Collectors Universe Signs Distribution Agreement With Japanese Retailer.

Business Editors

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2000

Collectors Universe, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLCT; www.collectors.com) announced today that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with the Mint Company Limited, Tokyo, Japan for authentication and grading of sportscards. Under the agreement, Mint will accept sportcard submittals through its chain of retail stores in metropolitan Tokyo and transfer them to the Company's Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) division in California for authentication, grading and encapsulation. Following grading by PSA, the sprotscards will be returned to the Mint's customers in Japan.

Collectors Universe CEO, David Hall commented, "PSA is the dominant sportscard authentication and grading service in the United States and this agreement with the Mint Company opens up an entirely new market for us in Japan. The Japanese are very sports conscious and we expect the market for graded sportscards to develop rapidly as it has in this country. The Mint Company is a major sports retailer in Japan and we are delighted to be associated with such an impressive company. We believe there are additional opportunities for our two companies in the Japanese market and we will pursue these in tandem with our sportscard grading program."

About Collectors Universe.

Collectors Universe is the world's leading provider of grading and authentication services to the collectibles markets and one of the world's leading multi-market, multi-venue (Internet, telephone, and live) collectibles commerce providers. Collectors Universe grading and authentication services are an essential component of collectibles commerce and make sight-unseen collectibles e-commerce possible. Collectors Universe markets its online services through its own website (www.collectors.com) and co-branded sites with eBay (example: www.collectors.com/psa/ebay.) To date Collectors Universe has graded and authenticated 8.5 million coins, sportscards, stamps, and autographs with a total declared value of over $9 billion dollars. Collectors Universe market leading, dominant grading brands include PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) and PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator). Collectors Universe market leading, dominant collectibles commerce brands include Bowers and Merena (Coins), Lyn Knight Currency Auctions, and Good Rockin' Tonight (rare records). Collectors Universe auction companies hold numerous price records including; the highest total for a coin auction ($20,400,000), the highest price paid for a rare coin ($4,140,000), the highest total for a currency auction ($6,500,000), and the highest price paid for a record ($38,500). The Collectors Universe award winning websites currently have 543,000 unique visitors and over 7 million page views per month.

About PSA

Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) is the world's largest sportscard grading and authentication service, currently grading over 200,000 trading cards per month. PSA is the most widely accepted grading standard in the sportscard market. The company is the "Official Grading Service" of the National Sports Collectors Convention. PSA also maintains co-branded grading and authentication sites with eBay (www.collectors.com/PSAS/ebay) and other online commerce and content sites. PSA is a Collectors Universe company.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to: acceptance by the collectibles market, our company's limited operating history, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, competition, a possible decline in the popularity and realized selling prices of some high-end collectibles, the limited availability of high-end collectibles and the risk that Internet based e-commerce providers could make exclusive arrangements with our competitors or other service providers. Certain of these risks and uncertainties, in addition to other risks, are more fully described in our Prospectus dated November 4, 1999, which was part of our Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the company's Form 10-Q for the first, second, and third fiscal quarters ended October 2, 1999, January 1, 2000, and April 1, 2000, respectively.