Well while we are just tossing out ideas, why not bring back the up and down arrows on cards that had price changes since the previous supplement? I always looked for those first on every page to see what was trending and which way. It was also an easy way to ensure that someone was actively paying attention to market fluctuations instead of "here is the price for the next 10 years".

quote:

Originally posted by Ted Dastick Jr.:
Thinking out loud... Since most market fluctuations are on current sets, why not have the printed price guide just be sets released in the last 10 years? Maybe older sets can have a permanent home online for subscribers with an access code? There wouldn't be a whole lot of maintenance to keep it current since they don't change much.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Well while we are just tossing out ideas, why not bring back the up and down arrows on cards that had price changes since the previous supplement? I always looked for those first on every page to see what was trending and which way. It was also an easy way to ensure that someone was actively paying attention to market fluctuations instead of "here is the price for the next 10 years".

Sets from the last 10 years along with up and down arrows? Sounds like a great combo to me!

UPDATE...as promised...

Twelve days later an envelope from Beckett arrived today. The envelope contained the four expected promos in a semi-rigid top loader.
There was no letter, coupon, bonus or even dust from the office floor. LOL

Everybody else receive their promos?

quote:

Originally posted by xtime:
UPDATE...as promised...

Twelve days later an envelope from Beckett arrived today. The envelope contained the four expected promos in a semi-rigid top loader.
There was no letter, coupon, bonus or even dust from the office floor. LOL

Everybody else receive their promos?

Not even a "With Compliments" slip - doesn't say much for Customer Service does it!

In today's mail, I also received the four promo cards. Thanks very much to Beckett for getting these out to us that didn't get them with the magazine.

Here's a few DC and Marvel sets/inserts from between 1990 and 2014 that I think should be included in the price guide ...

2012 Avengers Assemble, Autographs
2012 Avengers Assemble, Memorabilia
1997 Batman and Robin, Autographs
2011 Captain America Movie, Autographs
2011 Captain America Movie, Costumes
2014 Captain America The Winter Soldier, Autographs
2014 Captain America The Winter Soldier, Badges
2014 Captain America The Winter Soldier, Fatigues
2014 Dangerous Divas 2, Marvel 75th Anniversary (#/75)
2003 Daredevil Movie, Autographs
2005 Fantastic Four Movie, Costumes
2013 Fleer Retro Marvel, Jambalaya
2013 Fleer Retro Marvel, Precious Metal Gems Red (#/100)
2013 Fleer Retro Marvel, Precious Metal Gems Blue (#/50)
2013 Fleer Retro Marvel, Precious Metal Gems Green (#/10)
2014 Marvel 75th Anniversary, Marvel 75th Anniversary (#/75)
2012 Marvel Beginnings, Breakthrough Issues, Autographs
2012 Marvel Beginnings, Villains Holograms
2012 Marvel Beginnings 2, Breakthrough Issues, Autographs
2012 Marvel Beginnings 2, X-Men Holograms
2012 Marvel Beginnings 3, Avengers Holograms
2012 Marvel Beginnings 3, Breakthrough Issues, Autographs
1996 Marvel Masterpieces
2014 Marvel Now Holograms
2012 Marvel Premier, Base
2012 Marvel Premier, Shadowbox
2012 Marvel Premier, Classic Corners
2014 Marvel Premier, Base
2014 Marvel Premier, Classic Covers Shadow Box
1998 Marvel Silver Age, Autographs
2014 Marvel Universe, 75th Anniversary (#/75)
2012 Smallville Seasons Seven through Ten, Autographs
2007 Spider-Man 3, Autographs
2006 Superman Returns, Autographs
2011 Thor Movie, Autographs
2013 Thor The Dark World, Autographs
2000 X-Men Movie, Autographs
2006 X-Men The Last Stand, Autographs
2009 X-Men Origins Wolverine, Autographs

As an alternative to removing sets from the list, I would have to agree that the half-coverage of everything per issue is something to consider going back to. You could still have the first few pages with the "Hot 100" or whatever recent sets seeing some action. Maybe at the mid-point of the year and/or the end of the year Beckett could have an expanded price guide with everything. Thinking of it from the company's perspective, a special expanded price guide of everything could be offered for sale at the spring Philly show and then an updated one at the Fall show with, of course, an exclusive promo or two as an incentive. It would be better for collectors to get a useful guide with every issue so I keep going back to the idea of the "A-L" issue followed by the "M-Z" issue with an "A-Z" semi-annual or annual supplement.

Five dollars and 99 cents is a lot to pay for a 38-40 page magazine with a limited-utility price guide but it seems reasonable for one with a good price guide. The customer has to feel like he or she is getting a good deal on a quality product.

As it is, the price guide has the overall look of the one in the old Tuff Stuff Collect! magazine. The glaring omission for me was that almost no promos were listed. The going-rate for promos from any of the recent sets or show exclusives should be in the guide. Public sales of any in-demand promos going back into the 90's should be included. Two DC vs. Marvel Mirage promos sold recently and those prices should have made the list. Bill would have been on top of that.

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:

quote:

Originally posted by Heroes For Hire:
Anyone remember when NSU tried listing sets that began with letters "A through L" in one issue and then the next issue would have sets "M through Z" listed in the price guide? Even though that's one way to get more sets listed, I hope it doesn't come to that again. I'd probably pick up the wrong issue when trying to look up stuff

That was actually a very good idea, in my opinion, one good way to get all the sets in and you just keep the latest 2 price guides to hand!

Am i the only person who does not care what the price guide says or does not say?

The dealer / seller is going to charge whatever they want for the card they are selling.

The buyer / me knows what he is prepared to pay for particular card.

If i want to know roughly how much something is selling for i will look at ebay completed sales which are bang up to the minute.

All this will take place without a written guide full of prices which are out of date by the time the guide is printed.

Intrested to hear what other people think.

quote:
Originally posted by xtime:
UPDATE...as promised...

Twelve days later an envelope from Beckett arrived today. The envelope contained the four expected promos in a semi-rigid top loader.
There was no letter, coupon, bonus or even dust from the office floor. LOL

Everybody else receive their promos?


Not even a "With Compliments" slip - doesn't say much for Customer Service does it!

-----------------------------
Every company has to decide their customer service policy. Do the minimum or go a step further. It is an opportunity to let customers know you appreciate and want their business.
It is equally true that some customers are satisfied with the minimum while others have unreasonable expectations. Most folks tend to value the extra effort, even if, it is relatively small.
Thanks for your observation.

Concerning the price guide.
It may be unintentional, but it seems the discussion is moving closer and closer to an online price guide.

Happy collecting.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Am i the only person who does not care what the price guide says or does not say?

The dealer / seller is going to charge whatever they want for the card they are selling.

The buyer / me knows what he is prepared to pay for particular card.

If i want to know roughly how much something is selling for i will look at ebay completed sales which are bang up to the minute.

All this will take place without a written guide full of prices which are out of date by the time the guide is printed.

Intrested to hear what other people think.

Printed price guides are more of use when something is out of the time frame (is it 3 or 6 months?) of the completed auctions of eBay.

It helps for the dealer and seller to know the approximate going-rate. If I see a card I'm interested in for $5 that has been going for $20 earlier this year, that helps me make a decision if another interesting card is less of a bargain. Also, guides tend to provide a complete listing of what's in a set including any variants and oddball promos.

Older cards might not have a recent completed auction on any of the sites. Even if the listing is a few years old, you have at least that number to consider.

Price guides might be of less use to the longtime collector looking for relatively few items but they are a big help for the newbie, the casual collector, and those getting back into the hobby after being away for a few years.

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Am i the only person who does not care what the price guide says or does not say?

The dealer / seller is going to charge whatever they want for the card they are selling.

The buyer / me knows what he is prepared to pay for particular card.

If i want to know roughly how much something is selling for i will look at ebay completed sales which are bang up to the minute.

All this will take place without a written guide full of prices which are out of date by the time the guide is printed.

Intrested to hear what other people think.

What they just said, plus if you are trying to sell a card, the dealer always checks the nearest guide as well as recent eBay sales. It is a bit of ritual and no-way no-how will you ever get what a guide says if you are selling, but you may well be asked to pay it if you are buying.

It is basically an impartial starting point that is supposed to be ballpark accurate. Sometimes it's not in the ballpark, but that is a different issue. So yes, price guides still have a use and, even though we are dealing in broad numbers, they do represent some measure to go by.

This conversation brings up an interesting question... namely, why do you pick up the magazine? Is it for the articles? The price guide? The promos? Some combination of the three?

It has shifted over the years. When I first became serious about collecting non-sport cards I needed that guide, which held a lot more product back then. Gradually I came to appreciate the magazine articles more than the guide, but that is because it's so easy to see real time data on eBay now. Still I find myself opening the supplement first just to check on the new sets listed and then reading the magazine.

As for the promos, they are very important, just not always to me. I don't collect promos in general. However if I intend to get a particular title upon release and its promo is in an issue, I will keep the card. I am sure that there are more than a few subscribers who consider the free promos to be a big perk and maybe even the #1 reason for them to get NSU.

The price guide is still relevant - of course the prices can never reflect what you might pay but it is still a useful "guide", it has also been a useful checklist for promo's and chase/auto/relic cards. As I have said before I liked when it was split and I would prefer that to come back so that we have a more comprehensive list of sets every issue. As for buying the Magazine; Articles & Promo's equally are the main reason I purchase - the price guide a very close third. I don't think you can have one without the others!

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

quote:

Originally posted by wolfie:
Am i the only person who does not care what the price guide says or does not say?

The dealer / seller is going to charge whatever they want for the card they are selling.

The buyer / me knows what he is prepared to pay for particular card.

If i want to know roughly how much something is selling for i will look at ebay completed sales which are bang up to the minute.

All this will take place without a written guide full of prices which are out of date by the time the guide is printed.

Intrested to hear what other people think.

Like Hammer mentioned, I find the price guide useful as a quick checklist for various sets.

The time I do pay attention to printed pricing is while trading. It's a good starting point for putting together an offer that's fair to both parties.

As far as Ebay completed sales, definitely use those when negotiating offers with dealers at shows and the like.

quote:

Originally posted by Obi Wan Chrisobi:
This conversation brings up an interesting question... namely, why do you pick up the magazine? Is it for the articles? The price guide? The promos? Some combination of the three?

When I was a spring chicken in the hobby, the price guide was the almost the important thing out there. Had to know what cards got the up arrows before dealers raised their prices and try to move the ones with the down arrows before others saw it. Of course, you have to take in account that there was no internet, let alone eBay, to check on prices. Getting price guides, the ads in NSU, some (snail mail) mailing lists, and going to card shows were basically how you could determine what you were willing to pay for cards. Next in importance was the free promo cards. Who doesn't like free cards? Maybe I could sell one and bring down my cost of the magazine. Then followed up by the articles. Back then the thought of buying a price guide for the articles must been like people saying they were buying Playboy for the articles.

Now as an old-head, I find myself looking for more in depth articles in the price guide, followed by what newly listed in the price guide and then lastly the promos, which lots of times, I don't even open the envelope with the promos inside (gasp!).

For this publication, without one of those three just wouldn't "feel" right. It's like the power of three. It's NSU.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
As an alternative to removing sets from the list, I would have to agree that the half-coverage of everything per issue is something to consider going back to. You could still have the first few pages with the "Hot 100" or whatever recent sets seeing some action. Maybe at the mid-point of the year and/or the end of the year Beckett could have an expanded price guide with everything. Thinking of it from the company's perspective, a special expanded price guide of everything could be offered for sale at the spring Philly show and then an updated one at the Fall show with, of course, an exclusive promo or two as an incentive. It would be better for collectors to get a useful guide with every issue so I keep going back to the idea of the "A-L" issue followed by the "M-Z" issue with an "A-Z" semi-annual or annual supplement.

It would appear that they're attempting to cover that end of the year expanded price guide with the Beckett Non-Sport Almanac. That thing is huge and pricey! The cover price is $34.95 and has 376 pages but misses a few things ... like commons and promos. On the plus side, it lists lots of sets.

Maybe a special 180-page price guide in an "expanded issue" for the Philly Show with listings of promos and the vast majority of sets would make for nice way to pay homage to the founders of NSU while better serving the collector's needs.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Five dollars and 99 cents is a lot to pay for a 38-40 page magazine with a limited-utility price guide but it seems reasonable for one with a good price guide. The customer has to feel like he or she is getting a good deal on a quality product.

I believe the $5.99 price point is great for this publication. But do I wish there was more in depth articles and more pages dedicated to the price guide to be it more comprehensive? Yes and yes! But I do realize for that to happen the cover price will probably increase to the $9.99 level that the Beckett sport card magazine are at. I'm not sure I would want to pay $9.99 for every issue. I might cut down to every other issue at that price. Not sure how many other non-sport collectors are willing to pay $9.99 at this point in time though.

Here are a couple examples of the configurations other Beckett monthly price guides, Beckett Baseball and Beckett Sport Card Monthly. For the Baseball price guide, there roughly 45 pages for the "article" portion and about 175 pages devoted to the "price guide" for sets from 1980 and up. For the Sport Card Monthly, the various articles and hot lists consist of about 40 pages and the condensed price guide of recent sports cards, entertainment trading cards, and figures (it's similar to the old Tuff Stuff magazine) is around 100 pages.

With Non-Sports trading cards being even more of a niche hobby than baseball cards, I'll take a leap and guess that any changes to improve the NSU price guide to a "good" level would mean that it would be closer to what the Beckett Sport Card Monthly looks like. So is adding about 60 pages to the NSU price guide for an extra $4.00 per issue doesn't seem to add much value since the majority of the older products have so little activity and stagnant pricing after the first 6 or so months after their release. Non-Sport cards aren't like sports cards when collectors look for past years rookie cards of a current hot player or like comic books where an issue from the past will heat up with speculation of an upcoming storyline or a movie deal. For the most part, it seems like non-sport cards are relatively consistent in price with the exception of early autographs of emerging actors/actresses that have breakout roles in television and/or movies and autographs of those that unfortunately recently have passed on.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
As it is, the price guide has the overall look of the one in the old Tuff Stuff Collect! magazine. The glaring omission for me was that almost no promos were listed. The going-rate for promos from any of the recent sets or show exclusives should be in the guide. Public sales of any in-demand promos going back into the 90's should be included. Two DC vs. Marvel Mirage promos sold recently and those prices should have made the list. Bill would have been on top of that.

Until fairly recently, it really never dawned on me that promo cards in the price guide was such integral part of the non-sport card collecting landscape. I knew people collected them, I would see them listed in the price guide, I knew collectors looked forward to getting them in each magazine, and I would read Bill's articles but it just escaped me that promos were so intertwined into the NSU experience. I think acknowledging the promo card's importance to the hobby by the continued inclusion in the price guide would an extra layer of legitimacy to that segment of the hobby and, in small a way, honor Bill contributions.

My copies had the promos inside

Yes, bringing back the up and down arrows is a good idea. in the late 90's and until his passing this year, Bill DeFranzo was the "pricing specialist" for the magazine. Various people (including me for a time) sent Bill reports of recent known sales and those numbers contributed to his own experience in what various cards were going for. He had a feel for when a card sold at too good of a bargain price and when some collector paid way too much. I usually sent him prices I'd seen various promos sell for. Does the magazine still welcome price updates? Are they hiring part-timers for this kind of work (noting sales from completed auctions) or is someone/some group already doing this? In any case I'm hoping the price guide is better-populated in the next issue.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Well while we are just tossing out ideas, why not bring back the up and down arrows on cards that had price changes since the previous supplement? I always looked for those first on every page to see what was trending and which way. It was also an easy way to ensure that someone was actively paying attention to market fluctuations instead of "here is the price for the next 10 years".