Full Tilt Poker Merchandise Up for Auction
Those of you who have been living under a very big rock since April 2011 may not know about the demise and resurrection of the former giant of online poker, Full Tilt. The rest of you will probably remember the large number of players stranded without their funds while legal processes between the old owners, the new owners (PokerStars) and the US DoJ were resolved. Now, we are seeing the other side of that coin, and the company that provided the Full Tilt Poker merchandise appears to be about to get something back something from its stockpile of goods.
The stockpile of merchandise left behind is quoted as being worth $3.5 million, which is probably more than enough capital tied up to sink the majority of companies, let alone one already hurt by the actions of Full Tilt pre-Black Friday. The stockpile of merchandise will be auctioned on the 2nd of August this year, and is being offered by J. Sugarman Auction Corp. While it is possible to bid online, it seems most interested parties will be at the live auction in San Dimas, CA.
One of the Lists of Full Tilt Merchandise up for Auction
Up for grabs are Full Tilt-branded merchandise, including baseball caps, t-shirts, mouse mats, chip sets, and other various goods all bearing the Full Tilt Poker logo. As the new owners of Full Tilt are in the process of migrating Full Tilt Poker to Full Tilt Gaming, this may be the last chance for players to get hold of merchandise bearing this iconic logo. As well as the dedicated Full Tilt branded goods, there are also poker DVDs and books up for auction. Given how fast poker moves, most of these books are going to be showing their age, but there are probably enough gems of wisdom left in these publications to let them keep some value.
What isn’t clear is who these goods are being auctioned for. The original company contracted (I assume, but paper contracts appear to have been thin on the ground at Full Tilt 1.0) to provide the merchandise for the Full Tilt points store was owned and operated by a relative of Howard Lederer. Back in September 2011, during the height of the Full Tilt Black Friday fallout, Quadjacks discovered the company, Eyecon Marketing Group, was the one providing this service. It was owned and operated by a cousin of Howard Lederer, Scott Lederer. The company was not a manufacturer, but was effectively a middleman, arranging for branded goods to be produced and shipping these goods to Full Tilt players around the globe. The original article has been lost in one of the many re-designs of the Quadjacks website, but we have found another article reporting on that original here.
If this is Eyecon finally liquidating their assets, it does seem they’ve taken their time. It could be that the stock was sold to a third party, or that Eyecon had to file for bankruptcy following the loss of their biggest client. During my research for this article, I discovered that Eyecon Marketing Group was/is a privately owned company, making it a lot harder to find out anything about its current state.
J. Sugarman Auction Corp. is Running the Auction
Regardless of who the sale benefits, the one thing I am pretty sure about is that we are going to be seeing a glut of future online actions trying to sell us various Full Tilt Poker branded merchandise. The thing is, who is really going to want to be reminded of a failed company that effectively stole from players in order to keep its head above water? I’ll keep the arguments about whether it was corruption or incompetence for another day, but with US players only just having received their Full Tilt balances within the past few weeks, it seems a little much to expect those who recognise the brand to want to buy a memento of such a bad time in their lives.
Saying that, the 2+2 thread on this had more than one poster asking about the Full Tilt bathrobes. Seems a comfortable bathrobe is able to soothe away the pain of Black Friday. I know of more than one US-based player that might want to get one if that’s the case.
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