Dr. James Beckett: Sports Card Insights

An accumulation of related questions and themes from Instagram on how I do hobby - spoiler alert - I am not typical.

Co-Hosts Brad Bethune (TX Card Dude), Rich Klein, and I fielded questions from this live Saturday morning hobby show about shows, old and recent.

Ray shares his baseball card collecting journey - leading him all the way to the founding of the Baseball Card Hall of Fame.

How do we maintain momentum and continue to sustain the remarkable recent growth in our great hobby?

Conflicts of interest in the sports card industry may not be illegal but they can be destructive to the long term health of the hobby if too many new collectors are burned (badly).

The distinguished panelists at the dinner in late May in Dallas had suggestions for how they maintain motivation and consistency in the delivery of their helpful hobby content. 

Eddie and I tout the benefit of collecting the popular players from your schools or area - a great focus allowing for every budget.

The question of transparency - too little or even too much - came up in our group discussion - lots of expert voices chiming in.

Ray and I kept rolling as we referenced prominent baseball cards pictured on my (multi-sport) Wall of Fame.  

The first question of the evening was: who inspired you in the beginning of your sports card hobby journey - a brief, but well-deserved, shout-out to many of the unsung heroes in the hobby.

We had 26 in attendance at the first Hobby Content Creators dinner, held  immediately after the huge Dallas card show on May 22nd - this episode provides all of the 30-second self introductions.  A great group and evening!

Mike Steveline brought his tech skills to the Baseball Card Hall of Fame project, but like Ray, his two hobby loves are baseball cards and the Hall of Fame.  Voting can be accessed at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfCFhR_s6HCLB7IT-c4aB1QMeMXXW8fQxxO0RKwm6LFVffE_A/viewform

Josh had me on his Cardboard Chronicles show as a guest and we batted ideas around for 45 minutes - check out his show regularly - this was about ten minutes on a topic that I thought my show's listeners would appreciate as being largely a fresh take.  Thanks Josh.

A brief recap of the past four weeks of daily episodes - hopefully something for everyone - whether you are a pure collector or an aggressive investor.

I confess that I flip cards - but patiently, and on a smaller scale - in fact my selling horizon is ten years.  Whereas some flippers at shows barely hold cards at all before selling or trading them in the other corner of the big show. You need to really know the current market and the very latest true comps.

I kept the recorder going for this after-the-interview back-and-forth explaining some of the cards on my wall of Fame as John pointed some of them out and inquired about them.

John and I trade questions about his first and current "sports" loves.  The questions do not have to be explicitly about sports cards, but they need to shed light on helpful hobby insights.

Six more listener questions on a variety of sports card questions - timely and timeless - please send your questions to doctorjamesbeckett@gmail.com  so they can be considered.

Ray Fonio aka Ray from Philly created a Baseball Card Hall of Fame four years and voting is by collectors - this year's class is available for voting until the end of this May at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfCFhR_s6HCLB7IT-c4aB1QMeMXXW8fQxxO0RKwm6LFVffE_A/viewform

Brad and I trade questions - most of his questions centered on the early days of BGS card grading - but my questions to him were more personalized.

Josh and I had questions for each other and we enjoyed the back-and-forth comparing our hobby experiences then and now.

I further complicate this adage - it is true, but there are additional considerations raised - when all is said and done, the answer can be neither (hint: NFT's are not necessarily cards and your digital wallet is not really a holder).

Comparing and contrasting two boxes received thanks to Emily Kless of Topps - these are from two of the world's most popular sports - Formula 1 is coming on strong!  

Six more eclectic sports card questions addressed from recent feedback from a variety of sources and on a variety of topics - if you want your question answered write to doctorjamesbeckett@gmail.com.

Hard to find or impossible to find wax at Walmart or Target - facetiously are you more likely to find a fight than to find a desirable box - what can be done?  Some ideas.