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Keepsaker’s Korner
Next Meeting is Friday July 12 at 6:30 pm (please note the date and time change!!) OKCC meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month (except for this month!). We meet at Becky’s Hallmark, 11109 E 41st (northwest corner of 41st & Garnett, next to Furr’s). Next month’s meeting will be August 8th. At the July Meeting- Premiere Party!!! The July meeting will held on Friday, not Thursday, July 12th in conjunction with the Premiere party at Becky’s from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Please bring a snack food and Becky’s will furnish the drinks. There is no theme this year so it’s come as you are. We will be playing Mark’s Hallmark Bingo and Becky’s will furnish the prizes. If you put your ornaments in lay-away, Becky Points will be given when you pick them up. Community Service Domestic Violence Intervention Service – We will be bringing school supplies this month. Food Bank – remember to bring your food items. They will go to Broken Arrow Neighbors unless someone volunteers to bring them somewhere else. Happy July Birthday to ….
Premiere Information Summary Here’s a roundup of all the information I’ve given you the last few months about Premiere so that you can be up to date and won’t have to searching through the past newsletters. 1) "Capture the Magic Game." By playing, you could win one of these eight exciting prizes! · Sugar Plum Fairies · Jewelry Box Ballet - 1st in the Series · Bringing Home the Tree - 1st in the Series · Sweet Tooth Treats - 1st in the Series · Joyful Noise · First Snow - Specially Colored (red base instead of blue, child wearing blue? Instead of red) · Willow, Mary's Angels - Specially Colored (blond instead of brunette, white dress instead of blue) · Antique Tractor - Specially Colored (yellow instead of red) Pictures of the specially colored versions are on hallmark.com in the collectors club area. 2) Sugar Plum Tabletop Topiary Will Light Up Premiere! Christmas-in-July treat available only at your Hallmark Gold Crown® Store! Nestled in a base of holiday candy look-alikes, this festive topiary lights up with multi-colored, battery-powered lights — so there's no cord! Nearly 16" tall, it's the perfect place to showcase your favorite Keepsake Miniature Ornaments — and the ideal home for the set of six Sugar Plum Fairies (sold separately) that will also be available at Premiere on Saturday, July 13. 3) Christmas Tree With Decorations Available only at Hallmark Gold Crown® Stores beginning on July 13, this event-featured 6 1/2" tall mini tree comes complete with base, star garland, tree topper and five mini-mini ornaments! Ornament designs feature favorites from past series, including Mary's Angels, Frosty Friends and Rocking Horse. If you're a Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Collector's Club member, this tree is a perfect fit for your exclusive Collector's Club "Santa's Big Night" collection. It also makes a great stand-alone decoration. The eight piece set includes: · Tree with Base (6 1/2" H x 3 5/8" W) · Santa Ornament (3/4" H x 3/8" W) · Rocking Horse Ornament (3/4" H x 1" W) · Eskimo Ornament (3/4" H x 1/2" W) · Gingerbread House Ornament (3/4" H x 1/2" W) · Cloud Angel Ornament (1/2" H x 1/2" W) · Angel Tree Topper (1 1/4" H x 3/4" W) · Stars on Garland (each 3/8" H x 1/2" W) A memory card is also included, so you can make this "Christmas Tree with Decorations" an unforgettable holiday gift! 4) Free Gift at Keepsake Ornament Premiere! It's Christmas in July time! Capture the magic of Keepsake Ornament Premiere on Saturday, July 13 at your Hallmark Gold Crown Store. For Keepsake Ornament Collector's Club members we've got a free gift for you just for attending Premiere! Look for a postcard in the mail in mid-June that entitles you to "Five Tiny Favorites," a free set of five miniature ornaments that fit the Christmas Tree with Decorations from the "Santa's Big Night" collection. (Don't forget to take the postcard to Premiere with you to redeem it for your gift!) Three of the Five Tiny Favorites miniature ornaments (Clothespin Soldier, Porcelain Bear and Thimble) are based on past favorite series ornaments. Here's what you'll receive: · Bear (7/8" H x 3/8" W) · Snowman (7/8" H x 1/2" W) · Train (1/2" H x 5/8" W) · Soldier (7/8" H x 1/4" W) · Thimble (7/8" H x 5/8" W) You must be a KOCC member to receive this free gift. Gift only available to KOCC members who attend Keepsake Ornament Premiere on Saturday, July 13, 2002. 5) BONUS Points for Gold Crown® Card Members! Use your Gold Crown Card at Ornament Premiere to receive 100 bonus points* for each Keepsake Ornament purchased July 13-14. From July 15-19, you'll receive 50 bonus points* for each Keepsake Ornament purchased. Okie Keepsakers Meeting Minutes June 13, 2002 President Rita Randall called the meeting to order. There were no corrections to the minutes. Rita congratulated Terri Legrand on being Collector of the Month on hallmark.com!!! Vice President Dana Blando did not attend. But Rita reminded everyone to sign the sign-in sheet and get their tickets for the food donations. Treasurer Sally Turner read the Treasurer’s report: $ 808.47+ Beginning balance 151.04- 2 tables purchased for Becky’s 8.16- June Postage 649.27+ Ending balance Secretary Teresa Pattison Sponsor news – Becky announced that they did get the Premiere t-shirts!!! If you signed up for one please go into Becky’s and purchase it. Becky also announced what they are going to due for Premiere. (See this information on the front page of the newsletter.) The club also agreed not to have a meeting on the Thursday night before Premiere and instead have a short meeting the during the Friday night Premiere party. So the gift exchange schedule for July will be done in August. DVIS chairperson, Debra Kirk did not attend. Last year we gave school supplies in July so we will do that this year too. Sunshine Committee chairperson Terri Legrand said cards have been sent to Earline and Dessie. Hospitably committee – Jeanne Draughon Jeanne Draughon said that she delivered the food items last month to Broken Arrow Neighbors. This month she collected 66 food items. Door prize drawings: $25 monthly gift certificate – Linda Hougue We then had the white elephant auction and raised $250.00!!!
Hallmark News Here’s some additional information about the new ornaments from a Keepsake employee: · Victorian Inn is named "Karol Inn" after Don Palmiter's wife, Karol. · Checking His List - Santa is holding a real feather pen and Chad has added several Keepsakes staff members to Santa's good list. · The Godchild ornament has a small drawer on the front - perfect for a special note or small gift to be tucked inside. · Tee's The Season - you can plug a light from your light string into the bottom and it adds a nice glow. · A Song for the Lamb of God - winds up to add action of the animals nodding their heads and the drummer boy drumming. · Peace on Earth Harmony Bell - it's heavier than you think and beautifully done. It reminds me of those chime necklaces that were popular several years ago because there's a very soft chiming when the ornament is picked up or moved. · Village Toy Shop - this one is going to be a collector favorite! It is larger than you might think from the photo and is very 3-dimensional. The back of the Toy Shop has a latice fence and a wreath. Lots of details in this ornament as well as movement. There's an on/off switch and it runs very quietly. · Sugar Plum Fairies are adorable and a 'must' to accompany the Tabletop Topiary, also sculpted by Linda Sickman. The topiary operates with batteries and the gumdrop-looking lights glow nicely. · Three Kings Lantern - you'll need to see this one in person. It's three sided and made of tin. Each side shows a different King with a different background color. When the light goes inside, it gives the effect of stained glass. In case you haven’t gotten your postcard yet, you can order “The Family Room”, which is the signature piece for this year. The order phone number is 1-800-206-2277. You'll need your Club membership number and zip code along with a credit card. The cost is $75 for one; $150 for two. Phone lines are now open to accept Barbie 2002 orders. This is the beautiful pink porcelain Barbie with the feather boa. The order line number is 1-800-208-1166 and it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The cost is $23.90 for one/$47.80 for two and orders ship beginning in October and will continue through January 2003. Postcards began shipping 6/7. The prizes for October debut!!! 1) Peace (blown glass part of Perfect Harmony) 2) Yuletide Santa (part of Memories of Christmas) 3) Baby Candessa (Frostlight Fairie Too) 4) Dreams Have Wings (part of Between Us...) 5) Blessings and Family (part of Family Tree) 6) Set of Ten Memory Cards 7) Biplane Mini (colorway) 8) Snowbuddies (colorway) Beginning Monday, June 17 you will be able to place your order for Ed Seale's Bear Watching figurine exclusively through his website. (This is a companion to his signing piece, Bearing Brunch.) Here are a few details... The piece is $10.75 (Check, Money Order or PayPal). Shipping is $4.00. Up to 4 pieces can be shipped to the same address for this rate. Orders will not go out until September. However, the earlier your order, the lower the number of your piece! Pictures of the 2003 Spring ornaments on are online! Go to www.josonline.com to see them. Here’s a listing of the ornaments: · Tweedle Dee Tweet Collection (Brightly Colored Birds – more cutesy than realistic like Natures Sketchbook.) o Look Who's Here! Dated $9.95 o Friends Of A Feather $9.95 o Weatherbird $7.95 o Treetop Duet $7.95 · Buzz-A-Dee-Bugs Set Of 3 Clip-On Bugs • Ladybug, Butterfly, Bumblebee $7.95 · Birdhouse Row Set Of 4 - Wood $12.95 (Has a Mary Englebriet look to them.) · Birthday Wishes Barbie 3rd And Final In The Series $14.95 · Ornament Display Tree Clay/Grass $14.95 · Peek-A-Boo Eggs Dated • (The insides of the eggs are the same as last years with new outside colors.) o Wheely Wonderful Easter $9.95 o Egg Hunt Hoppers $9.95 o Peep-A-Boo Chicks $9.95 · Shimmering Easter Eggs (Another Repeat? except packaged in 2 set of 2 instead of 1 set of 4?) Set Of 2 Pink W/Yellow And Blue Flowers $7.95 · Shimmering Easter Eggs (Another Repeat? except packaged in 2 set of 2 instead of 1 set of 4?) Set Of 2 Purple W/Yellow And Pink Flowers $7.95 · Shimmering Carrot Trimmers Set Of 8 (Repeat) $5.95 · Sculpted Bunny Spring Ornament Tree (Repeat) $14.95 · Nature's Sketchbook Keepsake Ornaments · Rippling Dream $12.95 (flowers in basket) · Outdoor Dining $12.95 (bunny on lettuce leaf with carrot and radish? hanging down – very cute!) · A Place In The Sun $12.95 (birds sitting on weather vane?) · Around The Home $12.95 (bird house) · Vine Ornament Display Die-Cast Metal Trunk w/Metal Wire Vine And Leaves Holds 4 Ornaments $9.95 National Club Ornaments Information – Are you entitled to a refund? In the August 2001 issue of this newsletter I reported that Hallmark was changing their procedures for ordering club ornaments to involve the local stores again instead of just ordering directly from Hallmark. So I was surprised to see the order form for this year’s ornaments just have instructions for ordering direct from Hallmark. I just figured that what I heard last year was incorrect so I just went ahead and ordered directly from Hallmark this year instead of going to Becky’s. By now, you’ve probably received the new order from Hallmark saying that you could order them from a local store instead of just directly from Hallmark. I was a little peeved at this since I’ve already ordered and received my ornaments and could have saved some $$$$ as well as giving some additional business to Becky’s. Thanks to discussions on the internet, I’ve found out that if you call Hallmark you can get a refund for the shipping charges, approximately $3 per ornament. Too bad Hallmark wasn’t big enough to include that information in the new order form they sent or even automatically send us a refund! Ty News Retirements: 6/11/02 Serenity the dove 6/25/02 Beanie Babies: Giganto, Tracks, Frolic and Mum Beanie Buddies - Cinder Attic Treasures - Dad Beanie Kids - Precious Introductions: 6/9/02 Soar the eagle - Ty Store online exclusive. Has red, white and blue wings. - It’s out of here! Ty retired it on 6/14! There was a trade show in Dallas the weekend of June 22nd and here are some of the new things that were seen at the Ty booth: Punkies have long hair about 2" and each hair seems to be spaced far apart. Splash the Duck, Hopscotch the Frog, Frizzy the Bear, Rainbow the Bear, Twizzles the Bear, Zig-Zag the Monkey, Shreds the Dog Beanies: Gizmo the Gremlin, Harry the Bear, Sampson the Dog, Bam-A-Ram, Bandito the Raccoon, Teddy the 100th Anniversary, August Birthday Bear (New Version) Beanie Buddies: Poofie the Dog, Diddley the Fantasy, Knuckles the Pig, Startlett the Cat, Huggy the Bear, Classy the People’s Bear Beanie Boppers: Happy Hanna, Silly Sara, Precious Penny Pluffies: Links the ?, Pink Pink the ?, Blueberry the Bear, Grins the Frog, Puddles the Duck ,Plopper the Dog, Cloud the Bear Ty Classic: Kitty the Cat, O’Mally the Cat, Beasley the Dog, Cody the Dog, Mugsy the Dog, Teensy the Elephant, Kivu the Zebra, Forest the Black Bear, Java the Teddy Bear, Lacey the Teddy Bear, Teddybearsary the 100th Anniversary Bear 6/28/02 Here’s pictures of the current Ty products including the newbies: click here Crayola Company Unwraps New Toy That Lets Kids Make Their Own Crayons Asks America to Help Them `Dub the Nub!' Tuesday June 4 Press Release NEW YORK, June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Ever wonder what to do with the hundreds of Crayola crayons your kids have worn down into tiny wax bits? The Crayola company has come up with a colorful solution (of course) that lets kids melt down their well-used burnt sienna bits, periwinkle pieces or any color beyond the built-in sharpener and turn them into brand new crayons. Kids at the international flagship store Toys "R" Us Times Square in New York City today were the first to make their own magentas, wild watermelons and any other colors they could dream up using the new Crayola Crayon Maker. The tabletop crayon factory gives new life to the hundreds of castaway crayons enthusiastic colorers have accumulated, yet don't want to part with. "A child will wear down about 730 crayons by his or her 10th birthday," says Stacy Gabrielle, Crayola spokesperson. "Parents were looking for something to do with all the little crayon nubs their children stockpile." Kids can create new crayons in their favorite colors and invent totally new shades by melting together different colored wax bits to make multi- colored crayons. That means they can also create colorful names to accompany Crayola favorites like brick red and sky blue. "Kids love crayons and the open-ended, imaginative play they inspire. The Crayon Maker adds a whole new dimension to that creative experience," says Chris Byrne, contributing editor of Toy Wishes magazine, and also known as The Toy Guy. Now that there's a solution for what to do with all those waxy bits and pieces, the maker of Crayola crayons needs a name for those little nubs of color and is asking America to help them "Dub the Nub." At Crayola.com, you can nominate and vote for your favorite names, and also find some crayon making "recipes." Crayola will announce the winning name in October. The Crayola Crayon Maker sells for about $29.99, and is currently available at Toys "R" Us stores nationwide and all other mass merchandisers in July. Toys "R" Us, one of the world's leading retailers of toys, children's apparel and baby products, currently sells merchandise through 1,608 stores worldwide: 700 toy stores in the United States, 512 international toy stores, including franchise stores; 183 Kids "R" Us children's clothing stores; 170 Babies "R" Us stores; and 43 Imaginarium stores, and through its Internet sites at www.toysrus.com, www.babiesrus.com, and www.imaginarium.com. SOURCE: Binney & Smith, Inc. Crayola Opens First Retail Store By BRIAN WITTE, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 20, 5:50 PM ET HANOVER, Md. (AP) - Crabby Red? Aquarium Aqua? After 99 years of making crayons, the maker of Crayola crayons has picked Maryland for its first retail store and is commemorating the event with limited edition colors. The 16 colors — eight named with Maryland themes and eight named for Washington landmarks, including "Monument Gray" — were to be available at a grand opening of Crayola Works set for Friday. "I'm staring at everything, and a lot of things are out that I didn't realize Crayola made," said Karen Smith, 34, as her 6-year-old daughter, Kassi, scribbled with a washable marker. That's one of the main reasons Crayola maker Binney & Smith built the store: to showcase a variety of products besides crayons, said Nancy DeBellis, director of retail development for the Easton, Pa.-based company. One of them is a Silly Putty head machine, named for the pliable cement gray toy. Customers can look into a screen and twist their faces up into contorted caricatures. In another part of the colorful, light-filled store, children can make short stop-action animated films out of clay figures. There are also interactive computer games and different craft kits — some to take home, some to put together in the store's table-filled studio. A "River of Color" trail leads shoppers by different attractions under a shower of lights. Binney & Smith officials had thought before about opening a store, so when it received a proposal to put the store in the Arundel Mills Mall from mall owner Mills Corp., the timing was right and they decided to pursue it, DeBellis said. While there are no immediate plans to build stores elsewhere, DeBellis said the company isn't ruling them out. New Crayola store is 'learning lab' By JENNIFER MANN The Kansas City Star Posted on Tue, Jun. 25, 2002 Hallmark Cards Inc.'s Binney & Smith division has opened a store in suburban Baltimore,
three years after the crayon subsidiary opened the Crayola Store and
Crayola Cafe at Hallmark's Crown Center complex. But the two are markedly different, said Crayola spokeswoman Stacy
Gabrielle. The Crayola Works store was described by one Crown Center official
as a hybrid of the Crayola Store and Kaleidoscope, the hands-on arts
and crafts center at Hallmark's corporate headquarters. The store is part of Hallmark's "think big, test small"
strategy, CEO Donald J. Hall Jr. said recently. If the idea doesn't take off, Hall said, that's OK. But if it does,
Hallmark wants to move on it quickly. "The store is an environment that celebrates the attributes of
the Binney & Smith brand," Hall said. "We think when you get
kids and parents together in a creative environment, wonderful things happen,
and we think our products are very central to that expression and
creativity." Gabrielle said there was no other store like the 20,000-square-foot
Crayola Works, which is three times the size of the store at Crown Center. "It has lots of hands-on activity with its own art studio,"
Gabrielle said. Children there can paint keepsake boxes or decorate flying
disks, and "products will change with the seasons and holidays to keep
fresh products coming in all the time," she said. Gabrielle said customers coming to the store would see products they
had never seen before, such as crayons that don't need to be sharpened and
pens called Spider Writers that create designs resembling spider webs. Also, there's a Volkswagen Beetle in the middle of the store that kids
can decorate. Gabrielle said the target age group for the store was 2 to 12. She
said children stop drawing and coloring at about age 8, and to keep older
kids interested the store will continually introduce new products. "We see Crayola Works as a learning lab," Gabrielle said.
"We're going to be testing new products to see what's working with
consumers and will be trying out new concepts and ideas." She added that the studio could be reserved for birthdays and other
events and that the store would offer art courses throughout the year, many
of them three- and four-week courses. Unlike the store at Crown Center, the store in Baltimore doesn't have
a Crayola Cafe, but it does have a small snack area serving coffee, tea,
juices and healthy snacks for children. Gabrielle said Binney & Smith would monitor the store and study
customer feedback. "Right now, we're just looking at this one store," she said. Good-natured
ribbing is a mainstay for Father's Day OK, what's the deal with Father's Day cards? Certainly you've noticed it. Scamper to the store for a Mother's Day
card and you can spend hours reading about Mom as saint, loving martyr, sage
and guiding light. But Dad? Doink! Never in your life have you bought a Mother's Day card depicting Mom
as an indolent, inept, screeching Harpy. But card after card paints Dad as a
lazy, bumbling, fast-food scarfing, golf-playing goofball with his finger on
the remote and carcass laid out in a hammock. Unless, that is, he is
supposedly engaged in one of the following activities, depicted in countless
greeting card images: • Not mowing the lawn. • Bungling a fix-it job. • Burning dinner, unless it's being grilled.
Give a dad a chef hat and tongs and he becomes a grinning idiot. • Hunting ducks. Looking at ducks. Feeding
ducks. Collecting duck decoys. It's hard to know. But on Father's Day, dads
apparently need to see a duck. • Fishing, sailing or contemplating
lighthouses. Probably has something to do with those ducks. Thing is, the greeting card companies don't deny this. Hardly. Both
Hallmark Cards Inc. and Cleveland-based American Greetings Corp. -- which
together account for more than 90 percent of greeting card sales -- concede
that, yes, depicting Dad as an all-thumbs clod or a good-hearted lazybones is
a mainstay of their Father's Day humor lines. Sure, they know that in real life dads are complex, inspirational and
frequently laudable creatures. They know many dads cook and clean. They know that when dads are not
actually working hard or fixing things correctly, many care for their homes
and kids as well as, or even better than, Mom. This truth, they say, has been
reflected more and more in their cards since the 1980s. In fact, of the 1,600 cards in Hallmark's Father's Day catalog and the
1,500 in American Greetings', the majority are touching rather than ribbing. This year, in keeping with the tragedy of Sept. 11, several Father's
Day cards talk of dads as heroes. One line of Hallmark Father's Day cards,
designed specifically for daughters to speak to their dads, is filled with
deep, affecting sentiment. But...there's also this: Cards that depict Dad as a brainless, inert, pair of thumbs still sell
big. "I know that it seems like Hallmark is determining this,"
said Hallmark spokeswoman Rachel Bolton, "but that is not the case. We
do massive amounts of research all the time: focus groups, diaries, sales
analysis. We pre-test all our cards. "The reason you see so many of those cards is that people choose
them. They want them." At Mother's Day, American Greetings spokeswoman Laurie Henrichsen
said, humor cards "don't do as well." But for Dad, they work. "We just like making fun of Dad more than we like making fun of
Mom. We're more comfortable with that," Henrichsen said. The card companies have divined several reasons. First, Bolton said, for women, cutting humor is frequently taken as
critical, but for dads, and men in general, it is regarded as a safe and
acceptable form of intimacy, particularly for male-to-male communication,
sons talking to their fathers. Bolton also said that to many children, Dad is the power figure. He is
bigger than the kids. "He wields the heavy hand," she said. Using humor cards to paint Dad as blundering nincompoop works in an
ironical way. The child knows that Dad really isn't as lazy or incompetent as
the card shows. Turn about is fair play. The humor card is a backhanded way of
acknowledging Dad's actual power. It also allows the sender the pleasure of a
small dig. Then again, in some families, Dad is the big joker. As Bolton
said, "he's the one who giggles in church." Sometimes the cards
might just be recognizing reality. "For example, if the card jokes about Dad's plaid shorts,"
said John Dill, manager of Hallmark's Humor Writing Studio, "it's
because the family had already joked about it....The laughter is with Dad,
not at him. Shared humor is a way many people communicate deeper feelings and
understandings." Truth just might be that Dad is the lazy one who can't cook. He may be
the one who would rather not mow the lawn. Maybe he actually does live to
golf or to nap or to remain permanently affixed to the TV remote. In such cases, well, Happy Father's Day, the truth is its own defense. Though, hmmm, that still doesn't explain those ducks. Crown Media denies report
that Hallmark may sell stake in company Crown Media Inc., the cable network two-thirds owned by Hallmark Cards
Inc., on Friday denied that Hallmark was in talks to sell all or part of its
stake. The report surfaced in a story in The Wall Street Journal, but
Crown Media spokeswoman Karen Pisciotta said Friday: "The business is
not for sale. Hallmark sees Crown Media as a valuable and strategic
asset." Two media analysts said that it was extremely unlikely that Hallmark
would sell its stake in Crown Media, but that taking on a strategic partner
such as Disney or Viacom would be a logical move. Pisciotta said that Crown Media, as a publicly owned company, has
"an obligation to talk to people about strategic alliances and to
consider offers for its business, but there is nothing specific, and to
address anything would be completely speculative." At Hallmark, spokeswoman Julie O'Dell said: "As is our policy, we
don't comment on speculation." It would hardly make sense for Hallmark to want to sell its stake in
Crown Media after the cable company last year spent a substantial amount of
money to relaunch its Odyssey Channel as the Hallmark Channel. Also casting doubt on the rumor is that Hallmark is extremely
protective of its name, one of the most recognized and highly thought of
brand names in the world, and thus would not relinquish control of the
Hallmark Channel. Additionally, last week Hallmark chief executive officer Donald J.
Hall Jr. talked to The Kansas City Star about the importance of the
Hallmark Channel to the company's future and how Crown Media was focused on
providing content consistent with the Hallmark brand. The Hallmark Channel is now in 45 million of the 105 million U.S.
households with television. "The mission we have is of enriching lives, and we're much more
clear with what we want to do with that channel, and have put in place brand
standards," Hall said. "We're invited into people's living rooms,
where we can interact with them. We want to be more of a presence in their
lives." David Lee Smith, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in Austin, Texas,
said the possibility of Hallmark seeking a strategic partner for Crown Media
made sense, "but the possibility of Hallmark selling their entire stake
is remote at best." Strategic partners that would make sense for Crown Media, Smith said,
include Disney, Viacom or the Discovery Channel, "someone that would
give them more clout with distributors and advertisers." Smith said that although neither he nor his firm owned Crown Media
stock, they had done business together in the recent past. Andrew Rittenberry, an analyst with Gabelli & Co. in Rye, N.Y.,
agreed with Smith that there was little or no possibility that Hallmark would
sell its stake in Crown Media. Rittenberry also agreed that it made sense for Crown Media to seek a
strategic partner. Both Rittenberry and his firm own Crown Media stock. "They're plugging away and hitting the numbers they laid out for
everyone, particularly on the domestic side," Rittenberry said. "On
the international side, I think it's a little tougher to get that business up
to snuff in terms of selling advertising." If a company such as Viacom -- which has 20 cable networks, half of
which are international -- takes a stake in Crown Media, it could layer the
operations of the Hallmark Channel on top of its existing sales and
distribution network. "That would allow Crown Media to quickly trim a lot of
overhead," Rittenberry said. Crown Media's stock, which went public last year at $14 a share and
peaked at $18.66, closed Friday at $8.14 a share, up 44 cents. It finished
the day with a market capitalization of $849.3 million, making Hallmark's
stake worth $569 million. Rittenberry said there were many factors weighing on the stock,
including widening losses -- $230 million in 2001, up from $116 million in
2000 -- an extremely soft advertising market, and the fact that Crown Media
was cash flow negative. Also, large institutions are reluctant to take a position in a stock
such as Crown Media because it's so thinly traded that it's difficult to get
in and out of the stock. "It's a growth story where you have to look out to 2003, 2004,
2005 to see them start to make money, and in this type of market, investors
don't like that," Rittenberry said. "In a market like this, they
want a cash-generating business that's incredibly safe." eBay claims software cheats the cheaters Thu Jun 6, 3:00 PM ET Rachel Konrad, Staff Writer, News.com SAN JOSE, Calif.--eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman told shareholders at the company's annual meeting here Wednesday that new software was helping the popular auction site make "major strides" in reducing fraud. The company began testing an internally developed application called the Fraud Automated Detection Engine (FADE) about six months ago, and it has been live for roughly two months. The software collects data from defrauded customers, tracks it in a central database, and then predicts which new sellers are likely to be illegitimate. eBay executives would not say how many potentially fraudulent sales it has halted. But Whitman said the technology has already helped eBay reduce its fraudulent sales rate, which she said is at less than one-tenth of 1 percent. Whitman said the software's ability to spot criminals will get better as the database of fraudulent sales grows. Whitman joked that a "low-cost computer reseller with a home domicile of Romania" would likely raise red flags. eBay's fraud detectors at the company's headquarters here could then monitor the seller, tip off police or the post office, and ultimately save consumers money and annoyance. eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove emphasized that FADE would not automatically bar sellers based exclusively on their geography, merchandise category or other demographic information. "We know we've got to be careful," Pursglove said after the 45-minute shareholder meeting at the Silicon Valley Conference Center. "We wouldn't get into redlining or Zip code tracking or anything like that. The reality is that everyone starts at zero, with a clean record." eBay tightly guards data about fraud and doesn't disclose lists of hot spots for fraudulent sales, Pursglove said. He also noted that, by some measurements, fraudulent sales on eBay are less than one one-hundredth of 1 percent--lower than the figure given by Whitman in her speech. But given the fact that eBay has 9 million items for sale on any given day and will likely process $13 billion in gross merchandise sales in 2002, small percentages could add up to thousands of dollars wasted on hundreds of fraudulent transactions each day. The company has been working hard to clean up fraud, forging closer ties with police officials, the U.S. Postal Service, international delivery services and authorities abroad. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a disproportionate percentage of fraud happens from sales that originate from sellers in Eastern Europe. Pursglove also said that higher-priced items, such as computers and other electronics goods, have a higher rate of fraud than collectibles such as Pez dispensers and Beanie Babies. Technology products, ranging from Sun Microsystems servers to Dell Computer laptops and a variety of smaller electronic gadgets, constitute the largest category of goods sold on eBay. Sports memorabilia is also a relative hotbed of fraud, usually in the form of inauthentic items being sold as genuine. eBay users in San Diego filed a class-action suit against the company in April 2000, alleging eBay was negligent in allowing forged sports memorabilia into auctions and allowing sellers who did not have a "certificate of authenticity," which is required in California. In January 2001, a judge ruled that eBay was immune to the requirement, but the members have appealed the decision. "Sports memorabilia has had a lot of fraudulent activity for years," Pursglove said. "You can see that it just migrated from the offline world to the online world with eBay." The fraud issue was also on shareholders' minds Wednesday. One of the few shareholders to ask a question during the open microphone session was an investor and buyer, who claimed he had a "bad experience" trying to buy an item from a seller several states away. In other news from the meeting, eBay shareholders approved the appointment of directors Scott Cook and Robert Kagle. Cook has served on eBay's board since 1998 and is the founder of software maker Intuit. Kagle has served on eBay's board since 1997. Both were approved to serve until 2005. Shareholders also approved changes to 1999 and 2001 equity incentive plans and ratified PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's auditor for fiscal 2002. eBay kicked off the morning meeting with 13 minutes of official motions, followed by a half-hour presentation and brief question-and-answer session with Whitman. But the sparsely attended event, which featured a plate of small bagels and two trays of fresh fruit,may get more heft next year. When one shareholder inquired as to why only 40 shareholders attended the event--about half that of last year's annual meeting--Whitman said the company may boost the conference's profile next June. Whitmansaid she was impressed with the recent shareholder meeting of Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee, which attracted hundreds of investors and invited them to sample new java blends, socialize and learn more aboutthe company's business plan and products. eBay is hosting a larger event for eBay users--shareholders as well as buyers and sellers and others interested in joining the 40-million-member eBay community, in Anaheim, Calif., June 21-23. Depending on the success of eBay Live, Whitman said, she may decide to make the next shareholder meeting "more of an event." New Jersey collector
gathers rare quartet of Bibles, keeps them at Princeton library Mon Jun 10,10:58 AM ET PRINCETON, New Jersey - Copies of the first four printed editions of the Bible have come under the ownership of a single collector for the first time in more than 150 years. The collector, 88-year-old William Hurd Scheide, completed his collection of the four rare books last year after buying the Mentelin Bible, printed by Johann Mentelin in 1460 in Strasbourg, now part of France, for seven figures. Though word of the acquisition has been trickling through the antiquarian book world since the purchase, the deal became widely known after a May 31 public presentation of the Bibles at Princeton University during the school's Reunion Weekend. The Mentelin Bible joins a Gutenberg, the first major Western book printed from movable type, in 1455 in Mainz; a copy of what is known as the 36-Line Bible, printed in Bamberg in 1461, possibly by Albrecht Pfister; and "The 1462 Bible," also printed in Mainz, by Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer. Mainz and Bamberg are now in Germany. Because the Bibles were printed in roughly the same period in the same region, they constitute a distinct group for scholars. "It's phenomenal," Peter E. Hanff, deputy director of the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley, told The New York Times. "To bring together those four monumental records of Western culture in a single place, and in the New World, is of international significance." Scheide keeps the Bibles at the school's Scheide Library, named after his family. All the books in the library are available for study by scholars. Scheide was asked how much he paid for the Bible. "I won't tell you!" he shouted, the paper said Monday. The Scheide librarian, Paul Needham, said the price was "in the seven figures." Scheide is a third generation collector, and his father, John, started the Bible collection. Copies of the four Bibles have not been exhibited together for more than a century. Another collection of the four Bibles is in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Two other collections are in the state library in Stuttgart and in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Only two other individuals, King George III of England and the second Earl Spencer, great-great-great-grandfather of Princess Diana, have ever owned copies of all four of the Bibles. 'Barbie Lady' enjoys a second childhood with doll collection Monday, June 24, 2002 By Carrie Wolfe Staff writer A sign above her doll room door that reads, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood," almost says it all. Almost, because Belinda Bylina actually did have a happy childhood. Growing up in Chicago, she had plenty of dolls and toys. But somewhere between then and now, Barbie became her passion and "The Barbie Lady" became her nickname. "I'm still a kid at heart, even though I'm 48," she said, standing in the "spare" bedroom of her Bridgeview home that has slowly evolved into a Barbie doll wonderland. Collecting Barbies, it seems, lets her preserve the whimsy and magic and fun of childhood. A lot of fun. Bylina has 400 Barbies — including Bowling Champ Barbie, Magical Mermaids Barbie, Barbie for President and the recently released JELL-O Fun Barbie — and assorted doll memorabilia. She has Barbies dressed in clothes from each decade starting with 1910 through the 1970s, including the doll in a flapper dress, a poodle skirt and hippie garb. She has the entire Barbie (and Ken) Harley Davidson series, including one with Barbie in a black leather jacket and chaps reportedly worth $500. "I have everything except the hog," she said. In her doll room, Barbies are stacked precariously from floor to ceiling and packed into storage cabinets and under tables. "You could spend a whole day up here," she said, tip-toeing around boxes to get to dolls, knocking over some like dominoes. "I spend so much time up here because every time you look at (a Barbie), you see something different." She has most of the Dolls of the World series, including Russian, Parisian, Native American and Arctic Barbie. She also owns the rare Masquerade Series, including Rendezvous Barbie in a contemporary black satin and brightly colored gown. "They take your breath away sometimes," she said of her Barbie series that celebrates artist Claude Monet's renowned "Water Lilies" painting and Vincent Van Gogh's famous "Sunflowers" painting. Bylina's career series Barbies feature the doll as a paleontologist, a veterinarian, a doctor, a dentist, a teacher, a firefighter and a police officer. She also has the flower collection, in which Barbie looks more sophisticated with heavier makeup, bigger jewelry and elaborate, colorful dresses in the form of a cala lily, a rose, an orchid and an iris. Her Birds of Beauty Collection includes Barbie in swan, peacock and flamingo dresses. "These are my jewels," she said. Bylina's love of the thin, blond (and brunette and read-headed) bombshell began in earnest in 1989 after attending a doll show at the Kane County Fairgrounds with her daughter, Leanne. While she says it's hard to explain why Barbie strikes a chord with her, it's clear that the doll has won her heart. "Do you see all the differences in their faces?" she said, pointing out subtleties of the dolls' makeup, hairdos and clothing. "That's what makes them so interesting to collect." Barbie first hit store shelves in 1959. In the doll's early days, it was common to see her as prim-and-proper Suburban Shopper Barbie with a "bubble" haircut, a sun dress and a wide-brimmed hat, Bylina said. Bylina has lived in Bridgeview for 18 years and is the children's librarian at Palos Park Public Library. She's given presentations on the doll in Justice and Bridgeview. She buys most of her dolls through doll shows, on the Web and at toy stores. "I have a wonderful friend who works at Toys 'R' Us," she said. While she estimates her collection is worth at least $10,000 — and is insured — she has a few duds, such as Talk With Me Barbie, which came with a CD-ROM. Her husband, Bob, paid $69.95 for it, she said. The most she's ever paid for a Barbie is about $125 — which, she said, isn't always easy. While she has Millennium Wedding Barbie, she couldn't justify spending $500 on Millennium Barbie. "That one, I had to pass (up)," she said. "I hated to, but I did." Bylina subscribes to the Barbie Bazaar magazine and is in two Barbie collectors clubs, including Windy City Collector Club. She also chats about the doll on the Web with six other collectors, one of whom lives in Hong Kong. And as if owning 400 Barbies wasn't enough, she also collects salt an pepper shakers, has 130 shot glasses from all over the country and owns about 100 Beanie Babies. She laughs when questioned about having a collector's addiction. "No, I don't know," she said. "It's just things I enjoy doing." Meanwhile, Bylina's husband takes his wife's collections in stride. He's even been involved in some shopping trips and scouting for certain Barbies. "It's definitely part of the family, that's for sure," he said. "Real men buy Barbies, that's right." Bylina currently is looking for a new release, Barbie Art Teacher, and said there is one noticeably absent from her collection. "I've written to Mattel and asked them to make Barbie librarian," she said. "I thought a librarian would be very cute." It looks like there's no end in sight to the fun she's having — and her second childhood. "Now I'm getting into Kelly," she said with a grin. "You know, Barbie's little sister?" |
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