Tracy Hackler
Danielle Edlund
Doug Kale
Keith Hower
The Hammer
dinkfod
Brian Fleischer
danhitt
Andy Broome
dsliepka
escaladefan
Tim TroutFiled 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.
