If you collected sports cards in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the monthly Beckett magazines were more likely than not a foundational component of your collecting experience. For me, it was a trifecta made up of 1) the cards, 2) trading with my friends, and 3) Beckett. I received subscriptions to the baseball and basketball editions as birthday or Christmas gifts, and I picked up a football edition every so often as well.
I waited patiently (or sometimes not so patiently) each month for the issue to arrive in the mail, popped it out of its poly bag wrapper, and dug in to see how many up and down arrows were next to my favorite cards.