If this has been covered, you'll have to forgive me. I did a search, but unsurprisingly 'Beckett' gets a fair few results.
I'm wondering how relevant Beckett really is today, in 2007. The prices given often seem to exist solely to perpetuate theoretical value in cards that don't have commensurate real world value.
Pre-internet - or, more accurately, pre-eBay - Beckett had a definite, obvious, vital role in establishing and tracking the market price of cards. Back then, card shows happened regularly, card shops were far more common, and internet buying, trading, and selling was pretty much unheard of. So it made sense to have a centralised bunch of guys roaming the States reporting back on the going rates for particular cards.
Now the most accurate judge of a card's real value - that is, how much someone will actually pay for it - seems to be a 'Completed Items' search on eBay. Look at some of the jersey cards out there; Beckett consistently lists game-worn items as having a minimum of six or eight dollars, or three at the very least. But the truth is you can pick up a lot of decent game-worns for less than a dollar if the bidding goes your way. And such a low price is rarely an aberration, more an accurate reflection of the huge supplies of basketball cards that exist.
Plus, now that so many cards have low-numbering, how can Beckett accurately gauge the demand for many of the higher-end cards out there? (Well, the answer is they can't, so they don't try. Hence the 'N/A' which'll come up when you search for many cards numbered to less than 100).
What do people think? Is Beckett still relevant? Do you base your trading and buying and selling decisions on the bible of the hobby?
I'm wondering how relevant Beckett really is today, in 2007. The prices given often seem to exist solely to perpetuate theoretical value in cards that don't have commensurate real world value.
Pre-internet - or, more accurately, pre-eBay - Beckett had a definite, obvious, vital role in establishing and tracking the market price of cards. Back then, card shows happened regularly, card shops were far more common, and internet buying, trading, and selling was pretty much unheard of. So it made sense to have a centralised bunch of guys roaming the States reporting back on the going rates for particular cards.
Now the most accurate judge of a card's real value - that is, how much someone will actually pay for it - seems to be a 'Completed Items' search on eBay. Look at some of the jersey cards out there; Beckett consistently lists game-worn items as having a minimum of six or eight dollars, or three at the very least. But the truth is you can pick up a lot of decent game-worns for less than a dollar if the bidding goes your way. And such a low price is rarely an aberration, more an accurate reflection of the huge supplies of basketball cards that exist.
Plus, now that so many cards have low-numbering, how can Beckett accurately gauge the demand for many of the higher-end cards out there? (Well, the answer is they can't, so they don't try. Hence the 'N/A' which'll come up when you search for many cards numbered to less than 100).
What do people think? Is Beckett still relevant? Do you base your trading and buying and selling decisions on the bible of the hobby?