Tuff Stuff Magazine is it Enough when Pricing Baseball Cards?

I have bought and sold cards, autographs, bobbleheads, starting line-ups for about ten years. I use Tuff Stuff as a good additive to Becket price guide. I deal with one card shop exclusively, so I don't pay for Tuff Suff. The $5.95 an issue cost is a little expensive (the cost keeps going up, so i'm not to sure what is costs right now), but you only have to buy it once every 6 months. The prices in Tuff stuff seldom change, so why buy it every month?

I don't even look the card prices in Tuff Stuff. Usually, they don't match up with market value anyway. But they list many things in one magazine. If you go to a card show and you see line-ups, bobbleheads, autographs, etc. Tuff stuff has all these things listed. All in one magazine. they have post mini bobbles found in the cereal all sorts autos they have prices for stadium give-away bobbleheads. Most dealers go by becket for card prices, but when it comes to other things, Tuff Stuff is the magazine to look at.

Tuff Stuff has some good articles about the sports market. Sometimes they have stories about old ballplayers.They have good stories about hot players. They compare the different card brands. They let you know what you might find in a pack or if you buy a whole box. They are first in the market to list prices on the post mini bobbleheads, stadium give-away bobbleheads. They have a classified section in the back where you can advertise your things. They have a bunch of advertisement within the magazine. Places where you can buy things throughout the country. Sometimes if you check you can find a good for a product you are looking for. If you are lucky, you can find a good dealer where you can buy and sell items. Years ago, a friend and I had a little baseball card shop. We found a wholesale distributer through the magazine who saved us a lot of money.

Sometimes there are prices in Tuff Stuff that are not in Becket. When I go to the shop where I sell my cards, the dealer uses a bunch of Beckets and when he cannot find something in Becket (oddball things, older inserts), he looks in Stuff Tuff. Nine times out of ten, we find it.

The cost is a little high, but if you use the magazine correctly, it's not bad. Try it out Buy one issue and six months later buy another one. You will see a few changes. Maybe a few additions of new things, but not enough to buy it every month. So why buy it? Maybe you don't want to buy 4 or 5 different kinds of Beckets. It can get expensive to keep up with all the sports. If you buy Tuff Stuff, you will get all the sports and additional information you won't get in the Beckets on many other products.

I do it like this. I like baseball and Football the most. During football season, I will buy 1 or 2 Beckets for football and one Tuff Stuff. During baseball season, I will buy 2 baseball Beckets, and one Tuff Stuff. This is enough for me to get all the pricing I need on everything I deal with. I think Becket and Tuff Stuff wants us to subscribe and buy their magazines every month. But trust me, you are a fool to yourself if you do. You are throwing away money. Prices don't change enough to waste your money.

I would recommend buying Tuff Stuff. It is a great price guide and they deal with many things in one issue. However, I wouldn't recommend anyone buying a subscription. And I would not recommend buying it every month. Now there is a Tuff Stuff site. You can go there and look up the value of your baseball cards and memorabilia on their site. Of course, they want to sell you some of their other guides, but the site seems to be decent and accessible.

One important thing to understand-the value of a baseball card is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. A magazine may publish a price, this price may not be what you receive for a particular card.

sources
Tough Stuff magazine
Toughstuff.com