News from the Underground

(So, that was my Lion King reference)

There’s a bunch of news relating to the hobby that has come out the last two days. In case you have missed any of it, here’s recap:

– According to a few different sites such as this one and this one, the lawsuit brought by Konami against Upper Deck could be settled out of court after the first day of trial.

Then, this one says its already done. Either way, seems as though UD owes Konami a lot of dough. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but when UD starts putting out cards drawn by their kids, we can safely assume the end is near.

– eBay fees are changing. For high-end and mass quantity sellers, this doesn’t seem to be working in your favor. The little sellers are getting the benefit.

Starting March 30, sellers who list their minimum bid for under $1 (you know, the .99 cent types) won’t pay an insertion fee on the first 100 listings per month. Final value fees are going up to nine percent. Here’s eBay’s site on the news.

Good thing COMC moved to a bigger location.

– And, just in case you have been under a rock, UD is showing its hand a bit on how they will handle the 2010 products. Two 2009 products came out in the last two days with Ultimate and UD Signatures. While they are technically products, because they were released after the New Year, UD was supposed to follow the terms of the license agreement.

Well, so far, we have logos. But just hats.