Dr. James Beckett: Sports Card Insights

I was honored to be a guest on John Newman's 100th episode along with Brody The Kid and Drew Herndon.  John's first question concerned the opportunities to get more kids involved in this great hobby.  Go to Sport Card Nation to listen to his whole episode, but here are my main comments from the show and my additional thoughts afterwards.

Dane had saved up some questions for me but I was ready with my own questions.

Eddie Healy shares his experience with his dad and the 1974 Topps rack packs they were able to resist opening all these years.  

Alex Bell's card shop was operational from 1988-1995 with lots of local brick and mortar competition.  Now card shops compete with the digital world of card sales and virtual community.

Victor Roman collects RC's of Hall of Famers in the four collecting major sports as do I - we discuss our respective approaches.

Brad and I had an extended conversation about several subjects related to the discomfort of our finite mortality and how to deal with our valuable sports collections.

Karl's father only collected and completed only one baseball card set - but it was a great one - plus he kept his daily journal from 1949! 

Torsten's experience as a basketball card collector in Germany over the years was heavy reliant on his trusted Beckett magazines.

Advanced collector Anthony Nex shares his quest for completing these elusive panels, which were intended to preview the upcoming set, but were apparently discarded as there are few copies available today. 

Karl shares his family's positive story involving his dad's cards and how they were handled over the decades since the exact day they were purchased.