Beckett is now charging $20 for their Organize product unless you subscribe to one of their online price guides (which they have also made more expensive). We at Zistle, along with many collectors, were pretty surprised by this announcement. In particular, the short time frame for their members to find another option (5 days according to the email that went out earlier this week). True to Beckett form, they have also banned any of members who have publicly protested the new policy.

My Organize has struggled as a product for several years now but it is difficult to complain too loudly about a free product without many alternative options. Well that is about to change. We at Zistle want to take this opportunity to explain why we are different than Beckett and what we are doing to make Zistle the new BEST online tool for collectors.

Zistle will ALWAYS be free

When we mean always, we mean always. Everything that is on Zistle will remain free, forever. No fine print, exceptions, surprises, ambushes or other trickery. We are passionate that connecting with other collectors should be free and not merely a tool to sell price guides.

We do have plans to add a commercial version of Zistle for sports card shops and dealers and that will include paid features. We are excited about this because this will mean a strong future for Zistle and its members. Zistle is committed to being free for collectors now and in the future.

You can ALWAYS export your data

You shouldn’t be a member of a site just because they are holding your information hostage.  We are completely dedicated to allowing 100% full access to your collection and trading information at all times by allowing you to export your data.

Zistle will NEVER ban its members for disagreeing with our policies

At Zistle, members are free to speak their mind, even if it means *gasp* you don’t agree with us. Yep, it’s crazy we know. We think it is important to listen to our members even if it isn’t what we want to hear. Burying the criticism doesn’t make it go away

Spammers and trolls – We will ban you though, so don’t bother.

What we are doing to make Zistle better
Zistle has been around as a hobby site for the past 3 years. We have proven that we aren’t going anywhere but we know there are a lot of features needed to be an adequate replacement for Beckett. We are completely dedicated to providing collectors a better online community – you deserve it.

Better Content
Beckett claims to have over 6 million cards on their website and frankly Zistle doesn’t have quite that many. Over the next few months, we will be bringing on some additional staff that will be in charge of adding cleaning up the fleshing out the Zistle library. We will also be adding some fun features related to contribution points including contests, bounties, and giveaways related to contribution points.

Forums
We have resisted added a forum for many years mostly because there are already some great forums for collectors. However, our members have asked for us to add a forum and other social features to help you connect with other Zistlers. We are going to put our special Zistle touch on the forum to fully integrate the forum functionality into the site.

Trading that works…. really works
Our top priority has been to have a great organizational tool and trading has been neglected. We are working on a really powerful trading tool that will offer the best trading experience available.

Easier to switch
We are actively working on some advanced features to help you import your data from Beckett to Zistle. While we already have a collection import tool that allows you to import cards with a CSV file, Beckett doesn’t allow you to export your collection details. We are making it easier to add cards to your collection with an Add All button as well

More Members
It goes without saying that the more members we have on Zistle, the better the community will be. Zistle is still a non-commercial venture and we don’t have a lot of money for marketing, but we know that we can do a better job of getting the word out with your help. Immediately after our next release, Zistle is going to host a new member drive which will reward current members for referring new users. Stay tuned for more details.

Thank you to our loyal members who have been our champions over the last few years. You have made this site really special and we are really excited about where Zistle is headed.