I have been a collector of trading cards since I was a teenager. As I got older, I actually started a part-time business in selling the cards. When I first started the standard for prices was a monthly publication called Current Card Prices. It could not call itself a magazine as pricing information was all it had. AS I started dealing, the standards changed when a new magazine came out. That magazine was Beckett Baseball Card Monthly. Beckett offered all the same pricing information and so much more. You now got color photography, articles and even some great feature articles. Beckett has matured over the years, most of it for the better. Beckett Baseball Card Monthly is now closing in on issue #200. I will try to hit the highlights of some of the major sections within this magazine.

Price Guide
Beckett is first and foremost a price guide. They have become the authority on current prices around the country. Most dealers and card shops base their prices on Beckett in some way or another. The price guide is arranged chronologically and within each year, alphabetically. Each set has the set price, common price, semi-stars, and unlisted stars prices. Then they list all of the higher valued cards within each set individually. Insert sets are given their own section with all of the same information.

One of my favorite features of the price guide section of Beckett is the Up and Down arrows. If you are tracking a certain card, you can easily see if there was any movement in the price. It also allows for easy updates of any tracking databases that the user may be updating as the information is readily available about which cards changed in value from the previous month.

Reader’s Write
This is a section that has been in the magazine from the early days. It is an area where the editors take the time to answer reader’s questions about specific cards, sets or any other hobby-related questions. I have seen questions I have had get answered here without having to write in. There are also questions answered that I would not even thought to have asked. This is one of the first sections I turn to when I read the magazine.

Short Prints
This section covers a newer trend in the hobby, short printed cards. Basically that means that there were fewer of these particular cards printed than the standard production run of the remainder of the cards. It is generally a short half page article dealing with a specific short print, chase card or set. If you collect this sort of cards it can be a very enlightening article.

Show Calendar
This is a great feature in each issue. It lists all of the shows, state by state, for the month in question. It is a fantastic resource when planning to attend a show but don’t know when or where they may be. It is also a valuable tool for dealers as it contains all the contact information. You can call about show information or about participating in the show.

By the Box
This is a relatively new feature of the magazine. The author buys a box of a particular product and determines how many of each type of insert they should in theory be able to pull based on the odds listed. They then proceed to break the box and detail what they got. They list what is expected and what was actually pulled for each of the inserts. They also list the number of duplicates and the percentage of a full set attained in the box. For those of us who buy cards by the box and like to build our own sets this can be very useful information. It is definitely one of my favorite additions.

Featured Articles
The featured articles are not the main part of this magazine as they are with most other magazines. People buy the magazine for the price guide and are given more. The feature articles are good and sometimes on a level you would expect from a top-notch publication. They obviously deal with either cards or baseball or both. One thing that Beckett does have is great artists and photographers. You will not be disappointed in the accompanying photos or artwork.

The One Change I Don’t Like
Of all the changes that Beckett has made to this magazine over the years, the only one I don’t like is their decision to start carrying advertising. When they first started out they held themselves above advertising, claiming that they did not want to give the appearance of being prejudiced by who bought advertising and who didn’t. Somewhere along the line, it became necessary to include advertising so that the cost of the magazine for the consumer did not skyrocket beyond the market. I personally don’t like seeing the ads but I suppose it is better than paying $10 for a price guide.

Wrapping it Up
Overall Beckett Baseball Card Monthly remains the industry standard. They still do more research to give the most accurate representation of current prices than any of their competitors. They have good articles and monthly features. I personally love the artwork and the Readers Write sections. If you are looking for the best guide to determine the value of your cards on a monthly basis or if you just want to see just how much value mom threw out when she cleaned out the attic, this is a perfect magazine for you. If nothing else, you will see how far the card manufacturers have come in their products.



Recommended: Yes