Funny things about Beckett price guides.

TheRoach

The more I read them on the crapper, the more I realize how much they suck. Here is some examples:

There is a ton of inserts in any Beckett that have a print run of 25 serial numbered sets. Half of them are not priced "due to scarcity", and the other half have multipliers for them. How is that possible? 25 cards produced means 25 cards were produced. How can you price some with a terribly low multiplier, and then make the sky the limit for the others? It pi$$es me off.

Tom Brady's 2000 SP Authentic RC just reached $200 right before he wrapped up his 2nd Super Bowl win in the last 3 years, and 2nd MVP award for that very game in the same time frame. On the other hand, Chad Pennington's rookie card from the same set is also at $200 while missing 80% of the past year and having not made the big game yet. ???? Don't get me wrong, Pennington is good, but at this point one of these cards should be worth at least 1.5x or more the value of the other. Tom Brady being the more valuable of course.

With absolutely ZERO reason whatsoever to raise his cards, Beckett decides to raise the value of alot of the Ken Griffey, Jr. rookies in graded form last month. Why are his cards seeing any activity at all? Is it really enough to warrant an across the board jump?



TheRoach

Stone193

Hey Roach,

Coach's Corner (SCD) has posted PSA 9 RC Griffey lots in their last few auctions - there's one lot in this auction - the last one sold for more than the lot was worth - is it possible, there may some speculation going on right now? This may drive the price slightly up - and if he starts to play and not get hurt - someones going to have a lot of RC's on eBay. What do you think?

Mike

34GoudeyCollector

Roach,
I can explain this in two two words: Beckett Sucks!

Ken

joestalin

great observations, Im sure your not the first one to wake up one day scratching your *ss about
these pricings...would you believe that its not all becketts fault?

First off it is impossible to track every single card, and it may even be impossible to track the top
200 most active cards on ebay or the such. Brady has been hot before and that actually affects
value....Moss and Edgerrin had great years this year too but their cards have reached a pinnacle, the
already had their power years (98 and 99)

There are two factors at work here in regards to Pennington...

1) The NY Factor.....huge town with many fans and many buyers, these are the same guys who watched
Namath and this guy reminds of them of him....do we agree with that? probably not but it sells
his card!

2) This guy still has great potential and collectors are always looking to get a guy BEFORE he gets hot.

Ill be the first to admit that Brady is underrated as far as hobby value but look at what is hot in football:

Vick...hasn't done much but win a few games including a win over the Pack...has no rings, hasn't
even been close and was injured all this season,yet nothing is as hot as his SPA RC Auto

It might be hard to understand, but once a guy does well colectors are over him and are ready to
find the next stud.

Hope this helps
JS

kuhlmann

Vick cards wont die!! This is the athlete that is changing the game! Mark this post i am no Falcon fan im a huge dallas fan. but Vick will lead his team to the playoffs maybe even the superbowl next year. The guy is a freak!! every one flips back and forth from watching there favorite team and then checking out what this guy does. I think his rookies have not even seen the #'s they will on his next playoff run. He is the sort of athlete that comes around every 10-20 years. he stays healthy he will be loved by millions of collectors and falcon merchandise will top sales for years to come.

helionaut

I've noticed Griffey cards getting more play on ebay than they had been, at least in the low-serial-number sets I collect. I haven't looked at it closely, but I think maybe some people are stocking up in hopes of a return to glory.

But you're right, Beckett hates to lower prices. They have all but done away with down arrows for slips of more than 1 price bracket. However, Pennington still seems to have his fans. A couple SP Auth. BGS 8.5s sold for $80, and a raw described as mint sold for $137. If he still books for $200, that may be a little high, but Beckett would still probably list $150.

estang

I think that ebay could darn near put Beckett and their pricing publications out of business. I doubt it will happen, but if I'm Beckett, I'd be looking to create a very strong alliance (co-branding, revenue share) with ebay to take their product into the internet age.

I see Beckett and SCD trying to track the activity in major auctions and activity on ebay. However, I don't think they're putting enough behind it.

Beckett would be good to start with graded card auction final prices from the major industry auction houses and ebay. Ebay just needs to modify their listing categories to accomadate this better. They should force the seller on ebay to explicitly state which "major" grading brand they are listing under.

Laziness will cost them. IMHO, SCD weekly and Beckett publications both need to be upgraded. There's a need for a non-biased 3rd party publication (online and/or print) to enter the hobby. The problem is that it is likely not a profitable venture.

bowlking

It's no secret that Beckett prices are absolutely off by about A LOT!

My peeve is when they used to list prices of a seven card insert set as follows:

(This is just an example)

2003-2004 FLEER All NBA TEAM

Common Cards $5.00-$10.00

1 LeBron James $20.00-$30.00
2 Shaquille O'Neal $10.00-$15.00
3 Anfernee Hardaway $7.00-$12.00
4 Michael Jordan $35.00-$50.00
5 Grant Hill $7.00-$12.00
7 Kobe Bryant $15.00-$25.00

Now, why the heck don't they go ahead and list card #6? Instead, they list "Common Card", you now have to research to find the card to finish your set, although it isn't that hard, it just seems stupid to not list it.

Another pet peeve, the "Prices of this set has softened, cards lowered without arrows" nonsense seen shortly after a season ends on the overprinted stuff. Translated it means "Prices of this set have had the bottom drop out, people realize this set is crap, but to avoid all the money grubbing morons who feel we are hurting their profits, we will lower the prices of the cards without drawing attention to it!"

jaybyrd

The Griffey collectors just don't know when to give up the ghost. That ship has already sailed and other cliches.

Hard to believe he was considered the best player in baseball five - six years ago.

Stone193

jaybyrd

Ya know one thing about America? They LOVE an underdog!

Mike