Stars, Semi Stars, Commons HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!

[bluejays19]

Hey.....In the back of my hockey becket there is a list of about 20 guys who are stars, and 20 guys who are semi-stars.....which leads me to my 2 questions

1- If they are a semi-star, and unlisted, is there beckett value go as the common card, or the unlisted stars?

2- It only says 20 guys who are stars. Is that IT? or is it just like a small list, because Im sure there are more guys then listed there who would be considered stars.

Thanks for your help.......Ive been confused about this all my life.

[pgrossma]

Once upon a time, Beckett dreamed up a way to streamline their price guide listings by developing lists of minor stars, semistars, and stars, and then generating pricing for these classifications for each set. You could then check which "rank" an unlisted player was in the back of the magazine where a comprehensive list of the players in each category were maintained.

A number of factors led to the breakdown of the system:

*the value of base cards became essentially irrelevant to most player collectors and even many set collectors because the number and cost of these cards both paled in comparision to the number and cost of the inserts associated with each player or set.

*the number of different sets and inserts released by each company continued to increase at a seemingly exponential rate, meaning that no system on earth could be devised to keep Beckett smaller than a Sears catalog short of slashing the price guide listings to utter ribbons.

*maintaining the lists of minor stars, semistars, and stars was a logistical nightmare--tracking the star status of hundreds of players on a monthly basis is, if you think about it, incredibly difficult.

I am not a monthly Beckett subscriber, but I see issues of the magazine periodically. In my casual observation, it currently focuses primarily on keeping a handful of key cards from past years' sets as up-to-date as possible and putting the real energy and detail into providing pricing for the very newest sets. The unlisted star listings are filled in only if they are particularly useful or relevant. In practice, collectors/dealers end up using a lot of intuition to fill in the blanks left by the magazine.

The system more or less works because with the exception of key rookie cards (which get listed every month) and the latest greatest products (which get listed every month), prices for cards just don't change that quickly over time and don't need monthly price updates. Beckett is thus able to produce a monthly magazine of reasonable size containing reasonably useful information, and niche/expert collectors hoping for more detail can use their experience and expertise to fill in the blanks that they care about.

So to answer your questions:

1. Is there a listing for semistars, etc.? Sometimes.

2. Are there really only 20 "unlisted stars"? Practically speaking, no. The list you see is the remnants of a broken system. A smart dealer will use his brain and classify players on his/her own.

Peter G.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Great explanation, pgrossma.

[meuandthelot]

Peter G. said it all