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

[nevermore]

For those who haven't visited in a while, the OPG now has a an option to open a PDF file containing a complete list of a specific set or player's cards with pricing. It is nicely formatted for printing and much easier to use than their online checklist system.

Sample PDF List: http://beta.beckett.com/Organize/Ajax/A ... For=player

 

[ccouch (Chad)]

I'm a big fat "no" on this one. I last subscribed early in the decade and quit picking up copies at hobby shops at least five years ago. I'm a "fair market value" guy, so the pricing is of no use to me. And most of the article content is available in one form or another online, mostly through blogs.

I do still use their website for the My Collections and player checklist features. And while many still resent the changes to the website, I have grown to like the changes to the functions that I use (although I did cease visiting the message boards there at the time of the change).

 

[WaxHeaven]

I started getting the magazine monthly in 2007 and by year's end realized it was worthless and stopped.

 

[Pills]

I no longer see it at Borders books or Barnes and Nobles...

Really? I've seen at both recently; last weekend at Borders, actually.

 

[brouthercard]

I won't buy a copy, but I will take a complementary copy from the shop, or browse it at the bookstore/newstand.

The one good thing about it is that it gives you an idea of what cards/sets the magazine is trying to hype.

Do people realize that the general public and the vast majority of non-computer literate collectors still rely on that thing like the bible of baseball cards?

I know mulitple collectors who check out the HOT list every month and try to make box purchasing decisions based on what's on the HOT list.

I also know several guys (who would have otherwise been clueless) who went out and purchased a bunch of Chris Marrero Rookies a few years back because Beckett compared him to Albert Pujols. And these are wealthy educated guys who bought a ton of graded chrome rookies just because Beckett told them to do so.

The magazine is a great way to keep up with the propaganda and hype.

 

[ChasHawk]

Going to bump this up for people who have not seen it yet. I've heard little about Beckett in the last year and because I do not subscribe anymore I do not know if they have improved anything. Feel free to vote.

I just voted "no". Back when we where all on the BMB i had a subscription to all 4 sports and the graded card investor, since BMB changed last August i let my subscriptions run out last fall and have only bought the Beckett Hockey twice and the multi sport magazine once at the hobby shop. Becketts are showing up less and less in the stores here in Canada. I used to be able to pick up the Beckett Hockey at most every corner store up here a couple year ago, not anymore though. Outta site, outta mind kinda for me.

I have been reading another new hobby magazine since then though, its called "The Insiders Edge", just articles about the hobby, hot players, collectors and collections, NO price guides. Its a pretty good mag.

It may be a good mag, but it blatantly states here http://www.hobbyinsider.net/index.php that the mag has a price guide.

They also want $63 for a 1 year/12 issue subscription. That's $5.25 an issue.
Subscription prices are usually 1/4-1/3 of the store price for most mags.

So it might have great content, but I'll pass.

 

[Card Magnet]

NEVER again.

They are crooks in my eyes, as they ripped me for service on their website.

Since I made a few threads to try and trade instead of just use the joke that was their trade manager, they put a 3-5 day ban on me. This blocked access to my OPG I paid for as well. When I came back, I had a post which followed their guildelines, but some mod was a little drunk with power and warned me about it, and I went of for him. I got a permanent ban. So I lost the ramining week or so of that month's OPG. So there's 10+ days of a 30 day subscription I paid for they stole from me.

After the permanent ban, they charged my card for a new subscription (AFTER I even emailed them and told them to remove my card on file). So they knowingly charged me for a product they had no intention of letting me use. That did not fly well with me. It also took two weeks to get the issue resolved. They gave me a refund for 2 months service, but only after I threatened to talk to a lawyer for them mishandling my billing information.

Aside from that, any price guide is useless to me now. The only place Beckett was relevant was trading with a lot of the guys on the Beckett site, who only did BV trades. If I want an interesting read on cards, I come here and chat or check out a few blogs. The internet gives me far more than the few pages of reading in Beckett before their Beckett Values.

 

[Tom Oates]

I subscribed from about 1987 through 2007 or there abouts. The new multi sport format sucks. Fewer articles and hobby related fun stuff and too many advertisments. Too many columns of tiny font depicting inaccurate market conditions. Honestly, I get more hobby information here and more accurate prices indicators on eBay. The straws that broke the cmaels back wer 1) jack booted **** mods on their message boards 2) Dumb arse PR/marketing people defending their krappy new web site... insisting that we will grow to like it instead of... ohhh I don't know... LISTENING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS!!!

Note to Beckett: Your web site sucks!!! It looks and feels lke it was designed by Tele Tubbies. Give it up already. I'm in IT and you guys are a joke with your beta.beckett.com as the URL to your production enviroment. AMATEURS!!!

Tom

 

[thehamiltonian]

I have an online sub. I use it for trading - the trade tool is actually the best part of their new site, but it has a steep learning curve, and is labour intensive to set up. Which means it isn't for everyone.

I have a sub to the hockey mag, and pick up the multi-sport every so often to orient myself.

There are a lot of different tools in the hobby. Its just another one in the tool box.

 

[ffgameman]

I do not have a subscription but I do pick up the occasional guide for football/baseball/basketball.

I avoid the multisport though due to the minimal amount of pricing.

 

[Card Magnet]

I have an online sub. I use it for trading - the trade tool is actually the best part of their new site, but it has a steep learning curve, and is labour intensive to set up. Which means it isn't for everyone.

I have a sub to the hockey mag, and pick up the multi-sport every so often to orient myself.

There are a lot of different tools in the hobby. Its just another one in the tool box.

Their trade manager is a great concept, but it was a joke to me because the entire site never worked properly. It would take 5 minutes sometimes to get one card added because of their site stalling out. I would hope that the bugs are worked out and you don't get a warning message every 5 clicks like the first 6 months they were up.

 

[RITM]

I don't but then again my collection is pretty limited to 2 or 3 specific areas and I don't have a great need for it.

I will say that I appreciate Beckett in that when my site got up and running Kevin Haake did an article about Cal's minor league cards and gave me a lot of publicity. However, some of Beckett's credibility with me was lost when they refused to change their designation of Cal's 1980 Charlotte card as the "W3TV" card. They are so convinced that it is the "W3TV" card that they even changed my comments of "WBTV" to "W3TV". Long story short, someone once upon a time gave the card the designation of "W3TV". I can understand the confusion, especially if you look at the front of the card. However, there is more than enough evidence to prove that the cards are "WBTV". I even produced an original Charlotte program insert calling the cards the "WBTV" cards. Still not good enough.

Let me add that Beckett has done a service to the Ripken minor league community by detecting counterfeit 1981 WTF Ripken cards years before PSA spotted them. However, I wish a respected publication such as Beckett would eliminate confusion by correcting their inaccurate designation for Cal's 1980 Charlotte card.

 

[carrsallstars]

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.

Ditto. I subscribed since about 1989...and I let my subscription run out when they changed the format....

The whole grading service arising out of a price guide company was a total conflict of interest to me. And I felt it showed in the pages and prices.

Plus the fact that they haven't updated some of their prices in about 10 years... (though you only get to view most of them online).

 

[bodiaz]

I quit on it years ago. The prices mean nothing. Completed Ebay auctions is the TRUE price guide.

 

[011873]

I voted yes but theres a note. I am a store owner and carry it for my customers.

I used to carry only the monthly but since it lists a handfull of Baseball prices and 100000000000 prices on Nascar die cast, golf, McFarlanes and Wrestling, you know, stuff that NEVER moves in value, I started carrying the Baseball Plus every time its issued.

 

[predatorkj]

I have started buying less and less of the beckett magazine.I don't care for the multisport one as its too edited.And the bimonthly(I think its bimonthly) seems to only have a few new things in it.I may buy two or three a year now total.I buy one basketball and two football also but I buy a lot less football and basketball than I do baseball.

 

[011873]

Despite what MANY people think, a TON of collectors still go by Beckett.
Granted, the blazing hot stuff or X's or Golds, etc, people mostly go by Ebay.

But most cards sold are ones that arent hot or are top prospects in rare colors.

If this wasnt the case, no one would buy cards are shows.