Do you still get Beckett Magazine? (please take the poll)

Was wondering how many people still got Beckett Magazine, and if people have changed their stance recently. My submission just ended, and while I used to buy it simply to see what everyone else was reading (figured it was good to know the angle Beckett took as one more picture into the market) but at this point I have not been able to convince myself to resubscribe.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

If anyone wants to share why they made their decision, that would be great.

For me personally, I never used the price guide much, and I felt the articles were lacking for the most part.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

I like the magazine. The website is horrible, but I still think the mag is good IMO

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

I don't for a few reasons...

*When they switched the magazine up, I didn't like it much.
*When my Baseball subscription was converted to "Sports Monthly" it ticked me off. I didn't pick it and don't really collect the other sports so that information is generally irrelevant to me.
*My new "Sports Monthly" guide has very little pricing for older issues unless it's a key rookie or tough auto/memorabilia card
*The online pricing is a bit over priced in my opinion and no longer as user friendly as I prefer. I am paying for convenience, not to spend 3-5x longer to look something up. My time for hobbies is limited... time is money.

I do enjoy many of the articles and feature content. I'd just rather have a monthly mag with all baseball... not some randomly published guide only a few times per year.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

I still use the opg since it is so easy to look stuff up and contains everything. I havnt gotten the magazine since I found the opg, which was at least 4 years ago. I do however read the articles when I pick up a prescription from the drug store.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

actually for christmas my aunt is buying me a 2 year subscription that also includes 2 free gradings which is always cool. I like it solely for the purpose of trading and knowing the value of a card

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

My last issue was this month. I'm done.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

I did until I read this quote by Al Muir in the Oct./Nov. issue regarding 2008 Bowman Chrome:

"Busting a box of Bowman Chrome made something immediately evident: Topps get it."


That right there was the straw that broke the camel's back for me personally. I had a good case break from 08 BC, but Topps can't list First Bowman Chrome cards in 3 different products. Its getting old, and thats why I went back to my PC's & Vintage.


I'm sure if Beckett listened to what their members had to say, Mr. Muir wouldn't have publicly said such a disagreeable thing.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

My GOD the multi-sport mag SUCKS... I've never SEEN such outdated content (hot cards/the like) in my life. I was basically forced to keep getting the multi-sport instead of the baseball. I would think about getting another baseball subscription, but not a definite and ONLY for some of the past year pricing. Their pricing and mag content are SO behind the times... I would only use the baseball mag as a reference for "round-about" values on older cards.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

colts1888 said:

actually for christmas my aunt is buying me a 2 year subscription that also includes 2 free gradings which is always cool. I like it solely for the purpose of trading and knowing the value of a card

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Out of curiosity, are you comfortable with the prices in the price guide? Do you also compare them to eBay prices when dealing?

For me Beckett has chosen to put a price guide out that tries to price the one segment of the market that is near impossible to price, especially in a monthly price guide (this may seem to run counter to something I just posted in a different thread, but isn't really.)

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

My subscription runs out in January, and it's not going to be renewed. The short version is that I had the subscription as an ongoing Christmas gift from my mom. The mag stopped coming for several months, so I assumed she just didn't renew it. Come to find out, they were sending it to somebody elses address when they switched their computer system. They refused to extend the subscription by the months I missed or reimburse my mom. So she was paying for a magazine I didn't get. She asked me if I wanted it renewed for Christmas this year, and I said absolutely not. Combine that with the crappy website switch, and I basically have no use for them anymore. And, I've been a loyal subscriber/avid reader since about 1992 or so. But hey, they couldn't do anything becuase the magazine had been mailed out.

Since this is a kid friendly board.....forget them.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

I still get a beckett every few months, just to have somewhat of a refrence on otherwise obscure cards and as reading material on the John. For actual pricing though, I refer to the bay with recent listings...

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

Wow, I knew that many people were not thrilled with Beckett, but the poll numbers are staggering.

Do people find the articles informative and interesting?

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

I started getting it in the mid '80s, and stopped about a year ago.

The content is severely lacking and the price guide isn't good for much either. In this day of "instant information" if I am going to pay for something to read, I need something that show some research and or original information. Beckett is full of card company PR drivel for new products and rehashed printed versions of the same things they had online weeks before. Throw in the almost worthless price guides and you've got a complete waste in my eyes.

They would benefit from a few good hobby columnists, an actual editor with actual editing history, someone creative, someone to do some 'investigative' stories (for lack of a better word), etc.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

Topnotchsy said:

Wow, I knew that many people were not thrilled with Beckett, but the poll numbers are staggering.

Do people find the articles informative and interesting?

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I don't in the least...

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

Last issue was Oct. but got an extra one in the mail the month after that.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

I think I'll subscribe to the grading card investor in the new year, I don't love it but enjoy it as a quick read, or I might join for the package deal as well... lots of free grades, a few dif subscriptions, some gifts, etc...

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

It is somewhat disheartening to see such a staple of our hobby stoop to what they have become! Personally, I have ceased all ties with them by cancelling my 3 sport subscription's and my online presence has shifted to this site (Beckett thought we would take thier change in stride & adapt to thier choice of changes quietly & without incident, and in a sense we did just that; yet not in the way that they had planned)! I am greatful for this site and it seems that all of the piece's fell in place at the right time to create a very close resemblance of what we enjoyed not long ago at a different online address. Personally I believe they are on the way out & the field will be ripe with opportunity for a new centerstone of the hobby, yet it will definitely have to be one that share's the view of it's fellow hobbyist's and not a dictatorship that tries to invoke it's will on the hobby! I have no use for an out of date price guide, and with the ever-changing market of our hobby & the constant price fluctuation due to the introduction of online commerce, the internet, & Ebay (& Collector Revolution ) I am not so sure we will ever have an in-print guide that will accurately reflect the value's of our hobby....Maybe an online price guide with a live feed patched through to Ebay which constantly feeds through ending value's of sportscard auction's (somewhat like the stock market) will be the only way to "truly" know the sell value of our card's, yet even this is flawed due to fluke's & all sorts of other variables! Long read- Sorry!

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

I had subscribed to both the baseball and football monthlies for years. After they revamped into the tuff stuff style multisport they rolled both existing subscriptions into one that would have had me getting the new mag until something like July of 2010. I continued the subcription for exactly two issues of the new mag and then cancelled it and asked for a refund. It was so watered down with content I had no interest in regarding all the other sports and they totally screwed up the pricing in the interest of saving space for all the other junk. I've probably bought one multi-sport monthly and one each of the bi-monthly football and baseball plus mags since then and the sad part is, I haven't even missed it.

Re: Do you still get Beckett Magazine?

Does anyone else find these numbers as astounding as I do?