Product Description

[ ] EXPANSIVE. More than 290,000 prices listed!

[ ] COMPREHENSIVE. Complete listings from 1948 to 1997, featuring current market values for the following complete sets and individual cards *plus many, many more:

BOWMANSCORE

COLLECTORS CHOICE SELECT

DONRUSSSP

EXTRA BASESSTADIUM CLUB

FINEST STUDIP

FLAIRTOPPS

FLEERTRIPLE PLAY

LEAF ULTRA

PINNACLEUPPER DECK

[ ] WRITTEN BY THE EXPERT DEALERS RELY ON! Dr. James Beckett is the leading authority on baseball card prices.

[ ] CLEAR IDENTIFICATION. Every baseball card is identified by year, manufacturer, size, format, and player.

[ ] VALUABLE TIPS. Professional advice on buying, selling, caring for, and storing your cards.

[ ] CARD COLLECTING HISTORY. All the facts you need to know, from the early days of baseball until today.

[ ] CONDITION GRADE PRICING. Beckett's state-of-the-art system for accurately identifying values based on grade and condition.

[ ] INVENTORY CHECKLIST. A great feature for quick and easy cataloging.

HOUSE OF COLLECTIBLES

Serving collectors for more than thirty-five years

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #664621 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 800 pages

Customer Reviews

The Most Popular Guide In The Hobby!!!
Beckett publications have the most sought after price guides in the hobby of Baseball. I've collected sports cards since 1972, and Beckett is used by more people than any other guide in the world. As for this book, you're getting a guide with over 1,000 pages of informative prices for some of todays (and yesterday's) hottest sets. Sets from as far back as 1887 to 2002. What I've always admired about Beckett guides is how extensive their listings are. Please note, while Beckett and other guides attempt to give you the most extensive coverage of the Baseball card market, it's virtually impossible to list every single set in existence. So if you get a guide and you do NOT see your card or set listed, it doesnt mean it isn't worth anything, it just means that your particular card or set may not be known of in the open market, or that it's not one of the most traded cards on the market.
The guide is set up so that the brand names are listed in alphabetical order, there's a section on the history of baseball cards, a guide to help you determine the condition of your cards (and folks, please know ahead of time, it's not kosher to put rubber bands around your collection) tips on how to Sell them, a Terminology section, a small section on how to collect, where to find them and how to preserve them. Each of the sets are broken down to list each single card of the set. You may find production numbers in the listing, as well as any known error cards or other variations. Rookie cards are designated with the RC mark. Here are some examples of the kinds of sets Beckett has listed in the guide: Topps, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, Sportflics, Bazooka, Old Judge, Squirt, Topps Big, Topps Tiffany, Score, O-Pee-Chee, Denny's, Nabisco, Pacific, Ralston Purina. You will get listings of lots of subsets and parallel sets, and you will get photos of certain cards. If you are putting together a set, and it's listed in this guide, you have the perfect checklist to help you keep up with what you do and do not have. This book is a valuable tool for any baseball card collector or investor.

Great for newer cards, very poor for vintage/tobacco cards
I found this book to be a great resource for new cards. It has almost any set you can think of after 1948. However, they did away with the Vintage Cards section, and tobacco cards are almost non-existent. I must use an older version of Beckett's for my tobacco cards. Since this is where I focus my collection, I was rather disappointed. They would do better to reintroduce the extensive vintage cards sections like in the past editions.

Beckett Strikes Out For Oddball/Food Issue Collectors
If you collector of oddball, food issues, draft picks, minor league or disc cards, you'll be disappointed. No oddball cards from Front Row or regional Police Safety sets. No information about the autograph cards of Ripken & Smith from Jimmy Dean. Beckett does not feature any draft pick cards from Classic. Minor league cards - forget it. You'll find no TCMA cards here! King-B discs are featured, but you will have a tough time finding any others in the book.

Another complaint I had was the sets have moved since the last time I had purchased this book. For instance, the 1991 Cracker Jack I Series, is now found under Topps, not Cracker Jack.

If you collect mainstream cards and inserts, I am sure that you will be VERY pleased with the book. For the rest of us, the search continues.