Dr. James Beckett: Sports Card Insights

Sponsor Mike Fruitman joins for a discussion of what's going on in his local card shop in Aurora, CO, Mike's Stadium Sportscards.

Emily Kless (Topps Communications Manager) lets us in on some of Topps 2020 planning in this phone interview.  

We look at HOF running back Walter Payton, Dave Sliepka's favorite football player, and his cards, autographs, and memorabilia.

Kevin Isaacson and I have a phone chat (with him in Hawaii!) discussing the "then and now" aspects of SCD and Krause Publications from before Kevin got there in the mid-90's until now.

Eric and I discuss professional wrestling and wrestling cards - when we were kids, up through now.

Advice to "Buy Low and Sell High" sounds foolproof but there are counter-examples.

Brian Fleischer, Manager of Beckett Media's Card Pricing team and Senior Market Analyst, compares and contrasts the evolution of card pricing processes and technology over the past sixteen years.  We discuss the early strong contributors, many of whom are in significant positions throughout the hobby at other leading companies. 

Pepper Hastings and I discuss our visit(s) up to Stevens Point, Wisconsin back in the day to meet with Larry and Jeff about their millions of cards - their setup was truly one of the seven wonders of the collecting world.  Larry and Jeff are dearly missed, both having suffered untimely deaths to cancer (Larry in 2007) and heart disease (Jeff in 2017). 

My Army officer personal story and how it intersected with my card collecting passion back in the day.

Jeromy and I discuss Beckett Media's big move into authenticating with the global launch of Beckett Authentication Services a few years ago.  Jeromy is Beckett Media's VP over grading and authentication.