Many holiday shoppers are still browsing and doing their advance scouting. The key shipping deadlines at the MLB.com Shop and elsewhere are still at least a week away, which is why Internet marketing researchers have projected that the heaviest online sales this season will happen between now and Christmas Eve.

Then there is that new breed of Fathead Nation.

So many Derek Jeter Fatheads have already been purchased by holiday shoppers that the stockpile quickly sold out and the CEO of the company that makes Fatheads had to place a new order of printings -- returning the Yankees star's colossal likeness to the Shop as one of the season's hottest sellers. Fans also can find Fatheads for Jeter's teammate Mariano Rivera, Carlos Beltran of the Mets, David Ortiz of the Red Sox, Albert Pujols of the Cardinals and Pudge Rodriguez of the Tigers -- with more players on the way soon.

"For decades, Major League Baseball has had one of the most loyal fan bases," said Brock Weatherup, chief executive officer of Fathead LLC, based in Livonia, Mich. "Our life-size wall graphics give baseball fans the ability to bring the action into their homes and demonstrate their passion for their favorite teams and players.

"The biggest thing is just kind of making what was the poster everything you want it to be. I liken it to how Tivo has revolutionized what you always wanted your VCR to be. People bought posters to get in the game, to feel like they were there with the players. With Fatheads, they're lifelike. Ortiz has a dirt mark on his leg because he was sliding in the game. Rivera is ready to whip a fastball at you, and it looks like he's coming out of the wall. It takes your poster and makes it lifelike, gives it action -- three-dimension -- that you just don't get from a normal poster."

Just what exactly is so special about these $99 products, which you also may have seen on TV commercials for NFL versions? Why do so many teenagers' bedroom walls and so many of those typical grown-up, rec-room "mancaves" now require these looming visages licensed by Major League Baseball?

For starters, consider the typical reaction of customers after they receive a Fathead. Many are surprised to realize that it requires two people to stick one of these on a typical wall. Pujols' Fathead, for example, is 50 inches wide and 78 inches tall at the farthest points. They are perfect cutouts that are easy to handle, made of thick and high-grade vinyl -- built to last but made to move as often as you like. They can be peeled and placed wherever with no loss of adhesion and no paint damage.

"People understand both how big and how important they are when they're on the wall," Weatherup said. "A lot of people associated them with posters. They're not. They're very different, and people get that reaction 99 percent of the time when they get it and put it up on the wall. They're far more impressed than what they were expecting to get. The more we can get these out there, the more they will sell, because people will look at them and go, 'Wow.' We have them up all over our office, so when a vendor or someone comes in, they say, 'I didn't realize they are that big and cool.'"

Weatherup knows the value of "big and cool." Just a few years ago he was president of ReserveAmerica, an access point for outdoor recreation that in 2003 set out to build the World's Largest S'more in conjunction with the start of the camping season. Now, Weatherup's goal is to show people how far the idol game has come since people used to order posters along with their subscription to Sports Illustrated.

"I had the Reggie Jackson poster, the Ron Guidry, the Earl Campbell," Weatherup said. "Everybody did the same thing back then. You had that form with those little checkboxes, and we all filled them out and got our posters. But you also had background on it."

There is still a place for posters, but hanging one next to a Fathead would be a little like, well, you on deck behind Big Papi or Pujols. A Fathead is a unique celebration of sports photography, and the process of determining what images to use is one of the most fascinating parts of the Fathead story. Weatherup said 3-foot-by-4-foot Fatheads of team logos will probably begin to appear in the MLB.com Shop soon, and then the photography process will become even more challenging. "We're going to go far deeper in Major League Baseball, so that we will have a much deeper roster of players," Weatherup said.

Fathead's agreements are with the sports leagues, and Weatherup said his company has had conversations with Getty Images in conjunction with the MLB agreement "to understand how to get better photographs for us," Weatherup said. "Original photography is usually during day games, because the light is better and creates less distortion when radically enlarged -- allowing higher-resolution shots by ballpark photogs."

Weatherup said the Jeter shot came from Getty midway through the 2006 season, and a team of people pore over thousands of photos regularly for prospective Fathead action shots.

"When you're looking for a photo for a Fathead, it has to be head-to-toe. It has to be very, very deep resolution, because we blow it up 800 to 1,000 times its original size. If there are flaws in it, that comes out pretty well at a 1,000 times," Weatherup said. "And you need to get where it's frankly unobstructed. If the player is sliding into second, but if a leg is over the player or dirt kicks up, then you have to cover or remake in Photoshop the parts that are obstructed or behind something you need to correct."

Weatherup said the idea for Fatheads "started with the Post-it Notes. Everyone had those. When they made the big flip-chart Post-it Notes they could stick on the wall, we thought, 'You could do this with a poster. There's a scenario here.' It started with NFL players and has branched to other sports, including baseball."

The term "mancave" has become a buzzword within this kind of industry, as Fathead and many other companies market to the adult fan who spends a good portion of life multitasking within an entertainment-center setting -- watching live games on TV and/or the computer, getting some work done, paying some bills, maybe blogging. It probably should just be called a "cave" to account for both genders, and some people still refer to it as a good old-fashioned "den." Either way, it's a Fathead haven.

So is the bedroom wall of the typical boy or girl growing up a Yankees fan when they return home from school, and Jeter is right there with you, larger than life. It was a huge season for the Yankees' captain, and it's been a huge offseason for his Fathead as well. The holiday shopping season is in full stride at the MLB.com Shop, and a lot of people are clearing some wall space for this season's darling.