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A question many people are asking: are Pride collectibles going to be more valuable since the UFC acquired the brand? Whether additional value will be placed on Pride memorabilia that actually results from the new union probably remains to be seen. But there is almost no question that the newbie collector or new fan of mixed martial arts is going to become aware of Pride where he or she might not have before, and if that brings new participants into the hobby, that will invariably increase the market.
 
Certainly the memorabilia for Pride in its previous incarnation has value. One of the reasons is that in a way it is the principle that is applied to real estate, that is, they’re not making any more of it. What we mean is that Dream Stage Entertainment, which controlled Pride until the UFC bought the assets, is obviously not issuing any more of it because they signed away those rights. Pride is kind of unique in that it was a major MMA organization and exists no more. That can’t really be said about any other group in mixed martial arts.
 
Of course, it remains to be seen how the UFC itself will handle the production and packaging of that which will become Pride memorabilia. The brand still exists, under the auspices of the UFC, and so there would appear to be an effort to maximize all the value that brand has.
 
Pride had something of a consciousness of collectors’ items, and tailored some of its offerings in that direction. The UFC has not really been very strong in its interest in catering to the hobby in that regard although all signs point that is going to change in ‘08. Don’t forget also, in addion to PRIDE, there is a big Japanese market for the items, and should continue to be with groups like M-1, World Victory Road making headway in that market and with K-1 running as strong as ever, there will always be a huge market in Japanese MMA collectibles.