Toured Beckett and met our leader Leon

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Posted By: davidcycleback

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.