Raven,

I read through my copy last night. Like you and the others, the difference in the paper is noticeable but that doesn't really bother me too much if that is the stock used in other Beckett publications and if it helps keep the cost of the magazine where it is.

Yes, I was quoted too in the Toser tribute article. Does that make me a "published author?"

I didn't really notice the smaller dimensions of the magazine. If the change in size is line with other Beckett pubs, then that's understandable, and if it helps keep the price of the magazine down, then that's acceptable too.

I did notice the smaller print in the price guide too but there had been discussions about how to juggle relative completeness in the listings and the page limit. The magazine is smaller and the smaller print partly offsets that, but if some set entries still needed to be deleted, that certainly hurts the utility of the guide. Of course, with new entries being added with each issue, something has to give if the guide isn't expanded. I would be in favor of an annual price guide with all the deleted set entries restored even if it were sold separately. Quite frankly, I've never been a fan of online subscriptions, and being an old man, I still like having a printed-out document even if I do need a magnifier or at least good light to read it.

You reported that the Angel sets were gone. I happened to notice that all the X-Files sets were missing.

All in all, I can't gripe too much about this transitional issue. I miss Roxanne's voice in print, though. As for suggestions, I think Beckett should be working on increasing the page total. There should be a few more articles or columns. Maybe one designated for reviews/updates of pre-1970 sets; one for 70's-80's sets; one for 90's sets (sets being eligible for review after 20 years) and/or an article on product premiums "ancient" and recent. If news breaks out about some early 2000's set, cover that too.

Jess

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
So I still have not received my subscription copy, but my LHS has the new issue and I grabbed one. Here's my somewhat incomplete review, I did not have the time to read everything.

The good news . . .

As the first issue released under Beckett ownership I was happy to see that the NSU format and some personnel were mostly retained. I was even happier to see that this first edition, which is picking up as volume 27 #3, is really a tribute to the Toser family. They are mentioned in the Editorial (still written by Alan Biegel) and the Non-Sport Notes (once the column of Roxanne Toser and now done by Ryan Cracknell). The NSU Price Guide Specialist is still Bill DeFranzo, also doing a promo column, and Dave Thompson has his Non-Sport University article as usual.

There is an extra article by Harris Toser included that repeats many posts from NSU readers, some of which come from Card Talk. Several members, including yours truly, are mentioned talking about NSU and the contributions of the Toser family to our hobby. It's a really nice article and I hope that we will be seeing other columns written by Harris in future editions.

By-in-large the ads and other articles are consistent with what has been there, so the reports of a similar magazine are quite right.

Now here is the only less than good news I would say and it is about the price guide more than the magazine . . .

As already noted, NSU is a bit smaller, about a half inch less in both the length/height and width across. The paper stock is different. The magazine side is thinner, but not so noticeable. The price guide paper is more noticeably glossier and thinner. Because the guide size has been similarly reduced, there is a very subtle difference in the font. The printing is smaller and lighter, but you really have to look at it twice. The pages are not as bright, they are grayer somehow. When you compare old and new guides side to side, the new one is obviously harder to read.

Also it would appear that some titles have been dropped. Inkworks five seasons of Angel are no longer listed. That's from the first A page, so you would really have to go page by page to check for other missing titles. I jumped around a little to see if others were gone, but got tired of it fast. I'll leave it to someone else.

One thing about Beckett publications that I know from sport cards days, the price guides need a magnifying glass to be read.

If I have one suggestion now it would be to return the price guide to its original size. Bigger would even be better, but I'll settle for the same.

That's about it from me. Except that I still don't know what's holding up my subscription copy. Maybe Beckett mails commercial first, but I won't get mail again till after the holiday.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: catskilleagle,

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
You reported that the Angel sets were gone. I happened to notice that all the X-Files sets were missing.

The X-Files were already out of the NSU price guide. Most of the regular Inkworks sets had been previously removed except for Buffy, Angel, Twilight and maybe 1 or 2 others.

But besides Angel, there were more sets dropped just between the last two guides. Four sets of Evil Ernie and four sets of Family Guy are gone. You have to go page by page to find missing titles.

I don't know why certain titles were picked for edit, probably because makers have folded up and it's been a few years. However Lady Death remains, so why cut Evil Ernie? Spike remains, so why cut Angel? And Family Guy is fairly popular still.

Maybe it was just a matter of how a page laid out, but if space is the only reason, I would rather have the monthly price guide complete for recent sets in the last five or ten years and then still include those popular older titles that are traded regularly. Older titles that are rarely traded could be lifted and listed in the annual price guide only.

That makes more sense than just losing some products, while leaving similar titles listed.

The new paper stock is very noticeable, I think Beckett has much to do to bring the contents up to the level the Tosers had created. Otherwise, the price should be lowered a little.
Beckett makes good use of newsprint stock in their regular sports magazines, so I expected to see it used in NSU. There are several pages that do not require color, the editorials, and some of the ads for example. But the biggest changes should be in the price guide.
There are large borders at the top and bottom of each page, including a 1/4 inch black border. This is because the NSU price guide pages were shrunk down to fit on the new size, but even before the large border on top and bottom of page was there, and not needed. There is also 3 full pages of an unneccessary title page, the Philly show and Les Davis's 300th issue of the Wrapper. All of these could go, there are also 2 full ad pages, but advertising is good, and these should stay. Almost everyone here has pointed out the Price Guide has lost more topics recently, well, we must reformat the Price Guide, a big job but one that only has to be done once - and we could gain the equivalent of several pages. Lose the gray screen and black bars on the pages to cut on ink costs. print the Price Guide on newsprint paper with a color cover to hold down costs.
Beckett's connection to the sports hobby can cross over to NSU. There are several sets released each years such as Allen and Ginter Baseball, Golden Age and others, which appeal to Non-sports collectors. Mention of these in New and Noteworthy may be a good idea, and promos of these would be appreciated by collectors.
Whatever happens, keep NSU coming. The magazine, price guide and promos are a big boon to our hobby.

I noticed the X-Files sets were gone because of Bill's promo column in the current issue. I wanted to see what the values were for the old Topps promos. A scan of completed listings on Ebay shows they have really taken a beating as Bill indicated. He brought up the first Topps X-Files promo P1 and how it used to sell for $25 and I remember that too - even has much as $35. Now, you can pick one up for the price of a common new promo. It's great if you're just getting into the old Topps cards but there don't appear to be a lot of new collectors hunting those.

It's another indicator that there are fewer promo collectors (and fewer X-Files card collectors) than there were 10 years ago, and those of us still around already have those cards. A couple of years ago, I had noticed that the values for a lot of cards have dropped so I wasn't too surprised to see it has happened with Topps X-Files promos. That P1 and the Season 1 P2 were the ones I had to take time to track down in those days (the Season 3 P5 might have been the toughest of them all for me). Fortunately, even some of the easier to find promos were good trading material back then.

This brings up that advice about collecting what you like. I liked watching The X-Files and had fun chasing down the hard-to-get promos, finding a few at shows and trading with collectors and dealers to get the others. I sold some of my cards years ago but kept a lot of them (still have at least one of each of the Topps promos). I enjoyed collecting them and still like having them even if they are no longer what's hot.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
You reported that the Angel sets were gone. I happened to notice that all the X-Files sets were missing.

The X-Files were already out of the NSU price guide. Most of the regular Inkworks sets had been previously removed except for Buffy, Angel, Twilight and maybe 1 or 2 others.

But besides Angel, there were more sets dropped just between the last two guides. Four sets of Evil Ernie and four sets of Family Guy are gone. You have to go page by page to find missing titles.

I don't know why certain titles were picked for edit, probably because makers have folded up and it's been a few years. However Lady Death remains, so why cut Evil Ernie? Spike remains, so why cut Angel? And Family Guy is fairly popular still.

Maybe it was just a matter of how a page laid out, but if space is the only reason, I would rather have the monthly price guide complete for recent sets in the last five or ten years and then still include those popular older titles that are traded regularly. Older titles that are rarely traded could be lifted and listed in the annual price guide only.

That makes more sense than just losing some products, while leaving similar titles listed.

That's funny. The Books-A-Million in Gainesville received only Ghostbusters covers.

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:

quote:

Originally posted by Heroes For Hire:
Are the Ghostbusters and Dr. Who covers exclusive to hobby shops and retailers or will they have both? Didn't NSU have alternate covers before or was that only for convention variants?

I received my dealer order this week. Only received Dr. Who covers.

No idea if it's random or if there is some pattern to which you get. Would have liked to have had some of each, but it is what it is.

Ed

Don Norton, that was great insight!

I'd like to see some type collector focus in an upcoming issue. Something similar to what Beckett had done in the past like this:

As an NSU newbie, I would say that the magazine feels thin on content. Whether that could be better addressed in page count or (as was suggested above) layout is a question for the experts. The price guide was helpful, and one of three reasons I bought the issue off the newsstand (the other two being the article on Mars Attacks and the Batman promo). I suppose the guide's print could be bigger, but I could make it out. Also, the quality of the stock felt fine to me.

I'll buy it again.

This may sound strange but I miss the smell. The old paper or perhaps ink had a particular smell that I liked.

From this thread ...

http://nonsportupdate.infopop....453/m/8017089386/p/2

quote:

Originally posted by BeckettBible24:
Hey everyone! I definitely appreciate the feedback on not only the promo card issue but also the format of the price guide. I'd definitely like to hear more. Which sets should be an ironclad staple in the magazine? Which sets would you prefer be left out? Would you like the font size to stay the same with fewer listings. Or, would you prefer smaller font and more listings? Would you like to see photos included in the price guide? Please, leave a comment here or email me at nonsports@beckett.com.

Should probably starting formulating some sort of list as to which sets collectors would like to see included in the upcoming issues of the supplemental price guide here also.

If the NSU price guide follows the Non-Sport Almanac's format of having a Star Trek section, my suggestion would be to have has many of the inserts from 2014 products onwards, but in an effort to save space to highlight the bigger "hits" from products between 1990 to 2013.
Here's some sets that I'd think should be included:
Star Trek:
1997 Star Trek Deep Space Nine Profiles, Autographs
1997 Star Trek The Original Series Season 1, Autographs
1998 Star Trek Insurrection, Autographs
1998 Star Trek The Original Series Season 2, Autographs
1998 Star Trek The Original Series Season 2, Mirror Mirror
1998 Complete Star Trek Voyager Profiles, Autographs
1999 Star Trek The Original Series Season 3, Autographs
1999 Star Trek Deep Space Nine Memories from the Future, Autographs
1999 Star Trek The Original Series In Motion DeForest Kelley In Memoriam
2000 Star Trek Cinema, Autographs
2000 Star Trek The Next Generation Profiles, Autographs
2001 Star Trek 35th Anniversary HoloFEX, Autographs
2001 Star Trek 35th Anniversary HoloFFEX, Costumes
2001 Star Trek 35th Anniversary HoloFEX, SketchFEX
2002 Complete Star Trek Voyager, Autographs
2002 Star Trek Nemesis, Autographs
2003 Complete Star Trek Animated Adventures, Autographs
2003 Complete Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Autographs
2003 Enterprise Season Two, Autographs
2004 Quotable Star Trek The Original Series, From the Archives Costumes
2004 Quotable Star Trek The Original Series, Autographs
2004 Quotable Star Trek The Original Series, Quotable Autographs
2004 Quotable Star Trek The Original Series, Starfleet's Finest
2004 Quotable Star Trek The Original Series, Captain's Women
2005 Enterprise Season Four, Autographs
2005 Enterprise Season Four, From the Archives Costumes
2005 Quotable Star Trek The Next Generation, Autographs
2005 Quotable Star Trek The Next Generation, From the Archives Costumes
2005 Star Trek The Original Series Art and Images, Autographs
2006 Star Trek 40th Anniversary, Autographed Costumes
2006 Star Trek 40th Anniversary, From the Archives Costumes
2006 Star Trek The Original Series 40th Anniversary, Autographs
2006 Star Trek The Original Series 40th Anniversary, Bridge Crew Delta Shield Patched
2007 Complete Star Trek Movies, Autographs
2007 Complete Star Trek Movies, Costumes
2007 Quotable Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Autographs
2007 Quotable Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Costumes
2007 Quotable Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Starfleet's Finest
2008 Star Trek Movies In Motion, Autographs
2008 Star Trek The Original Series 40th Anniversary Series 2, Autographs
2009 Star Trek Movie, Autographs
2009 Star Trek Movie, Costumes
2009 Star Trek Movie, Relics
2009 Star Trek The Original Series 40th Anniversary Series 3, Autographs
2009 Star Trek The Movie, Autographs
2010 Quotable Star Trek Movies, Autographs
2010 Quotable Star Trek Movies, Bridge Crew Patches
2010 Star Trek Remastered Original Series, Autographs
2010 Star Trek Remastered Original Series, Dual Autographs
2010 Women of Star Trek, Autographs
2010 Women of Star Trek, Costumes
2011 The Complete Star Trek The Next Generation, Autographs
2011 The Complete Star Trek The Next Generation, Communicator Pins
2011 Star Trek Movies Heroes and Villains, Autographs
2012 The Quotable Star Trek, Autographs
2012 The Quotable Star Trek Voyager, Autographs
2013 Star Trek Original Series Heroes and Villains, Autographs
2013 Star Trek Original Series Heroes and Villains, Dual Autographs

The problem with condensing the price guide is that everyone has different tastes so a vintage collector will not be pleased if a price guide is mostly modern and the modern collector (like myself) will not be happy if more and more newer sets are being left off.

My opinion on the price guide is that nearly every set from the mid-90s to now should be included. Anything before then should only be included if it's a landmark release and still popular and relevant today. Condense some of the pricing in the sets if need be, but don't eliminate newer sets altogether. I believe, and maybe I'm wrong, that the vast majority of people who use this price guide are looking for values on newer cards. You can't have a non-sport price guide and get rid of iconic sets like Harry Potter and Buffy. The more sets like this get omitted the less likely I am to buy it then.

On a side note, when I used to collect baseball cards back in the 90s and early 2000s, and bought the Beckett price guide religiously, one of the coolest and most fun parts of it every month was the "+" and "-" arrows showing changing values. To me prices have to be updated more often to reflect the current market. I am much more likely to buy every issue of a price guide if I feel it's constantly being updated and is "current". When pricing doesn't change very often I start to feel like it's obsolete and therefore I only need an issue every year or so just to stay in the loop. See I differ from the majority on this forum in that I mostly buy NSU for the price guide. Just my two cents.

The immediate problem for a price guide publisher is space. With the new NSU supplement guide, the font size has been increased. We all like that because it's a lot easier to read, but they don't want to increase the pages, so a whole lot has to be dropped.

They did that, but some of the titles cut and some of the titles kept were in my mind poor choices. Iconic titles like Buffy and Harry Potter must be kept, they were not. Cards in vintage sets like 1949 Wild West must be relegated to annual guides only, but it was kept in. Recurring, on-going titles must be kept for all sets, many earlier sets/seasons were removed and only the most recent title release was kept. This cut out many of the most valuable cards in the title. Stuff like that makes little sense and leaves the guide with more holes than useful data. It all needs to be reevaluated.

As for new product, I would like to include the last ten years on everything, but I don't see how that is possible, not even five years for everything. Unless the number of pages expands, you don't have the room. For non-recurring titles not still in production, I really don't see how you can go back more than a 12 - 18 month span from release. On an annual price guide there should be no restrictions. Everything non-sport should get listed, regardless of year, or it is not worthwhile to buy.

My whole view on it is skewed towards autographs. I'm mostly an autograph card collector. So for me any set with autographs that is not included in the guide is disappointing. Others may not care much about autographed cards, particularly those from older sets, but to me they should be included. I do agree that it's a tough situation for Beckett/NSU to be in, trying to figure out how to appease as many as possible with such limited page space.

So I just received the Dec. 2016 - Jan. 2017 issue and the Price Guide looks a lot like it did back when. The font size has been reduced again and it's back to 5 columns a pages, total pages 31. Many of the sets that were removed, both as whole titles or old seasons, have been returned. Even Xena, which was long gone, is back.

At a really quick glance, the only things that jumped out is that some consolidation of certain cards in titles like Dexter could still be done to open more space and I don't know why a take along guide needs to include very old sets like 1967 and 1977 Wacky Packages. Otherwise the guide looks much more useful than the last version. The print is much smaller than last issue, but it means that we have those important sets back, so what can you do? It can't work both ways.

This does show that the comments and suggestions from NSU Card Talk members regarding the price guide are being heard and acted upon. That's all anybody can ask for.

That's great to know that they are listening to feedback. Kinda sounds like it's a "back to the future" type of good though since Xena is back. Are there any new sets included? How's the rest of the magazine? Anything new or different?

Five new sets, two are Star Wars of course. I like the magazine, neat Rogue One cover. Pages are all glossy and sleek. If I were to say one thing, and this might be the opposite of other opinions, there are too many large photos. Some are full pages and half pages. Now they all look very nice and it's a good format, which is why I say it's a matter of opinion. My only issue is that if you saved some room with smaller photos, you could print longer articles or maybe even add a couple of more features. But it looks very good, I haven't had a chance to read very much yet.

I got it on time and it had the two promos promised, so all is well on my end.

Noticed in the "Take Along Price Guide" under the "what you will find in this price guide" there is an reference to costumer feedback.

Nice job everyone for sending feedback and thank you for listening readership, Beckett

I found my copy at a Gainesville (FL) Books-A-Million at the beginning of the month. I think copies reached the store within the previous few days.

I was happy to read in the "Non-Sport Notes" of the return of the promo card column. It will be tough to find a writer with half of Bill's experience so it will be interesting to see how it develops. Early in the year, I did suggest to Bill that he could do a series of columns on the hot promos of previous years - something like a "Top 5 of 2008" with some commentary or maybe some articles focusing on some hard-to-find promo/product premium sets. The article mentioned that it would appear in every other issue, alternating with the "Top of the Crop" column. I think both should be in every issue. NSU used to be a 60-page magazine which shrank below 40 pages several years ago. It has bumped up a couple of pages since the change in ownership and I hope one of Beckett's goals is to expand toward, and perhaps surpass, that page total.

I liked the restoration of many sets in the price guide as well but a lot of space could be saved by not breaking up the sets into separate listing groups (chase levels, promos) set off with titles in bold print. I want to see as many of the deleted listings restored as possible even early Wacky Packages (and older stuff) especially if the overall plan is not to expand the magazine's page total too much more. I'm not that interested in many of the sets before the 70's but NSU can't afford to alienate any collector age group. For that reason I liked seeing the article on the Gomer Pyle set. I'd like to see articles on 90's sets many of which are suddenly 20-25 years old now.

I thought the magazine finished the year looking better after a somewhat shaky transitional period though the website still hasn't been updated to keep up with the latest issue.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
So I just received the Dec. 2016 - Jan. 2017 issue and the Price Guide looks a lot like it did back when. The font size has been reduced again and it's back to 5 columns a pages, total pages 31. Many of the sets that were removed, both as whole titles or old seasons, have been returned. Even Xena, which was long gone, is back.

At a really quick glance, the only things that jumped out is that some consolidation of certain cards in titles like Dexter could still be done to open more space and I don't know why a take along guide needs to include very old sets like 1967 and 1977 Wacky Packages. Otherwise the guide looks much more useful than the last version. The print is much smaller than last issue, but it means that we have those important sets back, so what can you do? It can't work both ways.

This does show that the comments and suggestions from NSU Card Talk members regarding the price guide are being heard and acted upon. That's all anybody can ask for.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
I liked the restoration of many sets in the price guide as well but a lot of space could be saved by not breaking up the sets into separate listing groups (chase levels, promos) set off with titles in bold print. I want to see as many of the deleted listings restored as possible even early Wacky Packages (and older stuff) especially if the overall plan is not to expand the magazine's page total too much more. I'm not that interested in many of the sets before the 70's but NSU can't afford to alienate any collector age group. For that reason I liked seeing the article on the Gomer Pyle set. I'd like to see articles on 90's sets many of which are suddenly 20-25 years old now.

I thought the magazine finished the year looking better after a somewhat shaky transitional period though the website still hasn't been updated to keep up with the latest issue.

I still think that the NSU price guide should try to stay as current as possible and leave the majority of the older card sts for the Annual/Almanac price guide. Why? For the most part, those prices are rather stagnated and won't change from issue to issue and often times year to year. But when there is articles about the older sets such as Gower Pyle in the magazine have it correspond related sets for inclusion in that month's (even the next issue's) price guide. Have more articles on the 1990's and 2010's card sets and topics to get more sets rotating in the price guide.

Anyone notice the survey in June/July 2017 issue? There's a chance to win one of 10 2017 Non-Sport Almanac or the grand prize of the 2017 Non-Sport Almanac and a box of a future Cryptozoic release. Seems like 11 winners to me ... could be pretty good odds of winning something

Anyway ... from the questions it seems like there could be some changes in the works for NSU besides having the price guide connecting with the magazine. Maybe there's talk of changing content and adding more vintage, graded card, and auction news. Not sure if they read anything here, but let them know so they can "provide Non-Sport readers with the content they desire" by filling out the survey.

Below is sampling of the survey ...

1) Where do purchase your Non-Sport copy of Non-Sport Update?
_ Subscription
_ Bookstore/Newsstand
_ Comic/Hobby Shop
_ Other (please specify)

2) What is the most important part of Non-Sport Update to you?
_ Cover
_ Inside Features
_ Price Guide
_ Advertisements
_ Promo Cards

3) If Promo Cards were not included in Non-Soort Update would you still buy the magazine?
_ Yes
_ No
_ Unsure

4) Would you buy a digital copy of Non-Sport Update?
magazine?
_ Yes
_ No
_ Undecided

5) Do you like Vintage coverage in NSU?
_ Yes, perfect mix
_ Yes, but I'd like to see more coverage
_ No, I don't collect Vintage cards

6) Do you use the Price Guide?
_ Yes
_ No

7) Do you collect graded cards?
_ Yes
_ No
_ Sometimes

8) Would you like to see graded card news (sales, trends, etc.) in NSU?
_ Yes
_ No

9) Do you want to get results of vintage card sales at auction?
_ Yes, NSU should add (possibly at the expense of other coverage)
_ No, I'm not interested

10) If you were the editor of NSU, what changes/improvements would you make?