If Beckett Falls

There have been rumors abound about Beckett's future. It may be true that Beckett may no longer be published. I can neither confirm or deny that, because I have yet to hear a definitive source on the subject.

Most "experts" think that Beckett's days are numbered. This has been argued on all sides. Would it be good for the hobby? Would another recognizable name gone from the industry hurt the hobby? I can see points on both sides.

While driving prices down to a more believable level, Beckett's publishing legacy is still something that holds some value to those outside the hobby. When I came back to the hobby in 2007, after an absence of thirteen years, one of the first things I picked up was an issue of Beckett. Why? It was familiar and I wanted a source I could trust.

After living in the world of baseball cards again for just over two years, I have found Beckett to be a shell of what it once was. It's just a price guide and half the time it can't be realistic about that. I used to pick up a Beckett every month. It wasn't for just the price guide. That was a bonus to me. A way I could keep track of the cards I had yet to pick up. I bought Beckett for the articles.

Becket used to have page after page of player profiles, new product reviews and articles about real obtainable cards. I would turn page after page soaking up each well researched article peppered with anecdotes and opinions. Back in the early nineties, Beckett wasn't the only magazine I purchased about baseball cards. I would pick up anything about cards. I even have a book chronicling each player's 1991 card through Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Score and Upper Deck. Many players had five cards shown. Others had one or two. Each page was in full color.

The magazine that I liked the best was Baseball Hobby News. I could lose myself for hours in each issue. The ads alone were worth the read. I would find out about every small time regional set through the ads. The real meat and potatoes were the articles. They were written by real collectors and featured some of the best researched stories I have ever come across. The articles were a labor of love and it came across that way.

I recently found the February 1991 issue tucked away inside a box, buried in a storage room that I'm converting into a shower for an existing half bath and a small kitchen with the leftover space. I lost an entire day looking through Baseball Hobby News. An entire day!

In this particular issue, there was a story on Mickey Mantle, before all the Topps love overkill. Articles on Upper Deck hockey, collecting activities that don't cost money, a 1991 Fleer overview, Cecil Fielder's probability of repeating his 50 home run performance, breeding happiness into the hobby and baseball anagrams.

Does that sound like a full magazine to you? That's only up to page 23. The magazine is 140 pages! Further articles that followed were about autograph seeking through the mail, complete with addresses, Lud Denny featured in the Santa Claus Pro Set card and the SuperPro card, American Leaguers whose cards are a good buy (they even picked Sammy Sosa), the NBA taking over card production, Anderson's Oakland A's sets of 1969 and 1970, Al Zarilla, more Mickey Mantle, rating the 1988 Donruss Rated Rookies, baseball card aesthetics, a hobbyist wronged by the justice system, a book review, a baseball card of the month (1970 Topps #98 - Gates Brown), a show calender, classified ads, letters and a price guide.

Why can't the hobby produce a magazine like this every month? If Beckett fails, I wouldn't be surprised if a publication like Baseball Hobby News eventually pops up again. The reasoning behind every advice article was sound and warned of the potential downside. It respected the hobby's past and presented the hobby's future. It was critical of anything that didn't seem right.

Maybe the best thing about Baseball Hobby News was its size. The color variation on Mickey's uniform was because the magazine was too big to fit on my scanner in one pass. I had to run the top and the bottom separately and piece them together with photo editing software. Now that's a magazine!

Shoeless Joe Pulled, Consumers Weep

First, read this. Up to speed? Good.

Why do manufacturers seed the product given to Beckett? Is it for a cheap thrill? Is it to showcase their product?

They tell us that the boxes sent are random. They tell us that these pulls are representative of their product. They say that you too could have a chance at pulling these cards, if you only buy the product.

Do we really need another scandal involving Joe Jackson? This time I know that he's innocent! Unless a 57 year old corpse can "fix" a box of baseball cards, I doubt he had any wrongdoing in this one.

This isn't the first "pull of a lifetime" that Beckett has pulled. This is not luck anymore, it's fraud. The companies that are sending this seeded product over to Beckett to be opened on camera should be ashamed of themselves.

Does this make me want to run out and buy their product with my limited funds? NO! This makes me want to stay far away from every box that I see Beckett open. If Beckett is pulling these amazing cards, what could there possibly be left for me? Not a whole lot.

My "pull of a lifetime" came a short while ago. The problem? I wasn't the one that got to open it. Still, I got the Willie Mays material card numbered to ten. That's the important thing. That card will probably be the best thing I will ever pull in my lifetime. And it was all pure luck.

I'm a White Sox collector. When I see a card that I would love to pull being "found" in a pack, two weeks before the product shelves, by a company that was given the box for publicity purposes, I'm going to be more than a little mad about it. I'm going to be furious!

A Shoeless Joe Jackson dual bat relic numbered to 25 is not representative of the product. These cards need to be in the hands of people that plunked down hard earned money to buy a pack or a box or even a case, in some instances. If the companies want the product to be seen, they should provide scans of every card they produce.

The odds of me ever pulling one of those cards out of the product just plummeted downward astronomically. If I pull this card from my one spot in one box of this product, I will probably have to be rushed to the hospital. My chest will start to hurt and Satan will be wearing ice skates on my front lawn.

Beckett Up, eBay Down

The new Beckett.com is getting better by the day. It functionality is slowly improving, but the keyword is slow. It takes me about 10 times longer to do things on the new and improved site.

I keep running into script errors and a few scattered F5 warnings. Searching within one's collection has vastly improved. The appearing/disappearing new releases, such as 2008 Allen & Ginter and 2008 Goudey have me worried.

The bells and whistles are shiny, new and good, but it's all a distraction from the problems in other areas. When the new site debuted, I likened it to the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Now, it seems more like an intelligent chimp. It's not quite what you want from a conversation point of view, but it's cute and easily frustrated. Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp, eat your heart out.

By now many of you have heard the new changes that are happening at eBay. By November, the only accepted payments will be electronic payments through eBay's site. As a buyer, I have no problem with this. I use PayPal for all of my purchases anyway. As a seller, this is just another nail in the coffin before I finally close up shop and move to another site. I don't get many Money Orders, but I do get a few. Sometimes offering the option of a Money Order has made the difference between a sale and the card sitting there for months.

Of course, my sales are already dramatically effected by February's pricing structure change. Some months I don't even make enough in sales to cover my eBay costs. How is this helping my sales? It's clearly not. I have spoken to eBay many times about this, but they are always unwilling to make an exception for trading card pricing reform.

Since all the eBay payments will now go through electronically, it goes through mostly PayPal, which is an eBay company. PayPal takes its share and so does eBay for each transaction. Does that sound like a Scrooge McDuck move to you?

Frustration Makes Hard Work

I think I have officially given up on Beckett.com. I have been able to work with my collection a grand total of three times over the past day and a half. While that may seem like a lot in under 36 hours, I had tried over thirty times to access everything. Beckett is broken.

I have even experienced lagging with the search feature. I tried to find a 1995 Roberto Hernandez Donruss Top of the Order card to confirm the number, since it is not on the actual card. It wasn't listed on the Roberto Hernandez player page. Strike one. I found the 1995 Donruss Top of the Order set page. Ball one. The page was stuck loading and never actually loaded. Strike two. I found the card eventually. Foul ball. 1 and 2 count. I found the information I was looking for. Deep fly ball. The whole process took thirty minutes. Caught at the warning track.

I have spent most of the day inputting my collection into Access by hand with six criteria. Year, set, card number, player name, numbered, and additional info. So far, I have 448 of my (rounded off) 5,000 cards. Not too bad for an afternoon.

Yes, this project is the reason I was searching for that particular card's number. I couldn't find it on the actual card, so I wanted to check it out against Beckett's list.

If this database idea is successful in making my collection more manageable, it will be a miracle. It's not the most ideal situation, but it's better than Beckett right now.

Did You Ever Get The Feeling...

... that you were more intelligent than the people you ask services from?

Apparently spelling isn't a "presing" matter for Beckett.

I was able to get in once, seconds after my previous post. Then I made the mistake of trying to add another card to one of my collections. All hell broke loose and I was stuck in loading limbo again.

The New Beckett.com

My first impressions are not good ones. I have spent the past two hours trying to access my existing collections. It's not happening.

I keep getting loading errors that tell me to press F5, and may resolve that error. It's not helping. I would like to have access to my online database of cards, which is nearing 5,000. If I have to manually add each card into the database, I will not be a happy camper.

I know my collections loaded properly. I could see a few of them in the preview and I got a note in my inbox from Beckett that everything was peachy keen! Somehow, as I see "Loading, please wait..." continually on the screen, I am not comforted by that note in my inbox.

Maybe it had something to do with the amount of collections I had. On the old beckett.com, you were limited to 5,000 entries for each collection. So, I recently split my White Sox collection into several collections, covering several spans of years. This doesn't count my separate collections of Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk, which are both notably smaller than my White Sox collection. Although they do tend to have overlapping cards.

The one thing that I noticed when I split my collections on Beckett was the amount I thought I had for some years was much more minimal than I previously thought. Some years, though, I was astounded at the amount of cards I had. I think that action alone gave me a better understanding of my collections weak areas. Or at least it reinforced what I already knew.

Even without being able to access my collections, my first impressions were anticlimactic. I was impressed by the new look, where the majority of the cards had images attached. I found that pricing was not immediately noticeable, which will infuriate some members. It's also a bit hard to navigate and very slow to load. I guess you take the good with the bad here, but it would be nice if it was a bit more manageable and quicker. Maybe when my collections actually load properly, my mind will change on these issues.

Still loading.

In theory this new site is great. In reality, it's a logistical nightmare, so far. I'm finding it very difficult to like this new design with no functionality. I just want to be able to view my collection and manage it quickly. Is that too much to ask? Apparently it is, after 2 1/2 hours. Let's hope these snags are fixed quickly.

Happy News In Beckett

While suffering through yet another Yankees Beckett cover, I decided to read about the Yankee insert set. I'm glad I did. I found tentative dates for Upper Deck product throughout the year!

Keep in mind these are all target release dates which are subject to change, but they made me happy to see.


Spectrum - April 16
I liked the set last year. It was one of my first hobby boxes. I hope Upper Deck can improve from last year's set.

A Piece Of History - late April
I have no clue, but it sounds interesting. It was originally scheduled for February 5, 2008 and has no information on its Upper Deck page.

SPx - late May
Last year's set was unique.

SP Legendary Cuts - early June
One of my favorite releases! I hope they have a design we can all see this year.

Upper Deck Series Two - mid June
This sounds about right for the release.

SP Authentic - late June
Can they jazz up the base release this year? Let's hope so. 2007's set was a bit boring.

UDx - mid July
Huh? OK...

UD Masterpieces - mid October
YES! I loved this set! I'm so glad they are continuing it!

Granted, these are releases in which the Yankee Stadium Legacy cards will be seeded into. I'm not happy about that. Especially when some of these releases only have 4 cards typically. I don't want to pay for a crappy insert. But I am psyched! Lots of good releases to look forward to!

I know it's the final year of Yankee Stadium, but enough already with the Yankee covers. Both Beckett Baseball and Beckett Baseball Plus have them right now. I was happy to see a 1973 Goose Gossage Topps card in the upper right hand corner on the cover of the Plus magazine, but no article about Goose to be found inside. Maybe I missed it?

Thank You Beckett

I finally got the new Beckett in the mail today. Is it just me or has it been getting stretched out more and more between arrival times? I guess this is to prepare us for the bi-monthly thing. There was no surprise that another Yankee graced the cover, but "Our Biggest Issue Ever" taunted me from the cover when I picked up the mail.

Inside is a profile of 588 different rookies and a listing of their 2007 cards. Call me interested. I'm flipping through the listings searching for White Sox cards. This is not an easy task, as the current team is the only one listed. The team for which the player appears on the card is up for grabs. Chris Carter should've been difficult, since he's been in three different organizations since 2007, but I'm almost certain he has not had a Diamondbacks card or an Athletics card yet. I could be wrong.

I ran across Kyle McCulloch and looked at his card listings. I thought it was a listing for his 2006 cards, when I looked up his Bowman Sterling card on a whim. It was 2007. That wasn't in my review. I didn't see that on the website listed under White Sox for the team. Lo and behold, there it was staring me in the face. I will adjust my original review to include this great discovery.

But Beckett still had one last surprise in store. Adam Ricks. He only has one card, but I had missed it. A Bowman Chrome Prospects card. The name rings a bell, but I can't place it. He's projected to be at either AA or AAA this year. He doubles as a third baseman and a catcher.

So thank you Beckett for finding these gems for me. I may have completely overlooked them, if not for your staff. I'll be studying this issue further to see if I can find any other hidden treasures that I may have skimmed over before.

Beckett Or Bust

I've let this one lie for a little while and the dust has settled a bit. I still have mixed feelings on this new idea for Beckett. From my understanding, there will be a monthly that combined all sports and a bi-monthly baseball only magazine that will be a version of the baseball plus with more articles than the regular baseball monthly.

I suppose if I had interest in other sports this would be a good change, but I don't. My only sports interest on the collecting level is baseball. So, to get only expanded baseball collectible coverage, I need to limit my intake to every two months and pay more for the expanded magazine.

If I only got the bi-monthly baseball exclusive Beckett, I'll be saving money in the long run for the entire year, but I'll be getting content less often. If I want the privilege of monthly baseball pricing in print, I'll have to get the catch all monthly and shell out more money. I'm not sure I like that. I don't care for the other sports in Beckett. That's why I don't pick up the other monthlies.

Everything must go through a change to move forward. I just don't know if I'm ready to change. I just came back to the collecting side of baseball full time last year. I've adjusted to the changes in less content in Beckett Baseball than when I originally picked it up. Now, I'm being asked to change further away from what I liked Beckett for. It feels like I'm being asked to bend over and assured I'll be OK with it. I'm not ready to make that leap of faith.

I would hope that the online pricing isn't effected by these changes. If they do anything with the online side, Beckett should do away with the "New Release Pricing" feature. This should be free, not $4.99 per release or whatever the price is up to these days. This may make peace with some disgruntled readers, but some will be lost forever.

C-Note Challenge

Hey, I made Beckett's C-Note Challenge in this month's issue! I know this isn't a White Sox card, but it's a rookie card of a White Sox legend!! How could I go wrong. I tried to pick from White Sox players that may get overlooked. Especially when they are on other teams on some of these cards.

The other cards in the list, reflect either cards that I've always liked or players that I've always liked that weren't part of the White Sox. The Nellie Fox Colts card is a personal favorite. The 1983 Topps Alfredo Griffin is the card that made me fall in love with collecting. The Fisk rookie card stands for everything I've ever wanted as a kid, but could never afford because I was only a kid.

Here's the list:

• 1972 Topps #79 Fisk/Cooper $50.00
• 2001 Topps Traded #T99 Ichiro/Pujols $15.00
• 1996 Pinnacle Starburst Artist’s Proofs #141 Harold Baines $ 4.00
• 1989 Classic Travel Orange #131 Ken Griffey Jr. $ 5.00
• 1993 UD Then & Now #TN6 Ryne Sandberg $ 3.00
• 1957 Topps #67 Chico Carrasquel $10.00
• 1964 Topps #205 Nellie Fox $12.00
• 2007 Finest Refractors #39 Jim Thome $ 0.75
• 1983 Topps #488 Alfredo Griffin $ 0.15
• 1986 Topps Traded #19T John Cangelosi $ 0.10
  

I think it's a pretty good variety of cards. It also reflects some of my tastes and highlights cards that I don't currently have. The Alfredo Griffin became damaged when I priced it at $1.00 on the back in black crayon shortly after I opened the pack in 1983. Hey, I was 6 and to me it was the coolest looking card in the pack. I also thought it was cool that real firemen played baseball. Like I said, I was 6 and didn't know the intricacies of a closer.

If anyone wants to donate a NM or MT copy of the 1983 Topps Alfredo Griffin, contact me through my eBay store Mercury's Space. I'll gladly accept a card donation through the mail.