Dr. James Beckett founded the company as Beckett Publications in 1984. In the mid-1970s, while a professor at Bowling Green State University, he published his first baseball card price guides as “free?upon?request” pamphlets to, in his words, “bring order out of the chaos that existed” in the baseball card industry. These pamphlets led to annually published price guides and were the forerunners of Beckett’s monthly collectibles magazines.

The first Beckett Baseball Card Monthly was published in November 1984 with a 10,000-copy print run. It quickly became the reference source for card collectors. Today, Beckett Baseball Card Monthly enjoys circulation of over 200,000 copies per month. Circulation of all Beckett monthly titles combined exceeds 850,000 copies per month.

In just a few years, Jim Beckett turned his passion for sports card collecting into a successful publishing business. Beckett Publications employs more than 160 people producing monthly card collecting magazines for baseball, football, basketball, hockey, motorsports and vintage sports collectibles, as well as monthly magazines and price guides for the increasingly popular Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragon Ball Z cards. Quarterly baseball card, football card, basketball card, hockey card and Dragon Ball Z collectibles magazines were added in the summer and fall of 2001. From its 74,000-square foot headquarters building in Dallas, Texas, the company also produces a line of successful annual price guides and collectibles books.

Beckett products are distributed via a unique channel of more than 3,000 independent collectibles hobby accounts. In addition, Beckett magazines and books are distributed through such retailers as Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, Borders Books, Target, Diamond Comics, independent hobby shops and hundreds of national and regional grocery, drug and convenience store chains. Beckett books are also available from online booksellers such as barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com.

A major focus of Beckett’s business in the new century is Beckett.com. The Beckett.com web site (www.beckett.com) includes over 1.2 million registered users, boasts nearly 3,000 visitor sessions per day and averages more than 20 million page views per month. Its online e-commerce site currently features more than 7 million sports collectible items – more than eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon.com combined – from more than 100 online hobby shops, auctions and buy/sell postings.

Beckett.com also operates Beckett Grading Services and Beckett Vintage Grading, leading third-party professional sports card grading services. In addition, Beckett Collectors Club Grading offers a high-volume grading service targeted to the mass market, providing an attractive and affordable alternative to premium graded card products.

Beckett Entertainment develops intellectual property in entertainment and sports arenas. The division’s mission is to produce quality family entertainment that tells fantastic stories with positive themes.

BECKETT.COM MISSION STATEMENT

Beckett.com is dedicated to providing the most relied upon information, services and related products with the highest of integrity in order to facilitate trade in the sports collectibles industry.

DR. JAMES BECKETT
CEO, BECKETT, INC.

Jim Beckett is the leading authority on sports card values in the United States. He is the author of numerous books on sports card collecting and is founder and publisher of the popular Beckett monthly magazines for collectors and Beckett.com online destination and community for sports collectibles enthusiasts.

Jim Beckett earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from Southern Methodist University in 1975. Prior to starting Beckett in 1984, he served as an Associate Professor of Statistics at Bowling Green State University and as vice president of a consulting firm in Dallas, Texas.

As CEO of Beckett, Inc., Jim Beckett plays an active role in the everyday operations of the company and provides direction as the company expands and adjusts its mix of products and services to position it for future growth.

MARK HARWELL
PRESIDENT, BECKETT.COM

As president of Beckett.com, Mark Harwell is responsible for guiding the company as it works to build on its successes in the sports collectibles hobby. He also is charged with further establishing the Beckett.com site as the preeminent Web site for sports collectibles enthusiasts.

Mark possesses extensive expertise in Web applications, networking, telecommunications and systems development. He is a certified netware engineer (CNE), Microsoft certified professional (MCP), a professional server expert (PSE) and an Apple-certified technician.

His innovative leadership has guided Beckett Grading Services to the top of the third-party sports card grading industry. He was also instrumental in the launching of Beckett Vintage Grading, the new card grading service developed around the principle that the condition of vintage-era sports cards (pre-1981), due to the inherent differences in materials and production processes of the times, can not and should not be judged on the same scale as their modern-day counterparts.

A native of Dallas, Mark is a member of the Network & Professional Association, Microsoft Developers Network and Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He attended Dallas Baptist University.