KISS Teams With Butterfields and Greg Manning Auctions, Inc. to Auction Classic Costumes, Instruments and Photos

WEST CALDWELL, N.J., May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The member of KISS have teamed with Butterfields Auctioneers (an eBay company, (Nasdaq: EBAY - news)) and Greg Manning Auctions, Inc. (Nasdaq: GMAI - news), to cap off their triumphant sold-out farewell tour by auctioning many of the band's stage-played instruments, original costumes, memorabilia and personally-owned items used since its 1972 inception.

As befits the precedent-setting ``KISS The Auction,'' taking place live on Saturday and Sunday June 24-25 in Los Angeles at Paramount Studios' Theater with real-time Internet bidding, the auction marks the first time a rock band has joined forces with major auctioneers to create worldwide opportunity for fans to own a piece of rock history.

The auction is jointly sponsored by Butterfields Auctioneers, Greg Manning Auctions, Inc., Kiss Catalog, Ltd., and KISS founding members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.

This multi-million dollar sale will comprise nearly 1,000 lots and highlights of the memorabilia will tour for public review in May:

NY/NJ at Greg Manning's in West Caldwell, N.J. May 5-7;

Chicago at Butterfields' River North Gallery May 12-14;

San Francisco at Butterfields May 19-21.

The entire sale will be previewed in Los Angeles at Butterfields' Sunset Blvd. Gallery June 16-18.

Greg Manning, Chairman and CEO of Greg Manning Auctions, Inc., the auction's co-sponsor said, ``We are pursuing a global Internet strategy and are developing web sites in Asia and Europe in addition to the U.S. This will be a great auction because the KISS offerings will be attractive not only to our U.S. customers, but to our worldwide clientele, and will highlight our advanced e-commerce capabilities.''

``Kiss is not just a hit rock group -- they're a phenomenon,'' says Patrick Meade, president of Butterfields, one of the auction's co-sponsors. ``While that alone should make this a great auction, what is unique about KISS is their costumes and stage shows. The group is renowned for the very items that we'll be presenting in our auction.''

The response from fans to KISS' farewell tour has been staggering. Paul Stanley says, ``Rather than just have us going off into the sunset -- only to have people realize we're gone in a few years -- we felt it was important to go out one last time and celebrate it all.''

The illustrated catalog can be viewed online at www.butterfields.com/KISS or at www.gregmanning.com . The full-color catalogs with lot-by-lot descriptions of the property to be offered to the highest bidders can be purchased at any of the Greg Manning or Butterfields galleries as well as online and by telephone.

Statements in this press release that relate to future plans, objectives, expectations, performance, events and the like are ``forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Future events, risks and uncertainties, individually or in the aggregate, could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Those factors include the parties' abilities to develop, implement, integrate, and launch the services and offerings described herein, and other factors discussed in the ``forward-looking information'' or ``risk factors'' sections included in the companies' prospectuses, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and annual reports on Form 10-K.