Now that is been a couple of months since Collectors (PSA’s parent company) has acquired Beckett, does anyone think that the membership of CardTalk can inspire a NSU magazine comeback?
Of course, making some type of petition here probably wouldn’t work because not enough people sign-in and only view as “guests” the various threads.

But I did see that the new Beckett GM, Collin Hudson, is on X (formerly Twitter) with the username: beckettgmcolin

Maybe sending Colin some “tweets” or emails highlighting some of the value points NSU magazine can bring to the Beckett brand, too.

Probably could even message the Collectors CEO, Nat Turner, about the virtues of having a non-sport focused magazine in the portfolio.

It’s also a longshot to post that positive stuff here, but who left working for Beckett still visits here?

I think there are a few on here, those that have been robbed by Beckett on lost subscriptions, who would be reluctant to give Beckett anymore money. If Beckett sorted out those issues I'd love the Magazine (with Editor/Writers retained) to come back.

I think the way Beckett treated the staff and how they handled subscriptions (I had actually dropped my subscription a few years ago because of their incompetence) that I would be unlikely to ask Beckett to bring It back. If I heard that another publisher was willing to do so I would be all in.

Given the timing of the announcement on NSU in relation to the sale of Beckett, we should assume that the new owners didn’t want NSU as part of the deal.

Always easier to make the selling company dump and take the loss on underperforming items than have the new owners do it right out of the gate and create unnecessary ill will towards them.

If you’re hoping for NSU to come back, you should hope that someone can buy the name back and start fresh.

I've mentioned this before but I think it's worth repeating: We all miss NSU the magazine (I subscribed the moment I heard of it, and even worked for it for several years), but if we want to keep the NSU Card Talk forum, we would be wise to dial it back on using this forum to publicly scold PSA/Collect. Few companies are going to keep up a forum that disgruntled members use to publicly attack their reputation. If we want to at least keep the forum from being prematurely cancelled, we shouldn't use it as a batting cage.

I'm not saying people shouldn't write a letter, an email, call, or even visit PSA to try to resolve undelivered subscriptions or whatever else they want to settle. But to expect them to voluntarily pay and maintain a forum for people to openly drag them through the mud is basically begging for them to shut this forum down. Let's do ourselves a favor and keep any road rage inside the car instead of honking and ramming the 18 wheeler ahead.

Besides, we can all devise different conspiracy theories about who fired who and for what. That doesn't change the basic facts that PSA did NOT shut down NSU, the previous owners did (whether asked to or not), and if Beckett had had more subscribers who spent more with the NSU advertisers, NSU would still be in business.

So sadly, the reality is that WE (for not spending more) and our fellow hobbyists (for not subscribing) are to blame for the demise of our beloved magazine MORE THAN anyone at PSA or Beckett. You may disagree, of course, but if you do, please explain specifically where my reasoning is faulty.

Many of us are going through the seven stages of grief over the loss of NSU (shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance). Let's not encourage another casualty (this forum) be added to the list of those we miss in 2026.

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

quote:

Originally posted by monsterwax:
. . . but if we want to keep the NSU Card Talk forum, we would be wise to dial it back on using this forum to publicly scold PSA/Collect.

Let's not encourage another casualty (this forum) be added to the list of those we miss in 2026.

A very timely suggestion and one that hopefully makes sense to everyone. However, I think most of the problem beyond the subscription issues, is that Card Talk members feel ignored and directionless right now. Those non-sport card collectors who actively participate don't know which company, if any company, is still hosting the forum. No one of any authority has come on to say, "this is who we are, this is what we are planning to do".

As such, I would like to add to your comments by reminding PSA/Collect, or Beckett, or Fanatics, or whoever else is making, or grading, or pricing, or selling non-sport cards in this market, that this forum is an asset honed over decades. It's not just for the select posters. It's for all the non-sport card buyers and sellers and collectors that just come to read and learn. Same as people look up Blowout threads to find out what's happening in the hobby. This is a place to concentrate hobby information.

Card Talk can be utilized in many ways by whoever hosts it, depending on their business model. It is a key to an already seated audience. It's like preaching to the choir. PSA could make its case for more grading of non-sport cards. New products could be advertised direct to the consumer. I'm just spit balling here, but people in the non-sport card industry should see the potential for this website.

Thanks monsterwax, wasn't planning to make a pitch for Card Talk, but there it is. I just hope someone is listening.

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

Where’s the “like” button for this post?!?

quote:

Originally posted by monsterwax:
I've mentioned this before but I think it's worth repeating: We all miss NSU the magazine (I subscribed the moment I heard of it, and even worked for it for several years), but if we want to keep the NSU Card Talk forum, we would be wise to dial it back on using this forum to publicly scold PSA/Collect. Few companies are going to keep up a forum that disgruntled members use to publicly attack their reputation. If we want to at least keep the forum from being prematurely cancelled, we shouldn't use it as a batting cage.

I'm not saying people shouldn't write a letter, an email, call, or even visit PSA to try to resolve undelivered subscriptions or whatever else they want to settle. But to expect them to voluntarily pay and maintain a forum for people to openly drag them through the mud is basically begging for them to shut this forum down. Let's do ourselves a favor and keep any road rage inside the car instead of honking and ramming the 18 wheeler ahead.

Besides, we can all devise different conspiracy theories about who fired who and for what. That doesn't change the basic facts that PSA did NOT shut down NSU, the previous owners did (whether asked to or not), and if Beckett had had more subscribers who spent more with the NSU advertisers, NSU would still be in business.

So sadly, the reality is that WE (for not spending more) and our fellow hobbyists (for not subscribing) are to blame for the demise of our beloved magazine MORE THAN anyone at PSA or Beckett. You may disagree, of course, but if you do, please explain specifically where my reasoning is faulty.

Many of us are going through the seven stages of grief over the loss of NSU (shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, testing, and acceptance). Let's not encourage another casualty (this forum) be added to the list of those we miss in 2026.

I’m pretty sure I’m somewhere in those seven stages of grief. Where’s thinking of writing an email to the new Beckett GM about the virtues of having NSU back in print fall at in the scale?

It's true that it might be better for the forum if the negativity were cut back but it's tough when you have a legitimate gripe so I get it. I'm a little surprised we're still here two months after the last issue was sent out. Hopefully, whoever has the power to flip the switch already sees value here and has decided not to flip it.

The reality is we are not to blame for the demise of NSU. The current crop of active posters here could have each bought ten more copies of every issue and ten more cards from each advertiser and the owners would have still shut down NSU. Many well-known card collectors have passed away or have sold their collections. You can't blame the remaining die-hards for the lack of sufficient sales. We've been making comments and posting images on a wide range of trading card topics, doing all we can to create content for this forum and NSU. People are reading our stuff so I think we can say we did what we could to promote it.

Yes, it would have great to buy more stuff but our personal budgets and the economy at large have set limits on our disposible incomes. Is there anyone here who wouldn't have bought more cards/stuff from NSU/Beckett and their advertisers if they had earned/found/inherited more money?

It's been noted that the buying public has become less interested in printed matter (books, magazines, trading cards). A couple of months ago, the grocery chain, Safeway, cut way back on its magazine selection - no longer a presence on aisle shelves. They have just some titles displayed at the checkstands now.

It will be interesting to read what people outside this forum say about the end of NSU (are they discussing it on Blowout?) but what we must remember is that NSU had a great run. Most magazines fail within two years. It's not unusual for people to jump from one hobby to another, selling one collection to help fund that new one - those dolls or coins everyone seems to be talking about. NSU with its never-large readership reached its 35th anniversary last year. Most of its competition didn't make it out of the 90's.

quote:

Originally posted by monsterwax:
...we would be wise to dial it back on using this forum to publicly scold PSA/Collect. Few companies are going to keep up a forum that disgruntled members use to publicly attack their reputation. If we want to at least keep the forum from being prematurely cancelled, we shouldn't use it as a batting cage.

I'm not saying people shouldn't write a letter, an email, call, or even visit PSA to try to resolve undelivered subscriptions or whatever else they want to settle. But to expect them to voluntarily pay and maintain a forum for people to openly drag them through the mud is basically begging for them to shut this forum down. Let's do ourselves a favor and keep any road rage inside the car instead of honking and ramming the 18 wheeler ahead.

So sadly, the reality is that WE (for not spending more) and our fellow hobbyists (for not subscribing) are to blame for the demise of our beloved magazine MORE THAN anyone at PSA or Beckett. You may disagree, of course, but if you do, please explain specifically where my reasoning is faulty.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:

The reality is we are not to blame for the demise of NSU. The current crop of active posters here could have each bought ten more copies of every issue and ten more cards from each advertiser and the owners would have still shut down NSU. Many well-known card collectors have passed away or have sold their collections. You can't blame the remaining die-hards for the lack of sufficient sales. We've been making comments and posting images on a wide range of trading card topics, doing all we can to create content for this forum and NSU. People are reading our stuff so I think we can say we did what we could to promote it.

quote:

Originally posted by monsterwax:

So sadly, the reality is that WE (for not spending more) and our fellow hobbyists (for not subscribing) are to blame for the demise of our beloved magazine MORE THAN anyone at PSA or Beckett. You may disagree, of course, but if you do, please explain specifically where my reasoning is faulty.

Cats articulated it well, but I think it was more the abrupt execution without warning that caught everyone by surprise, rather than the reasoning of it. Logically NSU has been on borrowed time for years, as are all print publications that no longer have enough advertisers to make a profit. Sure, you need the subscribers and the circulation, but that's what attracts the paid advertisers. If you have no guaranteed advertiser money coming in, your readers are not going to cover print costs with their discounted subscriptions. How many copies really sold at full price off the shelf, when there were few outlets carrying it on the shelf?

In the end the only thing NSU had going for it was the promo cards. It wasn't the fault of the staff. If anything I thought the articles got better, but many were on vintage non-sport cards and let's face it, most modern collectors did not care. They never heard of the titles and weren't going to be buying them.

The supplemental pricing guide, once upon a time the main attraction, was now too brief and too dated to be of any use. I can remember going to shows and hobby stores in the early 2000s, maybe even as recent as 2006, and sellers would pull out a copy of NSU to check if their price should change. Now when is the last time anyone saw that? Not with eBay. Not with those online price checker sites. All of the card price guide magazines, sport or non-sport, have lost their utility to online up to date sales tracking. That's just a fact.

I would love it if someone would bring back NSU, but it would seem that everyone has already passed on it. No one is doing a 180 and it's hard to make the argument that it was mistake in the current environment. Sorry to say.

However, the Card Talk forum is a different matter. A big part of monsterwax's point was that Card Talk is still active and needs to be supported. As I tried to say myself, Card Talk can be used in a number of ways as an asset to whatever company sponsors it, depending on the business model. My hope is that Card Talk remains intact and available not just for our conversations, but as a place of information for all true non-sport card collectors.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
It's been noted that the buying public has become less interested in printed matter (books, magazines, trading cards). A couple of months ago, the grocery chain, Safeway, cut way back on its magazine selection - no longer a presence on aisle shelves. They have just some titles displayed at the checkstands now.

It’s interesting that Barnes & Noble is planning to open 60 stores in 2026. I did notice a couple of newer &/or remodeled stores seemed smaller and their magazine sections were noticeably smaller.

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
It will be interesting to read what people outside this forum say about the end of NSU (are they discussing it on Blowout?) but what we must remember is that NSU had a great run. Most magazines fail within two years. It's not unusual for people to jump from one hobby to another, selling one collection to help fund that new one - those dolls or coins everyone seems to be talking about. NSU with its never-large readership reached its 35th anniversary last year. Most of its competition didn't make it out of the 90's.

I don’t think it’s been a get deal on the Blowout message boards. Since NSU is a magazine and not cards it’s not a topic that gains traction. I could be incorrect though. Let’s conduct an experiment and have someone start or continue the topic there and see what happens.

I agree 35 years is a great run. Lots of fun magazines didn’t make
It out of the 90’s. I just wish that the ending wasn’t so abrupt. If there was an announcement of a “farewell tour” of a couple of issues longer then it probably would have been easier to process. But there’s always hope for future “special edition” collaboration issues with PSA Magazine, right? NSU x PSA Magazine

Yeah, there's a new Barnes & Noble in my area and they opened it about a year after they closed one not that far away. Not sure it's cheaper rent as it is in Los Gatos. I still have to check it out - might be a smaller one.

Beckett knew the end was coming when they were working on the second-to-the-last one and probably made that decision a couple of issues before.

Yeah, it would have been great to have had some big farewell issue - something at least as thickly paged as it was years ago. Various artists and card companies might've kicked out some cool commemorative promos.

I don't think there's going to be another magazine like NSU unless some crazy collector with time on his/her hands decides to try it - maybe a quarterly type deal?

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
You can't blame the remaining die-hards for the lack of sufficient sales. We've been making comments and posting images on a wide range of trading card topics, doing all we can to create content for this forum and NSU. People are reading our stuff so I think we can say we did what we could to promote it.

Hopefully everyone can see the posted images, but the information and discussion that goes with it is just as important to seeing a picture

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
In the end the only thing NSU had going for it was the promo cards. It wasn't the fault of the staff. If anything I thought the articles got better, but many were on vintage non-sport cards and let's face it, most modern collectors did not care. They never heard of the titles and weren't going to be buying them.

Agreed. People enjoy the promos, but it were the promos still benefiting the companies that provided them? Off the top of my head, I can’t even remember when was the last time Topps & Upper Deck made any promo cards. Seemed like Upper Deck went the digital route for to promote some of their products. But it was cool to see what other manufacturers were making.

Articles were very informative, but collectors nowadays seem to want to know about the new and hot stuff that they can flip or get in on the ground floor. Not quite a total disregard for past products and titles, but if it’s not a relevant intellectual property nowadays and it was made prior to 1999 then those topics were/are probably a better fit for Beckett’s Vintage magazine. Hopefully some of the articles that would have been in NSU will find their way to print in that magazine.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
The supplemental pricing guide, once upon a time the main attraction, was now too brief and too dated to be of any use. I can remember going to shows and hobby stores in the early 2000s, maybe even as recent as 2006, and sellers would pull out a copy of NSU to check if their price should change. Now when is the last time anyone saw that? Not with eBay. Not with those online price checker sites. All of the card price guide magazines, sport or non-sport, have lost their utility to online up to date sales tracking. That's just a fact.

Yeah, modern collectors utilize “comps” from the ‘Bay and various other sites and apps for their pricing nowadays. Seems like it would have been a perfect fit for Beckett to have jumped on the price guide app bandwagon a while back, but maybe there is still time to get in the game on that. As for the price guide in the NSU, the scaled down version did seem to coordinate price guide subjects with the articles of the month over the last year or so to supplement with new releases and various “hot” products to give readers a “snapshot” idea of what the price ranges trended over the last few months. Price guide ranges like $10-$25 are definitely not exact, but it can give an idea of price when there’s little to no internet reception at a card show

quote:

Originally posted by Heroes For Hire:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Raven:
In the end the only thing NSU had going for it was the promo cards.

Agreed. People enjoy the promos, but it were the promos still benefiting the companies that provided them? Off the top of my head, I can’t even remember when was the last time Topps & Upper Deck made any promo cards. Seemed like Upper Deck went the digital route for to promote some of their products. But it was cool to see what other manufacturers were making.

Advertisers, or specifically the lack of advertisers, is what dooms printed publications. Over the span of NSU there were major card manufacturers that never paid them anything. There were others that did, before they slacked off. Where was Leaf, don't know. Fleer/Skybox, maybe long ago. Favorites like Inkworks and Breygent folded up.

As far as I can remember Upper Deck never paid for ads. Topps, I don't think much, if ever. Fanatics never started. Rittenhouse got lots of coverage over the years, but advertising, I don't know if they had a contract or not. If NSU was going to cover the non-sport card hobby completely, it almost had to give space to popular products that might not have been contributing to the magazine. No?

In the final issue, I see ads for Cardsmith, Cryptozoic, Heritage Auctions, Philly Card Show, Digital Heroes, Superior Sports Investments, Baseball Card Exchange and Beckett itself.

The 3 promos were also distributed for free. Were they benefiting the companies, you asked. I think so, in the old tradition that promo cards should be free. I think that all the card manufacturers should have been supporting NSU as long as they were making money off of the collectors, but their disinterest was not new. Some decided that they didn't need the publicity or would get it for free anyway. So now NSU is done and gone.

I flip through Beckett's Vintage magazine at bookstores and bought the one that had an article on Pro Line Portraits. That's the closest to non-sports that I've seen in there. I don't think they'll be doing any outright non-sports even with NSU gone. I'll keep flipping through.

Yeah, the newer collectors aren't interested in reading about cards. They just want to know what cards to buy and then what they're worth. I have seen that with newer fossil collectors too. They want somebody else to identify their fossils and then tell them what they're worth because it's an "investment."

The old collectors were buying packs as a kid and liked their cards and still like all their cards - the ones worth 50 bucks or more AND the ones worth maybe 50 cents on a good day.

quote:

Originally posted by Heroes For Hire:

quote:

Originally posted by catskilleagle:
You can't blame the remaining die-hards for the lack of sufficient sales. We've been making comments and posting images on a wide range of trading card topics, doing all we can to create content for this forum and NSU. People are reading our stuff so I think we can say we did what we could to promote it.

Hopefully everyone can see the posted images, but the information and discussion that goes with it is just as important to seeing a picture

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
In the end the only thing NSU had going for it was the promo cards. It wasn't the fault of the staff. If anything I thought the articles got better, but many were on vintage non-sport cards and let's face it, most modern collectors did not care. They never heard of the titles and weren't going to be buying them.

Agreed. People enjoy the promos, but it were the promos still benefiting the companies that provided them? Off the top of my head, I can’t even remember when was the last time Topps & Upper Deck made any promo cards. Seemed like Upper Deck went the digital route for to promote some of their products. But it was cool to see what other manufacturers were making.

Articles were very informative, but collectors nowadays seem to want to know about the new and hot stuff that they can flip or get in on the ground floor. Not quite a total disregard for past products and titles, but if it’s not a relevant intellectual property nowadays and it was made prior to 1999 then those topics were/are probably a better fit for Beckett’s Vintage magazine. Hopefully some of the articles that would have been in NSU will find their way to print in that magazine.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
The supplemental pricing guide, once upon a time the main attraction, was now too brief and too dated to be of any use. I can remember going to shows and hobby stores in the early 2000s, maybe even as recent as 2006, and sellers would pull out a copy of NSU to check if their price should change. Now when is the last time anyone saw that? Not with eBay. Not with those online price checker sites. All of the card price guide magazines, sport or non-sport, have lost their utility to online up to date sales tracking. That's just a fact.

Yeah, modern collectors utilize “comps” from the ‘Bay and various other sites and apps for their pricing nowadays. Seems like it would have been a perfect fit for Beckett to have jumped on the price guide app bandwagon a while back, but maybe there is still time to get in the game on that. As for the price guide in the NSU, the scaled down version did seem to coordinate price guide subjects with the articles of the month over the last year or so to supplement with new releases and various “hot” products to give readers a “snapshot” idea of what the price ranges trended over the last few months. Price guide ranges like $10-$25 are definitely not exact, but it can give an idea of price when there’s little to no internet reception at a card show

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
So now NSU is done and gone.

Luckily we have you posting again back from your 10,529 farewell post to provide us good content until NSU comes back to print

Eventually someone from Collectors is bound to stumble upon this message board, we might as well let them know the what we miss (and liked) about NSU magazine for a Hail Mary attempt to bring back the magazine to print.

My likes are fairly basic. I like those Top 10 & Hot Lists, Artists Remarques, price guides, and any time there were pictures &/or references to collectors . . . especially CardTalk members