make sure we haven't already run something similar in recent issues.
How do they get their article ideas? Do you give them topics to research? Do they just look for stories/news that is relevant to the current season sport?
-- It's a little of both. We assign most of the feature stories. The individual columnists will generally submit their own topics. We let all writers know if there's a specific theme coming up in an issue so they can construct stories/columns around that topic.
What affect do you think the current economic crisis will have on the industry?
-- Any business that relies on discretionary income from consumers is being affected. Many card shops are reporting big drops in sales in the past two months, which trickles down to the distributor and manufacturer level. I think the vintage market will be OK, although we'll probably see some impact in terms of what people are willing to pay at auctions. On the new card front, we'll likely see more card stores close, and some of the remaining card shows will disappear as well. I don't think any of the existing card companies are in danger of going out of business in the near term, but the costs of operating in today's market (particularly in securing autographs and memorabilia) make it tough on the bottom line. With the current economic situation, I hate to make any guesses about what might or might not happen in the next 6-12 months.
With the hundreds of card sets produced each year across the 4 major sports (not mentioning non-main stream sports, figurines, die cast et al.) how do you decide what sets and card values to list each month? What criteria are used? Base set, insert set, high end product, a timed think where you only list a set for a few months then drop it?
** That's the biggest challenge facing any price guide publication. There are roughly 125 sports sets issued a year. It takes a decent amount of space to list them all, yet we can't just add pages each month because our page counts are determined by ad sales. So if we don't receive additional pages, we have to make cuts. Generally, we try to give new releases priority. With older products, we focus on the most active cards. With some sets from the late 1980s or 1990s, where there's been little if any changes in the past two years, we have to keep them out of print completely and offer the pricing for whatever doesn't make it into print on the website.
What are some of the biggest or most favorite sporting events you have been too or covered for Tuff Stuff?
-- I've been to the Home Run Derby and MLB All-Star Game on four occasions as part of the All-Star FanFest events. Those have been my favorite to attend.
What are some of the biggest name or favorite athletes you have met while working for Tuff Stuff?
-- Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Dan Marino and Brett Favre were the ones I enjoyed meeting the most.
Are there any quirks or something that we may not know about any athletes that you can share?
-- This isn't really a quirk, but when I went to meet Marino at an autograph signing for Upper Deck Authenticated, I walked into the room where all the footballs and helmets and stuff he would be signing was being set up. There's was an older gentleman in the room, and as I entered he said, "Hi, I'm Dan Marino." I chuckled, thinking he was just clowning around. I almost shot back, "Oh yeah, well I'm Brett Favre." Well, it turned out, he WAS Dan Marino -- as in Dan Marino, Sr. I never knew the famous quarterback had the same name as his father.
What is a typical day at the office for you at Tuff Stuff?
-- For me, it depends on the day of the week. I have the weekly online radio show that debuts every Wednesday, so there are times of the week devoted to lining up guests and writing copy for that. Trade Fax (a trade newsletter) goes out Monday and Thursday mornings. I write a column for SCD each week, and work on some of the other editorial pages. I'm also editor of Card Trade, which is a monthly trade publication. And at other times of the year, I'm working on programming for our annual industry trade conference. So something different is going on each day, depending on where the deadline schedule is.
What has been your reaction to Beckett's recent overhaul of their website and change in format to their monthly price guide?
-- Since they're a competitor, it's not my place to comment. But regardless, my reaction is irrelevant. It's whether the hobby likes it or not that matters.
What reactions have you heard or seen from collectors/subscribers after Beckett's recent changes? Can you share if you have seen an increase or decrease in your own subscribers?
-- There will always be people who don't like changes to something they're familiar with. We've picked up some new customers in the past few months, but whether that's a reaction to the changes we've made to our publication or some other reason, I'm not sure.
What was your reaction to Donruss/Leaf/Playoff losing their MLB license a couple of years ago? Do you think they could or should get it back?
-- It was surprising, because Donruss was clearly not doing anything wrong in the baseball market. And the baseball licensors will tell you the same thing. In the past, when companies lost licenses, they were usually having financial troubles and/or had poor performing products. That wasn't the case with Donruss. The licensors believed that the baseball card category needed to be streamlined, and in order for the companies to make enough of a profit to be able to invest in advertising campaigns to attract new users, there was only enough money available in the marketplace for two companies to achieve that goal.
Will they get a full baseball card license again? If the licensors don't think the two manufacturer set up is doing what they want, it's possible. I don't think we'll see any changes to the lineup before the end of 2010, however. That will mark five years under the two-licensee format and that should give the licensors enough time to study whether they want to make any changes.
Thanks again to Scott for taking the time to share with us!
