One of the most interesting things about going to the Hawaii Trade Conference every year is coming back and looking at the prices of the giveaways. This year's conference in Ft. Lauderdale was no different. Virtually every event has card giveaways of some kind and attending the conference is the only way to get it. I've never seen anything leak out in quantity months after the conference is done.

Here were the highlights of this year's giveaways and some of the details.

Donruss Playoff: Distributed its famous black boxes at Meet the Industry. Each box has five printing plates used in 2006 Donruss Playoff football products so you have the chance to get Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, Vince Young, etc. These were selling for $200 right after the trip, but have settled at $150-$160 for now. They did the same thing last year before everyone realized how tough they were to find and then they shot up to well beyond $200 before completely disappearing. Another Donruss Playoff was a six-card set given away at registration, which includes JaMarcus Russell and Adrian Peterson among others. It's tough to find complete sets, but the Russell single has sold anywhere from a penny to $15.50. These aren't appearing in much quantity either so it'll probably be Russell and Peterson's rarest rookie card for most of the season.

Upper Deck: Gave away a black box of its own at Meet the Industry, with a four-card pack that included one autograph. Since attendees opened the box as part of Upper Deck's Meet the Industry, I haven't seen a single sealed box appear on eBay, which is a tribute to limited these are. As far as sales, the Jordan autograph (numbered to 27) sells for close to $500. The LeBron autograph (numbered to 34) sells for $150, with Cal Ripken at $113, Akinori Iwamura at $110, Derek Jeter at $105 and Peyton Manning close to $100. Unsigned singles are also popular, with Sidney Crosby and Michael Jordan both selling at $20 or more consistently. Daisuke Matsuzaka is also available unsigned and sells for near $60.

Topps: Gave away a three-card pack of Allen & Ginter cards at an evening reception. The cards featured different Topps employees and could be exchanged for other Allen & Ginter cards, numbered to 25, during the week. These have been very popular, with Mickey Mantle selling for $154 and $150, Bruce Lee selling for $107, Ryan Howard for $79 and $56 and David Wright for $69 and $46. These have been incredibly rare to find on eBay so far.

Other rare singles, mostly 1-of-1s were given away at various events, usually the retailer roundtables for each company. There was a Bush Certified Mirror Blue that sold for $227; a 2001 Leaf Auto Jerome Bettis for $167; a Bush Topps Turkey Red Auto (numbered to 25) for $130; a 2001 Quantum Leaf Auto Fran Tarkenton for $100; a 2007 Bowman Chrome Alex Rodriguez Auto (numbered to 35) for $96; and a Leinart Topps Turkey Red Auto (numbered to 25) for $60.

Two observations should be very clear. First, collectors who didn't attend, but still want the cards are going to have to pay premium prices for them and supply is very limited. Second, it's pretty easy to see that just by going and attending most of the event...and with a little luck...a retailer can more than pay for the conference.