I'm a little behind on cardboard news this week, so this may be old news. But it looks like hobby dinosaur/block bully Beckett is now suing Zistle over checklists.
It's not too surprising. Beckett has been trying to do the same to COMC after Beckett decided to abruptly end their partnership after COMC said they weren't interested in selling the entire company to Beckett. And then a few months Beckett, hobby giant and destroyer of worlds, started offering a bounty for anyone who sniffed out a site that was using their oh so precious checklists.
From the legal analysis in the article, it appears that Beckett may not have much of a leg to stand on. After all, the checklists are by and large public information that Beckett has simply compiled over the years. And there was a time when they could do that service in ways that were tough to duplicate for the average Joe. But today, them there fancy computers make it far easier to access information. And Beckett doesn't seem to like that.
Even if the case gets tossed at some stage, I imagine sites like Zistle or baseballcardpedia may have difficulty taking on any kind of legal wrangling. COMC is a fairly large, for profit business. They have a vested interest in fighting any legal challenge. While I'm sure smaller hobby sites may generate some ad revenue, I always viewed them as simple conveniences for collectors to connect rather than anything that was looking to reinvent the wheel.
From my perspective, Beckett looks pretty desperate. It's pretty clear the hobby has moved past them in just about every facet but grading. Sites like COMC and even Sportlots have passed up their Marketplace in terms of both selection, quality, and most definitely shipping price. Print magazines? Not exactly all the rage these days.
Maybe Beckett hopes they can turn the clock back to 1997 by shutting down as many hobby-related sites as possible. Perhaps they're just desperately hoping to score a couple paydays in damages or settlements before the ship finally sinks. Honestly, I don't really give a damn.
At this point, Beckett does far more harm to the hobby than any good they have done in the last decade. The site is a joke, and each new ownership group seems to be progressively less competent than Dr. Jim Beckett could have ever hoped to have been.
In the mean time, I'd suggest offloading your Zistle collections to Excel if you have the time.
Every time I see a big company sue a tiny company like this, I think that maybe the big company should be spending that time and money on making their own products and services better.
ReplyDeleteNobody wins if Beckett wins this lawsuit. Beckett won't become a better company, it won't truly eliminate competition for them, and any money they "win" will be small potatoes to them.
I just started using Zistle, and I really like the interface of it. I haven't tried trading on it yet, but I might look into that in the next week or two. If Beckett wants to add the same kind of thing to their site and make it as easy to use, then by all means I will check it out.
I should amend that last point because beckett does have an "Organize Tool" on their site, but it's not free like Zistle.
DeleteI only use Zistle here and there. The interface is great, but I do get frustrated with the missing listings or duplicate entries sometimes.
DeleteI think Beckett's day has more than passed them by at this stage. They've gone through a few different ownership groups in the last few years, but the basic model of grading/checklists/marketplace/magazines has basically gone untouched, aside from trying to charge for some features that were historically free (organize, trading).
Instead of trying to evolve with time, it looks like their strategy is to try to drag the rest of the hobby back to the late 90's.
I found Trading Card database first, and used it more, so I tend to stick there. But, I've contributed on Zistle a decent amount as well and like its interface also.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder how someone could claim a copyright to any checklists besides the original card issuer, though. And the card issuer has no interest in preventing people from using their checklists...
The real issue is Beckett may be trying to pick off all the free sites online to force us collectors into using their horrendous interface by paying money every month. To borrow from Dana Carvey impersonating George Bush Sr., "Not gonna do it."
I think that's the basic idea. I think the day Beckett goes under will be the best thing that can happen to this hobby in quite a while. Though I'm sure the grading service is a cash cow that will keep them alive for quite some time.
DeleteI've been with Zistle since the very beginning, years now, and I'm so angry about this. You guys have pretty much hit the nail on the head, it's just a case of a Goliath trying to stomp out any Davids that they view as a threat. As you said Brian, if Beckett put half the effort into their own digital site that they do into trying to take down the competition maybe they wouldn't have to worry so much. Or here's a better idea, how about writing some actual articles and original content for that joke of a monthly price guide that they now ask $10 for.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part is Beckett only cares about the bottom line and seems to have no idea that they are quickly becoming hated as a company among the very same demographic that they are trying to market their product to. I went and looked at some of their message boards about their digital collecting tool after hearing about this, and it looks like they've been underhanded and shady about that as well, and people have been leaving in droves. This whole thing just reeks of greed and desperation...
I know a couple team collectors who had continued subscribing to the price guide/organize simply because they had already sunk the time into entering their collection and to have a "value" for insurance purposes should something happen. But even they have finally pulled the plug after the latest round.
DeleteIt's kind of funny that Beckett is acting like their checklists are kept under lock and key. There was a time (up until 2006 or 2007 I think) where there was a button in their interface that would export any checklist or search result to Excel for you with a simple click.
Best part about Zistle, for me, is the ability for users to edit the database ourselves. Wrong team, wrong picture, typo? Just go change it. Love that. Beckett is the Time Warner-Comcast of our little world here. Given the choice of adapt or sue, they choose sue.
ReplyDeleteI'm just surprised they waited this long to go with sue, since they clearly gave up on adapting years ago. Aside from a few more things being behind a paywall and some cosmetic changes, their website is almost identical to the way it was 10-15 years ago.
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