I noticed that the 2016 Beckett Non-Sport Almanac recently came out. Anyone get it? I recently got the 1st Edition that came out in 2015 so I was wondering what changes were made beside the adding of newer products.

quote:

Originally posted by Heroes For Hire:
I noticed that the 2016 Beckett Non-Sport Almanac recently came out. Anyone get it? I recently got the 1st Edition that came out in 2015 so I was wondering what changes were made beside the adding of newer products.

If you hadn't posted this I wouldn't have known, even though I did buy the first one also and sometimes check the web site. I didn't receive any email for it and I had to search to get it to come up.

Note to Beckett, you might want to put this into your news column and perhaps you will get orders.

As for your question, changes were supposed to be made based on issues with the first publication and buyer feedback. Won't go into that, but I bought it when it was already heavily discounted, so not a big deal. The new one is at regular price, so yes I too would like a bit of a review of the upgrades done before I order it again.

I received an email from Beckett about purchasing a price guide and getting a coupon. We I checked the link and was surprised to see the new Non-Sport Almanac on there, too.

Decided to get it. I liked that the print wasn't super small, but that was probably made possible because the whole checklist of cards aren't shown for each set. Instead "commons" are just listed together in the header with the more "relevant" cards given the individual listings. For example, characters like Deadpool, Spider-Man and Wolverine would listed, but not necessarily characters like Bullseye, Cable and Iron Fist would be listed.

Also, I noticed that some of the sets have an informational blurb. Hopefully, these could be expanded to more sets in the future.

I know that most people don't believe that sketch cards can be priced because of variables such as how detailed it is, the character depicted, and so on. But I believe that Beckett's typical price ranges could still be applied to most sketch cards. After all, it's only "guide" that reflects what the market activity was on certain artist's sketch card from particular sets. If the sample size is large enough then they should be priced. If Tony Perna has drawn anywhere between 20 to 200 color sketch cards for a DC or Marvel product then it's most likely those sketch cards not going to be selling in a $20-$50 range, but more likely going to be closer $80-$200 depending on the character with then more popular characters potentially going higher.

Overall, I liked the effort of the 2nd Edition and it was a good purchase for me. But if you need more "complete" checklist for your sets and don't mind that 2016 Marvel Masterpieces isn't in there then getting 2015 first edition is probably better for you.

It is really hard to do a comprehensive price guide on sports or non-sport cards. Non-sport cards have exploded in the last dozen years and there are truly a lot of sets to cover, especially if you include those smaller manufacturers. So I applaud any attempt to provide a good reference document.

The main problem with the first book you have already addressed. The printing was so small that I would call the font one notch above unreadable. If they have enlarged it, that is a huge plus. I don't care at all that full checklists have been scrapped. That was one of my suggestions, we really don't need the names of every card in a 90 card base set and have them all listed as worth 10 cents. Let's face it, it's the hits you want to categorize and price.

As to your point about sketch card pricing, I fall into the camp that feels it can't really been done in a guide. I would much rather see the artist list and the number of how many sketches they did, but many times such information is not available. That typical sketch range of $10 - $300 isn't telling anybody much and I don't really think there is a better way to do it when you are talking about subjective art.

Besides the issue of print size and base card listings, I had two other concerns. The first book had a number of products listed without any pricing at all, just the checklists. I could understand that for recent sets that may not have matured enough for an analysis to be made, but many were years old. I didn't see why no prices were given when they were not TBD.

Finally, there were some products missing from the first guide and some of the listings for groups were way out of whack. It was hard to locate certain sets because they were out of their year sequence and the alphabetical listings did not run true either. So I'm wondering if the second edition made some headway in presenting the sets so that they are easier to find.

In conclusion let me again say that undertaking a comprehensive price guide is a very difficult thing to do and there are always going to be trade offs. I appreciate that we have such resources in any form and while suggestions for changes should always be welcome, it is easier said than done.

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

Non-sports has exploded in the last dozen years? That statement alone shows you know nothing about non-sports cards. The last dozen years pales in comparasion to what was released in the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's in terms of number of releases. No clues but not surprised at all.

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Originally posted by Batman:
Non-sports has exploded in the last dozen years? That statement alone shows you know nothing about non-sports cards. The last dozen years pales in comparasion to what was released in the 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's in terms of number of releases. No clues but not surprised at all.

Sorry, I was not interested in non-sport cards in the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's. In fact I was only alive at the tail end of that. I was speaking of my own experiences, which didn't really turn exclusively to non-sport cards until I dropped sports cards in the early 2000's.

So you don't think that non-sports cards have a higher profile now than ever before? You don't think that we have a lot more choices in non-sport products than ever before? I do, but it's OK if you believe it was better in the 1940s, I wouldn't know.

My post was about the Beckett Non-Sports Guide. You made no comment on that, but if the only thing you really wanted to say was that I don't have a clue, your opinion is duly noted.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
As to your point about sketch card pricing, I fall into the camp that feels it can't really been done in a guide. I would much rather see the artist list and the number of how many sketches they did, but many times such information is not available. That typical sketch range of $10 - $300 isn't telling anybody much and I don't really think there is a better way to do it when you are talking about subjective art.

Of course, a price range of $10-$300 doesn't help out the anyone in a price guide. Artists are almost like "brands" with some being more "premium" than other artists. I'm sure that I'm not the only one has a "mental price guide" for some of the artists. If I see a DC or Marvel sketch card done in color by Melike Acar, Tony Perna, and a few other for under $100 then I'm really considering purchasing it. Those particular artists are not going to be in that $10 for their sketch cards and if they are price that low then they'll sell really fast. So their prices will be higher in the price range scale. Depending on how many they did for a particular set (and other factors), their cards could be range $50-$150, $75-$200, $100-$250 or more.

Conversely, there are artists who's cards usually sell around $10 and their higher selling sketch cards range are usually closer to $25. Although more detailed cards will have higher selling outliers. If their work becomes more popular then those outliers will become the norm and there will be upward movement in the price guide from $10-$25 range to $15-$40, for example, to reflect that.

I know that I'm in the minority about having sketch cards in a price guide, but if the market data is out there with a big enough sample size of a particular artist from a particular set (is 20 cards in a product enough to determine a range?) then I believe it can be done. But even having some general prices in the header for "common artist" at $8-$20, "popular artist" at $20-$50, "star artist" at $50-$120 will be a help to novice collectors. Also by coupling those price ranges in a header along with a checklist of the artists would give collectors a framework to help the subjective task of determining if their card is by a common, popular, or star artist by seeing what the various price ranges are. Although I believe that artists that have their sketch cards that routinely sell for over $100 should be individually priced.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
Finally, there were some products missing from the first guide and some of the listings for groups were way out of whack. It was hard to locate certain sets because they were out of their year sequence and the alphabetical listings did not run true either. So I'm wondering if the second edition made some headway in presenting the sets so that they are easier to find.

I'm not versed in which sets were missing in the previous almanac, but below is how the grouping are this time around. I found it rather easier to navigate then before.

Pre-War Vintage
Post-War Vintage
Modern
Bench Warmer
DC Marvel
Garbage Pail Kids
Star Trek
Star Wars
Wacky Packages
Funko

Coming up with meaningful pricing on sketches is very tough because each one is essentially a 1/1 card. I agree with you that the easiest thing to focus on is the artist's name. I enjoy the sketch cards, but am hardly a knowledgeable collector. Half the time I can't even recognize the artist's signature unless I have seen it identified before. I just know what I like. But there are a few other factors involved in the pricing, like the set title, the subject, number done, color or B/W, amount of detail and the time it took to complete.

Even given a well known artist, he/she will create some sketches that are way better than others. I like the idea of your "common", "popular" and "star" artist breakdown, but someone will have to determine who is who and show an example of the signature when the card does not indicate the artist. Then you will still be left with a generalized range. I don't have a better solution for it, which is why I think artwork can't really be priced in a guide. However a section dedicated to identifying the current main artists would be very helpful to many card collectors.

As far as the sections go, the divisions weren't the problem, it was how the sets were listed under their titles. Many did not follow the order given in NSU. For example, the Walking Dead cards opened with the 2012 Comic Book, ran thru 2013 Comic Book 2 and then started 2011 The Walking Dead. It did not follow alphabetically or by date. NSU lists them the opposite way, first all Walking Dead and then all Walking Dead Comics. A Castle set appeared in the middle of Fringe cards, I think that was an error. The grouping starting with 2013 Grimm cards is interrupted by 2011 Grimm Fairy Tales before it returns to list the 2014 and 2015 Grimm cards. That's just some examples. I guess I have been used to the way the NSU guide followed the sets, so I had trouble locating a few and a couple I never did find, but it may be fine in the new edition.

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

For Grimm, I do notice that 2011 Grimm Fairy Promos are sandwiched between 2013 Grimm Promos and 2015 Grimm Season Two. That seems odd.

The Walking Dead starts off with 2012 The Walking Dead Comic Book and then 2013 The Walking Dead Comic Book 2. Then it's followed by 2011 The Walking Dead. That's seems rather odd also.

But 2013 Castle Season One and Two are no where near 2012 Fringe Seasons one and Two. They are pages away from each other. Success with that one!

quote:

Originally posted by Heroes For Hire:
But 2013 Castle Season One and Two are no where near 2012 Fringe Seasons one and Two. They are pages away from each other. Success with that one!

Check out page 113 and you will see the error in the second column. Feel like a proof reader, must stop now,

Anyway, it sounds like the price guide in the latest edition of NSU has also changed up. I don't have my copy yet, but looking forward to seeing the format.