| |
This past summer, Beckett Media took a plunge – head first, actually – into an extensive makeover of its website to keep up with a new generation of Web2.0 social interactivity.
The new Beckett.com (with its online collecting tools, up-to-date card trackers, pricing subscriptions, community pricing, videos, discussion boards, and gargantuan search feature) had morphed its segmented series of sub-sites for pricing, shopping and discussions into a full-blown, integrated encyclopedia and gathering place for the sports cards community.
Now the site is evolving once again. And this time, it’s turning into a trading central.
In a mere four and a half months, Beckett.com already boasts more than 117 million cards uploaded by members into more than 700,000 collections. New cards are constantly being added at a dizzying speed. “Anywhere from 2 million to 5 million new cards are uploaded by members each week," says Shawn Schietroma, Sr. Manager of eCommerce at Beckett Media.
And these cards aren’t sitting still. They’re changing hands and they’re moving fast. Since its release, users have put more than 1.5 million cards up for trade and close to 300,000 cards up for sale. Sale transactions include set completers priced as low as 10¢ apiece as well as mainstream (more popular) cards $20 and up.
The site’s Trade Module has recently been upgraded, making it easier for users to find other people’s cards and make offers to trade card-for-card or buy/sell card-for-cash. “There’s no other card site out there that offers a system for users to find traders, search cards, access industry pricing, research user reviews and track transactions like Beckett.com does. The seamlessness of this system is a real time-saver, integrating trading into the user’s online collection at Beckett.com” says Schietroma. Jammed packed with all its sport card collecting and trading tools, users are beginning to see the potential of this niche bartering system overtaking less-specialized, peer-to-peer sales venues like eBay, craigslist and others of the like.
With the holidays following a tight economy and even tighter wallets, Beckett officials say that the newly improved tool will offer a more cost-effective means for users to continue pursuing their passion for sports collecting.
|
thackler[.]beckett.com 
