New York, NY July 16, 2001 The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB), is pleased to announce that Pacific Trading Cards, Inc. (Pacific) has agreed to modify the packaging for its retail trade "Value" boxes. The problem came to the attention of CARU through a consumer complaint, initiated by a 10-year-old boy from Massachusetts.

The boxes of 2000 Omega Baseball Rookies Major League Baseball Trading Cards depicted a large baseball enclosed in a diamond, with the word "Rookies" written large across the entire diamond. This depiction, which covered a major portion of the front of the package, was repeated several times on the sides of the packaging. In addition, the package repeatedly stated "SERIAL-NUMBERED ROOKIES" and "AUTHENTIC AUTOGRAPHS."

The complainant stated that her ten-year-old son, after seeing the box for this product, saved his money and then purchased a box of the cards for $29.99 in a Toys 'R' Us store. He believed he would be getting serial numbered rookie baseball cards with authentic autographs. Instead, when he got the box home, he discovered that it contained no autographed cards, and only one rookie card, which was not serial-numbered. CARU agreed that the packaging was misleading. When CARU brought this concern to Pacific's attention, the company agreed to modify the packaging by disclosing the ratio of all inserts on a per pack basis on the packaging of all retail trade boxes. In addition, with respect to the name of the product, the company confirmed that it would no longer offer for sale packages branded "Rookie" cards, such as the one sold in this case, which, in fact, are not entirely composed of Rookie cards.

CARU's inquiry was conducted under NAD/NARB/CARU Procedures for Voluntary Self-Regulation of National Advertising. Details of the inquiry, CARU's decision and the advertiser's response will be included in the next NAD/CARU Case Report. Members of the press who wish to see a copy of the decision now should email CARU.