The Football Card Blog

Well, unless someone from Beckett takes the initiative and contacts me directly (good luck, I know), my verdict is in--I tired to be diplomatic, I tried to keep an open mind, and I still appreciate the thankless job that Eric has done--but the new site sucks (at least for what I want out of it), and I won't be re-upping my subscription with them, online or off.

I tried to get a simple checklist for a site today--I prefer to do my inventory in Excel--not only will they only show 100 cards per screen max, but the copy/paste ability of the new site will not work for my needs at all.

I don't want to organize collections on your site.  I don't want to wait 5 minutes for your tutorials that I shouldn't have to watch load (seriously, you had to make one on how to stop auto renewal of pricing subscriptions? If anything of mine auto renews, expect VERY angry emails and calls).  I don't want to trade (on your site), and I sure don't want to buy any cards or other licensed apparel from you--there are hundreds of better places for that kind of things online.  I don't see a "personalize this page" link at the top right of the homepage, and I really don't want to change my content around that much anyway.  And I really don't want an annoying splash page trying to tell me where to go to find what I'm looking for.

What I do want is to be able to pull up a full list of cards from a set, so when I'm busting packs/boxes, I can scan the list for the cards I see.  I want that list to load fast (unlike the old site) if it's not going to be dynamically updated throughout the month (like the old site), or I want it to be dynamically updated, if it's gotta be so database intensive--and right now, it's slow AND not dynamic. (And did I mention I can't get a full set list to display at once?)

Add in a whole bunch of content on the site that I just don't care about and a pricing model that is absolutely ridiculous (I get a "sports card" magazine subscription with pricing, have to pay extra to get the content online, and when online have to pay for each individual sport, AND pay extra if I want the newest pricing when it first comes out), and you've lost yet another subscriber.  I could handle some of the crap, but not all of it piled on.

Let me know when Beckett 3.0 is in the works--I promise I'll be a more vocal beta tester this time (if I remember to login to my account).  Better yet, drop me an email--I'm sure my company would love to pitch a proposal for solving this mess for you.

You may have heard that the new Beckett.com launched this week.  You might also have heard that early reviews have not been positive.  In fact, a posting on their blog has generated 93 responses--which range from complaints, to thanks from other site operators for increasing their readership, and yes, a couple of complments mixed in.

Maybe I should have taken my duties as a beta tester a little more serious (that's right--despite the fact that I've been negative in the past, I was approved as a beta tester).  If I had taken the time, I could have told them that the site seemed slow--especially given that only beta testers were using it.  I also could have probably told them that they were making what should be a fairly simple concept, and making it waaaaaaaay too difficult (I have to agree with the commenter that chastised them for launching something that basically REQUIRES users to watch tutorials to be able to use it--that's just not good practice).

I don't fault Beckett for trying to improve things--their previous site sucked.  Unfortunately, it seems like they may have tried to take too big of a leap.  And maybe too soon.  And without looking before they leaped.  And into the wind.  Whatever you want to call it.

In the mean time, despite the mis-step, and all of the other problems I have with Beckett, I look forward to seeing where they go with the site, because I do think that it can be useful (for certain things).  I'm just not sure I'm willing to continue to pay for an annual subscription right now to see that progress.

**UPDATE** Eric's comment below reminded me that I did have one other point to make about the situation created by the new site--and that is to commend Eric for the job he's doing in handling the response, specifically in the post I linked to above.  I have a feeling that if 30+ people (probably even more off blog) started unloading on me in comments (even if some of them are warranted), I don't know if I could keep things as calm and composed as he has--although it is a problem I hope to have on this site at some point.

**UPDATE**I just went to check out the video on YouTube, and noticed that it has been ranked 1.5 stars out of 5 (6 ratings), and there have been numerous negative comments on it.  You can check them out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RKSBRY8ocM.

So, I finally got around to adding Beckett Behind the Scenes to my RSS list the other day (not sure why they weren't before--sidenote, is anyone else being asked to login to their server EVERY time you go there?  ), and saw that they had a couple new posts up today.  The first of which was entitled 'You asked for it, and I got it...'

And the post says that they are (FINALLY) going to provide a behind the scenes look at the grading process, via a video post.  Which, given all the negativity I've seen and heard about Beckett and grading in general lately (granted, 75% of it comes from Sports Cards Uncensored:-)), would be a good thing for them to do.

And then this is the crap they give us.

 
Whether they're trying to make it tounge in cheek, or taking an intentional jab at those of us who have raised the question of their grading practices--but this kind of crap doesn't help matters at all.

As of this morning, I was ready to write another post criticizing Beckett--no, not for their box break videos that feature apparently loaded boxes (I spread the blame equally between Beckett and the card companies on that one)--but rather because it was a full week ago that I noticed at my local card shop that the latest issue of Sports Card Monthly was out.

And as of last night, mine still hadn't shown up.

Further exasperating me last night, I tried to email Beckett to find out what was going on--which proved to be an adventure in itself.  I clicked around, and found out I had to login with my email address--and when that didn't work, I reached a page that said "Please contact customer service by e-mail at:   or by phone at:   ".

That's right, it encouraged me to contact them, which I was already trying to do, but didn't give me the email addresses and/or phone number to call him.

I then found a help page that offered a way to determine my expiration date via the address label--which showed a label that looked nothing like mine (I knew I wasn't expired anyways).

Finally, after finding a form to use to actually contact them, I got a message that said they would ATTEMPT to answer all inquiries within 72 hours.  In this age of the Internet, Beckett will TRY to get back to me within 3 days (this after it took them more than a week to get my online access set up when I subscribed--and then another 3-4 days to switch it from baseball to football, since that was what I subscribed to).

So, like I said, I was ready to blast away in a blog posting.  Then a funny thing (or two) happened.  First, I got an email from Stacy in Customer Service at Beckett, saying they reshipped the issue today, and asking me to let them know if they could help further.  And, of course, the mail shows up, and there's my copy of the magazine (and it's very possible, even likely, that it's not Beckett's fault--for some reason, we get some things really slowly around here).

So, not post blasting Beckett today after all--in fact, I actually have to give them kudos for how they handled the situation--although I still think their Web site needs a lot of help--and that's even AFTER I started checking out the Beta of their new site (yes, they actually approved me as a tester--not sure if I'm supposed to blog about it or not, but I told them about the blog when I applied).

But, I'll save that for a later date--along with I'm sure more on loaded box breaks and conflicts of interest.  I can't let Sports Card Uncensored have ALL the fun.

Beckett is giving collector's a chance to win the 2007 Exquisite Collection Adrian Peterson Rookie Signature Spectrum 1/1 that they pulled in the who Box Busters fiasco a few weeks back--all you have to do is go fill out their second year end football survey.

This survey also didn't ask for my name or address, so I can only assume that they are tracking it through my login, which is set to always be remembered.  At least I hope so, or they aren't going to know I won it...

After the kerfuffle over the Beckett Video Box Break of two boxes of Upper Deck Exquisite, one would hope that Beckett would tread very carefully with their next round of box breaks.  And while they do play it somewhat safe, by opening a box of 2008 Press Pass, which is significantly less impactful on the wallet than Exquisite, and point out explcitly that it was taken "off the production line at the printing facility north of Dallas," some people may still ask a few questions...

The first question someone may ask would be on the timing--Press Pass isn't shipping until next week, but they get the box to open early.  Doesn't particularly bother me, as they're in the press, and it's a good move by the Press Pass folks to build some buzz early.  But given the kerfuffle, I am a bit surprised that they went for a break of product that won't hit the public for a bit yet.

The second question is that of star player cards--a question that will likely be asked of every single future Beckett Box Break, given the Adrian Peterson 1/1 pull.  In the box of 2008 Press Pass, they pulled two Matt Ryan parallels (one #'d to 500), a Matt Ryan jersey (#'d to 150), and a Darren McFadden insert, along with a handful of other likely first round picks.

Given Matt Ryan's status as likely being the first QB taken in the draft, some might raise eyebrows at this.  Of course, in a product like Press Pass, it's tough to say that's not somewhat normal.

In the end, I'd say this break shouldn't raise too much of an uproar.  But there will likely be some collector's who disagree...

Of course, the much bigger news out of all of this in my eyes is that the 2008 Football Card Season is just around the corner!

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