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Gold/Mining/Energy : GTR GROUP INC. (formerly Games Trader) TSE:GTR, AMEX:GIG -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dettmer who wrote (120)	10/28/1999 10:27:00 AM
From: mr. ed	Respond to of 290

Bid.Com International to Offer New and Used Video Games for Sale Through its Web Site GTR Group Inc., a leading supplier of previously played and republished video games and video game accessories, today announced that it has signed an e-commerce partnership agreement with Bid.Com.International (Nasdaq: BIDS, TSE: BII) to market value-priced video games on Bid.Com's web site. GTR's ZapYou.com Internet division will manage Bid.Com's Game Store, using ZapYou.com's new turnkey vendor managed Internet program and its proprietary games database. ZapYou.com will administer title selection, order processing and order fulfillment of all video game products, lowering Bid.com's capital and inventory costs. ''Peter Kozicz, President and CEO of GTR stated, ''We are pleased to be able to partner with Bid.Com and look forward to benefiting from their established site traffic to expand the distribution of our video games and accessories. This will serve to broaden Bid.Com's product line while offering their customers attractive prices, selection and customer service''. ''The video game marketplace is red-hot and we are excited to partner with a leading supplier such as GTR,'' added Jeff Lymburner, President and CEO of Bid.Com International Inc. ''Our customers will be able to access over 1,600 of the most popular video game titles from Nintendo, Sony and Sega directly from the Bid.Com website. The addition of popular, value-priced video games is expected to provide incremental sales to the Company without any investment in technology or inventory.'' About GTR Group Inc. GTR Group Inc. is a diversified interactive entertainment company located in Brampton, Ontario. GTR's product lines include previously played and republished video games for Nintendo, Sega and Sony game systems which are marketed to mass merchants and specialty retailers in North America under the Games Trader brand and a full range of video game accessories for video game consoles and PC gaming systems which are marketed under the Mad Catz brand. GTR Group recently established its ZapYou.com Internet division to partner with existing electronic retailers in selling interactive entertainment products over the Internet. About Bid.Com International Inc. Bid.Com, founded in 1995, is one of e-commerce's leading online technology driven sales and marketing organizations, with offices in Toronto, Ontario, Tampa, Florida and Dublin, Ireland. The company offers a compelling, entertaining and cost-effective method of selling a wide array of goods and services over electronic distribution channels. Bid.Com is strategically positioned to leverage its business-to-consumer technological leadership by offering the pre-eminent online auction platform for co-ventures into business-to-business markets, licensing custom branded e-commerce solutions and for distribution through broadband/cable media. In addition to strategic alliances with NBC through ValueVision Interactive, America Online and Rogers New Media, the company has recently announced an alliance with SCS Solars offering discounted travel products to the growing business-to-business market and a joint venture with Point2 Internet Systems providing e-commerce technology and online auction capabilities for the used heavy equipment market. The company's shares trade on both the Nasdaq National Market and the Toronto Stock Exchange. This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are market and general economic conditions and the risk factors detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Contact: GTR Group Inc Peter Kozicz, 905/799-4700 ext 229 or ZapYou.com Steve Reed, 905/799-4700 ext 248 or Bid.Com Greg Bewsh, 905/672-7467 ext. 322 905/672-9928 (FAX) Email: investorrelations@bid.com or FRB for Bid.Com Alison Ziegler - General Info. Barbara Manley - Analyst Info. Claudine Cornelis - Media Info. 212/661-8030

To: Dettmer who wrote (120)	10/28/1999 2:48:00 PM
From: Professor Dotcomm	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 290

"Accessories for video games" I have done a bit of digging here. It seems that accessories last year had sales in the U.S. alone of about $650M and four companies had 94% of this. These were your InterAct (38%), Sony (26%), Nintendo (20%) and MadCatz (10%). Articles that I have read suggest that with the Dreamcast launch 1999 sales could be close to $800M. The remaining 6% is shared by many small private companies. You are right. InterAct's parent is struggling and it is going to relocate InterAct to the West Coast. NRs on RCOT, the parent, are cagey as to why it got into trouble. Don't be surprised if one of these majors - or even Sega - snapped InterArt up. Over in Europe information is even harder to get hold of. The market leader had sales last year of about $15M (mainly joysticks) and it is a wholly owned French subsidiary of TTWO of New York. My feeling is that consolidation prospects could be more attractive over there - especially as there have been some good video game hits in England and France. My own hunch 4WIW is that both RCOT and MWY (originally arcades but now strong in Dreamcast games)will both disappear as public companies within 6 months. BTW, according to trade contacts, MadCatz's main claim to fame is in the very high quality of its products. Both Sony and Nintendo have much better margins on accessories than on their consoles where margins are wafer thin. The market itself is a higher margin area and less prone to the ups and downs of a front line video game.