[creativemunky]

So lets see, Beckett made its name as a Baseball Card Price Guide. Which of course then evolved into a grading service (understandable), but now a Appraisal Service?

Ok, here is my issue with this concept.
Beckett puts out a monthly magazine price guide and if the card you are looking for is not listed in their monthly guide you can buy an annual (or online service) of that sport for roughly $30 - $50 to get the value.

NOW....if the card is "so rare" you can pay even more to get an on staff "expert" to give you the value of your card in question.

So, if this guy under the Beckett staff can confidently give you an approximate value if you pay them, why can they not list this value in the annual guide that we are paying a hefty $30 - $50 for?

Just as I feel about the new guidelines with BGS pushing a large clump of autograph cards to the JSA service, this seems just a way to part the collector with his cash. JMO


How do you guys feel about it?

[dpatera]

Well, above all else, they are a business.

It seems to suggest what a lot of collectors seem to assume anyway, though. Whenever a new release comes out, you see a number of collectors who don't want to do anything until Beckett "sets" the prices. It seems a lot of people expect them to set the prices, rather than reflect them, and this service would just be an extension of that.

[jacobystealshome]

i have no issues with it. pricing rarer cards takes a a lot more effort, and is as much art as science (i basically do the same thing as an appraiser as they do. i charge 65/hour for insurance companies, and as experts go, im low paid)

i think it's pretty straightforward, and for insurance purposes, this is a very good thing, because you get an industry leader (instead of say...me) putting their evaluation on it

im cool with it. the basic framework for assessing a value for rare cards is pretty straight forward, but labor intensive.

[shezdoni]

As for the JSA comment, James Spence has never been trained as a hand writing expert, he has never worked in any capacity as a forensic Hand writing expert, He's Never been employed as an FBI or Law Enforcement Hand Writing Expert, he Basically has had no training what so ever in Hand Writing Analysis, and his College Degree's were in International Business and French.

In Fact there is not a single employee of JSA that has any training as a hand writing expert, maybe that explains this article

http://haulsofshame.com/blog/?p=6635

[iconms]

I don't think it's sketchy at all...but I don't think it seems like a very good deal

[pacrimcollectibles]

The thing that concerns me is that they never inspect the cards and rely on the submitter to provide the grade. It seems to me that an accurate appraisal would be impossible without physically reviewing the item in question.

[richk]

The thing that concerns me is that they never inspect the cards and rely on the submitter to provide the grade. It seems to me that an accurate appraisal would be impossible without physically reviewing the item in question.

Since the cards are low print run, there should be a presumption that the condition should be nm/mt or better as all the cards should be from 1997 to the present.

In addition, here is a good example -- I have a Mike Trout In the Game Autograph Card which the ITG web site was printed to 10 cards. Needless to say, it is probably worth it for me to get an idea is anyone else has sold the card recently. Granted, the pre-2012 sales are probably too low but still a good idea to see what is out there. In addition, I don't have the time to monitor EBay daily to see what is out there.

In other words, not a bad idea in design

Rich

[lefou66]

i think its pretty fair but i wont use it again,ebay still the best way to determine the value of a rare card.But if you cant find it or if you want an expert opinion i think this a good service. Price is a little high...15 bucks a card.

[dustin12368]

I think its cool IF they put the pricing in the guide after the appraisal since we do pay for the pricing service and they now know the value

[jacobystealshome]

I think its cool IF they put the pricing in the guide after the appraisal since we do pay for the pricing service and they now know the value

actualy, they really shouldnt. an appraisal is a completely different animal than a price guide