Sports Illustrated & Beckett Grading Services team up for SI Uncirculated
Sports Illustrated and Beckett Grading Services have teamed up to bring a limited offering of uncirculated copies of the long-collected magazine under a new program — SI Uncirculated — to the masses starting with this week’s issues.
Copies of the June 8 magazines, which are direct from SI and slabbed by BGS, feature the Detroit Red Wings‘ “Motown Cool” regional cover as well as the national cover featuring high schooler Bryce Harper on the cover.
Under the authority of Time Inc., this is the collector’s only way to get an uncirculated copy of SI slabbed by BGS. Only a limited number of each are available. Once the initial offerings are sold out, they cannot be offered again.
The magazines are $24.99 and can be purchased here (Red Wings cover) and here (Harper cover — limit one per customer) as part of the slabbing program that provides protection for the item. The SI Uncirculated concept, which will focus on current and future magazines — not past magazines — is much like the Topps Vault’s uncirculated proof cards for current card sets.
The Harper issue is a first cover appearance, which is noted on the BGS label. On future releases, first covers and regional covers will be noted. With the popularity of the magazine as a collectible through the years, this helps add yet another dimension to collecting for the fans of the magazine.
Bryce Harper was circulated! I subscribe and collect SI memorabilia and that is the cover they sent me. Also, since I collect them, I like to get more without labels, so I went to the local CVS and crossed the newsstand only to buy 2 more Bryce Harper SI magazines. He also lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, so this really gives me a good chance to get an autograph by him.
The copies that are slabbed are uncirculated.
Eric – I think you are confusing the term uncirculated with unissued. These are regular issued SI Magazines, but these specific copies are uncirculated amongst standard sales channels. “Uncirculated” simply means these are copies that were never on newstands or sent through the mail to subscribers. They were sent directly from SI’s printer to Beckett to be encapsulated. It is the same concept as Uncirculated Coin Sets from the US Mint, or a few years ago, some Bowman Chrome inserts in sports cards. Thanks!
There are only 10 of these and they are impossible to find. I like to collect Lebron items and 1st items Bryce Harper’s is the 1st, but this magazine if I can find one may cost me a small fortune.
Uncirculated SI mags slabbed by BGS are a fantastic idea, I am however still trying to understand their place within the grading hierarchy. Are they automatically considered top of the line GEM Mint 10 issues, or would they have to be taken out of the cover, graded and re-slabbed if in 10 years I would consider selling one of those prized possessions. For example I am trying to decide if I should buy a few of the uncirculated SI issues from Beckett Media or send GEM looking store copies for grading and slabbing and hope for a toughly graded 9, 9.5 or even higher, at roughly the same cost to me in grading fees. I do understand the very limited availability of the uncirculated issues, however will a graded 9.5 or 10 store issue be more sought after down the road? Sinc the BGS grading services are fairly new to SI collecting, where can one find the population reports. Thanks, any comments are much appreciated.
BigTexSchnooky – good question, and I have no single answer for you. The magazine grading idea is still in it’s infancy so it is hard to predict how it will evolve. I will say that I don’t think anyone fully comprehends how difficult it is to get a highly graded magazine. I’ve seen a few 8.5;s and 9’s, but can’t recall any 9.5’s or 10’s offhand. It is extremely difficult to find a magazine (whether subscription, newsstand, or uncirculated) that is truly pristine. Eventually people will realize this, and when they do, it will be interesting to see what effect that will have on values. For instance, an SI first Michael Jordan cover in BGS 8 is probably more difficult than an 86 Fleer MJ RC in BGS 10.
I am also interested in knowing if the Uncirculated designation is the top grade a magazine can get.
The uncirculated grade is the highest grade you will receive. with the harper issue as an example only 10 magazines met beckett criteria so only 10 out of the 50 to 100 magazines were slabbed 50 magazines are in a case.
By the way I would never take one of these si/beckett magazines out to be graded they will be worth more as they are also the word grade is wrong. these magazines represent the best in eye appeal of the mazazines looked at but there is no number grade it does not matter they are awesome
what is the website that you sell the uncirculated sports illutrated??
I am looking for the Giants 2012 world series issue
thans
Are you guys still selling these?
Is there any value to the 2012 Tom Brady uncirculated Beckett ESPN magazine?