Toured Beckett and met our leader Leon

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Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>I just returned from Dallas this afternoon and got a personal tour Wednesday of Beckett Media and Beckett Grading facilities in North Dallas. It was a high of 68 in Dallas that day, but I was advised it can get hotter. Even the lifelong residents of Dallas dread the summer heat of Dallas. Beckett is a nice, neat place. Notable highlights include: the door to the raw, yet-to-be graded cards are behind an FBI Building-style metal door that requires hand verification to open. Grading director, Mark Anderson, had his hand scanned before the door opened. I'm sure Mark would love me to point out that submitters' cards in that room are in plastic containers labeled by anonymous serial codes, so that the graders do not know the owner of the cards they are grading. I saw the machinery that slabs the cards. Beckett has a large movie theater inside the building. I saw Rich Klein's spot, but, alas, he was away.<br><br>I had lunch with the graders. Their Pre-War grading specialist, Andy Broome, seems very sharp, knowledgeable and capable. Beckett has microscopes, black lights, scales, etc.<br><br>I also briefly met our own Leon Luckey, as he works near Beckett. He was a Texas gentleman as expected. In person, he comes across as a genuine Texan in the best sense. <br><br>I note that, as one coming from a multi generational Far North family (None of my immediate blood relatives, including grandparents and great grandparents, have lived South of Chicago!), the citizens of Dallas I met- white, black, Hispanic--, were all friendly, jovial and helpful to this obviously Northern, and sometimes lost, visitor. I also saw more cowboy boots and cowboy hats in two days than I've seen in ten years in Seattle. <br><br>And last but not least I sat next to and conversed with a beautiful 26 year old Southern woman all the way home, which beat the snoring 270 pound bald guy I sat next to flying down.

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Posted By: <b>Paul</b><p>That sounds like fun. I mentioned to Mark via email that I would like to tour Beckett, but I was told no. Whats up with that <img src="/images/sad.gif" height="14" width="14" alt="sad.gif"> I met Leon once, &amp; he seems pretty cool. Next time come down a little farther south to Austin, &amp; I'll buy lunch!

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Posted By: <b>Mark Anderson</b><p>Thanks for the kind comments David. We were thrilled you were able to come down and offer your expertise!<br><br>Paul - you are always welcome to come tour Beckett! (As is anyone on the board who is in the area - just drop me a line in advance.) I just can't take you in the secure grading areas. David was allowed back there briefly as he has agreed to be a Beckett consultant for a new area of business we will be announcing within the next month. We wanted him to see the setup, equipment, process, etc. Seriously, come on up!

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Posted By: <b>Alan</b><p>Leon, is one of, if not the nicest guys I have ever met in the hobby. He will even talk to a poor slob like me. <img src="/images/happy.gif" height="14" width="14" alt="happy.gif">

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Posted By: <b>leon</b><p>Thanks guys...<br><br>David- It was very nice meeting you too. I just wish I could have spent more time with you. I appreciate the invite, and offer, if I can make a Northwest show....<br><br>Alan- You overrate me. I am basically just a poor slob myself.....

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Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>If you want an idea what Beckett is like, it's like an office building with offices and conference rooms. It's carpeted with art on the walls. The magazine and marketing areas take up the most space and the grading, research and encapsulating have their own rooms in the back. Mark has his own office. I had no idea what a grading place would look like, but it resembles a large law firm or other business offices.<br><br>Mark also confirmed to be that it's very expensive to develop new holders-- need to have a large volume to justify the costs--, which is why card companies don't pop up with new sizes as often as collectors want. PSA, SGC and Beckett can't sink the production costs into a new size or shape because ten collectors want it. There has to be a guarantee of large scale demand to get that cost per slab down.<br><br>Also, I was there consulting in a certain collecting area (photography), and had a conference with all the graders including Mark. Much of the graders' questions concerned identification and authentication. However, many of the questions were about the collectors of the material and what they like and don't like, what they collect and don't collect. I realized that I was half called there because I'm know the sensibilities of the collectors. Even the question of whether or not to assign a number grade was up in the air. One grader specifically asked me if the average photo collector would want a number grade for their photo. If I had insisted that photo collectors would loathe number grades, Beckett would likely not have chosen assign grades. However, I said I assumed many collectors would like their cabinet card or CDV to have a grade. Presumably, a collector can ask that his postcard be holdered without a grade.<br><br>THE hardest grading question concerned how to grade news service photos (UPI, AP, wirephotos, etc), as a 1930 wirephoto often has 1930 editorial and printing notes on back, date stamps, image highlights. Are these things a natural part of the photo? Or should the photo be downgraded compared to the same photo with no writing? It was decided, with my support, that all that original production/photographer stuff was an accepted and vitage part of the photo and a photo could receive a high grade with it. I stated that Charles Conlon's signature and notes on the back of one of his photos is a positive to photo collectors and raises the market value. You wouldn't want to be docking the grade because he signed the back. This production stuff, however, could lower the grade if it adversely effected the image or overall front aesthetics. For example, if the newspaper editor wrote the image caption and date on the back, that's a natural part of this newspaper photo. However, if this writing in ink bled through to the front damaging the image quality, then there would be a downgrade. I punctuated that photo collectors collect largely due to the image aesthetics, not due the baseball card technical grade of the back. Also, to separate the wheat from the chaffe, the editorially marked photos will receive a designation on the label to distinguish it from the same photo that has not printer's or editor's markings. I can't remember what was the grading decision on news service photos that were originally cropped, as many of these old wirephotos and such were not-so-neatly cropped down as part of the production process-- but that was a big topic. My guess (only a guess, my memory is foggy) is that these cropped photos will be authenticated but won't get a number grade, as with many handcut but authentic cards.<br><br>Beyond the above sticky issues, other photos, like cabinet cards Old Judges and real photo postcards are already graded, including by PSA and SGC, so there's nothing radical there.<br><br>I can assure you that all those common collector's concerns were brought up, and usually by Beckett graders not me (I'm an academic-type). For example, Mark asked my opinion about N172 image quality and assigning grade, as he was aware of this being a concern for many Old Judge specialists.

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Posted By: <b>Alan</b><p>David - I want to hear more about the beautiful 26 year old Southern woman that you met. Was she single ?

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Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>Alas, her husband was several rows ahead.

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Posted By: <b>Marty Ogelvie</b><p><p>David,</p><br><p>The considerate thing to do in those situations is to SWAP seats with the husband... <img height="14" alt="happy.gif" src="/images/happy.gif" width="14"></p><br><br>marty

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Posted By: <b>Bill G</b><p> Dave i know you mentioned that you would often lurk over on Becketts message boards, did you happen to ask them why they ruined their message boards and turned their backs on a great community of thousands that they had at their finger tips?

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Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>I only met with the grading section and I don't believe the chat boards is governed by that section-- it probably falls under publishing.<br><br>I'd read the chat boards sometimes, and I too was surprised it was taken down. There was a lot of the typical rabble rousing and chat board idiots, but also legitimate discussions of cards and benign water cooler discussions of the day's games. I did bring up the new site format, and was told the old boards were removed as they provided no income to the company, especially considering the cost and time required to maintain and oversee them, and they felt too many posters were people who didn't use the company's services used the chatboard to criticize them. After all, Beckett is a for profit company focused on promoting its brand name, and they didn't feel it was their obligation or in their interest to subsidize that on their dime. There are still chat boards on the website, but in different format. I appreciate both your point and theirs. <br><br>PSA, of course, has a big chat board, but PSA edits it, removing whole threads and banning posters and subjects. Perhaps a different way of achieving the same ends.

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Posted By: <b>jay wolt</b><p>David, is the Beckett grading tour open to the public<br>or were you conected and got the royal treatment?

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Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>I was treated like Catherine the Great. The real graders were locked in a back room, the Folger's replaced by Starbucks and the displayed scientific equipment borrowed for the day from the local medical college.<br><br>I don't know how or if visits work. I was flown in on their money. Mark Anderson is the director of grading services, and would say. He's a good guy.

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Posted By: <b>Kyle</b><p>I just had a wonderful experience with Mark and his team at BGS. Incredible customer service, response to emails, timely responses... overall just well worth the money spent.<br><br>-Kyle

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Posted By: <b>leon</b><p>Mark is a member of our board and a friend. He generally doesn't do chat board stuff on the weekends.... I would guess they would let any serious collector have a look at the non-secure parts of the office, as long as there is an appt, etc..but I will let Mark answer that..... Mark and crew have always been most gracious to me as well as everyone else I am aware of...

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Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>If Mark doesn't allow an individual a tour it would be because he has a good reason, not because he's being mean. His work day is filled, and he simply may not have the time to give every Beckett subscriber who rings the doorbell a tour. I can assure people that there are no hot springs or pygmy tribes to miss. It's an office building, part of where they grade cards.

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Posted By: <b>Jim VB</b><p>David, <br><br>They made you skip the pygmy tribes? Shame. Although those of us living in the Dallas area are pretty used to it.

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Posted By: <b>Alan</b><p>I met Mark at last years Chicago National Net54 dinner &amp; he was one of the friendliest guys at the dinner.

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Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>I once wrote a cognitive science book on vision, and the jungle dwelling pygmies of Congo have long piqued my interest as they visually perceive objects differently than you or I.

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Posted By: <b>Kevin Saucier</b><p>Mark is a friend and I have been fortunate enough to work with him on the security of the Beckett slabs and flips. He is a class act and an awesome guy. <br><br>I predict good things for Beckett grading and have started crossing my high-end cards for the security and long term storage...running as far and fast as possible from SGC. As mentioned before, their holder is the absolute best in the hobby...by far. I have a card going on display at a large museum and now feel very relieved that it will be protected from the indirect lighting and potential handling by the various curators.<br><br>Kevin Saucier<br><br>------------------------------<br><br><a href="http://www.AlteredCards.com" rel="nofollow">www.AlteredCards.com</a> - in-depth education on advanced card doctoring techniques &amp; detection with detailed examples<br><br>

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Posted By: <b>Mark Anderson</b><p>Yes, anyone is always welcome to come see our offices, but you'll need to clear it with me first so I know we have time. <br><br>But yes, David was allowed to see more than most would because he is working with us on a new business. Someone who is consulting with us and it may help for them to see the actual slabbing machines, grading area, vault, etc., may be carefully and securely escorted through those areas. But as a rule, guests are not allowed in those locations simply because of the sheer number of customer cards that are being processed. <br><br>Wish we had pygmy tribes and hot springs, but like David said, it is unfortunately just an office building, essentially. <br><br>We will be doing another seminar with JSA in June, which is an open house with grading and authentication discussions. that would be an ideal time for anyone to come on down to Dallas for a visit. I think more people come to see Leon, so maybe I just need to hire him as an autograph guest!<br><br>(Oh, and David's comments on the message boards - to be clear - were my off the cuff personal opinions only. I don't have any say in the message boards nor any knowledge of their future. My experience with them was that there was a good group of people on there with valid points, and then a very sizable number of crazy conspiracy theorists and trolls. The boards were a love-hate relationship with me - I got some great input at times, but I also had to bite my tongue as I'd read insane posts and our policy had been to pretty much let it all fly, more or less. I do know that since people have given the new site a chance, things have been going very well. In particular, people love the free trading capabilities from the feedback I've heard.)

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Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>If visitors to North Dallas reserve a shuttle they can have a tour of Beckett followed by a tour of Leon's office. I didn't visit Leon's work, so there might be a lost pygmy tribe in one of his filing cabinets. No flash bulbs, please. You might disturb the pygmies or wake Leon.<br><br>Duly note that Texas has strict strict gun laws. You have to have at least two guns on you before you can enter a building.<br><br><br>* Politically correct note: Despite popular misconception, pygmy is not a racial, ethnic or geographic categorization. The mentioned famed pygmy tribes of the Congo are black, but there are pygmy groups that are not black and reside on other continents. In short, the racial makeup of the members is not a determinant in whether or not the group is categorized as pygmy. Ironically, when someone takes offense at the use of the word pygmy because he associates it with &quot;black,&quot; he is expressing his racial bias and ignorance. <br><br>As a formal, scientific categorization for groups of people, pygmy is defined strictly and solely by physical height.