Venting- BGS Beckett Grading Disaster This Weekend

[DMCNABB1999]

Hey what's up guys. I don't post on here as much as I used to, but I just wanted to vent about my experience with Beckett Grading Services (BGS) this weekend. Felt like venting to the card community, people who understand the lingo, would be better served than venting to friends & family who don't understand the situation as much. This is a long story so I just wanted to say if you took the time to read it I can't thank you enough.

So I'm your normal collector (I'm based right outside Detroit, Michigan). I work a lot, have family commitments, & that's unfortunately slowed my trading down quite a bit for the last several years. I don't get to do as much in the hobby as I used to. I get to go to maybe 1, if I'm lucky, 2 out of state shows a year. Unfortunately this year the money wasn't there to go out of state and actually stay at a hotel for a few days for a show, but BGS posts their show schedule on their website, & I saw they were going to be in Fishers, Indiana (Right outside Indianapolis), a 4 hour drive from the Detroit area and felt like this would be a good opportunity to get some stuff graded, get home in a day, & go to a show I've never been to before.

I planned this a month in advance, took the time off work (Unpaid vacation days) & even worked extra shifts, including working doubles & Saturday's to have some extra money for the show and to make up for the two unpaid vacation days I'd be taking.

So I leave Saturday morning and make the 4 hour trip. First thing I do when I get there is I find the BGS booth so I can get my stuff back before the show was over. BGS was offering the Raw Card Review service at the show, a service I've used at live shows for years, which has always been $10 a card. So I get to the booth and the BGS employee said they were hit hard with orders due to a show the previous day & today & they were only accepting two things:

A: You give them a normal order for slabbing they'll take back to Dallas, Texas and process when they get back.
or
B. You pay $25 PER CARD for the Raw Card Review for a 90 minute turnaround time.

Please keep in mind if you're paying $25 per card for the RCR, you also have to resubmit the card for another $15 minimum at their lowest level return time, so pretty much you'd be paying $40 PER CARD for the RCR plus slab which for the stuff I brought ($20-$100) cards, isn't even worth it. The only cards that you'll do that for is high end cards.

So I'm sitting there upset at what I'm hearing & I go sit down with my order forms to decide what I'm gonna do. I didn't know BGS could just make up prices as they go because THEY made a mistake by not staffing the show correctly & it says nowhere on their website they can do that with the RCR. I sat there for an hour & deciding neither option was right for me. I'm not dumping $25, up to $40, per card into cards that were just low-mid end cards I just wanted to get a grade on for my personal collection or resell on eBay & I didn't want to wait a month to get my cards back if I gave them a normal order.

I just decided to pack up & leave since BGS was the only reason why I went to the show in the first place, but I wanted to make it known to the BGS employee, who was arrogant from the moment I met him, how I felt. THEY (BGS) only brought TWO GRADERS to the show, THEY understaffed the show, I made it known to the employee & asked him why ME (the customer) has to pay over 2.5 TIMES NORMAL PRICING for THEIR MISTAKE not bringing enough graders to the show and getting overwhelmed with orders. The extremely arrogant employee at the time when I made the remarks came up with every excuse INCLUDING BLAMING ME for the situation. He said they've only done this show two times & didn't know how the turnout was gonna be (Which I can accept). Then he tried to belittle me when I went at him about not bringing enough graders to a packed show and he said, "You want me to bring more guys out here, pay their expenses, for a show that we didn't know the how the turnout was gonna be just for your 30 card order."

Remember this BGS, I took the time planning this for over a month, I took unpaid vacation days & went out of state to come see you, & this is how you treat a customer of over 10 years?

At this point I'm getting heated, there are kids & people around us & didn't want to do something I was going to regret in another state so I just told him, "Alright that's fine" and I walked away to my car & went right home to Michigan after spending 1 hour at the show.

When I got home and chilled out & got to collect my thoughts it hit me. The BGS that operates today isn't the one I grew up with when I was a teenager (I'm now 30). The BGS 10 years ago, the one that got me into grading, the one that always took care of me for as long as I can remember is long gone. I get that grading is subjective, but I enjoy it & believe you collect whatever you want to collect. It's a hobby. I wasn't trying to get a deal from them, I just wanted the normal pricing. I've ignored the recent negative stories on social media that I've been hearing about BGS because of that reason that they've always taken care of me, but now I probably believe that rumors about BGS are probably closer to the truth than they are false. That if you're not PWCC, Probstein, & one of the heavy hitters in the hobby spending thousands of dollars sending in hundreds of card per submission, then you're not worth it to BGS anymore. The new BGS, the standards & quality have gotten worse, the pricing has gotten higher, they've pretty much eliminated the little guy (Me) from the equation, & the arrogant employee I ran into would of never been apart of BGS 10 years ago, literally the worst BGS employee I've ever met. Anyways that'll do it for this rant/vent.

Again if you took the time to read. Thank you. I'll be doing a lot of reevaluating to see if I want to do business with BGS anymore in the meantime.

Matt (DMCNABB1999)

[pwaldo]

Beckett was sold awhile back from the original owner to a mega corporation that doesn't even have ties in America. It is a company from India I believe. You can tell they only care about squeezing out every cent out of Beckett because they have gone downhill hard recently. I was at their site the other day and saw an article I wanted to read. It is blocked unless you are a subscriber. Nobody is going to pay for articles on the internet and it sure as hell won't be from a bunch of nobodys at Beckett. I suspect they are just hanging on because of the grading by the big boys now so they hold all the power over Beckett. They are vital for their existence so they will give all the attention to them and not you and me.

[DMCNABB1999]

Yea I knew there were changes made, but I didn't know the extent of them so I appreciate the info. I know what you mean about the them try to squeeze money out of you. I got a strange call about 6 months ago from a Beckett employee (with extremely broken English) asking me to change my monthly subscription to their Online Price Guide to a once a year payment. Felt let they were trying to get more money out of me because I didn't request any info or call from them. I don't know I'm just extremely bummed out right now. Either way appreciate the reply.

Matt

Beckett was sold awhile back from the original owner to a mega corporation that doesn't even have ties in America. It is a company from India I believe. You can tell they only care about squeezing out every cent out of Beckett because they have gone downhill hard recently. I was at their site the other day and saw an article I wanted to read. It is blocked unless you are a subscriber. Nobody is going to pay for articles on the internet and it sure as hell won't be from a bunch of nobodys at Beckett. I suspect they are just hanging on because of the grading by the big boys now so they hold all the power over Beckett. They are vital for their existence so they will give all the attention to them and not you and me.

[markw2856]

Unfortunately this is the new norm for Beckett. I went to a St Louis show in the last year and was given the same option of $25 RCR or taking with them. Best advice I can give you is see if a local dealer sends into Beckett/PSA/etc. That is how I do it and saves $ as well.

Also probably had the same guy at Beckett booth as you. I had a real arrogant -rick

[DMCNABB1999]

Yea I just got a call back today and pretty much confirmed what you said. Like I said I've been going to live shows for years & this is the first time I've ever been charged $25 for the RCR, it's always been $10. What he explained to me is the $10 is for the RCR that they'd take back with them to Dallas, another first for me as I don't see the point of doing an RCR and not getting them back the same day. Like I said in the rant you'd have to resubmit the card and get hit with another fee. I still think I'm in the right here, they didn't bring enough graders to the show so the only thing they were offering was the $25 per card on the 90 min. turnaround time knowing the price would slow down orders & they could catch up from the show the previous day's show. Either way these changes are absolutely awful. I unfortunately don't have the option of a local dealer around here that I know of offering anything like that, but I wish I did because that sounds good. Thanks for the reply.

Matt

Unfortunately this is the new norm for Beckett. I went to a St Louis show in the last year and was given the same option of $25 RCR or taking with them. Best advice I can give you is see if a local dealer sends into Beckett/PSA/etc. That is how I do it and saves $ as well.

Also probably had the same guy at Beckett booth as you. I had a real arrogant -rick

[pwaldo]

Also probably had the same guy at Beckett booth as you. I had a real arrogant -rick

Supposedly they only have 24 guys working all the vintage and modern grading stuff. That's why it takes FOREVER to get stuff returned from them. They are swamped and only spend 90 seconds to 3 minutes on each card when you mail them in.

[jplcom]

Hey man, I'm really sorry to hear about the cruddy experience you had. It's hugely disappointing when you have expectations based on repeated experiences you've had then had them upended.

I didn't know BGS could just make up prices as they go because THEY made a mistake by not staffing the show correctly & it says nowhere on their website they can do that with the RCR.

Seems like they decided that due to demand they wouldn't do any more RCR and forced people into the "While You Wait Preview" option they have listed towards the bottom of their site.. As a business they can follow supply and demand for their services and choose to charge more. Sucks when it squeezes people like us out, but until demand goes down that's the world we live in.

THEY (BGS) only brought TWO GRADERS to the show, THEY understaffed the show,

He said they've only done this show two times & didn't know how the turnout was gonna be (Which I can accept).

I can't fault BGS here. We all know their backlog back in Dallas is HUGE, with the non-guaranteed turnaround clocking in at 14 months. If they bring too many graders with them and they aren't working 100% of the time, that's a backlog back at HQ that isn't getting cut down any faster. And no way in hell they bring a backlog of submissions with them to do on the site if the card show didn't have enough submitters.

Then he tried to belittle me when I went at him about not bringing enough graders to a packed show and he said, "You want me to bring more guys out here, pay their expenses, for a show that we didn't know the how the turnout was gonna be just for your 30 card order."

The spirit that guy intended it was right but he comes across as a large adult baby with a delivery like that. In this hobby, customer service is everything and with that kind of condescension, he's asking you to go to PSA or SGC. Even if unknown forecast is the truth, that is not the way you go about delivering that message. Bad customer service on his part but it keeps in line with how they treat their customers.

Again if you took the time to read. Thank you. I'll be doing a lot of reevaluating to see if I want to do business with BGS anymore in the meantime.

I won't spend a dime on any Beckett service until the corporate direction for the company isn't squeezing every last dime out of collectors. I understand they are a business but they can still turn a profit while being a benevolent force in the hobby.

[DMCNABB1999]

They replied to me on Twitter as well as a call from a Beckett employee (Thick accent) & they decided to double down on the nonsense. Yea either way I decided until more customer friendly changes are made I won't directly support BGS as of now & having an Indian influence in a predominantly American sports cards industry just rubs me the wrong way. Anyways this is just what feels right to me.

Matt

Supposedly they only have 24 guys working all the vintage and modern grading stuff. That's why it takes FOREVER to get stuff returned from them. They are swamped and only spend 90 seconds to 3 minutes on each card when you mail them in.

[jplcom]

having an Indian influence in a predominantly American sports cards industry just rubs me the wrong way.
Matt

What are your thoughts about having an Italian influence in a predominantly American sports card industry? Panini is an Italian company with a US subsidiary.

[doniceage]

Sorry to hear but the big companies do not care about the little guys sad to say.

Don