When you think of some of baseball’s all-time favorites, there is a litany of people who come to mind. Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, Babe Ruth, Brooks Robinson and so on. But how about Jim Beckett? Who you ask? Beckett, as in the founder of Beckett price guide magazines. One time only, Topps produced a baseball card for the hobby’s father of price guides, and while it follows the same design as the real 2005 Topps All-Time favorite cards, these Beckett cards were only inserted into magazines.

I’m really not that big on baseball cards featuring guys who never really played the game. But this, as well as the 1993 Triple Play (President) Bill Clinton and maybe one or two others from the 1950s, are the exception.

When I opened by Beckett Baseball magazine in 2005 (I forget which month) and this card fell out of he binding, I had no idea what the hell I was holding. And sure enough after reading a bit I realized I was holding a card of the guy who is considered the founding father of baseball card price guides. Significant? Not really, but an interesting card nonetheless. Also of note is the Roberto Clemente jersey and bat that Beckett is holding. Interesting considering there is nothing on the card to indicate that Beckett was a Clemente fan, Then again, who wasn’t.

The reason I decided to post this card today is because Beckett Media, Inc. re-launched it’s Web site today. And to be honest, it’s going to take some time to get used to. They ditched the centralized message boards, and there is a big out-cry by fellow collectors, but from the rest of the site is intriguing. I’m still trying to figure out how things work over there, but it looks like it could be a good tool for collectors.

This entry was posted on August 4, 2008 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Card of the Day with tags All-Time Favorite, baseball cards, bat, Beckett Media, Beckett Message Boards, Beckett Price Guide, Dr. James Beckett, Roberto Clemente jersey, Sandy Koufax, Topps, Web Site re-launch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.