How can Beckett pricing be so bad?

[mikesilvia]

I picked up the newest Beckett Football price guide today. I would say their info is 2 months old and their card prices STINK.

For instance, they have Rex Grossman on the cover with the title "Rex Grossman Owns the Hot List." Alright, maybe 7 weeks ago when he was throwing 3 TDs a game YES. There has been talk of replacing him as the starter for 4 weeks now and he is on the cover of Beckett? How about Ladainian Tomlinson? Drew Brees? Colston? Gore? I could even except the Bears Defense!

Looking at the Top 25 cards they have listed on the Hot List they have Grossman, Romo, Leinert and Leon Washington making up 90% of the list. Are you kidding me? Go to Ebay and you will see a different story.

As a Ladainian Tomlinson fan it irks me to no end that Beckett has not raised his card prices all year with a few exceptions. Mostly his cards have not moved yet he is breaking EVERY record known to man. His cards are selling for 3-4 times Beckett. How embarrassing!

I know Beckett is months behind because if you try to advertise it says your ad will be placed 3 months later. So if you pay today, you get your ad in Beckett in March. How can you claim (and trademark) the phrase, "The Hobby's Most Reliable and Relied-upon Source," when your pricing is so terrible?

Then they also price the graded cards. Talk about a conflict of interest! They value their graded cards higher than everyone else. Gee, I wonder why?

One day someone will come around with true pricing and Beckett is toast!

Mike

[doniceage]

Mike,
Your not knew to the game but the thing is what did you do today. You went out and bought BECKETT. You didn't buy tuff stuff or something else to price your cards. Beckett has a monopoly plain and simple and I can give you evidence that supports that as look at how many quote Beckett as the BIBLE (for better or worse) to each their own.

One of the biggest problems is this and this causes a conflict and fights among traders. As your raising a point of this now L.T. cards are selling like hot cakes 3 to 4 times Beckett book prices. But if you were to ask someone to trade for a L.T. card you would most likely hear "THEY ARE SELLING FOR 3 to 4 times Beckett". Of course if your trying to trade for one "Beckett has them priced at this".

I can not tell you the number times of people that say this if you want ebay prices put it on ebay but don't try to trade it for ebay prices. I mean in theory if prices were relevant and accureate we wouldn't have this problem so I agree with you. How come we don't.

Mike,
Couldn't Beckett be put out of business faster than you say EBAY. I dont' care who says cardshows, dealers, and other intermederaries help determine prices EBAY has enough to cover and produce their own EBAY SPORTSGUIDE. This has been brought up before and it will again and I think EBAY should market their real time pricing into a whole new force. There stock is sagging and they are hitting a peak. Well time to find a way to make new cash.

WHY NOT MAKE A ONLINE PRICE GUIDE WITH THEIR DATA" It would be there copyright and there trademark and it woudl be actual prices. Everything could easily be put into general stat's. Average prices (median), high's and low's (std dev's) with some whacky outlier's or possibly just done away with the 5 percent that falls out of the BELL CURVE. If ebay president wants to make some extra cash here they are it a whole new way for them to capitalize on the data they are generating just by being a auction house.

HMM, SOUNDS A LITTLE TO SIMPLE PROBABLY WHY THEY HAVEN'T DONE IT YET. THING IT WILL COME BE IT FOR CARDS, CARS, ELECTRONICS, STAMPS, COINS, etc.

p.s. We support Beckett why change. It like all those hockey folks that hate UD yet they still buy the product. HMM, Why should you expect change as the one griping are the one's supporting it. Start a revolution dude.
DON

[gerald hewitt]

Hi Don,
Your argument is well thoughtout and persuasive! Obviously trading and ebaying present vastly different contexts in which we can build our collections and we use both. Without too much knowledge regarding the vast pricing discrepencies isn't it the case that any card is worth what it was most recently sold for? If so, it follows that as collections are in constant transition, what a card is worth today, or to one collector may change radically overnight and that the key for the collector would be to find the 'right fit' for gaining what we think is equitable from our collection pieces that we decide to put on the market or on the trading block. This spells community to me. I think those bonds and networks became clear to me several months ago when I became disenchanted and lonely just working the ebay angle which was at first very exciting precisely because so many high BV pieces could be had for so far under that book value with a bit of research and legwork (and a fast ISP!) I hope I haven't strayed too far from topic, but my point is I had to decide the focus and meaning of my collection solely to me so that I could pursue logical pieces to build the collection's value to me. It's not that I have stripped away the perceived value of it to others because that is still clearly important to me, but that I have decided to try to find like-minded collectors who may share the same philosophy of collecting which I have and 'throw in with them' as more of a community. I was not able to find this on ebay. So, the interaction of trading the give and take including the negotiating book value is of greater importance to me at this point because ebay is hollow and without the passion which brings me to this hobby in the first place.

[randallcards]

Beckett sucks but like Don says no other option....