Press Release

Collectors Universe's Diamond Grading Division GCAL Adds Top Diamond Branding Consultant to Marketing Team

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Collectors Universe, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLCT), a leading provider of value-added authentication and grading services to dealers and collectors of high-value collectibles and diamonds, today announced that Diane Warga-Arias, a well- known diamond branding consultant, has joined Gem Certification & Appraisal Lab's (GCAL) as a consultant to its marketing team. Diane Warga-Arias currently works with the Diamond Promotion Service (DPS), a unit of ad agency JWT. JWT is the agency of record for the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), which is the sales and marketing arm of the De Beers Group. GCAL, a division of Collectors Universe, is based in New York's Diamond District and also now owns the Gemprint diamond identification and registration system. After completing the acquisition of GCAL and Gemprint, Michael Haynes, Collectors Universe's Chief Executive Officer, and Don Palmieri, GCAL's founder and President, asked Warga-Arias to bring her marketing and communications skills and her strategic business acumen to GCAL.

Diane Warga-Arias brings over 10 years of marketing consulting services in diamond branding. She continues to consult with DPS where she has been contributing since 1996. Warga-Arias also has assisted DTC to support this diamond sightholder in its transition from a mining company to a marketing linchpin. She also brings to GCAL significant experience in the role of sales training and consumer education.

Chief Executive Officer, Michael Haynes commented, "Diane Warga-Arias is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced consultants in diamond branding and we are pleased she has joined our team. We believe this is another step in our effort to penetrate this new and promising market. We expect that Diane will lead GCAL in becoming a driving force in the diamond authentication and grading market."

"What made GCAL attractive to Collectors Universe also makes GCAL attractive to me," stated Warga-Arias. "Publicly traded companies bring greater transparency and accountability to the markets they serve. Product integrity and public trust will remain key objectives for our changing diamond industry. I look forward to helping the diamond industry learn how GCAL's certification and Gemprint identification and registration services will help promote trust in diamonds and to develop co-marketing plans for dealers and retailers to increase their diamond sales."

About Collectors Universe

Collectors Universe, Inc. is a leading provider of value added services to the high-value collectibles and diamond markets. The Company authenticates and grades collectible coins, sports cards, autographs, stamps currency and diamonds. The Company also compiles and publishes authoritative information about United States and world coins, collectible sports cards and sports memorabilia, collectible stamps and diamonds. This information is accessible to collectors and dealers at the Company's web site, http://www.collectors.com, and is also published in print.

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains statements regarding our expectations about our future financial performance which are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "project," or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," or "may."

Due to a number of risks and uncertainties to which our business is subject, our actual financial performance in the future may differ, possibly significantly, from our expected financial performance as set forth in the forward looking statements contained in this news release. Those risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the possibility of changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the collectibles markets, such as a possible decline in the popularity of some high-value collectibles, which could result in reductions in the volume of authentication and grading submissions and, therefore, the fees we are able to generate; a lack of diversity in our sources of revenues and our dependence on coin authentication and grading for a significant percentage of our total revenues, which makes us more vulnerable to adverse changes in economic and market conditions, including declines in the value of precious metals or recessionary conditions, that could lead to reduced coin and other collectibles submissions, with a resultant reduction in our revenues and in our income; the fact that five of our customers accounted for approximately 27% of our net revenues during fiscal 2005, which means that our operating result could decline if any of those customers were to terminate or significantly reduce the business that they conduct with us; our dependence on certain key executives and collectibles experts, the loss of the services of any of which could adversely affect our ability to obtain authentication and grading submissions and, therefore, could harm our operating results; increased competition from other collectibles services companies that could result in reductions in collectibles submissions to us or could require us to reduce the prices we charge for our services; the risk that we will incur unanticipated liabilities under our authentication and grading warranties that would increase our operating expenses; the risk that new service offerings and business initiatives that we may undertake will not gain market acceptance or will increase our operating expenses or reduce our overall profitability or even cause us to incur losses; the risk that our strategy to expand into new collectibles and other high value asset markets, such as the diamond market, primarily through business acquisitions, will not be successful in enabling us to improve our profitability; and the risks that we will be unable to successfully integrate the businesses that we acquire into our operations, or that those businesses and the services that they provide will not gain market acceptance, or that our business expansion may result in a costly diversion of management time and resources and increase our operating expenses and possibly cause us to incur losses. Additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties to which our business is subject is contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended June 30, 2005 which we filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 13, 2005.

Due to the above-described risks and uncertainties and those described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this news release, which speak only as of its date, or to make predictions about future performance based solely on historical financial performance. We also disclaim any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this news release or in our Annual Report on Form 10-K. Contacts

Joe Wallace
Chief Financial Officer
Collectors Universe
949-567-1245
Email: jwallace@collectors.com

Ingrid Shieh
Investor Relations
The Piacente Group, Inc.
212-481-3019
Email: ingrid@thepiacentegroup.com

SOURCE Collectors Universe, Inc.
02/09/2006
CONTACT: Joe Wallace, Chief Financial Officer of Collectors Universe, +1-949-567-1245, jwallace@collectors.com; or Ingrid Shieh, Investor Relations of The Piacente Group, Inc., +1-212-481-3019, ingrid@thepiacentegroup.com
Web site: http://www.collectors.com
(CLCT)