The History, Rise, and Fall of Beckett
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ม.ค. 2025
- BASEBALL CARD COLLECTOR INVESTOR DEALER (in that order)
Chris Sewall here.
If you have a collection you would be interested in selling me, you can email me at:
sewallsportscards@gmail.com
collectorinvestordealer.com
============================================================
If you really enjoy my content, you're welcome to support me and my channel with a donation via PayPal.
Link to PayPal donation: paypal.me/Chri....
============================================================
YOU CAN CHECK OUT SOME OF MY CARDS FOR SALE:
My COMC account: www.comc.com/U....
My eBay store: www.ebay.com/u...
============================================================
You can also support the channel but checking out some of our quality affiliates:
CIA Auctions: collectorinves...
Card Hedge: www.cardhedger...
============================================================
CHANNEL SCHEDULE (all videos post 9:00am EST):
Some WEDNESDAY: High Rollers/Regular Rollers/Misc.
Every SATURDAY: Miscellaneous (Stories, Reveals, Rankings, etc)
=============================================================
baseball cards, football cards, basketball cards, hockey cards, soccer cards, t206 Honus Wagner, 1952 topps mickey mantle, 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson, 1933 goudey babe ruth, 1989 upper deck Ken Griffey Jr, 1993 SP Derek Jeter, 1981 Topps Joe Montana, 2017 Patrick Mahomes, 1996 Topps Chrome refractor Kobe Bryant, 1986 fleer michael jordan RC, 2003 exquisite, 2003 topps chrome gold refractor LeBron James, 2000 Tom Brady, 2017 Patrick Mahomes, Mike Trout, Steph Curry, Lionel Messi, National Treasures, 2012 panini prizm, silver prizm, panini flawless, ebay, PSA, Beckett, BGS, SGC, BVG, GEM MINT 10, PRISTINE 10, HGA, CSG, GMA, Goldin auction, Heritage auction, Pwcc, probstein123, COMC, starstock, card ladder, bowman chrome xfractor, Rookie card, rookie patch autograph, RPA, donruss optic holo
Who else has a pile of Beckett price guides from their youth they can’t bring themselves to toss out?
They're fun to look through, just to see how much the hobby has changed in 30-40 years. Even the advertising is interesting.
I had a couple dozen along with *hundreds* of car magazines dating back to the early 90s that I finally threw out when I was stuck in the house and cleaned it during COVID lockdown
I bought the first two Beckett paperback guides at a bookstore in downtown Bloomington, IN. I left the hobby in '80 and returned during the pandemic to liquidate most of my childhood PC.
I had all of them from about ‘88-‘94. Beautiful books. I had doubles, one for looking at and one for saving. Mom tossed all but about 4 she didn’t know about
I still have 4 boxes of them! (Have a handful of hockey, basketball, football too). Take up a lot of space but still hard to get rid of...everyone couldn't wait to get the next one and the cool athletes on the cover. Good for auto's.
The photography was great in the old magazines. And it was cool how they advertised the big card shows pre-internet. Also enjoyed things like "who's hot, who's cold" etc. It was great growing up in the late 80s collecting cards.
it wasn't just the "big" shows. its was ALL the shows. It was my primary source for the date of my local 40 table monthly show in the 90s.
I really miss the 90's and early 00's. What a time it was to be alive and collecting sports cards.
As a collector first, I see BGS slabs as a way to secure value. I collect cards, not slabs. I'll happily pay half price for a card of similar or equal quality.
I don't get it. How do you secure value with BGS slabs?
depends. often they are “half the price” because the market understands that it would grade lower with PSA or SGC. that said, if the card is rare and you are getting a discount why not.
@@justinszabo5205 as a seasoned collector, I can assure you there's not much difference between the companies. Despite what the market or influencers will have you believe. PSA has become a cult following.
Ahhhhhh the good ol' Beckett up arrow
3 points--
1. it is interesting how a company with as much "influence" in the history of this hobby could fall so far and become irrelevant.
2. It has created buying opputtunites for big cards. I am sure savy collectors are exploiting this avenue already.
3. If the prices get cheap, it is a nice authentication option & to get sub grades.
Just my thoughts after watching. Thanks for the video, Chris.
Really a shame. I used to acquire my Beckett Baseball price guides from a friend second hand. I didn't really have easy access to them, but he did (and probably wouldn't have spent my money on one anyway since there were cards I wanted lol), but he would give me his old one whenever he got a newer issue and I would treasure it. Seeing those 1984 Don Mattingly rookies skyrocket instilled a fascination in me that persists to this day.
Love this mini history lesson. I personally don’t mind the 9.5 gem mint grade, but it’s clear the hobby as a whole thinks differently. People love their 10s :)…And I had no idea Beckett Marketplace was so wonky. Yikes.
I vividly remember entering the grading world in 2005 with BGS. I remember PSA having a reputation as “cheap”, and a BGS 9 outselling a PSA 9. I remember thinking, “Why would anyone want to grade with PSA?” and also it feeling weird or undesirable to buy something in a PSA slab. They were just so obviously secondary. Oh, how times have changed.
I had the same experience. I didn't learn until later that there was a huge controversy with PSA over grading a T206 Honus Wagner where it got a high grade and then the grader later admitted he knew it was trimmed.
Hi Chris. I am one of those guys who used to buy their baseball monthly magazine. It's truly sad. Thanks for sharing.
Collector, investor, dealer, historian
Thx for the history of Beckett. Yes would like to see them survive, but if they are not evolving then they will die. Thx again, Chris.
Great vid Chris! They also pissed off the online guide subscribers by capping the number of searches you can do per month. They're a hot mess right now.
I still use the 1989 thick purple cover price guide as a log book to let me know how many of each player i have since i'm a set builder from 1953 on. I call it my "bible" and it rarely leaves my sight!
Very cool, and smart!
Great presentation, Chris. I wasn’t aware of the current CEO’s plight. That explains a lot. Thanks for your efforts.
Lovely case study. Thanks for the insight chris.
The fall of Beckett not existing in the card world is sad😢... all my childhood from the card trading industry is almost gone. I still have my Beckett pricing guides I rode my bike to my local card shop to purchase. Anytime I wanna feel young again I pull them out and look at all the notes, prices, pictures and smell that paper... Still have the cards too, I wanna get a lot of them graded but don't want to fork over 40 bucks per and wait 9 months!
Yeah, the overall association with Beckett and my card collecting in the late 80's and mid 90's is undeniable. The crazy pricing in the Beckett Marketplace is ridiculous. I don't understand that at all. Those arrows next to YOUR card really did feel good. I really liked the Hot/Cold Lists, as well. Excellent rundown of Beckett. Thanks Chris
Fact!! Early on he manipulated the market!!
This is a very well done video. I personally loved BGS, the way it looked and how it explains how and why the card got the grade it got. I remember in 2004 the BGS 9.5 Lebron James Topps Chrome is higher than PSA 10. Up until 2022 I still view BGS at the top 2 card grading company. But the way it has fallen from the top is kind of a legendary story. Many people now use BGS only for super expensive cards like Kobe and Jordan auto that they don't want to pay PSA upcharge. I personally still have some lebron BGS slabs. However, when I sell at a show, it is PSA or nothing as most buyer don't even want BGS. Sad but true story.
Seeing the pic of the old guide's up/down arrows unlocked my childhood memories. Oh silly naive me thinking my Phil Plantier rookie was going to increase in value.
Don't forget Todd Van Poppel, or about a dozen plus other rookies between 1987-1990.
Phil really let us down. I still have a handful of his 91 Stadium Club rooks. Ugh.
I had a Beckett Racing subscription for at least 1 year back in the late 90s. Aside from cards, they also listed diecast (almost entirely NASCAR) in their price guide section. A 2-for-1 deal
Their valuations were absolute shit.
Great as always. Beckett should hire you to clean up their marketplace.
I also grew up with Beckett monthly price guides. Back then it was the Bible of the card collecting world. I particularly loved the hot pulls of the month section where they showcased various submissions of awesome pulls.
To me, they really fell off when internet and eBay come to be more commonplace where people can find more recent card values based on sold valuation. And over the years, they’ve really fallen off with inaccurate price guides. Most of the time it seems like it’s just a reprint from the previous month’s prices without many people being devoted to market research. Still, I would love to see it continue and maybe make a comeback of sorts.
I always wanted to know how Becket came out with those price guides every month. Like how they compile the prices. Where do they get all the data points especially back in the 80s before the internet was as big as it is today.
@timotheegoulet1511 I think we now know..they made them up..like their grades
Beckett’s explanation was that they had price checkers in the field at card shows, auctions and LCS’s in markets across the U.S. That’s what they said, dubious as it is.
Totally agree - it's a shame what has happened. Used the Organize feature to not only list/organize my collection - but averaged about 200 trades a year. Forums use to humm and learned a lot from some of the best most honest people in the hobby. Could care less anymore....however still use it to help identify pre-2020 cards. Thanks!
Beckett will be first ballot Hall of Fame for sure. I'm buying only BGS from now on.
Excellent epi, Chris, TY. Since I just sent 14 ticket stubs to Beckett for grading I was concerned to see the header on this one. My fingers are crossed. From some limited past experience w Beckett I think they do the job well - but from inside a black hole. Radio silence for a couple of months is excruciating. And then there’s their site, which tracks nothing for ya. After listening to this episode, this could be my last submission to Beckett if they give me a reason to drop them. Which would be a shame. The nameplate is still Gold. Someone good should buy them.
Beckett is a great database of cards, and I use it often to look for cards of players I collect. But everything else they have is outdated for the hobby.
Agreed!
So sad to see. I have a nice stack of Becketts I will always keep
PSA and there upcharges are crazy. So many things with PSA that would take any other company out of business.
Impressed with CGC market share. Always liked their slabs. High quality.
Probably heavily skewed toward trading card games, specifically pokemon.
their grading is crap
Used to love seeing that my card that was worth .01 x .05 is now up to .02 x .08. Boom!!!
I believe when Beckett says whatever card "Raw" in near mint condition. When graded... the value translates over to $20. So as the card sits raw. It may not be worth $20. But when graded it is worth $20. So the true value is $20.
Beckett started before grading existed. What did the price represent in the 80s?
It was probably 2013-2014 when I got back into collecting. I initially gravitated towards Beckett slabs. I thought the slab itself was a little better made than PSA and I liked the sub-grades as well. I have, since then, moved to PSA and SGC and I actually only have one Beckett slab in my entire collection now. It's a Gem Mint Topps Barry Sanders RC with 10 centering. If it wasn't for the 10 centering, I probably would have let it go too. I do find it interesting though, as much as PSA outsells Beckett slabs in just about every grade, Beckett slabs still sell for more in the Pristine 10 grades, if I'm not mistaken. I think the Black Label 10 is awesome. That kind of remains the cream of the crop. They sell for more than any other grade, out there, again, if I am not mistaken. It's a bit of a weird anomaly, but it's understandable. Actually, now that I bring it up, there's probably limited data, but I wonder how an SGC Gold Label 10 would match up against a Beckett Black Label 10. And then where does the PSA 10 fall in among those.
I am one of those 34k cards that Beckett grades monthly... the maddening thing is that they can't ever get your cards graded on time.... why is that??
I do enjoy their articles in Beckett Vintage, they are well researched and written. The price guides, however, are just wildly inaccurate.
I’ve been watching this slow fall with great sadness as well. Beckett has really been the only grading company that can fairly grade the thick RPA cards from National Treasures, Immaculate, The Cup, Exquisite, Flawless and Dynasty. I mean, a card Beckett would give a BGS 9.5 would end up a PSA 6. I sure hope another company can jump on this opportunity to raise them from the ashes.
What time is it? 8:37 Oh, One o'clock. Thanks.
Excellent video. Would be interested in seeing a video comparing SGC and PSA card values. Also it’s hard to fathom PSA grading 1 million cards per month….every month. Where are all these slabs? Picture 1 million slabbed cards in a room and then x 12. How long will the hobby support the economy of this glut of graded cards?
Beckett just needed minor adjustments over the years to stay relevant: tracking, lable updates (security). Neither would require significant capital. In regards to their grading system, i think it could've worked if they relabled 9.5 as "Mint+", 10 as "Gem Mint" and 10 BL as "Pristine"
Seeing the PSA 10 price from 2018 until now is the craziest part of the video... we wall wish we had stashed quite a few cards back then to sell during the pandemic and even now for way higher, even with inflation 🙈
I used to buy Becket guides even in the late 80s but at some point they just started charging too much per monthly issue and I could not afford them. I would buy them used months later.
Is there any chance of not getting cards back from Beckett that were sent in for grading? What are your thoughts about it?
I don't think that's something to be concerned about
I still like the granularity. Drives me nuts when PSA has weak 10s. For high end cards, no excuse for that.
Beckett was the sports card Bible in the 90s
Thanks Chris, I did have some vegetables today, thanks for the reminder 😂
Let's not forget about beckett true downfall..THEIR ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE AND ZERO TRANSPARENCY!
PSA is much worse on both counts and it hasnt hurt them. I dont believe becketts poor customer service made a big difference.
I totally agree. No tracking on site after U submit. No confirmation email after you submit (it comes a week after you mail your stuff and they receive and log). No way of knowing what stage your submission is in. Radio silence.
The 1990 Topps Frank Thomas NNOF was $5 😂 Where is the time machine?!?
and conversely the Canseco rated rookie was $120 at one point!!
one thing ill add is that one of the key factors in becketts downfall is their grades are far too kind as the condition of cards goes down. its very common for an older card to have, say , a bgs grade 9 where you can basically guarantee its a 7-8 at any other grader. thats a problem introduced by the subgrades- a card with surface flaws, corner flaws, edge flaws and centering issues that mean it has subgrade 8 for everything is not an 8! its a 4-6. SGC are especially good at understanding this. its why subgrades are flawed. yes its handy for a 9 vs 9.5 vs 10 but it means anything else is over-graded. they need more than anything to update their algorithm for that or ditch them entirely
if i was beckett i would 1. fix the grading scale and toss out subgrades 2. i would focus on my point of difference being the thickness and robustness of the slabs along with the premium labels - they are undeniably prettier than any other companies. with a solid dash of nostalgia in their as well.
Beckett grading is the same as Beckett magazine?
Same company, yes
Chris, one issue with the LeFlop example, the title listed it wrong, as BVG, which made it sell for less. If proper BGS, more eyes. Just proves your point, they were equal or better than before COVID sheep arrived. Keep up the great content!
Beckett Marketplace Prices - I don't use it, but I am sure those prices probably reflect their price guide prices. I think Beckett's issues are reflected in their price guide. Their prices are so high compared to the market.
I used there Beckett price guide to find out the value of my card.
I don’t know if your being polite or just do not want to mention it but Beckett has also has been caught with its hand in the cookie jar giving preferred submitters a ridiculous number of “10’ and “9.5” on the cards they submitted. I forgot when the story broke but I believe it was pre-Covid. You can go on some of ghe chat boards and find it. It killed any claim of legitimacy Beckett had at that time. I’d never buy a Beckett graded card…
Sad to see this for Beckett. I have the first edition baseball card Beckett price guide from 1979. It’s funny to look back & see a 1952 Mantle valued at $500 or a T206 Wagner for $4800!
lol Mantle for 500 ? ouch that hurts , would love to find one at that price today .
I still occasionally look at my old Beckett’s and SCD’s just for the ads. Brett and Yount signing for $10, DiMaggio signing for $35, boxes of 1981 T Racks for $40. And the like. It’s like strolling in a dream world.😅
I still have a membership to the Beckett website. I'm too invested in the spreadsheet of my whole collection to cancel it! If I had a way to export the files I would do it in a heartbeat! Costs me $35 a month for basically nothing.
Seems like an opportunity to buy Beckett and crack the case for a PSA grade
Ohhh...poor Beckett. They've trashed his name ever since he sold.
He trashed his own name….. when he valued a Jose Canseco rookie card at $60
So I should buy BGS 9.5s and regrade to PSA and flip them, I see.
i sold all my cards and put all the money into the hawk tuah crypto coin. Wish me luck
Woof. Prayers for U. This week an investment expert said “don’t invest anything in Crypto that U R not prepared to lose.” I wish U well, sir.
I worked for Beckett for four years as a price guide analyst (1992-1995) and contributed as a writer and this downfall saddens me. Sadly, people think Dr. James Beckett is to blame and has to now constantly explain he isn't responsible for this now garbage company. I think you 🤑and the Snowman ⛄️ should buy Beckett.📈
Wow. TY for your thoughts. Since U worked at Beckett, is it true they had price checkers at card shows, shops and auctions?
Does the death of Beckett mean we will no longer see vintage dealers with a ridiculous quoted "book price" at card shows (which they of course always discount)?
Don’t be afraid to exaggerate Chris, BGS was easily number one, at least for modern cards. The narrative up until maybe 2017 was you always grade modern cards with BGS and vintage with PSA, with the cutoff being somewhere around 1993-1998.
Their comic grading division (CBCS) appears to be doing well.
The Beckett 9.5 program failed large in the end & they made there 10s way to impossible to get. I'm in a tough situation with a 10k+ vintage card in a BVG holder
I haven't seen anything from Beckett that says they are trying to compete or improve, which is too bad because they have such a rich history in the hobby. I can count numerous things I would have done if I was in charge of the company that would have, IMO, made them more competitive and helped them change with the times over the last decade, and they haven't attempted any of them. In fact, they have done things that, IMO, have hurt themselves. The people running it should all be fired, but it doesn't matter, they will either be acquired, or will go under before too long.
I believe regular collectors want the company to succeed-- but when their own actions say that they themselves don't give two shi.... well, suffice it to say they don't inspire much faith in the brand.
While I had subscriptions for Beckett baseball and hockey for years, I'm pretty sure it came out that the company didn't do 'extensive research' on the price changes and just made them up. Beckett was always a bit shady. It seems like this would be a good pickup for Fanatics? Also, there would seem to be an opportunity to purchase BGS slabs, crack them and submit to PSA, if only grading was actually consistent even within a company.
We love beckett. Buy your monthly price guide now
The prices in beckett were based on mint prices
I don't use Beckett anymore because they are slow, more expensive, and I had a weird experience with them over an autographed card. Plus, I do not like their holder and label as well as the others. I'm a color coordinated customer. I use SGC for chrome and white border cards. I use PSA for the HOFers, greats, etc that also look good with the red border; cards with blue or green look awful in their holder. I use CGC for autos, black border, and no border cards. I use HGA for cards with a lot of color.
Very cool
The last straw for me was then they came out and said the Wander Franco Bowman's Best was his true and only rookie due to the checklist. I don't recall the details but I was very turned off by the tone and how they were trying to force the market on what should be collected. It seemed very out of touch like how back in their day printing a price in the magazine set the value. No, it's not 1990 anymore.
A true sad story. They just need the right investor and most of all collector to buy the company.
Same thing is also happening to Topps, unfortunately. Being run into the ground by new ownership that cares only about making the quick dollars off flippers and breakers, not respecting the true collectors that kept the company afloat for decades.
I mean, the only good thing I can think about beckett is the complete checklists. If someone buys them, this is the only thing I think would be valuable.
Chris mentioned several times that Beckett stood still in the marketplace while other companies continued to improve their product. When the first iPhone was introduced, it was light years ahead of every other phone on the market. But imagine if Apple decided to rest on its laurels and not improve the iPhone at all. It seems like that is what has happened to Beckett as a company.
Good comparison
So Beckett would be the Blackberry of the hobby.
Would that mean an old beckett black label is going to be considered a beyond rare item
Maybe you and the Texas Snowman should secure some funding and revive Beckett. And if you do, I want my check every month !
Great!! JB is a shyster
All empires fall . . . Now it's up to El CID and the Snowman to rebuild it.
Yeah, and for the two of us to take down some major crossover scores together.
What about the BGCC fiasco
All of those crazy high values they have for cards is prob a part of the insurance fraud. “Oh ya, we lost $3M worth of cards in that flood…-“according to our price guide”.
Oh, shit. Please God, don’t let that be true.
The Amelia Earhart of the sports card industry.
More like the Nokia
It all went downhill, for Beckett, the day Dr. left the company.
You didn't mention their atrocious customer service... someone will buy the name and repurpose it...
I don't get it. Beckett slabs look the best & they aren't the most expensive.
The modern card industry is just a racket.
The nomenclature of “gem mint” not matching the score between companies is a HUGE problem. Maybe Beckett expected others would follow suit, but they lost.
Take the words “gem mint” off and you are left with a 9.5 vs a 10 and THAT is what drives the sales disparity.
So you're telling me Fanatics is the 2nd owner of Topps? Plus, it remains to this day to be the owner
Yes, Fanatics now owns Topps
While you are accurate in describing Beckett’s “decline”…I see an opportunity for crossover investment.
Would make a hell of a Comeback story for the hobby if it happens!
@@alexmajors7915he means crossing becket graded cards to psa.
Beckett also needed to:
1. Update their old “bulky” Nintendo cartridge style slab and label to stay competitive.
2. Get rid of the “black label” - with so much scandal surrounding the black label and the level of subjectivity in grading already the black label has to go.
When a company like Beckett is sold to another Company whose sole aim is to bleed every penny out of its subscribers this always happens. Star Wars and Marvel are good examples of things being ruined.
Beckett just didnt keep up with the hobby. Who knows why. They did not seem to evolve with the hobby. I knew about the Beckett Market Place and used it a few times but came away unimpressed. I think the biggest thing with Beckett is they did not follow through with their early promise. There is probably a bunch of behind the scenes things that went on at Beckett we don't know about. Maybe we will find out the whole story rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to say one of these days.
As much as people defend sub grades, they hurt Beckett. Everyone who wants a gem mint card, wants the grade to be 10 and to imagine their card is perfect when they get the gem mint grade People really don't want a 9.5 and they certainly don't want 9.5 or a 10 with the "warts" of the card point out via the sub grades.
Internet and social media killed Beckett.
Or they did it to themselves
Yep, Social and Internet killed the Beckett mag. Of course, they also killed newspapers, radio and tv. Sliced and diced their audiences and revenue into bits small enough to feed a mouse.
Have the snowman buy Beckett
So this only proves your just paying for the encapsulation brand name... literally... to each their own I guess
The “Beckett” brand will continue to thrive. Like most companies, it will be done via new ownership.
Chris - Many years ago back in 2012 I bought a SGC 1991 Topps Desert Shield Ken Griffey Jr from you via eBay. At that time SGC graded it 96. I still have the card. The price has gone up in terms of value. What is your opinion on that "older" grading format/scale? Keep up the great content!
Very cool!
I kind of liked the old SGC scale at the time but it is outdated now.
Beckett is going to close bgs and restart under a different acronym with a proper grading scale and updated slabs. But its too late, and it wont work.
They lost my business during covid, holding my cards for 1 year. Negative calls form customer service or the regional rep being a negative Nancy didn't get under my skin but burnt it
It’s prob a dumb mindset, but one thing that I thought always hurt Beckett was the label color of bgs 9. It’s so ugly, I don’t know many that would prefer a psa9 vs the bgs 9 and I think the label is a lowkey big hurdle for them. They should make the color the same as 9.5s
Also Jamie Drysdale blows