But not me. I loved them both. Actually I still do.
Now before you break out the tar and feathers, take a few seconds to hear me out. I'm a fan of their articles... not their price guides. Seriously. Some guys read Maxim... others have the Wall Street Journal. But there's nothing I'd rather read on the pot, than an old copy of Beckett or Tuff Stuff.
And last month, I finally ran out of reading material. So I headed over to eBay and picked up a "lot" of 13 magazines that included these seven issues of Tuff Stuff Jr.:
If you're not familiar with Tuff Stuff Jr., it was a sports card magazine targeted towards kids in the early 90's.
I've been flipping through the first issue the past week and was pleasantly surprised by the content. In fact, I'd highly recommend picking up some of these issues if you enjoy any of the following:
Reading Interesting Articles
Collecting Uncut Sheets of Cards
(This sheet was actually from issue #4, not #1)
Looking @ Top Rookie Card Lists
Flipping Through 20 Year Old Price Guide Values
Reflecting on Old Sports Ads
In all honesty, it's probably not worth spending the $4 to $6 people are seeking on eBay. But if you're patient, you can find magazine "lots" and end up spending less than a buck an issue. At that price, you can't go wrong.
So it's time to come clean...
Who did you support? Beckett, Tuff Stuff, both, neither, or other?
Happy Friday everyone and sayonara!
15 comments:
Still have about 10 Baseball Card Magazines from the 1980s - I never really got into Tuff Stuff.
In the early 1990s used to buy SCD (aports collectors digest) on the cheap from a store that would rip off the front covers and sell them for 50 cents. I have not seen a SCD in at least 15 years. Does it still exist?
I've subscribed to Sports Collectors Digest for years, and before that it was Baseball Hobby News, so I guess I'll go with "other".
Tuff Stuff was at least ostensibly about collecting, and I would buy issues every now and then, but from what I've seen of Beckett, every article is along the lines of "How to get rich off cards". I've got no interest in that.
I, too, subscribed to SCD--bought others (Beckett, Tuff Stuff, Tuff Stuff Jr for the daughter)--guess I fit into other
I used to love both, mainly cause I loved reading article and reader's write section (my cousin once made the hot pulls section of beckett basketball with his James Posey Hats Off card lol), but newer beckett issues just don't interest me.
I used to read both Tuff Stuff and Beckett but I did prefer Tuff Stuff. They usually had more articles until they began to cut down on the magazine to keep cost down.Since then I have basically turned to the internet for my hobby news only occasionally picking up a Beckett when they cover a subject that interests me.
I still have a handful of various 1990s-early 2000s hobby related magazines with Griffey on the cover for my personal collection.
For about a year, I started picking up lots of Baseball Cards Magazine, Beckett, Tuff Stuff, Baseball Card News, Baseball Hobby News, even a few issues of The Trader Speaks; just anything I could get my hands on with the intent of creating a sort of hobby version of the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature. I did get as far as working on indexes of the 1986 & 1987 runs of Baseball Cards magazine on my blog, but hadn't gotten back to it since then. It was intended as a reference resource so people could track down particular articles, authors or subjects.
The absolute best articles were from Baseball Cards Magazine back in the early to mid 1980s. The writers would go into insane depth on things like reconstructing uncut sheets to determine DPs and SPs and understand why certain cards were more frequently damaged than others or just more rare than others. There was a great article in one on the man who wrote all of the bios for the back of Score cards from 1988-1992.
I never really liked Beckett, even from when I was collecting. The articles were usually fairly lightweight compared to almost every other hobby publication at the time. I liked Tuff Stuff's pricing better, and they were more likely to cover oddball sets than Beckett. It was also nice to have the four major sports in a single issue. I never picked up an issue of Sports Collector's Digest, because I guess it always seemed to cover a much broader view of the hobby, and I was very much modern baseball focused. These days, SCD seems to have lost most of the respect it had in the 80s & 90s due to some controversies with certain advertisers and a lack of coverage for the negative side of the hobby like counterfeits, forgeries, fraudulent GU patch swaps, etc. I would love to find a cheap stack of issues from the 1984-1990 range, though.
In the 70s,80s,and 90s I did read SCD,Tuff Stuff,Baseball Card Magazine,and Beckett Monthlys,for the articles and the ads.I get all that now from the internet blogs,ebay,comc,and sportlots.
I haven't seen SCD's in years... if they're still around my local shop doesn't carry them. Neither does my local Barnes & Noble. However if they did, I'd buy them to read on the pot.
Yeah... I would buy anything card related and Beckett was the easiest to get. I enjoyed their hot/cold lists... as well as their Reader's Write section.
SCD looks to be King of the Publications, so far!
It's funny you mention that. I've always wanted to be mentioned in the hot pulls section of Beckett. So far... haven't pulled anything worthy :-(
Yeah... if there's one thing I disliked about Tuff Stuff in their later years... it was the # of advertisements. It seemed like they took up half of the magazine.
Wow... thanks for commenting. I'll definitely look for some early 80's copies of SCD, so I can read their articles.
I've also added a copy of the 1972 September issue of The Trader Speaks to my wantlist. I had no idea there was a trading card magazine back then.
Yeah... I no longer subscribe to Beckett, because they're way too expensive. If they got rid of the price guide section and only wrote articles, product reviews, and allowed collectors to showcase their cards... then I'd consider becoming a subscriber again.
Until then, you're absolutely correct... I have plenty of blogs (and old issues of sports card magazines) to keep me entertained.
Their hot/cold lists confused me as, more than one, a player would appear on both lists. I realize they were based on reader polls, but saying someone is both the 5th hottest player and the 8th coldest doesn't make any sense.
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