Dr. James Beckett: Sports Card Insights

Joe and Josh discuss their father-son hobby dynamic now separated by 2000 miles - but I expect to see them both together at the National this year - here's their story.

Another four weeks of daily episodes for your review in case you missed some - your episode ideas please send to doctorjamesbeckett@gmail.com  and thanks!

Lots of ways to get to Atlantic City - but where to stay is the question - some "what if" creative approaches to lodging and transportation at the National.

John Newman (Sports Card Nation) and Corey Donovan (YamWax) were my co-hosts on Saturday morning's Hobby Hotline and this was our first major topic of discussion.

Rob Veres suggested Southern California as the epicenter of the sports card hobby but he was shouted down and out-voted by the many Texans in the room.

Too many slabs are emerging of some high supply and low demand cards and players - how will the market handle this equilibrium with grading fees increasing across the board?

Rich asked me to take a second deeper look at the hesitation I had before starting BGS back in 1999 - yes, I wish we had jumped in faster in hindsight!

Grant and I had an extended DQ session that spilled over because we both had some good sports card hobby questions - thanks Grant!

Non-physical cards conjured up many meanings - from NFT's to vaults to bank safe deposit boxes to fractionals - most collectors would probably rather just have the card in hand.

Mike Moynihan asked each of us what we wanted our sports card hobby legacy to be in terms of our content creation efforts - how we would be remembered.

This question was less controversial than I thought it would be - unfortunately the question submitter was not able to attend.

Another dinner question that drew a wide range of responses from the content creators in attendance - thanks Kyle Robertson for securing a meeting room for us.

John has an impressive list of big corporate sponsors for this "cards plus much more" show in Portland, Oregon, over Father's Day weekend.

Go to worldsofsport.com for more info on John's inaugural event on Father's Day weekend in Portland - with cards and much more.

Our dinner panel discussed how to make the hobby more welcoming to women and other demographics and ethnicities through our podcasts and YouTube channels.

This was our first question as voted on by our content creator panelists that evening, even though the question was suggested by someone who unfortunately missed the dinner due to illness.

I asked each of the 16 distinguished content creator attendees at the dinner to self-introduce and then declare their order of (content creator) collector, investor, dealer. Thanks Chris Sewell.

Grant and I go another round of sport card hobby and history questions - heavy on BGS this time - and some then and now stuff - thanks Grant!

Another accumulation of eight interesting sports card questions from listeners and viewers - keep them coming to  doctorjamesbeckett@gmail.com  and thanks again!

Thanks Ray from Philly, Mike Steveline, and Victor Roman for your hard work on this worthy project that I enjoyed interacting with - every collector is encouraged to vote on your favorite iconic cards.

This is excerpted from their hour-long YouTube show detailing and showing the ballot and my selections - thanks Ray from Philly, Mike Steveline, and Victor Roman Sr. 

Ray from Philly, Mike Steveline, and Victor Roman asked me to guest on their YouTube show, discussing this year's ballot of 40 excellent and iconic cards for consideration - we discuss the cards and my choices - thanks guys!

Grant has watched his conception grow and evolve into an extremely interesting and complicated product that has wide and eclectic interest - thanks Grant!

Shwe is investigating the curious and tragic case of collector/investor Dennis Walker - his mysterious death and the whereabouts of the rest of his world-class collection after all these years (more than 30 years ago).  Thanks Shwe!

Frank (and his surviving wife Vivian) founded and ran Baseball Hobby News, a very influential publication, which Rich and I, and many others, greatly enjoyed.