Is Beckett cooked? $$$ lawsuit

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So I stumbled across this video that presented some interesting information that I (and I imagine the wider hobby) has no idea about.

The video talks about a lawsuit that was filed against BGS and the owners of BGS back in June of this year (2024) and alleges some notable things that lead me (and the creator of the video) to believe that BGS at some point will either

a) declare bankruptcy or
b) be sold

Looking at declining grading volume data this would also give confluence to that.

Some of the alleged claims:

1 - BGS billionaire owner (Greg Lindberg) took a $100m loan, secured by with BGS assets (allegedly BGS only actually got $500k of that).

There is a claim that Lindberg basically took money off the top from BGS after getting this loan, after purchasing two smaller companies that were designed to enhance BGS and it’s evaluation.

He has been accused of that from other companies he has also owned, he has also been convicted of bribery and owes $580m to another company. Yep.

2- Internal sabotage by current CEO Kevin Isaacson.

Isaacson has worked with Lindberg before in other companies he owns. It’s alleged that he’s been firing long standing BGS Employees and replacing them with less qualified persons, and halting certain projects inside of BGS that had good potential (eg. BECKET COLLECT platform)

He also fired the CVO who was the founder of one of the innovative companies that BGS was supposed to buy, who agreed to join BGS as CVO, to transform their business.

Other fun facts

1- The claim shows that BGS was actively exploring AI grading technology (good as they needed to do something)

2- BGS likely can’t pay the $100m credit (bad as they didn’t see the money, and haven’t been meeting payment deadlines)

3- Speculation it will declare bankruptcy and/or be sold. The video maker thinks Fnatcis would buy it.

As a BGS fan it’s sad to see - BGS has been a long standing brand in the card word and known for it’s accurate grading…at one point in time BGS 9.5s had more of a premium than PSA 10s.

However I do believe that maybe this does need to happen in order for BGS to get the leadership it actually needs to thrive.

I’m aware that most people here are PSA fans however BGS going down won’t be great for the hobby at all.

Anyone heard this before or am I late to the party?

allegedly-michael-jackson

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Thank you for typing up the summary so I don’t have to watch the video :pray:

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You’re welcome.

Surprisingly, I’m not single.

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So not only will Beckett slabs feel like bricks but theyll be valued like bricks as well?

It does suck to lose brands through mismanagement and hope for those that do like Beckett that this isnt going to be the case for such a longstanding brand.

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if metazoo can survive bankruptcy then bgs will be fine. Some new management and ideas is LONG overdue over there anyway

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just sell some one piece black labels to help out, easy $$$

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Riiiiiiip

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Oh man…I never thought I’d hear that name (Lindberg) on this forum. Not good

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I don’t think this will change the slab evaluations.

And in the long run I think BGS will be just fine.

The issue is if it goes down whilst people have cards with them…may take a while to get them back.

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That’s more likely to kill them than anything.

Once this spreads around(or isn’t refuted) no one is going to send a submission in for fear of losing cards. It was bad enough when middlemen went bankrupt and cards were AWOL for years. If the whole company goes then no one is going to get their cards back at all. Becketts aren’t going to sit and post them all back out of duty if there’s no cash.

People in our hobby aren’t exactly known for being patient so if all those cards go elsewhere then Becketts has less revenue coming in and it becomes self fulfilling that they are doomed.

I doubt they’d disappear though, someone will step in and pick up the brand. Then it’s a waiting game to see if they keep a standard.

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Pretty much this.

I’m quite surprised this news hasn’t gone around yet - it has been 4 months since the case dropped.

Just hopefully nothing happens before my standard submission comes back :smiley:

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If bgs ceases to exist (unlikely) wouldnt the value of their slabs increase in value and demand?

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Not at all :chart_with_downwards_trend:

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cheap black labels is what u are saying :thinking:

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I call dibs on the $5 black label Japanese gold star Umbreon/Espeon.

Will be interesting to see how it plays out. Was never a fan of graded cards, but the black label did look the nicest of them all.

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Demand would go down significantly if Beckett closed their doors. There would be no premium for the label and plastic

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IMG_89702046Ă—3020 670 KB

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This doesn’t seem like one of those cases in part because they wouldn’t have been the king when they went out and there are other options. That kind of no longer in production value skyrocketing is usually when there was already something special to begin with and there aren’t other options available. If anything I would assume prices would fall a smidge on anything other than the highest tier cards (since now there’s natural pop control)

This is all largely irrelevant of course because I don’t actually see a world where they go fully kaput. Maybe reorg or PE or they let CGC buy them or something

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I wonder if there would actually be monopoly concern if cgc bought them because Beckett has the only “competitor” in comics until PSA tries next year

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It’s doubtful imo. Outside of energy and entertainment monopoly cases are relatively rare. I am not a lawyer this is not legal advice but it could be argued that grading is an industry with plenty of competitors (even if one holds like 70% market share) and other grading companies could start grading comics. Be different if CGC was the only grading company of any kind.

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