Danielle Edlund
Doug Kale
Keith Hower
The Hammer
dinkfod
Brian Fleischer
danhitt
Andy Broome
dsliepka
escaladefan
Tim Trout
chrisoldsThe dress code around Beckett’s worldwide headquarters is traditionally pretty lax.
Basically, if you show up to work clothed, your attire is probably ok.
Baseball caps, jerseys, shorts and T-shirts are pretty much the norm.
So every year, a bunch of us get together and pick a day to “dress up” for work. It’s our little way of paying tribute to those who have to put on a coat and tie everyday.
Our little event has been dubbed Generic Office Worker Day because no matter how hard someone might try, there is little to distinguished one well-dressed man in a suit and tie from another.
Everyone’s familiar with the “Generic Office Worker.” Every workplace has one. You know, they’re the guy wearing the nicely pressed white button-down dress shirt, striped tie and either a navy blue or black sport coat or suit jacket.
Typically these individuals are either constantly talking on their Bluetooth’s or feverously pounding away at their Blackberry’s.
For us who wear jeans, tennis shoes and our favorite team’s colors to work on a daily basis, there was no better costume to wear on Halloween than dressing like one of them.
It was a looooong time between covers, but my beloved Blackhawks finally grace the cover of Beckett Hockey #200.
As the former Price Guide Editor for Beckett Hockey, I must say this is a very proud moment!
And as a long suffering Blackhawks fan, it is VERY exciting to see Kane and Toews make such an impact on the wonderful city of Chicago, the NHL, and eventually the hobby.
Dollar Bill Wirtz did almost everything wrong as owner of the Hawks, and Kane and Toews are the first BIG THING we have seen on United Center Ice in a long time.
Patrick Kane cards, especially his high-end Rookie Cards should command a hefty premium, so get em early before you are priced out of the market! As for me, I will be happy with a simple Upper Deck MVP rookie card to display in my office as support for my beloved franchise!
Congrats to Beckett Hockey for featuring the future of Chicago hockey on the cover of its 200th issue! It was a LONG time coming!
I admit it… I’ve become a bit addicted to Smallville. I’m embarrassed in that 1) it is a teenage soap opera in many ways, 2) it’s on the WB, and 3) it reveals my ‘comic book geek’ side. But in my defense, I offer just 6 words: Kristin Kruek, Allison Mack, Erica Durance. ‘Nuff said.
So I started picking up the DVD sets, watching them from Season 1 on up, about 4 months ago. But Season 6 has proven to be the most expensive box set I still don’t own. Huh? Let me explain… I ordered the set five weeks ago from Amazon.com. Two weeks ago, I check on the order and see that the seller was hit with 7 negative feedbacks in a week, all accusing him of fraud. I can’t submit a claim with Amazon until Oct. 30th, which I do, but now have to wait 30 more days for them to “investigate”.
Plan 2… eBay. I buy from a seller with 30+ feedback, 100% positive, two weeks ago when I saw the amazon guy was a fraud. To track ebay purchases, I follow the purchased items section of My eBay page. My backup is to keep mail folders in Outlook and move them when items are received. Last night, I decide to email the seller to check the status, and I realize the item is no longer listed on My eBay. I type in the item number, and it pulls up as invalid. I try to contact the member, but am unable to do so because he has been suspended. I file the Paypal claim, and again, will be waiting 30 days for their investigation.
So last night, I pay more than I’d like to order from Walmart.com where I can pick up at the store. But in total, I currently have over $110 invested and still don’t even have the box set! All I can say is that Kristin, Allison, and Erica better be looking mighty good in Season 6.
I think my bigger beef is the fact that eBay came in and stealthily removed all traces of the transaction. I actually wondered if I had somehow been taken by a fake eBay site or phishing scheme! Is anyone else disturbed by the fact they simply deleted the entire transaction from my account, removed all traces of the auction, closed my ability to contact the seller, and did it all without so much as an email telling me what was going on?
Today is Halloween. Which means it’s going to be really freaky in the office with all of the costumes. I won’t be in the office today — gotta take son to knee doctor.
That’s a freaky crew shown (above) from last year. I hope they all will ID themselves in the comments section below. Fess up, mates!
However, I would like to point to the colorful, 6-foot-4, flapping parrot in the back row as frequent blogger Elon Werner. I am praying — praying – he will change his blogging avatar to a photo from that day a year ago.
Hope my fellow employees at the office post some pictures of today’s debauchery on this blog. C’mon guys, flip us some photos. . . . Boo!
Filed under: Beckett HQ, Top Secret | Tags: Beckett Baseball, Beckett Media
Make Beckett Behind the Scenes one of your “favorite” sites.
You get the skinny on Beckett from people who work at Beckett Media, where beta means better.
We NOW are in beta stage as a company, which means better things for you. As we roll out the improvements and changes across all of our products, readers of this blog will be the first to know. Bookmark it now!
Filed under: BGS, Beckett HQ | Tags: Beckett, BGS, Graded Cards, Honus Wagner
The card hobby, especially Grading, is a little like X-Files: conspiracy theories and paranoia abound. One spread myth is that grading companies switch your cards out with lesser condition examples. Let’s think about this . . .
Why is this conspiracy theory not leveled against other industries? I take my truck in for an oil change, and I’ve never accused them of switching my truck out on me. When the cable guy comes over, I’ve never worried, “Man, I hope this guy doesn’t replace my 32-inch TV with a 13-inch when I’m not looking.”
Grading Employee: “Sweet! A 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. RC. This one looks nicer than mine. I think I’ll go ahead and swap them out. It’s certainly worth my career to switch out a $50 card.”
Seriously, there is no card in the world worth losing our job over. “Sure,” you say, “but what about cards worth millions of dollars?”
Even if the most valuable card in the hobby, the NM-MT T206 Honus Wagner, came in here, it would be completely impossible for someone to switch a card of that stature and not create a public relations disaster. What’s more, you don’t walk into a card shop and offer to sell a card like that inconspicuously – you would be smothered by media attention.
Trust me… As much as you love your cards, we love our careers considerably more.
I like to create my own sketch cards of baseball players. I keep many of them, give a few away and even sell one from time to time. I realized that I didn’t have any of the Sultan of Swat so I created one based on a photo of him from his later days as a Yankee.
What I like about sketch cards is that you can create art of a player and it fits into a top loader. Easy to store and display. And for me, easy to draw. You might see some of my art from time to time in the free BGS newsletter, The Report Card.
While sketch cards are very popular in non-sports cards, the 2005 Topps Gallery sketch cards by Murray Olderman were really the first mainstream sports sketch cards to be packed out. It will be interesting to see if sketch cards carry over into the sports realm. Sketch cards that are signed by the player?
Before I came to work at BGS, I lived in Tennessee. I have been sending interviews to former Chattanooga baseball players for several years now.
I usually send a short interview about their days in Chattanooga and a card for an autograph. If I have an interesting photo of the player in my collection, I’ll make a nice copy and send it along for the player to keep.
I received back an interview (and a signed card) yesterday from former Washington Senators and Chattanooga Lookouts infielder Gene Verble. In his interview, Mr. Verble said one of his most memo
I guess Secret Service can stop just about anything from reaching the President, except a foul ball!
Filed under: Beckett Baseball, Topps, Upper Deck | Tags: Major League Baseball, Mitchell Report, steroids
The 2007 Major League Baseball season is officially over … the Red Sox had their World Series Championship parade today.
The conclusion of the season means that the majority of fans will shift their focus onto one very important and highly anticipated off-season event.
No, I am not talking about A-Rod’s free-agency but rather the release of the Mitchell Report.
Senator George Mitchell’s investigation has been an ongoing soap opera since his leadership was first commissioned in 2006.
News outlets have reported that his investigation of Baseball’s steroid era has concluded and Mitchell is now ready to name names.
Many, many names.
Names of players who have never been accused before. Players who unquestionably are idolized by collectors, entrenched in thier communities and the faces of a franchise. Players, who like Barry Bonds, find their names in the game’s hollowed record books.
So how will this revelation impact the hobby?
The simple assumption is that it could be detrimental to the industry and no further proof is needed than the repressed values of accused stars Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa.
The Mitchell investigation goes beyond just the sports hype machine of ESPN and the local fish wrap (newspaper). The Mitchell investigation has the ability to directly impact the entire hobby — manufacturer exclusives, values of up-and-coming stars and the collectibility of established veterans — if the right names are named.
The clock is ticking.
We will all be watching.
And I for one will be counting down the days.
The 2007 NFL rookie crop has a noticable front-runner. Adrian Peterson, despite rushing for only 133 yards in his last two games, is still leading the NFL in rushing.
I mention AP because I’m sitting here in the Beckett Grading room grading over 150 of his 2007 Topps cards and noticing how many different shades of Viking purple there are: violet, grape, mauve, heliotrope, indigo.
Maybe after his football career is over he can have a singing career like another great Viking/rapper…
…maybe not.
Filed under: Beckett Baseball, Beckett HQ | Tags: Beckett, Papelbon, Red Sox, World Series
You’ve got the iside scoop here on the Beckett Blog.
I told you this morning that because of the Red Sox’s sweep, we had a chance to remake the cover for the December issue of Beckett Baseball. Just finished minutes ago and off to the printer.
Thanks to the talent of our designer, Co-Worker Cathy, we are in business.
Filed under: Beckett HQ, Fantasy Sports, NFL | Tags: Adrian Peterson, fantasy football
Sometimes — like right now — fantasy football is about as much fun for me as force-feeding my face into an industrial-strength wood chipper.
I’m in four leagues; which is stupid in and of itself because I end up cheering for the same players in one league that I want to fail miserably in another. My combined fantasy record so far this season — pending the outcome of tonight’s game between my beloved Broncos and the Green Bay Packers: 13-19. I’m 5-3 in one league, 4-4 in another, 3-5 in another and an embarrassing 1-7 in my Beckett league.
I say all that to say this: I hate fantasy football right now because I lost a game by two points this weekend that I should have easily won.
If Peyton Manning’s late-game scoring pass to Joseph Addai hadn’t been called back because of a holding call (one play later, Addai ran the ball in), I’m a winner. If Steve Freakin’ Smith catches one more pass, I’m a winner. If I start DeShaun Foster over the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson, I win. If Peterson doesn’t lose six yards on his last carry of the game against Philadelphia, I probably win. If Drew Freakin’ Brees doesn’t throw one more garbage touchdown pass against San Francisco midway through the fourth quarter of a 31-10 victory, I win.
But since none of those things happened, I’m a loser. The Arena Football League season can’t get here fast enough. (Did I mention I play fantasy AFL, too).
Yes, I am a loser.
