Beckett Media Review

(If you'd like to skip this article and see our top pick for a memorabilia retailer, click here.) We’re a nationwide group of memorabilia enthusiasts who created this Website to protect and inform consumers. It's estimated that over half of all memorabilia on the market is fake. With this in mind, our goal is to ensure people buy items that are both authentic and well-priced.

Overview

Beckett Media does not sell their own products. Instead, Beckett acts as a liaison between buyer and seller. Beckett Media is probably best known for their publishing division, which puts out the Beckett pricing guides. The Beckett guides are widely recognized as industry standard for pricing sports cards and collectibles.

Beckett has access to a huge inventory of collectibles including autographed sports memorabilia, figures, cereal boxes and sports cards. In addition to sports, they market other collectibles such as Pokemon, DragonballZ and Webkinz.

The Beckett site loads properly but, the number of links on each page makes it difficult to navigate. Some pages on the site load slowly, and pages often need to be refreshed in order to load completely.

The Beckett site does not provide and authenticity guarantee. In fact, in a terms of service agreement (found on the Help page), Beckett says that it is a third-party and as a result are not held responsible for the transaction.

The Good

  • Good selection
  • Lots of original content

The Bad

  • Difficult to navigate
  • No promise of authenticity up front
  • Limited customer service

Our top pick for 2008:  SportsMemorabilia.com

SportsMemorabilia.com, which has been selling memorabilia online since 1996, is our top pick across the four fields of authenticity, price, ease of shopping and service.

SportsMemorabilia.com features a comprehensive authenticity guarantee and formal relationships with the major memorabilia wholesalers. All items come from organized athlete signings which were witnessed and logged.

The site is professional, easy to navigate and the one-page checkout is simple to use. They employ HackerSafe, THAWTE and 128-bit SSL to secure online transactions.

Searches on Google and Better Business Bureau for “SportsMemorabilia.com” yielded no negative mentions or complaints against the company. There have been no reported instances where a product was returned for lack of authenticity.

The site ranks #1 in Google’s organic (unpaid) search results for terms like "sports memorabilia" and “memorabilia”. Websites don’t pay for placement in these rankings— they are a reflection of Google’s trust in the site and the Website’s age.

In addition to a nice product assortment, the site includes other resources such as a blog and resource library. Information about the company’s background and founders is easy to find. The SportsMemorabilia.com staff, reached both via 800 number and email, was courteous and knowledgeable.

>>Read more about SportsMemorabilia.com