Changes in Beckett's Baseball monthly

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

SymphonicMetal

Veteran
154
5.00 star(s)
Joined
Feb 7, 2015
Messages
2,498
Location
New York
If anyone has seen the current Beckett's Baseball monthly that just came out a day or two ago, they ae now only listing cards from 2000 to present. With Beckett's Vintage listing values from 1979 and older, this leaves a huge gap from 1980 to 1999 that are no longer being listed, I know the junk era falls in this time frame but so do a lot of other historic cards that do as well. The time period no longer listed is probably the most important time in the history of card collecting becaue that is when the hobby exploded and then later declined. And think of the cards no longer listed like the Jeter, Henderson and Griffey RCs for starters.

This leads me to a question as to what Beckett's is going to do for the values of the cards from 1980 to 1999? They can't put them in vintage and I cannot imagine they will put out a seperate guide for that 20 year period. Are they attempting to force people to go to their Online subscription and phasing out their physcal guides?

Becklett's really is a mess these days with extremely different values for the same cards in their Vintage guides versus their regular monthly issues. For example, their Vintage and Basketball guides came out on the same day but the BVs for the same cards are miles apart. For example the 1969-70 Topps Alcindor RC is $1500 in the Vintage and $8,000 in the monthly Basketball Guide. I cannot find a description of their condition paramaters in the Vintage so I'm assuming they are using the same standards for both guides!?!?!?
 
Almost nobody uses the printed mags anymore. My lcs hasn't carried them in years.

For that matter, a lot of people refuse to use beckett at all.
 
If anyone has seen the current Beckett's Baseball monthly that just came out a day or two ago, they ae now only listing cards from 2000 to present. With Beckett's Vintage listing values from 1979 and older, this leaves a huge gap from 1980 to 1999 that are no longer being listed, I know the junk era falls in this time frame but so do a lot of other historic cards that do as well. The time period no longer listed is probably the most important time in the history of card collecting becaue that is when the hobby exploded and then later declined. And think of the cards no longer listed like the Jeter, Henderson and Griffey RCs for starters.

This leads me to a question as to what Beckett's is going to do for the values of the cards from 1980 to 1999? They can't put them in vintage and I cannot imagine they will put out a seperate guide for that 20 year period. Are they attempting to force people to go to their Online subscription and phasing out their physcal guides?

Becklett's really is a mess these days with extremely different values for the same cards in their Vintage guides versus their regular monthly issues. For example, their Vintage and Basketball guides came out on the same day but the BVs for the same cards are miles apart. For example the 1969-70 Topps Alcindor RC is $1500 in the Vintage and $8,000 in the monthly Basketball Guide. I cannot find a description of their condition paramaters in the Vintage so I'm assuming they are using the same standards for both guides!?!?!?
Is it still $10 a copy or did they drop the cover price with the card omissions?
 
According to our LCS owner Beckett's is putting the listings from 1980-1999 back in their Baseball Monthly Beckett's due to backlash from subscribers. Not having access to RCs of Henderson, Ripken, Gwynn, Griffey Jr. , Jeter, Bonds and all the rest in that era is just unthinkable. especially when your main business is providing values for sports cards!!
 
been not happy with beckett for few years as they omit many sets from their paper issue. i happen to like pacific stuff (late 90's) and then they don't list score anymore. oh well, my june copy was as described above with 1980-current, NEVER received my july issue (which i know had jackie robinson on cover and really wanted it as a dodgers fan) and received my august issue yesterday. to my dismay seeing 1980-1999 omitted might be the last straw to make my decision to quit collecting all together and sell off my collection. the huge boom in collecting was great to see but when i cant go to a local store or card shop and get recent (or ANY cards) is just discouraging!!!!
 
No it is still $10 a copy. Very odd is they don't have a physical copy covering those 20 years in baseball cards!
$9.99 in US lol! I guess I bought the June edition and last one that went back to 1980. Mostly listing Topps though with a few miscellaneous non-Topps sets listed for some reason? This will be my last paper guide! I guess your at a real disadvantage if you can't get a solid read on a card's BV. And you've ll probably seen my posting on the crazy rise in BV of the deGrom RCs. Will Otani be next? Who knows a real guessing game unless you have the Beckett online guide.
 
I think Beckett's is trying to force people to buy their OPG. For someone like me who collects baseball, football *** basketball equally that does not make much financial sense. espeially because I don't collect cards rom the last 20 years or so. I'll be buying the quarterly Beckett's vintage every time it comes out and occasionally buy the monthly football and basketball guides. But it makes no sense for me to buy yhe baseball monthly any longer especially since 99% of the cards I collect are pre 2000.
 
I spoke with LCS awhile back and he told me unless they ordered a certain number of magazines they wouldn't send to them. Now that doesn't make much sense either. I needed a FB Beckett, I don't actively collect FB any longer but still have a lot of FB items. Would be nice to have somewhat current values on what I have.

No only have they dropped the earlier issues. There are multiple issues that are randomly not included or haven't been included for years. I have considered moving to OPG. They keep making moves that are making the decision easier.
 
I spoke with LCS awhile back and he told me unless they ordered a certain number of magazines they wouldn't send to them. Now that doesn't make much sense either. I needed a FB Beckett, I don't actively collect FB any longer but still have a lot of FB items. Would be nice to have somewhat current values on what I have.

No only have they dropped the earlier issues. There are multiple issues that are randomly not included or haven't been included for years. I have considered moving to OPG. They keep making moves that are making the decision easier.
If that's the case, then some of the local shops may have to place one order for multiple shops and split the cost. Lately, I've noticed a lot of companies seem to be going digital instead of having a physical footprint. Even the Navy has moved a lot of the programs we used to walk into an office and get assistance with to mobile apps and websites.

Billy
 
$10 for a monthly? I think I recall that. Have not purchased a printed Beckett periodical in probably 1.5 decades! I recall it going to a quarterly at one point, or am I wrong? I just don't see the value any longer in it. The articles seemed to get worse and the checklists were probably what folks were paying for anyways. I miss the first generation Baseball Card magazines by Krause, when it was a guide, but was also loaded with lots of informative articles and many great color spreads.

We have seen a clear transition from hobby guide to investment guide. That is too bad, because I would probably subscribe to a magazine about cards that provided good, informative content and no price guide!
 
Well Beckett's listened to thei complaints from their subscribers.........kind of. Either they listened or reacted because of people and LCS owners cancelling their subscriptions. The new monthly Baseball Beckett has added some of the sets from 1980-1999 back in their guide. I looked at one in my LCS and noticed they added 1980 Topps but for the next several years only listed either the Fleer or Donruss sets.....I cannot remember which. Oddly, they did not put the 1989 Upper Deck set in but for some reason the 1991 Upper Deck was. Go figure. Maybe it was because that SP1 Jordnn baseball insert dropped some in value.

In a real head scratcher, the newest monthly football Beckett has a headline on the cover that reads "The Rise of Vintage Football" with a picture of Jim Brown on the cover. However, when you look at the actual price guide there are absolutely no up arrows in the vintage listings!!! Maybe it is what is known as "hidden Inflation". But with "Rises" like that, who needs stagnation???
 
Well Beckett's listened to thei complaints from their subscribers.........kind of. Either they listened or reacted because of people and LCS owners cancelling their subscriptions. The new monthly Baseball Beckett has added some of the sets from 1980-1999 back in their guide. I looked at one in my LCS and noticed they added 1980 Topps but for the next several years only listed either the Fleer or Donruss sets.....I cannot remember which. Oddly, they did not put the 1989 Upper Deck set in but for some reason the 1991 Upper Deck was. Go figure. Maybe it was because that SP1 Jordnn baseball insert dropped some in value.

In a real head scratcher, the newest monthly football Beckett has a headline on the cover that reads "The Rise of Vintage Football" with a picture of Jim Brown on the cover. However, when you look at the actual price guide there are absolutely no up arrows in the vintage listings!!! Maybe it is what is known as "hidden Inflation". But with "Rises" like that, who needs stagnation???
HILARIOUS! Reminds me of Nixon's "silent majority"!!

3b1dd20a24eb47a49bd9ed5f462ee2bb.jpg

Blessings,

Kevin
 
Last edited:
I did not think you were old enough to know where that term "silent majority" came from. I guess Illinois gives a better education than Michigan State........well that goes without sayin'! LMAO!

For being the be all and end all of sports card information, Beckett's has really gotten lazy. For example, the 1996-97 Topps Basketball set is listed at $30 or there abouts, while there is a $600 Kobe RC in it. Now in the Vintage guide Walter Payton's RC is $1,000 while the 1976 Topps set it is in only books for $350. How hard could it be to have someone adjust the complete set prices if there is a mega card in them?

I'm trying to figure out when the Walter Payton RC skyrocketed to a Grand. I only get the monthly football guide every 6 to 9 months or so but I do not recall anyone mentioning this astronomical price rise. The LCS owner bought an old football collection about 2 months ago with a VG-exish Payton RC in it and I know for a fact that card only booked at $250 at that time so this price rise has been very recent.
 
Did you say the base Kobe Topps RC is $600?! That is just stupid pricing. I know in the 2000s, the more current base Topps RCs seemed to go crazy (Curry, James, etc) and I assumed a lot of it had to do with a decease in product production, but don't know for sure. I stopped buying packs in general right around 2000. I know the years I was buying, RCs like Hill, Weber, Duncan, etc were not worth more than a few bucks, but the brands like Chrome and Finest were the big hitters of that time.

I'm sure I have several Kobe Topps RCs and likely some better premium brands. I know I don't have the Hill's Hoops All Rookie Team card. I know that is an insert, but those were my favorites and got all but Hill and Kobe. I do have his Fleer Lottery redemption card, as I completed that set at the time. Have not dug out modern basketball cards in decades.
 
Did you say the base Kobe Topps RC is $600?! That is just stupid pricing. I know in the 2000s, the more current base Topps RCs seemed to go crazy (Curry, James, etc) and I assumed a lot of it had to do with a decease in product production, but don't know for sure. I stopped buying packs in general right around 2000. I know the years I was buying, RCs like Hill, Weber, Duncan, etc were not worth more than a few bucks, but the brands like Chrome and Finest were the big hitters of that time.

I'm sure I have several Kobe Topps RCs and likely some better premium brands. I know I don't have the Hill's Hoops All Rookie Team card. I know that is an insert, but those were my favorites and got all but Hill and Kobe. I do have his Fleer Lottery redemption card, as I completed that set at the time. Have not dug out modern basketball cards in decades.
It is $600 and has been for over a year. I TOTALLY agree about stupid pricing as that card is a dime a dozen. If you have not gone through your 1990s basketball cards in years, I'd highly suggest you do so and get a monthly Beckett guide at the very least. There are some insane and inexplicable price rises since the pandemic started and you really want to get a current guide for the cards you have.

I'll give you a few more insane price rises. The 1996-97 Topps Iverson RC was $2.50-$3.00 for decades went to $140. THe 1988-89 Fleer Pippen which was always in the $25-$30 range jumped tto $200 overnight last year. The 1995-96 Topps Garnett RC was always $5 or less went to over $100 for no good reason. The 1990-91 Fleer Jordan card went to $30 from $2 or $3................talk about a junk era card!! I'd get a guide and sell/trade out of these over valued cards while the getting is good if I were you.
 
I did not think you were old enough to know where that term "silent majority" came from. I guess Illinois gives a better education than Michigan State........well that goes without sayin'! LMAO!

For being the be all and end all of sports card information, Beckett's has really gotten lazy. For example, the 1996-97 Topps Basketball set is listed at $30 or there abouts, while there is a $600 Kobe RC in it. Now in the Vintage guide Walter Payton's RC is $1,000 while the 1976 Topps set it is in only books for $350. How hard could it be to have someone adjust the complete set prices if there is a mega card in them?

I'm trying to figure out when the Walter Payton RC skyrocketed to a Grand. I only get the monthly football guide every 6 to 9 months or so but I do not recall anyone mentioning this astronomical price rise. The LCS owner bought an old football collection about 2 months ago with a VG-exish Payton RC in it and I know for a fact that card only booked at $250 at that time so this price rise has been very recent.
@SymphonicMetal

HILARIOUS!! I dont know about the whole better education thing, I have met some real duds walking around with U of I diplomas!!

I remembered that term, and actually did a little research just now, it sounds like it dates back to Calvin Coolidge?? Richard Nixon made it most famous though!!

God bless,

Kevin
 
It is $600 and has been for over a year. I TOTALLY agree about stupid pricing as that card is a dime a dozen. If you have not gone through your 1990s basketball cards in years, I'd highly suggest you do so and get a monthly Beckett guide at the very least. There are some insane and inexplicable price rises since the pandemic started and you really want to get a current guide for the cards you have.

I'll give you a few more insane price rises. The 1996-97 Topps Iverson RC was $2.50-$3.00 for decades went to $140. THe 1988-89 Fleer Pippen which was always in the $25-$30 range jumped tto $200 overnight last year. The 1995-96 Topps Garnett RC was always $5 or less went to over $100 for no good reason. The 1990-91 Fleer Jordan card went to $30 from $2 or $3................talk about a junk era card!! I'd get a guide and sell/trade out of these over valued cards while the getting is good if I were you.
I have all of those and multiples of many. Basketball took a major back seat after I stopped buying packs. The last rookie crop I recall busting packs for was lead by maybe Tim Duncan? I know I went back through some boxes of BKB that were not complete junk, but had pockets of stars too. I pulled out a bunch of Steve Nash RCs of various brands.

I am not quite sure where my basketball star boxes even are located right now. I think they are buried. It might be worth a dig...
 
Top