Why hate Beckett mag?

BenDMitchell

BenDMitchell

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I have noticed in my recent postings the seemingly consensus opinion that Beckett magazine is trash. I tend to take the other opinion in that I love it. I subscribe to both BSCM and Beckett Hockey. Can you tell me why you hate the mag? If you do hate it, what else is out there on the market could I get to get news on the sports card hobby?
 
most of the news you need to hear about, can found here on this wonderful site. The reason some people don't like it is the pricing seems very unrealistic, most prefer to do an advanced search on the bay of completed listings to get a value for a card. I still buy the magazine so I have a hard copy that I can quickly look up a few cards but thats the only reason I buy it. Just remember it's only a guide and should be treated as that. Hope that all made sense
 
Beckett hasn't been an accurate or relevant reflection of the hobby for many years. It's inability to actually change with the times is exactly why people have no further use for it.

Darren
 
While I find the pricing to be out to lunch and not reflective of actual realized prices, the real loss for me was when they decided to nix 90% of the articles. I can go into the local 7-11 and in less than 2 minutes sift through a handful of boring, dated and one-dimensional stories.

For the past 2+ years, I have been a subscriber of The Insider's Edge. This magazine is full of great articles - written by hobbyists with a passion for their collecting. The introduction of the 'New Release Pricing' just adds to the value.

It's growing every month - and I've enjoyed every single copy I've received.

JMO
 
They lost their relevance years ago. People use eBay and other avenues to come up with their pricing. EVERYONE has known for a long time that Beckett's pricing values have been inflated and none more apparent than at card shows where people use it to get a rough idea and then mark it downward accordingly. People also give a puzzled look when someone says "let me check the Beckett".

I think around the last time I bought a Beckett (2004?), I was buying them to satisfy my own ego...I only bought it to SEE that my "X" card was worth $1,000. I don't need that any more.

I still miss "Collector's Sport Look" magazine.
 
bamlinden said:
While I find the pricing to be out to lunch and not reflective of actual realized prices, the real loss for me was when they decided to nix 90% of the articles. I can go into the local 7-11 and in less than 2 minutes sift through a handful of boring, dated and one-dimensional stories.

For the past 2+ years, I have been a subscriber of The Insider's Edge. This magazine is full of great articles - written by hobbyists with a passion for their collecting. The introduction of the 'New Release Pricing' just adds to the value.

It's growing every month - and I've enjoyed every single copy I've received.

JMO
Click to expand...

Beckett used to be a great, worthwhile purchase every month. There were lots of high quality, interesting articles in every issue, in addition to the pricing, which was at least better than it has been for the last few years.
 
It exist another "Price Guide" search about tuff-stuff

I think it doesn't exist anymore tho, read an article somewhere in the last few months saying it was closing. BTW, this one was free.
 
The board is a cesspool, despite the efforts of a few decent people to try and maintain order. The pricing guide has been sliding steadily downhill through a combination of both willful and inadvertent neglect - really, with Clint's departure, there was a noticeable dropoff in the quality of data. Al did the best he could, but as a one man show there was only so much he could get done. Then the upper echelon swallowed the Kool-Aid on "web 2.0", relaunched the site and ended up with a buggy piece of trash that wasn't worth the time to learn to re-use - bad enough to make Panini's CURRENT site look streamlined by comparison (subtle hint...).

I think no further proof of their irrelevance is needed than this: There has been no significant revisitation of 90s pricing for at least a few years. It's very telling that you can routinely find some of those inserts selling well above "current book value".
 
Beckett is still a somewhat useful guide. Most of us know that somewhere around %50 of Beckett's value is what cards will sell for at shows. EBAY is anything but a price guide, simply because sales depend on a variety of factors. They include the quality of the listing, the end time and date, shill bidding, whether the card was listed shortly after product release or several days later (we all know early listings tend to bring higher dollars), shipping costs, location of the seller, etc.

Most experienced traders, buyers and sellers have a pretty good idea of a card's value without the use of a guide. The exceptions are old vintage and extremely short prints, those cards that are less common.

Beckett's biggest flaw is not so much the prices they list, but their inability to respond to a fluctuating market, especially the printed guide that appears every two months. They also seem to have a problem coordinating their on line pricing with their printed guide. I've found discrepancies many times that are not attributable to player performance or injury.

I don't think there is any simple solution to establishing a card's market value. Realizing of course that markets vary by location I believe value is established by negotiation.
 
It is common to see that people who don't like/ don't use Beckett regularly post in these threads, but people who use it as a GUIDE never post in defense.

Many, MANY board members use the book as a guide in their trades, particularily when trading lower end cards in bulk. A lot of math goes in to boiling the prices down to their more realistic values, but the book gives you a decent starting point. Autos, GU, inserts, and numbered cards all have quite consistent divisors.

Out of my 300 trades/sales on here, the "BV" has assisted on probably 220 of them, whether as a guide or in an agreement to completely disregard it!!
 
Even if the price guide is not up to par, is there anywhere else where you can find things like the top 50 hottest cards and features like that?
 
Some people also tend to change their opinion about it quite often.

If beckett says their card is worth way more its been selling, they say "ebay is not a price guide". (like some old parallel's etc.)

On the other hand if its selling way more than it books, they say "hey, but its selling this high!" (like the BTP super-sized pads set or some cup autos like 08-09 chirography Brodeur)

Just my opinion.

I pay/trade what is my max regardless of bv or ebay. Like I just paid full bv for some cards for my set... No big deal.
 
1. By the time Beckett is released in print form, it's already outdated.
2. They rarely adjust the pricing on any cards pre-2005.
3. The articles, which used to be the main reason I purchased the mag, are nothing more than vapid fluff now.
4. The Hot List is great, if you want to see what was hot .... 3 months ago.

As mentioned in this thread previously, if you want an informative hobby publication, give Insiders Edge a try.
 
It's a guide nothing more nothing less,BUT same can be said for the ebay fanatics....it's a guide and no more no less as well.With all the shilling and other crap on ebay it's also hard to get real accurate pricing whether anyone wants to admit it or not.But you'll always get the guy who "I just saw it on ebay last night for 250"when it's been going 20$ for the last few months(like what vonkale mentioned).I'm more than happy to agree on rising prices but not from one single sale lol.The people who are convinced their insert card is a bazillion$ and ur gretzky au is 20$ in trade,simply walk away or ignore.Or you can make up your own pricing as well(which some seem to do anyways lol)
I use both ebay and becket as GUIDES and could care less who likes it lol.But bottom line it's whataever YOU"RE comfortable paying or trading for a card not anyone else.
 

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