Dr.James Beckett is in the house! E343

Sports Guardinations Hobby. It's the people Wheely News and Interviews. It's your number one soul sports gar Nations Hobby is the people. Sports Guardation.

What is up? Everybody? Welcome to episode three forty three of said Sportscardination. As always, as we say, glad to be back, and I want to thank our great sponsors that make this show possible. Starting with our featured sponsor of the episode, Iron sports Card Rob It's got you covered, as the commercial says, with the folk submissions Sports Collectors Digest. Another one of our great sponsors, Hobby Hotline first and third Saturdays of each month's little programming note there, second and fourth during August with the national going on upper Deck which allows us to review some product and give away some stuff as well.

So there's some house cleaning to you know. We eliminated some of the commercials. But to do that, I got to thank him on the front end. It only takes thirty seconds.

I don't think it's too big of a deal. Let's talk about our guest. He is a bigger He is a big deal. He won't say that, but I will.

Mister James Beckett, Doctor James Beckett, the man I always say, needs no introduction. It's been on the show quite a bit, but he hasn't been on in almost I think about a year and a half, maybe almost two years, and we're gonna we're gonna chop up some hobby. I always love kind of his takes on things, and it never fails. In depth conversation with him always kind of makes me think about something differently, and that's that's the mark of someone who's very intelligent, very experienced, and very well and again, never fails anytime I talked to him, whether it's on the air, off the air, he really makes me see some stuff from from a different point of view, a different angle, and this conversation was no different as well.

So hey, without further ado, let's get to doctor James Beckett. All right, it's always a pleasure when I have this next gentleman on the podcast, at least for me. I don't know about him, but just speaking for myself, and he's a veteran of the show, probably one of the leaders in appearances for County and but it's been a little bit since we had him on. So I kind of reached out and said, doctor Jim, I think we need to be bitter.

It's been a little too long. So welcome doctor James Beckett once again. Thank you, John, always a pleasure. All right, Well, so listen you do Sports Card Insights a great podcast.

I ventured a safe guest. Most people to hobby are familiar with it. It's it's short form. I've tried to get closer to short form.

I'm not as good as you. You have a lot of episodes. I think you're in the four figures. I'm not.

Is it? You know? Obviously you didn't know what necessary, exactly where it was gonna go. The formats changed a little bit over the years, is it? You know? One thing I love about the show is I'm sure other people do share a lot of your personal insights and hobby career and personal life, the good, the bad and everything in between. You ever, you know when it's not a guest show? You ever? Is it? You ever pressed for topics or not? Really? It's the greatest hobby in the world. Am I ever gonna run out of topics? No? There's too many interesting people, interesting cards, interesting shows.

Themes and controversies and things like that. I try not to get into the controversies too much, but there's just too much going on it and and and that's wonderful. It's dynamic. So I'm talking about the good old days, but I'm trying to relate them to.

The new days. And it's it's been fun for. Me speaking of controversy. Right, It's obviously the hobby is reflective of society.

Right. You turn on the news and all the bad stories lead off, lead off the broadcast. I think certain people in the hobby, maybe not me and you per se, but there's a high percentage of people in a hobby who like sort of that negative stuffs. See somebody out in or exposed or talked about, like do I try to keep it as positive as I can.

I won't talk about some some you know, some of the awards that I I mean you and you do as well. I think it's important you can't act like that that isn't happening. Is anyone ever critical that you may like, Hey, doctor Jim, I don't think you do that enough. Do you ever get that sort of feedback or not really.

That I'm not talking about enough bad news? Yeah, or like do they ever claim or maybe a better way to phrase the question, does anyone accuse you of like looking at everything through rose colored glasses. I hope. So, I mean again you can look at the half empty half full. I mean, there's so much good going on.

You know. The complaints are there's too many, too many the shows are too crowded, you know, or prices are too high because there's so much demand and there's so many new collectors, there's too many kids, you know. I don't think people are criticizing that. But it's there's a lot of good things happening.

There's plenty to talk about it. You know, we're conditioned by the network news and the other place is where we get our quote unquote news. It's not even really news. It's more gossip sometimes, but it's just.

It's controversial topics get more attention than hey say, you know, the hobby was up ten percent last month, you know, you know, but if it's down one percent, oh the sky is falling, Well, it's it's not. We've seen you know, over the over the recent years, we've seen more athletes get involved in the hobby, celebrities, We've seen the hobby itself become more mainstream, get more news coverage on financial networks and on regular that works. Do you think there's good and bad to that both. Almost all good, almost all good.

Yeah, there's some people that think if if the hobby gets overheated, then it'll just drive up prices. But you know that's of the problems to have. You know, more attention is way better than no attention or not enough attention. So we're getting a lot of media attention and we just need to handle it and you know, police our own hobby.

You know, if there's bad apples, we need to get them out. There's mostly great people in this industry. Yeah. You know, we've heard certain people talk about regulation having you know, whether it be a commission or something like you see maybe on the Wall street side of things, someone that kind of oversees things, make sure things are above board.

I'm knowing you as I have over the years. I adventure and say, I guess that's nothing you would really want to come into the hobby. Like you just said, you were like kind of police our own. The only regulation I want is self regulation.

Now, if that doesn't work and there's some and some important people get stung, yeah, the government could look into it because we're talking about some big bucks now, and but we like I agree I said, we should police. Our own and uh. My rule is I really want to do business with people that I like and trust and enjoy, And occasionally I'll buy something from somebody, but if it's face to face that's a genuine interaction. I'd be leery of buying expensive cards from people I don't know without safeguards in place.

Yeah, no doubt. Speaking of cards, we see the wall behind you that I often drool over as I look at it. But is there I know, I think I've asked you this in the past. Is it do you have fort? Do you have every card you want necessarily or is there stuff that you're still on the hunt for or not? Really, I have.

Every card I really want that I had. I mean I basically, John, I had that stuff before I started doing the price guides, because my acquiring phase was before that, and so I got most of the cards that I wanted and the other ones I didn't want it or that I didn't want as bad. I had a chance. Like I said, I was underbidter on some really really expensive.

Cards and I wish i'd won now, but I'm not going to go back, and I can't up that bid because the prices went up by one thousand percent. Yeah, and I know you said obviously because of your integrity and when you had back at the price guide and the company as a whole, you know, you really kind of refrained from from buying cards. But when you when you sold your company, was it kind of like game on again? Were there's stuff? Did you have like a target list then or did you really kind of like you said, before you even started, you had a lot of those those things checked out. Clarify One thing is, you know, when I started the company, I really pulled back from me to dealer.

It just wasn't it was going to be a conflict of interest. But I did sell stuff, you know, in advance, you know, kind of advance I and so a lot of the sets that I had I sold in order to fund the company and get it going, and so because I didn't take a salary for a couple of years. But now going back and rebuying those sets at one thousand percent just does and feel right. I used to have them, I loved having them.

I sold them for a good cause, and I've still got so many great I have more great cards than I can display, let's put it that way. So if I can keep reducing my collection by one percent a month in a few years, maybe I'll have chance to think, Okay, now I've got some room to get some fill in some gaps. So you see, I used to be a set guy, and then the smallerness room gets the less of a set guy I have. So you you don't have You've sold most of your sets? Would that be a fair statement.

That'd be a fair statement. But for example, when I sold my forty eight forty nine leaf Baseball set, I conveniently did not sell the Jackie or the sactual page or some of the other stars that I really thought I'm going to hold onto those. But I got rid of, not got rid of. I got a good actually got a really price if you look at it, today's prices would have been much more.

But I got fair prices for him when I sold them. And that's been, gosh, John, forty years almost. Probably forty years. Where the time goes? You just mentioned one of my favorite sets for obvious reasons, the forty eight forty nine leave set.

We kind of now use both years. I know you've talked about it on your show. Some recent evidence and the Relief book has sort of uncovered stuff that shows it maybe being more of a forty nine set. I don't think I've recently talked to you about it.

I've talked to you about it in the past. Has your opinion changed on when that? You know, what we referred to that set as. My personal opinion is that I think there's a lot of evidence now from the Carl's father's diary that the cards were distributed in the spring of forty nine, but it does not negate the fact that there were There are nineteen forty eight copyrights on a lot of the cards, and that was the way the hobby accepted it. And it's the hierarchy of rookie cards in the forty eight forty nine area, you know, it's it's it's just so to straddle it as a forty eight forty nine set is an accommodation of the historical treatment of that set.

You know. Otherwise Warren spawn his rookie card is forty eight bowmen only, and that's not what the hobby has accepted. They've accepted the so respond they'll say it's a forty eight leaf that would make it come out and it might have a forty eight copyright on the back, So it's it's it's problematic. Back in the old.

Days, you didn't you didn't have the ability to research it other than to look at the card and what did the cards say? And a bunch of those, you know, the of the of the forty nine easier cards are not not easy, but the non short printed ones, a lot of them have forty eight copyright. Yeah, I've even heard people talk about, you know my guys Jackie Robinson saying, well, if it's a forty nine, he has forty eight issues. Obviously different kind of like regional issues. Those are would be like true rookies, bone bred, you know, the Thrills card, that sort of thing.

Let's just say, all right, it's forty nine. Leave to me. It doesn't change how I feel about the Jackie card as a now owner in your mind, as does any bloom come off that rose for you or. No, I mean the.

Other Jackies you're talking about that are forty eight forty seven, those were either regionals or not mainstream widely distributed. They're pack pulled. But at least the sport Thrills, so no, no problem. Again, Jackie's not the problem because he's got forty nine Bowman.

If he had a forty eight Bowman, that'd be another story. But you know that forty nine Bowman is a fabulous card to fifty Bowman is a fabulous card. Yeah, time to hear from one of our great sponsors. But sports Card Nation will be right back after that.

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They also offer wax options and single cards to cover all the bases. Check them out on Facebook at Iron Sportscards Group or on the web at Ironsportscards dot com, or even give them a call at one eight seven seven Iron PSA. Rob's got you covered. Let's go.

You are listening to the sports Card Nation podcasts. Jackie has I know he's your guy, but he has no bad cards. John, I know, and will if any if anything knows that. My let in bank Accounty knows that, uh as well.

Yeah, he he's got great cards and you know for those who try to put that run together right. His career unfortunately was not long. But even though his career was short short. Uh, it's still gonna cost you a few bucks to acquire all those cards, and so it's no no easy task, even though there's less to uh less to find.

Uh. But uh, you know, now I'll answer my own question to me, it's still a rookie card. It's obviously sitting behind me. I know it's as well.

And that whole thing hasn't really changed, you know, my acquisition of it to chase for when I finally decide to acquire, Like all those are are obviously fond memories and and what have you. So, uh, but it's interesting how some of the stuff has come to light now and how people you know, if you, if you do the research and the due diligence, how you can still find out stuff from eighty years ago at this point kind of crazy. All right, speaking of let's talk about grading. You know, obviously you started back at many moons ago.

They're still around. You've got Collectors Universe acquiring SGC now over two years ago. I bokes up for them, not any not technically, not any longer. As they announced that they are with bulth Grates.

I'm still gonna do it, have to change my pricing structure. I expect to get less cards. You know, there's been some contact creation out there, doctor Jim about you know, is this when collectors kind of phases out or liquid dates SGC and they no longer exist. I hope that's not the case from a you know, a personal relationship with them.

But even even besides that, I hope that's not the case. I mean, what you know, when we look at the grading card terrain, it's still really the big four, right if you will. You got PSA, Becket, STC, and CGC, and then you got a whole bunch of a lot of other companies. Do you see that changing much? Do you? You know, what are your thoughts on what do you think might happen? You know, put on your speculator leader's hat with with SGC, how do you you know you've come from the corporate side and they're familiar with how these things, how this works.

Sometimes, you know, what do you think happens? You don't have to be no stradamus to say to predict there will be change in the future, John, I just don't know what the change will be. But I mean SGC is a really interesting opportunity really for for PSA. I could see it either way, but I think guess GC is a strong brand and I'd like to see it live on. I'm perplexed why they would, why they would pull back from loyal book submitters like you.

I think that's I'm not sure what going on there, But a lot of the the positives of p s A and SGC and and Beckett see do you see all of them the bulk submitters, many of them do several brands. Anyway to make it work for the bulk submitters, I think is good business for the for the grading company. So I'm not sure what's going on there. Maybe there's another shoe that's going to drop.

I just don't know. I'm going to be you know, I know they're a sponsor of this show. But as I told them when that went like, I'm still gonna be very honest and and and forth right, and they said, by all me, I think you just said it. I agree with you, doctor Jim.

I think the bulk rate decision is going to lead into something else. What that something else is or it looks like we'll have to wait and see. I guess I hope it's not worst case scenario like we both kind of mentioned that. You know, I've heard other people say, well, collectors bought SGC because they were sort of the biggest threat to PSA and to block fanatics from acquiring them and pouring some money into and to make a run at PSA.

And now that they've done that, they can kind of phase them out and kind of do away with them. I just I don't I get in. I don't get at the same time, because if you get rid of SGC, let's just say that's the call that they make, you know, CDC, and are going to move up a slot for a company, a slot that doesn't exist that goes away that they're gonna move up for them. You know, not everyone loves PSA.

The PSA's got to know that too. So I just don't know why. You know, I'm sure there's there's smart people in that room, obviously, but I think if you do away with SGC, you're just opening up number two for someone else. Uh And I mean, would you agree with that or not? Necessarily? Well, I'm not.

You know, you're giving a lot of what ifs I would if I were in charge, I'd be hard addressed to think that I want to, uh give up on a on what I think is a strong brand of SGC. You know, but p s A, that brand is expanding like crazy with having a whole bunch of submission centers, and so you know, maybe they announced that the p s A submission centers will also accept for SGC, or that game stop will also accept for SGC. But I just I just think you were you know, I've listened to your podcast faithfully for all these years. You've been a very faithful supporter of SGC, and you know, I think you're an ambassador for them, and it's it goes beyond them sponsoring your podcast.

I mean, you're at the shows, you're representing them. Well, I I I don't know who made the decision to to to uh to not. Do it that way, because I thought it was working. I thought it was working.

Yeah, yeah, I guess maybe it's come Maybe it comes down to the the with the two lines running north and south through it, right, and they're like, hey, we're giving these boats a rate. Let's just decision. They called me up directly, they were very you know, the person buy it. It wasn't a phone call that he wanted to make.

He said as such, and uh, you know, he was very nice and polite and you know, said, hey, if we want to do it and figure out you know, your own sort of charges, you know, that's that's up to you. You were cutting out, Were you saying that Peter Steinberg called you? No, not Peter, but my my ideal with a lot of on the I'm. Just saying that whether it was Peter or your rep, I'm not sure they're the ones that made the call. No, unlessen, I'll say this, make the decision, make the decision.

Yeah, they were not the ones to make the call. I'll go as far as to tell you that that was relayed to me. They just said they are the sort of the messenger of bad news if you will. And I could tell, you know, I've talked to my rep so many times, doctor Jim, I could tell and is info chain in his tone like he really was sad and by having to tell that to him and felt terrible and uh, you know we we it was found up talking thirty minutes about that and other things.

And uh, you know, it'll be interesting. While I don't like the decision or it's not something I would have wanted, uh, what will be interesting? You know from a content creators, and it's just as a person in the hobby to see how this affects, you know, their intake or what they get. Do they take a hit or will it be business as usual? Like I said, I'm going to still do it and just adjust sort of my rates. And a lot of my clients tell doctor Jim say, hey John, we'll pay a couple of bucks more like we're okay, it's convenient for us and and that sort of thing.

So, but I'm also not naive to know am I gonna get the same amount of cards? Uh? Probably not. I think those numbers will go down, But how much down? I guess that's that's the million dollar question. I think all the grading companies probably now figured out that a lot of customers have loyalty to one, sometimes two of the grading companies. That's just that's who they use.

And unless a. Grading company makes them really really mad there, they don't like to switch. And so a lot of your your loyal SGC customers are gonna there there's they're probably gonna still stay with SGC. There are people that grumble about p s A, but they still use them.

Yeah, No, no doubt. Always fun chopping it up with the doctor. Doctor Jim Beckett again always happy to call my friend. And you know, anytime I've reached out to him, you know, if he can do it, he's He's always uh said yes and uh really means a lot.

So I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Here's the good news. That was only part one. Part two next Friday, three forty four.

It will the conclusion of our conversation. So part one was today or on this episode. Part two on three forty four, So we're gonna hear from our hobbies, the people announcer, and some closing thoughts and wrap up this week's episode. Time for our hobby is the People Announcer of the week.

This is Ray from Philly, and remember the hobby is the people. If you'd like to be the hobby is the People announcer of the week, do a one or MP three file and send it to Sportscott Nation PC at gmail dot com. Leave the good thinking only.