let me get this straight...

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by HRBAKER

Largely it's a hobby and business without any rules or regulations with the exception of those you choose to impose upon yourself.

Truer words never spoken. Well, at least until those pesky federal agents start poking around.

[ullmandds]

welcome back...to the WILD WILD WEST, folks!!!

[E93]

It kind of takes the "3rd party" out of "3rd Party Grading", doesn't it?
JimB

[T206DK]

I'm with Frank on this one. What a conflict of interest. I'll have to check the older threads about Beckett.

[drc]

Actually, the answer is no. Beckett Grading Services is a division within Becket Media. BGS grades cards but does not run the auctions.

I understand and appreciate many will see little significance in this distinction, and that's fine by me. My point here was to answer the initial question as it was written, and the question named a specific division within Beckett, BGS. If the question was a more general "Does Beckett grade and auction cards?," my answer would be Yes.

If someone fallows up with, "So, David, are you claiming it's not a conflict interest to ...," I'll repeat what I just said: I was just answering the question as it was written.

[T206DK]

yes, I don't see much distinction there. I'm of the opinion that entitiies that grade cards for $$ should probably not be trying to profit by selling such cards as well. They should be concentrating on grading cards and bettering the hobby. Instead they foament suspicion and distrust in many longtime collectors. This just smells funny....to be cliche'. I don't care if Beckett 's fast food division ( if they had one...LOL) was selling the cards, it still doesn't seem right to me. I am not a coin or stamp collector , but I seem to remember some of my friends that do complaining about the same thing a few years back. Someone who graded coins was also profiting big time from selling their own graded material. I'm not sure how you justify that business practice with a straight face.

[M's_Fan]

Conflict of interest? Yes, but it seems like the market and collectors have a nice way of dealing with that by applying a discount to BVG cards.

For example, I bought a BVG 3.5 T206 Cobb "Bat off Shoulder" for about $721 last year. A PSA 3 Cobb sold for $1100 at the time. I was happy to pick it up and cross it over to an SGC 40. I wondered why the auction went for so low, but I suspect it may be that people don't trust Beckett auctions or Beckett grading because of this conflict of interest, so they bid less. You'll always be safe if you buy the card, not the holder.

[FUBAR]

before i came to this site, Beckett was the only grading company whose slabs i would buy. I was very surprised no one here supported them.

From my experience, they have always graded very tough and have yet to see an over grade, although i am sure they do exist.

I have since learned/ noticed from the much more experienced and knowledgable guys that SGC is acceptable and PSA is ok as long at you dont buy from Jose Hernandez, or anyone else selling high end cards in the LA area

Personally Beckett grading has always been favorable.

[drc]

Conflict of interest concerns are legitimate and should be addressed by a company to its customers. But I'll tell you this, if you're going to try and convince a United States Company, whether its Coca Cola or Microsoft, that it should drop a major profit making portion of it's company at its loss, good fricking luck. We're talking Don Quixote and windmills here.

[terjung]

Originally Posted by FUBAR

before i came to this site, Beckett was the only grading company whose slabs i would buy. I was very surprised no one here supported them.

From my experience, they have always graded very tough and have yet to see an over grade, although i am sure they do exist.

I have since learned/ noticed from the much more experienced and knowledgable guys that SGC is acceptable and PSA is ok as long at you dont buy from Jose Hernandez, or anyone else selling high end cards in the LA area

Personally Beckett grading has always been favorable.

It depends what era's cards you are talking about. I always bought BGS for modern stuff. Since I shifted gears to prewar collecting, however, BGS (BVG) doesn't hold a candle to SGC, imo. Depending on the issue, PSA may be acceptable, but I am far and away most comfortable buying SGC slabs for my prewar cards. It is a personal choice though and one that each collector needs to make for himself (or herself).

As far as Beckettmedia selling BGS graded cards, I can certainly see how the conflict of interest (whether real or only perceived due to company structure) is there. On one hand, I prefer that they are at least out there under their own name so that we don't have a "did you know that so-and-so works for Beckett and is selling their cards" type expose. On the other hand, I guess I wouldn't expect for them to sell PSA-slabbed cards. Since I largely don't collect modern cards any more, Beckett is pretty much a moot point to me since I avoid them.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Truer words never spoken. Well, at least until those pesky federal agents start poking around.

How long has it been since the National where the subpoenas were served? Are we going on two years now?

[sox1903wschamp]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

How long has it been since the National where the subpoenas were served? Are we going on two years now?

Yep, Chicago, 2008 National

[Bobsbats]

Isn't this the same reason that James Spence stopped selling autographs? I would be willing to bet that any autographs that he sold would have come with a certificate saying it was authentic.......but if he still sold autographs, would anyone trust his authentication ?