RIP: My Use of Beckett's "My Organize"

If you're still one of the few that visit the website of the Number One Source in the Hobby, you probably know that they have decided to charge people for using one of their greatest tools, "My Organize."

For those who don't know what that tool is, basically it is a database that you populate using the lists provided by the staff at Beckett so you can get a running list of cards you have, cards you want, cards you want to trade for, and so forth.  And, if you pay for the online price guide (I don't), you can even see how much your collection is worth.  I've used My Organize since 2005 to list the cards I have in my collection. With it, I can determine how many cards I have of a certain player (those who actually read my Random Card of the Day posts knows I include that information in my articles).

But starting on Tuesday, May 10, the service is no longer free.  For $20.00 a year, you can continue to use "My Organize" as you have been without interruption.  That's if you want to pay for the service.  If you pay or the online price guide, the service is free.  And if you're willing to pay for the service, that's fine. 

Just don't count me in on paying.

I have no problems with them charging for the service.  It's their website, they're well within their rights to do as they please.  They pay people to enter the information for each card, and I can only imagine it being very time consuming process to enter all of the information about thousands of cards that are produced during the year.  And it's not like they didn't give their users ample warning about the switch.

But I already pay for the Baseball Magazine, I don't want to pay for My Organize.  I didn't even need to see the prices on each card (for a while, even my 1988 Topps set was "worth" more than $300, only because they added up the value of EVERY CARD in the folder).  I just want to be able to see what cards I have within the set and which cards and how many cards I have of a certain player.  I can understand charging for the price guide, but not for My Organize.

For now, my information will be held by Beckett.  They promise not to remove the information. In a way, it's like they're holding my information hostage, but at the same time, it's their information.  I was just using it for my needs.  I wish that there was a way to export my collections to a spreadsheet so that I can continue to maintain my databases.  But alas, there is none.

So for now, I will have to start from scratch.  The unfortunate thing is that there are no other sites that have more reliable checklists than Beckett.  Other sites are claiming that they will pick up the slack.  Good luck.  But for now, I won't be using My Organize for the foreseeable future. 

Unless, of course, they make it free again to access on the website.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama