BOSTON -- In normal circumstances, Mark Sucharewicz would expect a bump in business at his sports memorabilia store after the death of Ted Williams.

But with Williams' family's public dispute over whether to keep the Splendid Splinter frozen in a cryonics lab, circumstances are anything but normal. And the market for memorabilia has not seen the expected bump.

"If everything went smoothly with his death, I think people would be really out for almost a celebration,'' said Sucharewicz, owner of Slapshot Sports Cards in Saugus, just north of Boston, where a 1941 Ted Williams card was selling this week for $1,000, about the same price as before his July 5 death.

"Instead, they're just feeling weird,'' he said. "This whole thing is weird.''

Part of the reason is the strange and often strained history between memorabilia and signature dealers and John Henry Williams, the son of Ted Williams whom many have accused of heavy-handed efforts to capitalize on his father's name.

John Henry Williams has vigorously defended his handling of his father's name and image. And there is little doubt he has devoted considerable energy to protecting his father's name, even alienating dealers by accusing them of selling forgeries.

However allegations and innuendoes resurfaced after he and his half-sister, Bobby-Jo Ferrell, started fighting over their father's remains, which he wants to remain frozen in a lab in Arizona. He did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

"I've never seen anything like it,'' said Phil Castinetti, who owns Sportsworld Memorabilia in the Boston suburb of Everett and who has had run-ins with the younger Williams.

"The first two or three days after he died, it's like when any other famous person died,'' Castinetti said. "Then when all that controversy about that crackpot kid of his hit, it slowed right down. People are just very leery about buying anything right now.''

"Only recently have people been thinking, 'I don't want to buy a John Henry Williams product,' '' said Peter Leventhal, a partner J.J. Teaparty Sports Cards, a memorabilia shop in downtown Boston.

John Henry Williams' record includes a string of failed businesses, tax liens and lawsuits, including one over an alleged failure to pay his end of a deal to use the image of basketball stars Larry Bird and Charles Barkley on cards.

He's also been widely criticized for his behavior at the 1999 All-Star game at Fenway Park, where he tried to dress his father in a shirt and cap advertising his own company instead of the blue blazers Major League Baseball had picked for the honorees on the field. Just weeks before his father's death, John Henry Williams filed a trademark application to keep anyone from using his father's name on gear, videos and camps without paying royalties. That application was pending Wednesday.

Another issue that with some of the negative publicity surrounding John Henry Williams' plans for his father's body: suspicions some dealers have held for years that he has forged his father's signature.

Henry has denied the charge, and some dealers note no new Williams-signed "products'' have even appeared on the market for the last two years.

But dealers say whether true or not, the rumors have a real effect on business, and by billing himself as the only legitimate guardian of his dad's autograph, John Henry Williams has hindered that credibility.

"If he's the sole judge of saying what's authentic and what's not, who's to say he's not signing stuff,'' Castinetti said. "People are starting to look at that.''

Outside Fenway Park this week, fans backed up what the memorabilia dealers in the Boston area were saying: there's not much interest in high-priced Ted Williams products.

"No more than I had before,'' said Jim Charbonnier of Marshfield as he took his kids to a Red Sox game. He pronouncing himself fond of Williams but turned off by the cryonics controversy. "I have my own memories.''

Cheaper items such as Ted Williams T-shirts, hats and videos that fall outside John Henry Williams' purview have been selling briskly at The Souvenir Shop, just across Yawkey Way from the stadium.

But premium products with a Teddy Ballgame signature were not flying off shelves at specialty stores.

Sucharewicz believes the market will come back, regardless of any bad blood between John Henry Williams and the memorabilia industry.

"I think it's going to take time,'' he said. "Once this whole thing about his body settles and people get a few months to reflect, I think that's when you're really going to see people buy again.''