Beckett values are often way off the mark

[coderedxm]

I understand what you mean Tony/leafsman, but your are dealing with a fictitious "currency." Beckett is not a true evaluation of a card. Take for example, if you were to trade stocks. You are not going to value your prized stock with the valuation of what someone in an office who hasn't updated his stock price in month or even years. You will take the true current value and that's where Ebay Completed Pricing and sometimes COMC show their value.
In most trades where I am trading cards of the same year +/-1 in return, I usually base it off of Beckett Value for ease of the trade, since most the cards will be getting the same treatment... unless there is a big name card in the mix.

Either Way eBay pricing is starting to reign supreme and that's the way it should be.

I use BV, always have, always will. I don't give a flying fadoo what a card "goes for" on ebay, COMC, or any other marketplace.

Why? Because my reason for collecting is not generally financial. Sure, everyone loves a deal when buying, but I am mainly a trader. Trading by sale value is bass ackwards. Let's use your cards listed as an example.

For me, if the BV is equal for both sides, that's my goal. Sure, you can get them on the marketplace for cheap, but if the BV is $20 I can trade it for a $20 card (or two $10 cards).

I trade by BV and sell using a combination of BV and SV (usually a number that falls between the high BV and the average sale price). I don't sell very often so I don't use that very much.

Part of the reason why I don't use sale value when trading is that BV is usually higher regarding the cards I collect. I collect SP Authentic rookies mainly. If the BV of a card is $20, why trade it at the sale value of, say, a dollar? That makes ZERO sense to me. If the card sells for a dollar but has a BV of $20, I take the BV.

The other part of the reason I have, and will continue to, use BV when trading is because I don't have PayPal. Trying to acquire a card that sells for a dollar is difficult without a PayPal account and sending a dollar by hidden cash isn't worth the cost of postage.

[Leafsman]

I understand what you mean Tony/leafsman, but your are dealing with a fictitious "currency." Beckett is not a true evaluation of a card. Take for example, if you were to trade stocks. You are not going to value your prized stock with the valuation of what someone in an office who hasn't updated his stock price in month or even years. You will take the true current value and that's where Ebay Completed Pricing and sometimes COMC show their value.
In most trades where I am trading cards of the same year +/-1 in return, I usually base it off of Beckett Value for ease of the trade, since most the cards will be getting the same treatment... unless there is a big name card in the mix.

Either Way eBay pricing is starting to reign supreme and that's the way it should be.

That's the problem I have...cards are NOT - and I repeat - NOT stocks and they shouldn't be compared to or treated as such. Tired of the "buy low, sell high" or "get it while it's hot" silliness. If you want to make money and that is your primary concern, card collecting is NOT the way to do it. Period. Get a financial adviser and diversify your portfolio. You will be better off in the long run doing that than trying to make money from pieces of cardboard. They are called 'trading cards' for a reason.

Technically, all forms of value are fictitious. Here's a novel idea - why don't people start putting their own values on their cards and forget what the BV is or what it sells for? To heck with ebay and BV. You'll have a few yahoos who will overprice, but it can't be any worse.

[Maggot]

If you want to make money and that is your primary concern, card collecting is NOT the way to do it.

I don't think anyone is talking about making money here. We're talking about not wanting to give away a treasured HOF's autograph in exchange for a $.25 insert card of Spezza just because they've been assigned the same fictitious value by Beckett (who doesn't seem to care enough to update their values as the years go by).

[theboxbreaker96]

That's the problem I have...cards are NOT - and I repeat - NOT stocks and they shouldn't be compared to or treated as such. Tired of the "buy low, sell high" or "get it while it's hot" silliness. If you want to make money and that is your primary concern, card collecting is NOT the way to do it. Period. Get a financial adviser and diversify your portfolio. You will be better off in the long run doing that than trying to make money from pieces of cardboard. They are called 'trading cards' for a reason.

But Card collecting is the fun way to do it with a sport that we all enjoy. Every hobby has a price that's what makes it a hobby. Whether its Coins, Stamps, Cars, Paintings, old newspapers or anything else. They all have a currency and that's what makes it fun. If all cards had no currency I wouldn't be here collecting. If hobbies didn't have a currency and chase very few people would be involved. My cards are worth something that's what has me in the hobby. I'm constantly buying and reselling cards from ebay and such and I enjoy the profits I get. It helps build my collection. You complain cause they are worth something. Without a value this hobby or any hobby wouldn't be what it is today.

Here's a novel idea - why don't people start putting their own values on their cards and forget what the BV is or what it sells for? To heck with ebay and BV. You'll have a few yahoos who will overprice, but it can't be any worse.

Isnt that what we do anyways? Most of us don't use an obsolete guide that's not even correct tell us what our cards are worth anymore. We use the market to set our own prices according to that. Yeah some yahoos overprice sure but its certainly better than having a magazine tell us what our cards are worth. But if it works for you then go for it. Unfortunately it doesn't work for most of us

[10-4 collector]

Beckett is BS. I never use that. I'm a Habs collector. I'd be willing to give the full beckett price on a lot of Montreal cards, especially the centennial cards from 08-09. For example, the Beliveau-Koivu dual auto is listed for 80$! This card would easily sell for over 250$ on ebay, so is the Lafleur-Richer 80$, seen one sell for over 250$. Inserts listed for 20$ is ridiculous. You can't sell them to anybody for 0.25c. Beckett has been on the decline for awhile now.

[87sluggo]

If I could sell my collection for what Beckett says it's worth, I'd pay for the shipping on those 13,000 cards in a heartbeat. I've paid wayyyyyyyyyyy under BV for most of my stuff and wayyyyyyyyy over for some of it. In the end, the only "value" it has it what it's worth to me

[coderedxm]

That's the problem I have...cards are NOT - and I repeat - NOT stocks and they shouldn't be compared to or treated as such. Tired of the "buy low, sell high" or "get it while it's hot" silliness. If you want to make money and that is your primary concern, card collecting is NOT the way to do it. Period. Get a financial adviser and diversify your portfolio. You will be better off in the long run doing that than trying to make money from pieces of cardboard. They are called 'trading cards' for a reason.

Technically, all forms of value are fictitious. Here's a novel idea - why don't people start putting their own values on their cards and forget what the BV is or what it sells for? To heck with ebay and BV. You'll have a few yahoos who will overprice, but it can't be any worse.

Cards may not be Stocks per-say, but when cards have a fluctuating value based off of: New Product Release, Players on a hot or cold streak, traded to a different team, retirement or even death, they do have an ever changing value that Beckett does not keep updated. By all means why not 'Buy Low' & 'Sell High' I'm not making hockey cards a business, but if I snipe something on ebay for dirt cheap, I'm not going to sell it for the same price I bought it for, this allows me to have a little extra Hobby Dollars.

If some "yahoo" puts a ridiculous price on a card, then don't buy it. Truthfully the only "Yahoo"s are the idiots at Beckett, I'm sorry Tony, there are tons of examples above of how Beckett is absolutely Useless, outdated and in my eyes the absolute worst thing of the hobby.
As I said before Beckett is sometimes a guideline that will give you an idea of what the value is. But there are too many traders who treat it as gospel. Once Beckett is gone, what will you use?

[30ranfordfan]

I have not read a beckett in a years. I think the OP nailed it. Those cards are not equal.

There are two main problems with Beckett. Lots of people have posted about the fact that they do not update much of their data. I would suggest that for recent releases... they're actually just using forumlas. Player X on Team Y, in set Z - They just punch it into some (fairly accurate) algorithm, assign that value, and they're done with it. I don't believe they actually do very much sales tracking.

The biggest problem with Beckett though, is the readers, and their lack of understanding of what they're reading. They have been publishing that magazine since the late 80s, and it still seems most people can not read it right. There is no such thing as a $20 card in Beckett. It simply does not exist - but 99% of the time, that's what people will say they have (if they use Beckett).

There are two columns with two prices next to a card. One is a HIGH value, and one is a LOW value. These two numbers are supposed to reflect an expected range in which the card will sell for..... and while older stuff (like the cards mentioned in the OP) are very out of whack, if you actually read those numbers like a range for current releases... they're usually close to accurate.

Of course a range sucks for someone who wants to trade based on BV. Readers just look at the high value for all cards involved, and declare that's what they're worth.

The problem is the listing should look something like this:

99-00 UD Century Legends Signatures Johnny Bucyk $10 / $20
97-98 Donruss Studio Hard Hats Insert Forsberg /3000 $5 / $20
03-04 Upper Deck Shooting Stars Insert Spezza $5 / $20

(I just made up low value numbers - especially the Spezza, I doubt could even get $5)

If the Bucyk is written as $10 - $20, but routinely gets $20..... and the Forsberg is listed as $5-$20, routinely gets $5.... why do readers of beckett insist these cards are worth the same? IMO, that's the biggest problem with their price guide.

[Leafsman]

Cards may not be Stocks per-say, but when cards have a fluctuating value based off of: New Product Release, Players on a hot or cold streak, traded to a different team, retirement or even death, they do have an ever changing value that Beckett does not keep updated. By all means why not 'Buy Low' & 'Sell High' I'm not making hockey cards a business, but if I snipe something on ebay for dirt cheap, I'm not going to sell it for the same price I bought it for, this allows me to have a little extra Hobby Dollars.

If some "yahoo" puts a ridiculous price on a card, then don't buy it. Truthfully the only "Yahoo"s are the idiots at Beckett, I'm sorry Tony, there are tons of examples above of how Beckett is absolutely Useless, outdated and in my eyes the absolute worst thing of the hobby.
As I said before Beckett is sometimes a guideline that will give you an idea of what the value is. But there are too many traders who treat it as gospel. Once Beckett is gone, what will you use?

At that time, I will stop collecting.

I want to highlight something you said:

"New Product Release, Players on a hot or cold streak, traded to a different team, retirement or even death". Why the heck do any of those factors matter?? Look, Patrick Kane will always be Patrick Kane. There is no reason in the world why his cards should ever drop - not a trade, an injury, slow start, even going to jail or death. He's Patrick freakin' Kane. I don't understand why collectors de-value cards of players who get traded or injured. If the player is a star or superstar (of which there are few, in my book), the value should hold because the player is still the player and his accomplishments should speak for themselves.

I get it - lots of collectors collect certain players or certain teams. I'll never be that type of collector. If I started collecting Patrick Kane and he gets traded - and I follow some collectors' examples and trade his cards because he's no longer with Chicago - I have just wasted years of effort and lots of money collecting a player that got traded.

I am not "dyed in the wool" BV however; I have made successful trades with collectors who use SV (shout out to @canucksfan007). Many of the cards in my collection DO NOT require a BV since they are graded. For ungraded cards, I'll use BV.

[Leafsman]

I have not read a beckett in a years. I think the OP nailed it. Those cards are not equal.

There are two main problems with Beckett. Lots of people have posted about the fact that they do not update much of their data. I would suggest that for recent releases... they're actually just using forumlas. Player X on Team Y, in set Z - They just punch it into some (fairly accurate) algorithm, assign that value, and they're done with it. I don't believe they actually do very much sales tracking.

The biggest problem with Beckett though, is the readers, and their lack of understanding of what they're reading. They have been publishing that magazine since the late 80s, and it still seems most people can not read it right. There is no such thing as a $20 card in Beckett. It simply does not exist - but 99% of the time, that's what people will say they have (if they use Beckett).

There are two columns with two prices next to a card. One is a HIGH value, and one is a LOW value. These two numbers are supposed to reflect an expected range in which the card will sell for..... and while older stuff (like the cards mentioned in the OP) are very out of whack, if you actually read those numbers like a range for current releases... they're usually close to accurate.

Of course a range sucks for someone who wants to trade based on BV. Readers just look at the high value for all cards involved, and declare that's what they're worth.

The problem is the listing should look something like this:

99-00 UD Century Legends Signatures Johnny Bucyk $10 / $20
97-98 Donruss Studio Hard Hats Insert Forsberg /3000 $5 / $20
03-04 Upper Deck Shooting Stars Insert Spezza $5 / $20

(I just made up low value numbers - especially the Spezza, I doubt could even get $5)

If the Bucyk is written as $10 - $20, but routinely gets $20..... and the Forsberg is listed as $5-$20, routinely gets $5.... why do readers of beckett insist these cards are worth the same? IMO, that's the biggest problem with their price guide.

I like your point here.

The thing is, I don't have the time to scour the marketplace for five hours a day to find that hypothetical Spezza for $5. Chances are it would take some time to find it.