License Magazine estimates that in 2003, sales of licensed products were flat over-all, but down in the character and entertainment categories,.

'Cyber-Stein,' a Yu-Gi-Oh! card first given away at GenCon SoCal a little over a week ago, has been listed on eBay; the most recent bid as of this writing is $25,300.

Upper Deck is planning a new program of launch events in hobby stores in 2005.

Upper Deck is continuing its steady flow of Marvel and DC CCG releases in 2005, with eight SKUs planned for the year.

Upper Deck is not slowing the release schedule for its top-selling Yu-Gi-Oh! CCG brand in 2005, totalling eleven SKUs. Upper Deck has now released info on releases through the end of the year, at least in outline.

The game market began a comeback in the third quarter after declines in most game categories in the first half of the year, ICv2 reports in the ICv2 Retailer Guide to Games #6.

Bates' topic this week is making money on the biggest characters there are.

Forbes has released its list of the top ten fictional characters (based on 2003 dollar revenues), and two anime properties and two Marvel properties are included in the list.

Upper Deck plans a robust schedule of releases for its two top-selling CCGs in early 2005.

Growing sales of manga are spread out over an increasing number of books,...