OK, last week I posted an article questioning whether or not Beckett has a conflict of interest when it comes to grading/auctioning/pricing cards, and said that I knew that others had some strong opinions of Beckett as well. Well, I happened to stumble across an article that I thought also raised some good questions about Beckett, mainly to do with their card grading quality.
Beckett has also continued to raise my ire over the last couple weeks, in a few new ways, all of which are minor, but start to add up:
- First there was the Brady vs. Manning post, which compared value of their cards, which isn’t really all that annoying, but I did find completely pointless.
- Then there was a blog post from one of their guys who is covering the Super Bowl–where he basically whines about not having his golf clubs, complains about how far he has to walk, admits to ignoring security measures at the stadium, and whines about the hotel accomodations (not to mention admits that he was at a Billy Ray Cyrus concert the night before he left).
- More basic usability problems with their site (the web marketer in me comes out)–I went to do a dealer search this weekend, type in my ZIP code to find the stores closest to me, and get this message:
“We’re sorry, but we were not able to find a dealer match in your zip code. Please try to search by state to find a dealer near you.”
Umm, yeah, I know there are none in my zip code. But I also know that there is a dealer in the next town over (about 5 miles from my house), so I thought at least he might show up. Turns out, it has to be an exact match for zip code. Stupid stupid stupid. I did a state search, and still only came up with six dealers (which may, unfortunately, be accurate).
- Add to that the fact that I subscribed to their magazine and Web site service now five months ago and STILL haven’t received my first issue (although they’ve told me that I will be getting it at the end of January), and I wonder why I still bother…
Oh yeah, they’re about my only option. That’s why. <SIGH>.
