Beckett

 

I'm not sure if any of you noticed but Beckett's entire website has been offline for more than three weeks, with the [possible] exception of accepting grading submissions. This is a major headache for the few remaining customers Becket still has - including me. I submitted a five-card order for grading in early July. It should have been completed in September. I should have these cards in hand.
 

That's a relief. So I can check the status of my order... right?

LOLno. And contacting customer service does nothing; I sent an email two weeks ago and no one replied They're probably neck-deep in customer complaints. 

This is especially frustrating for me as I planned to retire from card collecting at the end of 2026. The five cards I submitted to BGS were likely going to be included in a consignment order I'd planned to send to 4 Sharp Corners. 4SC will consign any slabbed card - and PSA was so backed up that they were not accepting submissions of any kind, except for the express super mega God tier. 

This was going to be my last grading submission, and I don't even know if I'll get it before Christmas. 

Sigh... at least I didn't order any singles from the Beckett Marketplace.

Ahahaha. Worst. Timing. Ever. Had I waited a day, the site would have been shut down. Had I ordered a day or two earlier, Jim & Steve would have received and possibly even processed my order. But no.. it's stuck in limbo. I have absolutely no idea if I'll ever get the $70 worth of cards I ordered - including all the Topps Tiffany Terry Francona cards, Upper Deck International basketball, and OPC baseball / hockey cards I couldn't find anywhere else. At least my credit card wasn't charged ... I don't think.

It's almost certainly due to PSA buying out Beckett properties - but the fact that there is no information, no way to contact customer service, and no regard for Marketplace customers at all? It's very strange. At best it's a haphazard and poorly communicated refresh for a brand that desperately needed one. At worst it's a sad ending to a once-iconic name in sports card collecting. 

Conversely, this Beckett has a very bright future. [even if you aren’t interested in hockey at all check out this kid’s wholesome reaction to being drafted 3rd overall]

I'm holding out hope for another week and then I'm calling whatever number I can find. I want my cards dammit! And lots of other collectors do, too. 

This was kind of a short rant so I guess I have a little space for a Red Sox post-mortem. 

Really miss having a guy like Beckett take the ball

The Sox were hot stinky garbage and then they fired Alex Cora and they suddenly won a lot. And, because the American League is even stinkier garbage, they earned one of the eighty participation trophies Wild Card spots. Which is cool, I guess. They worked their asses off to get back to the exact same spot they were last year: play-in round road kill for the hated archrival Yankees. Yaaay.

Would it have been better long-term if the Sox lost 90 games and bottomed out like the Blue Jays? I doubt it. John Henry has lost interest either way, so there's no more Cold War Arms Race urgency here. There's a lot of decent to good pieces on the roster but Garret Crochet was hurt and Roman Anthony was hurt* and there's no high end elite-level stars to get us out of the same 'lose to the Yanks before October even starts' trap. Except.. Willson Contreras. That guy's a dawg.

*remember when Boston was supposed to have this scary core of Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Kristian Campbell ready to dominate for the next decade? How's that going so far? 🤮

Anyway.. these are just two things that have irked me this week. The Packers are godawful, I think I chipped a tooth (or worse, a filling fell out), I signed up for a free trial session at a nearby gym, only to learn that the only day with rain in the forecast for the next month or so... is the day I'd planned to go to the gym. And my reckless positivity was drained even further today. I'm going home to CT next weekend to visit mom, the kids are staying in NJ so I could hang out with my best friend and do single guy stuff for the first time in 25 years... but he can't hang out cause he's got a DJ gig. I kept thinking of things to say to neighbor lady if I saw her and didn't see her. Such a fool's errand. 

I didnt have much work to do this afternoon so I left the office a few minutes early - just in time to catch milady just out of reach. She was across the street at a neighbor's house, and just as I turned the corner she headed back to her place. Instead of going back inside through the front door (where I might have caught up to her) she made a beeline for her backyard from the far end. That figures. I didnt wanna see her anyway. All these neighbors directly around her know her and I'm just out of her purview. 

So I kept walking and went to the corner store for some Mountain Dew and Monster because fuck it. I decided to go the long way back and pass her house on my way home (as I would have if I were coming home from work) and just as I approached that same corner I saw her -- way down the side street, walking (presumably) her neighbor's dog. Can't Catch Me Now. Nope, and I'm about to stop trying. 

Have you ordered anything from the Beckett Marketplace lately (or ever)? Have you ever used their Online Price Guide service? 

Come back doc, we need you!

Thanks for reading!




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