The Football Card Blog

Wow, almost forgot to bust a couple packs before I head out to happy hour--can't let that happen, now, can we?

Pack 13:
#89 Justin Fargas
#47 Ryan Grant
RCM-2 Mario Manningham Rookie Collection Materials, #015/500
#120 Alex Smith
#128 Kenny Watson
#137 Marc Bulger

Manningham has some potential, although I'm not sure I see him contributing a lot this year, barring injury, since the Giants have Burress and Toomer as starters, and Steve Smith started to figure things out late last year. They also have Sinorice Moss and Super Bowl hero David Tyree on the roster.

Pack 14:
#44 Shaun McDonald
#2 Larry Fitzgerald
#122 Carson Palmer - Jersey Parallel #147/250
#126 Vernon Davis
#143 LenDale White
#109 DeShaun Foster

Hmmm...a Carson Palmer white jersey patch--at least it's official game worn, according to the back. Two other notes--first the McDonald card has an error--it says he had 79 receptions for 62 yards, when he actually had 943 yards (and yes, I know this will not make it more valuable--unless someone happens to have one that has the correct number), and second, the 49ers, much like my Vikings, really need to make their throwback uniforms their full time uniforms. Seriously, the drop shadow numbers? Ain't doing it for me. Better than 4-color combos, monochrome combos, and Nike swooshes down the side, but not by much.

Two more packs to start the morning right:

Pack 11:
#32 Correll Buckhalter
#PGK-46 Donovan McNabb Pro Gridiron King
#55 Ahman Green
#13 Jeff Garcia
#70 John Beck

Buckhalter and Green couldn't combine their stats from last year and deserve to be in the set. At least Green could be a starter, if he could stay healthy--but when was the last time that happened?

Pack 12:
#86 Matt Leinart
#PGK-18 Carson Palmer Pro Gridiron King
#94 Willis McGahee
#52 Owen Daniels
#76 Laurence Maroney

Two Gridiron Kings in two packs. Not much else to say. We're at the half-way point in the first box, and so far only one jersey, and no auto--so either the last half will yield a decent number of hits, or the number of hits per box is lower than I remember it being last year.

Needed an afternoon break, so I grabbed a couple more packs.

Pack 9:
#29 Thomas Jones
#CGK-12 College Gridiron Kings Early Doucet (#152/250)
#130 Jamal Lewis
#139 Marion Barber III
#145 Roydell Williams

Williams was better than I thought last year--still borderline on making a 150 card set, though.

Pack 10:
#18 Earnest Graham
#75 Wes Welker
#CS-11 Century Stars Eli Manning Jersey (#013/250)
#148 Clinton Portis
#116 Shawne Merriman
#103 Ben Roethlisberger

There's the first jersey swatch of the box--not a multi-color swatch, but it is blue, and it's of the reigning Super Bowl MVP, so I guess it's kinda cool.

Three more packs, over lunch:

Pack 6:
#57 Marvin Harrison
#15 LaDanian Tomlinson
#118 Cedric Benson
#105 Lee Evans
#122 Carson Palmer

Despite Benson, that would be an ok fantasy football pack--if Harrison's knee can hold up. He killed one of my teams last year.

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OK, grabbed three quick packs for now. Noticed something else on the checklist too--they actually label Cards 1-150 as "Commons" on the checklist. How annoying is that? Even Beckett doesn't classify ALL 150 as just commons--there are also your stars, your semi-stars, and your minor stars.

Anyway, into the cards:

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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.

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