Monthly Beckett for Pre-War cards ???

[Joshchisox08]

Title says it all. I remember when I was a bit younger and collecting present day cards. Beckett usually had more listings than Tuff Stuff. I remember them only listing from about the mid to late 30s to present day.

Is there another Beckett or equivalent that lists the prices for Pre-war cards ??? Specifically T206. And if there is do they actually have a lot of the cards from the sets listed or only a few ?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[btcarfagno]

Originally Posted by Joshchisox08

Title says it all. I remember when I was a bit younger and collecting present day cards. Beckett usually had more listings than Tuff Stuff. I remember them only listing from about the mid to late 30s to present day.

Is there another Beckett or equivalent that lists the prices for Pre-war cards ??? Specifically T206. And if there is do they actually have a lot of the cards from the sets listed or only a few ?

Thanks in advance for any help.

If there was it would be worth about the same as the cost incurred for throwing it into a raging dumpster fire.

Tom C

[Joshchisox08]

I'm confused worth ? Or Cost ? I'm talking about a current price guide that can be bought or ordered.

[scotgreb]

Beckett produced this for a while in the 1990s -- if memory serves it didn't last very long.

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by Joshchisox08

I'm confused worth ? Or Cost ? I'm talking about a current price guide that can be bought or ordered.

What Tom means is any monthly prewar price guide would be worthless. The only true "price guide" is your own research of previous auctions through sites such as VCP, Card Target, Prices Realized, plus simply Google. Even with all of that information, the ending price of a scarce item can vary significantly from one auction to the next if the collector who needed that item before (but now has acquired it) doesn't participate in the next auction.

[Joshchisox08]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

What Tom means is any monthly prewar price guide would be worthless. The only true "price guide" is your own research of previous auctions through sites such as VCP, Card Target, Prices Realized, plus simply Google. Even with all of that information, the ending price of a scarce item can vary significantly from one auction to the next if the collector who needed that item before (but now has acquired it) doesn't participate in the next auction.

I can see some validity to that. Just was curious as I'd like to have something even close to the value and getting it monthly without doing the research myself.

[pokerplyr80]

The closest thing I have seen is the SMR report PSA sends out monthly to members. The same info is available for free on their website even for non-members. I wouldn't call it worthless, as it can at least be a good place to start. But actual auction prices can vary quite a bit from their estimates.

I prefer VCP personally.

[btcarfagno]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

What Tom means is any monthly prewar price guide would be worthless. The only true "price guide" is your own research of previous auctions through sites such as VCP, Card Target, Prices Realized, plus simply Google. Even with all of that information, the ending price of a scarce item can vary significantly from one auction to the next if the collector who needed that item before (but now has acquired it) doesn't participate in the next auction.

Yeah this.

I love when dealers whip out a price guide on certain items. I make good money that way.

Tom C

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by btcarfagno

Yeah this.

I love when dealers whip out a price guide on certain items. I make good money that way.

Tom C

Big +1. Any published "price guide" will be worthless. Use the internet.

Things are worth what people actually pay - not what some guy guesses something ought to be worth.

Cheers,
Blair

[Cozumeleno]

Hey Josh - if you're just looking for a rule of thumb, Beckett's Monthly guide used to occasionally print pre-war pricing. I haven't bought a Beckett in a couple of years, but have one at home that has T206 pricing from 2013, I believe.

I know they didn't put it in every month (since I have a similar guide purchased a few months before or after that doesn't have it), but it used to be in some. I agree with others in that using it as a hard and fast rule is a bad idea, but the prices in there will at least give you a very rough idea if you can find a current one that has them listed.

[Jeff_cvc]

I think t206.org, "value estimator" gives you a decent starting point. By no means would I base their stated value as an end all, but it does a fair job of getting you in the right ballpark.

[bigtrain]

I would love to be able to buy T206s at SMR values
Or t206.org values as well.

[Rich Klein]

The vintage magazines (both iterations) were among the very best publications we ever did at Beckett.

When Wayne Grove was riding the herd on the 2nd iteration from a hobbyist viewpoint we had an great group of columnists and contributors. Plus we had someone who truly loved the old cards and sports as much as 99 percent of the people on this board.

Lew Lipset, Pete Calderon and others as columnists (I forgot who else) come to mind. The biggest disappointment we had, other than the magazine not succeeding on a financial viewpoint, was many great stories went to other publications that did not pay nearly as much as we did. Among people who knew, I don't think they truly appreciated that Beckett could get their stories to a much wider audience.

Regards
Rich

[Luke]

My guess is the research and price watching you've been doing for the spreadsheet is going to give you a much better idea that a price guide would.