[shezdoni]

Claiming that they are going to start deleting members organize?

http://beckett.com/forums/thread-1560415.html

[ft28jags]

Yes sir

[jacobystealshome]

plain and simple: it is extortion

the worst part of this: the it folks have admitted they dont know how to fix the current problems, much less make the necessary changes to the system

but if you dont pay to use their halfass system that has been broken in one way or another for 6 months, theyll delete your work you have done in your org

oh, and by the way: pay now, or pay much more later

beckett can go do something biologically impossible to themselves

and hey: if beckett needs someone to start kneecapping members...hey, if it pays....

and sendozi: you should change the title of the thread to make it explicitly clear that beckett is intent on deleting folks if they dont pay up

[bojesphob]

Wow that really sucks. I've actually thought about creating my own personal database to store my cards list in (I do database engineering for a living), but I like the Org here for trading, so that wouldn't help me in that regard. I might just have to start writing myself one as a backup, especially if they're going to be doing a major overhaul of the Org and something goes wrong....

[bselje]

So if I understand this correctly, they are going to raise the price on a product that works horribly, then alienate most of their potential future customer base by deleting their "test it out" orgs?
I have been a paying customer for many MANY years but a big part of the reason I am here, is to trade, and I know many of the people I trade with either dont pay for the org or opg so their collections will be deleted, and will probably leave. Really makes me rethink why I'm still here - I make MANY more trades elsewhere. The impetus for staying is the opg of course, however I notice more and more traders going by ebay sales to determine value (which I think is short sighted by the way) but there is an argument to be made that it is a viable alternative to continue to feed the bloated, floundering beast, that is Beckett. Its sad really - I can remember waiting like a kid at xmas for the new Beckett magazine to come out back in the day...But BV has become less and less relevant to the point its almost pointless to go out of the way to pay for Beckett's pricing. They are playing a dangerous game with an ever shrinking membership (regardless of what they claim, you will not convince me otherwise - just check out the post frequency on the boards - some days, the first PAGE of last posts go back several days).
Might I suggest Beckett actually FIX the hilariously useless state of the org before they consider raising the price for this piece of junk?

[jplarson]

Man, you normally see online entities doing everything they can to collect and keep any customer data they can to monetize it in some way now or in the future. Deleting orgs for people not paying to stay active.... lame. They want to remove my org which has a disproportional amount of Alshon Jeffery and Topps products? Fine, enjoy less customer visibility into potential buying habits and good luck with giving me targeted advertising.

I can't believe they wouldn't just move expired accounts over to some legacy database server that holds all expired customer orgs until the day they buy into it again and they can shuffle the data back. These should just be database entries anyways with table relationships between the master Beckett db and user dbs. Doesn't take a DBA to figure that out. Besides, I thought they went through a server refresh not too long ago to handle increased demand.

[bojesphob]

Man, you normally see online entities doing everything they can to collect and keep any customer data they can to monetize it in some way now or in the future. Deleting orgs for people not paying to stay active.... lame. They want to remove my org which has a disproportional amount of Alshon Jeffery and Topps products? Fine, enjoy less customer visibility into potential buying habits and good luck with giving me targeted advertising.

I can't believe they wouldn't just move expired accounts over to some legacy database server that holds all expired customer orgs until the day they buy into it again and they can shuffle the data back. These should just be database entries anyways with table relationships between the master Beckett db and user dbs. Doesn't take a DBA to figure that out. Besides, I thought they went through a server refresh not too long ago to handle increased demand.

Well, to be completely honest, if you're going to move say 10,000 paid people's orgs into the new stuff, you've already got the scripts to do it and while it will take a little more time to do the extra 20,000 people who have free orgs, it really shouldn't take any more actual work... just server processing time. It's probably MORE work to go through and delete unpaid people's orgs than it is to just convert them all at the same time (from my own professional dba opinion). Even if the number of people are higher than that, it would still be more efficient to do them all at the same time. This sounds to me more like a business decision to try to force more people into paying for the Org than an actual IT decision.

[branesergen]

Well, to be completely honest, if you're going to move say 10,000 paid people's orgs into the new stuff, you've already got the scripts to do it and while it will take a little more time to do the extra 20,000 people who have free orgs, it really shouldn't take any more actual work... just server processing time. It's probably MORE work to go through and delete unpaid people's orgs than it is to just convert them all at the same time (from my own professional dba opinion). Even if the number of people are higher than that, it would still be more efficient to do them all at the same time. This sounds to me more like a business decision to try to force more people into paying for the Org than an actual IT decision.

From a data standpoint wouldnt the extra 20,000 unpaid orgs cause an unneeded drain on the processing time?

If you have a data sheet (excel for personal use) for all the cards you own and if you traded or sold cards but left them on the spreadsheet (because you MIGHT get them back eventually) - after awhile wouldnt the additional cards create a drain on load times when opening your spreadsheet?

It seems to me that excessive entries in the "free" orgs are causing unneeded problems on the overall performance for the paying members and they are giving the non paying members an opportunity to lock in the price before the increase.

Many of the complaints that I am seeing are "I pay for this why isnt it fixed?" where I'm sure having an additional 100,000 cards loaded into peoples orgs who arent even active are causing problems for those that actually do pay. I have paid for an OPG subscription for 6 years now and even if I dont use it for a month I still pay for it. You dont cancel your electricity because you go on vacation - it would cost you even more to reinstate it - so why think people can take a "break" and still have something they dont pay for stay as it was the day you left? If you take a break from the hobby then pay the $20 for a year to keep your items intact or lose them all.

I cant think of ANY business that will let you keep your stuff for free if you leave for an extended period of time - so why should Beckett?

[ceocards]

Just to jump in here...

The mod group has gathered all of your feelings, opinions, anger, and frustration with this decision and has passed it along (along with our own opinions ) to the Beckett staff.

I wish I had better news to report, but it appears this is a done deal.

One bright spot - we wondered if there was any chance that someone who will knowingly be taking a short-ish break (ie - take a month or two off while work or family activities are busy etc) could not have their org deleted when they return. Dan Hitt has indicated for a situation like that, to please contact customer service and they will attempt to work with you on a solution. I don't know how much leeway CS has in applying that, but for anyone who is in a temporary unsubscribed status, with intentions of re-subscribing at a later date - it might be worth a call to find out what they can do for you.

We'll keep you updated if there are any other developments.

[shezdoni]

From a data standpoint wouldnt the extra 20,000 unpaid orgs cause an unneeded drain on the processing time?

If you have a data sheet (excel for personal use) for all the cards you own and if you traded or sold cards but left them on the spreadsheet (because you MIGHT get them back eventually) - after awhile wouldnt the additional cards create a drain on load times when opening your spreadsheet?

It seems to me that excessive entries in the "free" orgs are causing unneeded problems on the overall performance for the paying members and they are giving the non paying members an opportunity to lock in the price before the increase.

Many of the complaints that I am seeing are "I pay for this why isnt it fixed?" where I'm sure having an additional 100,000 cards loaded into peoples orgs who arent even active are causing problems for those that actually do pay. I have paid for an OPG subscription for 6 years now and even if I dont use it for a month I still pay for it. You dont cancel your electricity because you go on vacation - it would cost you even more to reinstate it - so why think people can take a "break" and still have something they dont pay for stay as it was the day you left? If you take a break from the hobby then pay the $20 for a year to keep your items intact or lose them all.

I cant think of ANY business that will let you keep your stuff for free if you leave for an extended period of time - so why should Beckett?

What about the members that pay the $10 a month for the actual Magazine, and still use the org to trade?

For example, I personally buy the Magazines, because I like reading the articles, hot list, ask Beckett questions, etc.. stuff that is not provided on the website, and I use the organize to trade with, so since I am paying that $10 a month at the news stand (actually $40 a month), why should I have to pay extra money just to use Organize?

And then to have them raise the price, all they are doing is trying to give their customers a screw job to pay for their stupid auction service, fantasy site, coin price guide etc..