LAS VEGAS: As the public refocused on the off-field life of O. J. Simpson, Kathleen McCarthy of Maple Springs, N.Y., thought it might be time to make some money off an autographed book about Mr. Simpson that her father had found years ago.

Yet more than a week has passed since Mrs. McCarthy posted the 33-year-old paperback biography on eBay with a minimum price of $150, and nobody has bid on it.

She believed the timing was right to sell the book because Mr. Simpson, the former football star, stands accused of bursting into a Las Vegas hotel room to reclaim what he said was memorabilia stolen from him. "I figured there must be a market for his stuff if they say he's stealing it," Mrs. McCarthy said. "But maybe not."

One of the most intriguing twists in Mr. Simpson's most recent brush with the law is that the items the police say he went to retrieve are actually of little interest to most legitimate sports memorabilia collectors. The $5 billion business is prone to devalue collectibles from athletes, including Michael Vick, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, whose public images have been scarred by scandal.

About 200 items related to Mr. Simpson were available on eBay before his most recent arrest; more than 400 were available as of late last week. But the vast majority had attracted no bids.

Mr. Simpson, 60, has been charged with 10 felonies, including armed robbery, and one gross misdemeanor. He is free on bail and due back in court in late October.

The police report states that Mr. Simpson's group left with boxes and pillowcases stuffed with $100,000 in merchandise, but much of that value came from items unrelated to Mr. Simpson, including signed lithographs of Joe Montana, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, and baseballs signed by Pete Rose.

Items related to Mr. Simpson that were reported taken included eight autographed footballs, two plaques, a photo of him with J. Edgar Hoover and three ties he said he wore during his 1995 criminal trial for the slayings of his former wife and her friend. Mr. Simpson was acquitted but found liable for the deaths in civil court in 1997.

"One of the things that experts like me have been baffled by," said Thomas S. O'Connell, editor of Sports Collectors Digest, "is that, at least from what was reported to have been in that hotel room, I still haven't heard which items would have justified all the trouble O. J. is in now."

Mr. O'Connell said the most impressive item listed was a ball from Mr. Simpson's appearance in an All-American game that might be worth $700. "At least from a memorabilia standpoint, there's nothing that makes my heart spin," he said.

Mr. Simpson was quoted in the police report as complaining that the two memorabilia dealers who accuse him of armed robbery had stolen his belongings in the first place. "If these guys were legit," Mr. Simpson is reported to have told the police after the Sept. 13 episode, "they would have got big bucks on the Internet."

But Mr. Simpson's star value has fallen considerably since his arrest on the charges he killed his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, collectors say.

"Prior to O. J.'s criminal issue, he was a player like Joe Montana, a fan favorite, well liked," said Ross Tannenbaum, owner of Dreams Inc., the parent company in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., of a chain of about 30 Field of Dreams sports memorabilia shops. "In general, we don't sell O. J. Simpson stuff. There really isn't much demand for it. People do recognize him for his football-playing abilities, but at the same time people are turned off by him."

Other athletes whose items Mr. Tannenbaum does not trade anymore include Mr. Vick, the National Football League quarterback who admitted this summer to financing a dog-fighting operation, and Mr. Bonds, who in August broke baseball's all-time home run record but under a cloud of suspicion that he had used performance-enhancing drugs. That record-setting ball recently sold at auction for $752,457, far below the $2.7 million paid for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball hit in 1998 to set the single-season home run record.

Mr. McGwire's fate is also reflective of changes in the market. His memorabilia's value plummeted in 2005 after he appeared before a Congressional subcommittee investigating steroid use in baseball but refused to answer questions about whether he had taken performance-enhancing drugs. Mr. O'Connell said the value of Mr. McGwire's record-setting home run ball had plummeted along with his popularity.

"That ball is worth well below that under the circumstances now," said Mr. O'Connell, who estimated it was worth $1 million. "At the time, it was an extraordinary baseball."

Some scandal-tarnished stars have retained their value. The baseball great Pete Rose, despite being banned from Hall of Fame consideration for having bet on baseball while a manager, draws lines of fans who pay at least $40 for his autograph when he appears three days a week at the Field of Dreams shop on the Las Vegas Strip. And Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, has remained popular despite steroid accusations.

"Lance Armstrong got a pass because of the cancer thing," said Joey Sutton, owner of the New Orleans celebrity memorabilia store Vintage 429, referring to Mr. Armstrong's much-publicized battle with testicular cancer. "He comes across as sort of a good guy. He's also very charitable."

While most of what the police say was taken from the Las Vegas hotel room was related to the sports careers of Mr. Simpson or other athletes, the three neckties that he is said to have worn during the 1995 trial fall into a category known as murderabilia, items made collectible by their association with a well-publicized crime.

Five states - California, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas and Utah - have passed laws intended to limit sales of such items, and a bill is pending in the Senate to bar the use of the United States Post Office in the trade. Ebay has stopped trading in items related to Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and other murderers, but private dealers have moved in online. None of this would affect Mr. Simpson because he was not convicted in the slayings.

"Awesome," said Tod Bohannon, 30, a Commerce, Ga., math teacher and purveyor of the Web site murderauction.com, when told of the ties. "If he really wore it in the trial, I'd give $500 for one."

Even if Mr. Simpson's items do not necessarily sell, they can still be used to attract attention. When the Las Vegas controversy erupted, Mr. Sutton moved his sole Simpson item into his front display window at Vintage 429: a 1994 Sports Illustrated cover, signed by Mr. Simpson, from shortly after his arrest with the headline, "Charge: Murder."

Mr. Sutton has priced it at $3,475 but it has not sold. Interestingly, he says, items related to organized crime figures like Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel remain popular despite the often-gruesome crimes associated with them.

More O.J. Pieces by Steve Friess