James Beckett III (born May 10, 1949) is an American

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

, and

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

. His publications are well known in the hobby of

sports card A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other t ...

collecting. Beckett earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree in

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

Southern Methodist University Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a Private university, private research university in Dallas, Texas, United States, with a satellite campus in Taos County, New Mexico. SMU was founded on April 17, 1911, by the Methodist Episcopal Church, ...

in 1975 and then joined the faculty of

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a Public university, public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized progr ...

as an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

Sports card industry

While at Bowling Green, Beckett began preparing

baseball card A baseball card is a type of trading card relating to baseball, usually printed on cardboard, silk, or plastic. In the 1950s, they came with a stick of gum and a limited number of cards. These cards feature one or more baseball players, teams, s ...

price guides, which he offered free upon request. Beckett price guides, first published in 1979, rely upon information from sellers throughout the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, who supply information on customer interest and sales of products. Price guides typically carry two value labels, one based upon a high value, the other denoting low values. As the condition of collectibles is important in ascertaining their value, Beckett price guides also typically include a series of definitions for estimating condition. In November 1984, Beckett began publishing '' Beckett Baseball Card Monthly''. (Rival publication '' Tuff Stuff'' was also founded that year.) ''Beckett Baseball Card Monthly'' grew in popularity and became the basis for the success of

Beckett Media Beckett Media, LLC is a firm dedicated to covering the sports card, comic book grading, collectibles, and sports memorabilia sectors. Established in 1984 by statistician Dr. James Beckett, it was originally known as Beckett Publications. Hist ...

, now based in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. Beckett Publications produces price guides for a variety of sports collectibles (Beckett's

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

Hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

guides would start in the early 1990s, with Beckett's monthly Racing Guide following in 1996). Market values for non-sports card collectibles such as Pokémon Cards and related products are also tracked. Beckett retains a position as Senior Advisor for Beckett Media, but is no longer Editor/Publisher as he was during the 1980s and 1990s. The publishing company became the leading publisher of sports and entertainment market collectible guides and was acquired by Apprise Media in 2005.

Personal life

Beckett has three children from his first marriage. He is married to the former Diane Burgdorf, daughter of a Dallas car dealer and ex-wife of Sir

Mark Thatcher Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is an English businessman. He is the son of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet; his sister is Carol Thatcher. His ...

. From time to time, Beckett attends some of the most prominent sports card and collectibles conventions held in various U.S. cities and is considered a celebrity within the industry.

References

Sources

Beckett Fact Sheet
*"About the Author," Dr. James Beckett, et al., eds., ''Beckett Almanac of Baseball Cards and Collectibles, Number 8'' (Dallas: Beckett Publications, 2003), pg. 10. {{DEFAULTSORT:Beckett, James 21st-century American publishers (people) Southern Methodist University alumni Bowling Green State University faculty Trading cards Living people American statisticians 1949 births