SCD - What happened to you?

[sammy]

Just received my latest copy of SCD.

Renewed my subscription recently after becoming bored with the previous issues and lack of anything worth reading. I must say, SCD has become a lot worse.

There are a total of 60 pages in this issue. Out of these 60 pages, 45 are strictly advertisement.

Only 15 pages of print with nothing even worth reading more then once, and certainly not all the way through.

I actually paid good money to receive all these over priced advertisements.

What a shame.

[hblakewolf]

Sammy-
How about 60 out of 60 WORTHLESS pages. The 15 you note, I consider to also be worthless.

Up until a few years ago, I could ot wait to read SCD, cover to cover, and quite often, see an ad with a great piece of game used equipment I had to have. Now? Your lucky if you find a an item in Ball Park Heroes ad or possibly Scott Welkowski's ad. Likewise, the classified ads are condensed to two pages. Can you say Ebay!

My subscription is up in about 6 months, and I assure you, I will not be renewing.

It's a true shame, as this was a simply fantastic publication that now only caters to those buying ads.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[trsent]

I always felt SCD was a publication to read through the advertisements. The articles were just for secondary purposes. We used to look for bargains and deals. I also had a few full page advertisements in the past (around 6-8 years ago) and I found it a great place to sell articles for a set price.

Sure, eBay killed SCD and Video killed The Radio Star.

[Eric]

I am an SCD subscriber and (unless I missed it), it was unfortunate that they don't report actual news stories like the recent controversy with the Rod Carew glove.

It's a legitimate story- it shows a current issue for the hobby- it was in the New York Daily News for crying out loud and it wasn't in the voice of the hobby???

Clearly there was an editorial decision not to print stories like this- that's unfortunate.

Eric

[RobSteinmetz]

I'm not sure what you are all complaining about...they did a fantastic editorial on Alan Rosen's makeover a few months ago.

[both-teams-played-hard]

Do they still have that article from that autograph guy? Its great to know who signs at the visiting team's hotel. SHARPIES RULE!

[silverschmidts]

I think SCD's authenticating the authenticators series has been informative at times, so I give them credit for that. One thing that has always bothered me about SCD, though, is all the attention and publicity they give to Coaches' Corner auctions. In my view, CC is one of the least credible auction houses in the business. Moreover, they typically offer low grade stuff that is rarely newsworthy. Nevertheless, SCD runs large articles trumpeting the latests CC auction as though it is newsworthy. It's pretty clear they do this because CC advertises so heavily in the magazine. But by doing this, SCD has reduced its own credibility in my view. --Steve

[bigtime59]

I was an SCD subscriber...for about a year. I've never collected cards, so the vast majority of the magazine was worthless to me, and I let the subscription lapse...doesn't sound like I'm missing much.

[skyking26]

I have been an SCD subscriber since 1983 - yes...23 years is a long time to throw money at something and get less back every year. With each year I swear I will not renew, but I just re-upped again out of boredom and connecting with my youth. I started my Kingman equipment collection thru SCD, but it is almost all Ebay today. I am not sure how long they can hang on with what they put out however...

[worldchamps]

I am so glad everyone feels the same on this. I just finished doing some spring cleaning and threw out some old issues. It was amazing how much bigger the issues used to be. In fact there used to be double issues bc they could not fit all the info in them.

My other major complaint, and please chime in if you agree or disagree. SCD has an advertiser (I will not mention the name) that advertises significant amounts of pages, which I believe are consignment items for auction. The pictures are small thumbnails for the auctions, but even in those pictures I can tell the autographs are not real. It is not even close.

Does any one else have a problem with this?

If SCD is going to go into the authentication business, shouldn't they have some credibility on not letting this advertiser continue to sell fake items?

I guess it all comes down to $....buy 8 pages of ads and you can sell whatever you want.