Is Beckett cooked? $$$ lawsuit

so bgs way less subs and still need so much time Q_Q

They have a smaller team. Duh.

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does anyone have more information about Beckett Europe? this entire move looks very weird and rushed to me, i just signed up to find out more about this.

They use „Beckett Grading Service“ as a postal address in germany, they use „Beckett Collectibles Europe“ as payment receiver, rebranded as „Beckett Europe“ on google maps and on their website go by „Beckett Europe, Inc“.

They do not have a legal notice on their website which is mandatory by german law and will result in a high fine. They don‘t have a sales tax id either and there is no company registered in germany/eu with either of those names (or variations/ or under their exact address) which is mandatory to offer such services in germany.

However the postal address they use belongs to former cardmarket grading, guard & grading gmbh. There are no changes in the commercial registry regarding this company. No new associates/managers or other changes since 2022.
Cardmarket grading is among the worst grading companies in germany, known for notoriously bad work, so it is important to know who handles the cards here? cardmarket grading rebranded into guard & grading just half a year ago, likely to get rid of their terrible reputation.

Unfortunately there is zero transparency whether Beckett bought guard & grading gmbh (highly doubtful as there are zero signs in the public commercial registry) or if they just use their facility / employees in a franchise-like system to grade as BGS. No other way, but to contact them by mail and we all know how that will work out. Same for the guard & grading company.

That said my package with test cards arrived today, will see when and what exactly comes out of this.

Any information would be very appreciated. It just doesn‘t make sense to me.

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They are brand new so not surprised they don’t have all their ducks in a row yet.

They wont get fines at the moment for not having the legal disclaimers (gdpr I assume you are referring to) as they are brand new - they will get a letter first to sort it out (if it ever comes to that).

Also fines for gdpr are in the thousands only if they have been told to correct it, don’t correct it, and there is an actual data breach or nefarious activity.

I can’t speak to their legal structure etc.

Overall I wouldn’t submit just yet as they literally announced it two days ago, but respect to you for being one of the first submitters.

I’m also waiting on standard tier opening.

Thank you, but nope unfortunately nothing to do with gdpr, german word is „impressum“ and „impressumspflicht“ and it basically declares which company/person is liable for the services, website and such. Guard & grading gmbh website have one, if you want to check out what it should look like.

They don‘t have one and it‘s illegal, right from the start. They also don‘t have a sales tax id or a company registered (which needs to be done BEFORE starting to operate). This is where it started to feel weird for me and where i started to search through the german public registry for companies.
I want to clarify i don’t want them to get a fine, but it looks at least ragged and not thought through at all.

Hopefully there is someone with more insight about the legal structure and especially the employees who handle the cards (cardmarket grading situation) to bring light into this situation.

As my test cards are already there i can report back what actually happens though.

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Gotcha. Well let’s let them worry about that…maybe stuff is done behind the scenes and they are updating.

I actyally didnt think they were accepting submissions yet!

Good luck with your submission and keep us updated :slight_smile:

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Of course take that with a grain of salt, but one of the larger German middleman for Beckett claims to have spoken to the manager of Guard and Grading in this video (relevant part starts at 1:28) where he was told that employees of Guard and Grading were retrained by Beckett in Texas on their standards already a few months ago.

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thank you very much!

ps: my cards just got listed in my BGS account (delivery was yesterday). I also received a call from an anonymous number which apparently belongs to guard & grading gmbh.

they said it will take 4-5 weeks usually, but right now it will be faster as i was one of the first ones who sent in a submission. Also mentioned they have a mix of old/new employees and this was prepared for a long time.

Edit: reason they called me in first place was to inform me there was a mistake in the postal code of their address. I noticed it before sending the package, so all good. 2 numbers were switched.

Impression was positive. Well, lets see.

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I just submitted a few cards with bgs but I’m most curious about the coro coro jumbo zard I sent in. Last year I submitted it and bgs kicked it back saying questionable authenticity so I’m hoping this time someone knows what it is!

My top card is a bgs 1st Ed zard and I had the choice of either a bgs 9 or psa 9 when I was trading for a 1st Ed zard. I went with bgs at the time because the card had excellent subgrades along with being a thick stamp. I don’t own many bgs cards but they have a unique piece of the puzzle and I hope it grows to compete again.

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The price Vs value of a nice BGS 9 is also important.

PSA 9s are like 23k last time I checked.

BGS 9s even with nice subs are 18-20k.

A nice saving for the same or better condition card.

BGS is great price Vs condition for collectors.

But if you’re grading to sell though, PSA is the better choice, sadly.

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Weirdly enough, the prices have been coming down across the board on these for 9s. Not entirely sure why since the low end grades have all been exploding in price

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Totally get what you mean. What’s funny is that during the 2020 boom the same card set a record for a bgs 9 at 65k and then it crashed obviously and that’s when I acquired it in a trade lol

Hopefully bgs can get some of that respect back in the future.

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I think it’s because debt is still quite expensive.

Most bigger cards (20k+) I know of are bought on some form of credit…and it’s still quite costly.

I imagine when rates drop, higher end vintage stuff will start going up.

(I’m aware some PSA 10s like Neo Disc. Umbreon are hitting highs, but likely different OG buyers getting these cards for sets).

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Nice to see these starting to tick up again from the lows. Not a super strong card either.

Last public sale was 8.5k.

I track shadowless as I mainly collect them.

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Bgs needs a major make over announcement. Nows the time to announce it, while cgc is under fire. I have never seen lazier and more clueless leadership. Horrible marketing and zero customer support with no effort to make the necessary changes. Its discouraging because I believe bgs is the grading standard.

Imagine BGS changing their cases and making them thinner and sleeker with the same beautiful gold label but still secure. And them hiring 2 or 3 customer support agents. All while running some specials. Thats all it will take to bring them to the next lvl. They should do this while cgc is in this spotlight with fake cards (again). Now is the time to overturn and take over. Or at least take a step up. Wtf are they waiting for?

They need new leadership. Someone who is innovative and can implement these things. Its been years and bgs seems to be stuck in the mud when they have so much potential. The germany news is exciting. I just think they can use that time and money to fix a lot of other things that need fixing. Instead of going off and just popping up in another country while not fixing their current problems. Imagine what a slap in the face it would be to the american collector if bgs has actual customer service for their germany location when the US customer has been begging for some support. As if to say “yea we heard all your complaints and will be implementing those solutions in germany, well get back to you. Now leave your 100th message at the beep kid, goodluck!” beeeeep

Its insulting at this point.

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Totally! And you hit the nail on the head.

Fingers crossed changes are coming now that they have the investment.

I can feel it.

ouch-teddy-riley

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:joy: :joy: