Sports Collectors Digest

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Posted By: Dan

I found this forum about 2 months ago and wish I would have found it earlier. I purchased items from Coaches Corner last year. I naively thought they were above board. I have discovered the hard way that most of the items are fakes. Luckily most of my purchases were inexpensive. But I still feel used and it has turned me off of the whole autograph hobby. I get SCD weekly email newsletter and have never had a subscription. I am greatful for the knowledgeable people on this forum and will ask for advice when needed.

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Posted By: DJ

I used to love SCD as a young collector and I'm not sure the Internet plays that much of a role it's demise.

I go to the book store every weekend and there are literally hundreds and hundreds of speciality magazines dedicated to everything under the sun. SCD is the biggest joke in the business, but are you trying to tell me there can exist on a newstand a number of periodicals that teach us how to build a log cabin, but this great hobby won't have one periodical to represent itself?

It's rail thin because it doesn't care what the hobby says (or what's in the best interest of the collectors) and the hobby is smart enough to know this.

DJ

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I disagree and I believe the internet is 100% to blame for its demise. Why would a dealer advertise in SCD when he can just sell his goods on ebay? The same demise came of Toy Shop and I never once heard any complaints that Toy Shop didn't care what the Hobby had to say about anything.

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Posted By: Scott Sarian

I was discussing this a couple of weeks ago with the guys from Halls Nostalgia, who for as long as I remember always had the back cover advertisement in SCD. They were saying how they were sad to see how it lost its power from years ago, and as much as they loved having the back-page status, after a while it just didn't make sense to continue the ads when no one was reading it.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I think the Coach's Corner debacle is inexcusable. Anyone selling fake autographs should be immediately banned. That they have been doing so for many years and are still allowed to advertise is a travesty.

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Posted By: Bob

A single signed Matty baseball for $998?????? I wouldn't even consider an offer to part with mine for less than 5 figures. Boy, you talk about something being rotten in Denmark......

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Posted By: barrysloate

They have sold thousands of bad items for years and years. Who is bidding?

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

People who haven't found a forum like this and are unaware of current values in the marketplace. What's amazing to me is that Coach's Corner escapes the scrutiny of the federal government.

edited to add: I am surprised that Keith Olbermann would have anything to do with SCD knowing that Coach's Corner basically keeps the SCD in business. If he wants a good story for his Countdown show he should do an expose on them.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Scott,

Funny you should mention Hall's Nostalgia. I too remember all their great ads from 20 years ago. Being a youngster up in Canada at that time (and an unabashed BoSox fan), I would always turn to the back of the publication to see what cool oddball items the Hall family was offering that particular week. I loved all the Jimmy Fund stuff they came up with. I actually passed through Arlington, MA, on a family trip in 1990, and got to check out the store firsthand. I bought 2 T206 Hal Chase cards (pink background and holding trophy) for a whole $8 apiece and was in heaven! The Halls were very kind to me, and it was really nice when, working for JSA many years later, that I had the chance to run into them again at the Shriner's show in Wilmington, MA. They're great people to talk to.

Anyhow, (kind of) back on topic: My favorite trade rag, by far, was the sister publication to the SCD, "Baseball Cards" Magazine. Even as a kid, I found Beckett's monthly magazine informative, but far too "thin" (lack of actual pages or "meat"--the same common complaint about today's SCD). It was great for keeping tabs on card prices, and for interesting articles (which seem pretty juvenile by today's standards), but I was always left wanting more. Enter BCM. They combined genuinely interesting articles with a half-decent price guide, and an absolutely wonderful, irreverant sense of humor that still cracks me up whenever I pull out a yellowing issue from that ancient pile in the corner of my study. I remember one issue (I think it was July, 1990, the one with Dwight Evans on the cover) that featured a mock article about somebody so addicted to the hobby that his family intervened and sent him to the "WHITEY Ford Clinic"!!! I always loved the "Collector Q&A" section, and that same issue features a parody enitiled "Wierd Collector Q&A". If you have never had the pleasure, try to find a copy of this particular issue and laugh like you have never laughed before. It hasn't aged a bit! By the early 1990's, BCM, like the SCD of today, had become a shadow of its former self. Its pages numbered fewer than half of what it contained only a brief few years before. I wish BCM could be brought back. It taught us that, such as in life, we should always be mindful of the facts, but to never forget to throw in a good joke every now and then. I hope all of those hobby humorists are alive and well. A much-belated "thank you" to them all!

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jodi- the very first baseball card publication I ever saw, and purchased, was Baseball Card Magazine. It was the summer of 1982 and I think it was issue #4, with Reggie Jackson on the cover. It had a price guide in the back and I was amazed that there was a way to find out what a particular baseball card was worth. It was a fine magazine with great articles.

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Posted By: Richard Simon

What amazes me is the collector who pays these prices:

Josh Gibson single signed baseball $1000
Josh Gibson cut signature $491
Martin Luther King single signed baseball $746
Walter Johnson single signed baseball $386
Christy Mathewson single signed baseball $998
Chrsity Mathewson signed/inscribed post card $608
Lou Gehrig signed baseball bat $2100
Fred Clarke single signed baseball $1001
Cap Anson cut signature #1 $347
Cap Anson cut signature #2 $358
--

What thought process goes into paying $998 for a Christy Mathewson single signed baseball?
"Wow, honey I got a $30,000 ball for $998, Now junior can go to college".
Do people really think that way?

I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
Unknown author
--
We made a promise. We swore we'd always remember.
No retreat baby, no surrender.
The Boss

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I would say there are two types of people buying from Coach's Corner...those who are ignorant of the current market and those that wish to pass on a forgery for even more money.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Dan- I'm afraid the latter is the more enticing option.

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

SCD still has about 15,000 subscribers if I remember correctly. What they really need to do is meld it with Tuff Stuff and come out either every two weeks or once a month. Why it is published weekly at this point is beyond me-it must add a huge chunk to the expenses mailing out all those papers 52 times a year.

I've made this point before: F&W merged their record collector mags into one publication and it improved dramatically and is still going strong. Some of Toy Shop was incorporated into Antique Trader I think, but that mag was destroyed years ago by Krause when they removed most of the articles and just had ads.

The thing that I would like to see is a combination of three or four of their pubs like SCD, Antique Trader, Postcard Collector into one magazine. I could live with the stuff I don;t collect plus I would certainly learn a few things I would not know otherwise from such a rag. This will never happen though.

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Posted By: Mike

I never buy from Coach's Corner without a STAT Letter of Certificate. Are those on here saying that STAT is also no good ? Does STAT carry any weight ? They are used for the Babe Ruth musuem. Do they know anything about Ruth signatures ? I did win a Ruth ball which STAT certified. Thanks for your opinion. Mike

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

STAT is no good...there was a thread about them on the memorabilia side last month.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/567138/thread/1194624101/Stat+Authentic

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Posted By: Rich Klein

And like I said a few months ago; it's not just SCD but it's print all over. I discussed Beckett's issues when this was brought up and I was amongst the people let got in June. But it is print all over and has been such for a while; and sometimes with humorous consequences. USA Today recently offered early retirement/buy out packages to anyone on their staff with 15 or more years of experience. The entire NBA staff all took the package and left and thus during the middle of the season USA Today has to revamp their entire NBA lineup.

Print is frankly brutal to be in nowadays. Although it is still the most effective means of getting a point across; the impact is far less than it was even 10 years ago. And while it is much easier to go through -- it is not as good for the hobby when the last 2 issues of SCD have 100 pages combined. Yes, both issues of SCD were in my mailbox when I came home tonight.

And frankly, the future for print is not good either. With the communication the way it is nowadays for our youth; there is less reading and more instant phone and internet communication. The niche publications within our niche (old cardboard; etc) have a chance for survival as well as Publications such as Beckett Plus and Almanac and Krause's Standard Catalog which have one-source guides and pricing and can be portable.

Regards
Rich