Anyone familiar with the trading card industry is at least somewhat familiar with Beckett Media. Beckett has become synonymous with the hobby itself and their pricing is the standard by which most sellers and dealers price their cards. Recently they went live with their highly publicized redesigned site. The results were initially quite disastrous with collectors jumping ship in droves. After the initial shock however, many collectors are jumping on the New Beckett.com Bandwagon.
Beckett has been scrambling to do damage control in an attempt to slow down the mass exodus of collectors headed to other forums and websites. Their underlying message to customers is to give their redesigned website a chance before bad mouthing it and heading elsewhere. The new features are numerous and are at the very least worth trying. Technologically Challenged? Can't figure out how to complete a trade or view the pricing on that brand new Jay Bruce RC Auto you just pulled? No problem, just check out their virtual library of free video tutorials or post a message in one of their support forums.
The overall improvements made to their site are substantial and should be a catalyst for continued long term success as the hobby becomes more and more dependent on technology and the Internet. Many collectors who initially scoffed at the Next Generation of Beckett.com are, upon closer inspection, using the site more then ever. Regardless of how you feel about Beckett's overhall it will benefit the hobby long term. The world is not getting any less dependent on technology or the Internet. Industries that ignore this fact are destined for mediocrity, or even extinction. The new Beckett Website is destined to introduce the hobby to legions of new collectors who would have otherwise never been exposed to the hobby.
Beckett recently wrote an informative post on their blog in which they wrote a controversial (but informative) analysis of the situation. This is great reading for anyone effected by Beckett's new site - especially those collectors who remain skeptical, confused and/or bitter regarding the changes. Here is an exerpt from the post, which can be found in it's entirety on Beckett Behind The Scenes:
1. Way too many people just got on the new site and started doing things without using the tutorials. This new site is a totally new CONCEPT, and it works, but you have to understand HOW to use it. This is not a revamped Beckett.com, and this is probably not like anything you have used before…anywhere. This new site is not hard to understand, but you can’t just start “fooling around” trying to use it and expect to be able to get anywhere. It’s not like anywhere people have ever been before (most of them).
Throw away all the methods you used to use. Stop asking where this or that is. Don’t look for a p
age of links anywhere. The “message boards” are gone. This is a new type of message board, one that is not exclusive…it is all-inclusive. It’s all gone. It’s all different. It’s all new. Asking where things are from the old site are pointless now, they are gone. You have to change your entire thinking process, and thankfully, adopting the new one is not hard–it is just different.
Just think that this is your very first time on Beckett.com, this is your very first time for everything here (well, there I mean).
Take the time to learn what it is, and how to do it, before you make a, “This sucks!” post.
Having said that, and this is terribly important, we understand completely that many people were not able to even do what I just said yesterday. There were issues nobody could have predicted that snowballed…a vicious cycle started.
How is one supposed to learn how to do something when there is no way to get to the teacher?
Our complete apologies on that, we know it was a mess! We are not hiding from it. It stunk (or “sucked” since we read that 200+ times), but it is at very least a good sign there are more folks in the hobby than anyone thought. (yes, that is 100% spin).
2. The price guides- they are there, they are everywhere. Everything has it’s own page–from top-level general pages (Baseball, Upper Deck, Football, Topps–on and on) all the way down to an individual player. The pricing is there. Take the time to watch the videos, ask the right questions, and you will “get it.” It is not at all a hard concept, if I can understand it, then a 3 year old can. After all, I am not known as the sharpest pencil in the box, but at least I am sharp enough to know that I am not.
Slow down and take the time to figure it out. Don’t just say something “sucks” because you don’t instantly understand it. I am probably the worst person in the world about that. When my daughter was coming, and right after she was born, I had to put together 453 things, and not once did I use the directions.
This web site is not like that. You have to slow down long enough to grasp the concept, and once you do I swear you will understand it.
With that, there is no way in heck I can say you will LIKE it.
That would be terribly arrogant and big-government-ish. However, understanding it is the key to explaining what it is you don’t like…not a post of “This sucks.”
Again, there is much I am writing today that may not apply directly to you. You may be one of the many who has given us rational feedback, and we are listening and sincerely thank you for it. However, I have to address everyone, and it’s often the “squeaky wheel” you have to aim at, and hope that the level-headed ones in the crowd don’t get offended.
We know about yesterday, no need to deny it, or hide it. It was quite confusing, even to some of us.
Everything on the site is integrated. You may only want to come to Beckett.com for one thing, but that entire concept is dead and gone. This is the wave of the future…eventually that is. 
Everything fits together. Once people grasp that they will grasp everything. Long rows of links do not exist anymore.
The search bar is everything on the new Beckett.com. It’s too bad it “broke” yesterday, because when all that happened…chaos ensued amongst some folks. Some people were not bothered, they understood. For every “you suck,” (OK, maybe for every 5 of those) there was a note from another person about how they understood because they had been there (in another company obviously) before in a site launch and seen what can happen when something breaks.
The site works…but it sure didn’t yesterday afternoon. Making up your mind on a broken product is not helping anyone. It broke, we’re sorry, and we are fixing it.
3. Rumors: half-truths, spam and false information…trade fees.
Rumors are great. There is an entire industry devoted to rumors and half-truths–it’s called the mass media…not Beckett Media.
We dropped the ball on something and did not realize we were doing it due to all of the madness, messages and crashing.
Beckett Media is not in the business of the bait-and-switch. Eventually there will be fees to trade, we are not hiding that. We want you to try the trade tools while they are free. We want you to like them, and we want feedback on how to improve them.
Trading has long been confined to the message boards. Many people, for whatever reason, are hesitant to join a message board due to the often clannish behavior on them. It’s often hard for a “newb” (forgive me if that is not the current term, I am soooo 2005) to start up on message boards, and some people flat out hate talking (writing) at all.
That is not to say our boards were rough places at all. They were pretty darn civilized, and do not fit the overwhelming stereotype that so many message boards have. Also, older folks are still collectors, you darn kids out there cannot forget that. You may have grown up with that concept, but other people didn’t and are not comfortable with it.
We wanted everyone to trade, not just the message board people…everyone. Does that increase our revenue…you bet it does! More traders = more trades = more revenue –pretty simple concept.
The thing we missed, and not intentionally, was to say, “Trading is free UNTIL AT LEAST THE END OF 2008, please go try it out.”
Again, it was taken as a bait and switch, or a scam, or a trick…which it was not. We had no intention of starting to charge next week, or next month. To be completely honest, we are not sure it will happen Jan 1, 2009. It very well may not happen then, but for sure it will not happen before then.
We need the feedback. We want to improve on the trade function. We want to make it better. We cannot charge someone for something new if it does not work. We cannot have a certain group of members trading and nobody else.
So, go play with it, see what could be done better, and let us know about it. Please don’t say, “it sucks,” unless you can tell us WHY it sucks.
Message board traders, we know you don’t like the change…but try to look on the bright side…more people to trade with now…more interest = potential to grow the entire hobby…
*Gasp!* Does that mean more money for Beckett? Of course it does. This is a business. If you people could see my paycheck you would wonder why I’d work here–it’s called love. Plain and simple. The vast majority of the people here are here for that same reason.
That is the same reason many of YOU came to the boards on Beckett.com, you love the hobby. We love the hobby, too. I promise you that.
4. Deleted posts (goes with the #3 the rumors)
Has anyone noticed the same messages being repeated in all of our discussion boards? There are a few spammers from other forums trying to capture traffic–ignore them as you would any other spammer. Spammers are roughly the same people that try to sell you something during your dinner, or flood your email inbox with junk mail.
They are not helping the situation, and if everyone took the time to understand all of this new stuff, they would be driven out just as they are anywhere else. With that, we need to make sure that WE let people know that we are aware that not everyone talking about other sites is spamming, and we are not deleting peoples posts because they are saying things we don’t like, but we are deleting the spammers.
I say that because it would be impossible to deny that we are/have been/will be deleting posts. We are.
If there is cursing (another thing that broke was our cursing filter)-DELETED. If a post is spam-DELETED.
If a legit person makes a real and clean statement and got deleted, that was a mistake and sorry. However, I would venture to say 99.9% of it fit one of those two things. We are not here to hide things. If people hide things, then eventually they are found out and the problem is WAY worse than it would have been had the truth been told in the first place.
5. Collection Queue- It should not have taken this long.
You are right. It should not have. It’s taking a long time, and it’s not going to be fixed “right now.” The system is working through them, and will continue to do so, and we will keep doing all we can to help the process along. Be patient. If your stuff is not there (all of it) AND you show the transfer is done, then let us know. Flooding us with “how long” questions is only going to make you madder, and us more exhausted.
The information is there, it is just not moving very fast right now. Things just broke. This is a hardware issue, not a problem of the site, and we are doing all we can to get it hammered back into place.
September 1st, 2008 at 7:20 pm
“The results were disastrous, with collectors jumping ship in droves.”
That is inaccurate, message board people left, not paying customers–overall use of the site is up.
September 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 am
Glad to hear that you have worked the kinks out of the new system and that site usage is up.
September 6th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Thanks-and we are not even near what the site will be in a year, or three years…the ‘engine’ (for lack of a better term) allows us to continue to build and build.
There are some long-term goals that, once achieved, will indeed show “brilliance.”
People, especially in our hobby :), are pretty resistant to change. I imagine I am one of the worst.
There was a huge backlash against the change, we understood that would happen-part of it was opening up a community that had been left alone for a long time, part of it was closing some loopholes that people could exploit to gain free access to our price guides, and part of it was spamming from other sites.
The other part, the ones who are there and learned the system are loving it.
I just wish the happy people would post more often…but it seems they are not part of the old and angry crowd. (Not that all of the old message board gang should be lumped into that, just a select few)
As I see it, that’s the thing…happy people don’t go post that they are happy…so the perceived reaction, strictly from reading message boards, was overwhelmingly negative.
Thankfully the statistics show quite a different story.
September 8th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Just wanted to correct ill-informed Eric on his thoughts that message-board people were not paying customers. I USED to buy the OPG regularily, and know of several others who USED to as well. Usage may be up…keep living that dream Eric…ENRON made money too…for a while
September 9th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Add me to the list of once dedicated subscribers to the magazine, and their marketplace. Add me to the list of thousands of once members who spent hours on Beckett. Add me to the list of members who every monthly would take an hour to write an article in hopes of having it published in Beckett. Add me to the list of Eric you are completely wrong. I don’t have the stats to prove it, but I bet I represent at least 1000 members who are exactly like me. If we are all leaving, and at the same time, spreading the word on how it was and how is it, then how on earth can your statements be true. What you guys need now, are a few hobbyists who actually collect cards, and not a bunch of BA holding computer geeks, who think they know how we all think.
Sincerely
Someone with more business sense than you!
September 9th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I averaged about $1,000 per year through the OPG and the marketplace and would say I’m an average user. Now I have canceled my OPG and have no interest in looking for the marketplace. And yes, I gave it a serious chance… tried everything to figure it out and got so damn frustrated that I left. Bottom line, Eric? If you need tutorials, it’s too damn complicated!
Rule #1 in website design - make it usable by the simplest of people, your lowest common denominator. If it’s not, few people will attempt to use it.
Rule #1 in business, if you “fixed” something that wasn’t broken, admit the fault and FIX it. Your customers will appreciate your honest and come back in droves when things are more usable.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Wow!! Can the folks at Beckett dig themselves into an even deeper hole? The change in the website is NOT the issue, people would have learned and carried on, that is how life works… The change was not properly dealt with, not supervised, not tested, not controlled..just plain screwed up.
The REAL issue is the BS that came from Beckett staff and that has still not been rectified. Coupled with that, and just as insulting, is the attempt to charge your own customers who have made Dr. Beckett a multi multi millioniare over the past couple of decades, money to do what is considered a hobby.
Whoever states that only the non-paying customers left and revenues are up cannot believe that they will be taken seriously??? Check the other sites, do your homework (or a business case..you know, something that you should have done before getting yourself into this predicament!!) and you will see that WE ARE ALL VERY UNHAPPY WITH THE BS PROVIDED BY BECKETT.
Add my name to the list above..I no longer subscribe or purchase any Beckett products PERIOD!!
September 12th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I havent renewed my subscription. I had a feeling that something was going to happen during the switchover so i let it run out just before that.
Tried the new site, didnt like it. Tried the “My Organize”
Takes WAY to long to add in cards. I had at least 3000 cards (not including checklists for sets) in my collections. During the switch over. I lost my account and wasnt able to get into the new my collections. All of it was deleted. The old system allowed me to find cards easily, be able to select all cards from a player or set on one page. There is no way I am digging through 40+ pages of cards to add them back into my Patrick Roy PC. Then digging through countless more pages to add all the other cards that range from the 50s to the present.
Tutorials are needed for, learning how to make a webpage, use photoshop, learn php etc….
Tutorials on how to use a website? Thats a first. I have never been to a website (visited thousands upon thousands since 1995) Never have I needed a totorial on how to navigate their website.
The programming dept. has done a poor job in the My Organize. When Database programming, you should only access the database when needed. They way they have it set up now, is that whenever a user changes the status of a card (change it from 0 copies to 1 copy) it contacts the database and updates it. It does this for almost anwhere you click. What they should have done was let you change all the numbers, status or what have you, then click one button that would make all the changes at once. This will speed up the My Organize tremendously. I learned this on the first class of database programming.
Just because facebook, myspace, youtube etc. are popular doesnt mean that beckett should try and incorporate all the “cool” things that popular websites have into one cluttered mess.
My dad uses facebook. He is pretty much computer illerate. He knows how to check email and the other basics. I told thim to go to beckett.com and look at the hockey message board. He couldnt find it. Told him to go find a hockey message board on a different website. He found it within 2-3 clicks of the mouse. The new beckett is poorly laid out, poorly designed and was tossed out way to early.
In fact they still have the word “beta” in their address when you click “visit the new beckett.com”. So what happens when they try to change it to just beckett.com/personal ? Will there be another huge fall out? Also, why are they using their customers as beta testers? There are companies out there that will do load tests and stuff on the website to see if it will run correctly. Beckett employees said that they didnt expect that many people to log onto beckett on the first day of the new launch. Really? Serious? How many people log onto beckett every day? They were pushing this new launch for months and they didnt think people would want to check it out or at the very LEAST check out the message boards?
I would say that 75% of the message board users had a subscription, be it, 1 month or a full year. A customer is a customer, no maytter how little or hog big they spend. Beckett has lost out on a big chunk of their customers. And to continue putting down the customers, making them feel dumb for not knowing how to navitage a website isnt helping their cause.
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I’m an OPG subscriber and a Beckett Hockey magazine subscriber. I actually like the new website and see the potential for it to get better, but it’s true that the changeover was a huge mess with a lot of the new options not working at all. They definitely should’ve had it ready to use before they switched over, but that’s in the past and I’m not going to hold that against them forever. What’s the point? Get over it.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
The website is an abomination. You can’t even get up-to-date hobby news there anymore!
Like a lot of others, I’m letting my subscriptions run out and I won’t look back.
October 4th, 2008 at 10:51 am
You’ll all be back.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I like the site. The traffic is way down on the message boards, but there are plenty of trade opportunities with the new system. I don’t think I would be willing to pay for trades, but if it was a feature bundled with an OPG, I’d likely be game.
There are many more opportunities for interaction and to share info - each card has a page anyone can edit so it’d be cool to have people post info for errors and variations in a central location, instead of asking a question on a message board and hoping someone who knows the answer sees the post.