Establishing the value of ones collection

BLUEJAYWAY

After reading many comments stating that price guides (like Beckets) are an outdated way to set a value to your collection, what is the current accurate system to set the value? Especially for insurance reasons. I see that the graded mkt. has the VCP, but like other price guides this boils down to still being a "guide". What about sealed boxes/cases? Sure you can refer to EBAY or other auction outlets. But sometimes these prices sometimes trend in a wide range. Say you have a card that has a range of $100 or more over 2-3 sales for the same type of card/condition. Where would you establish it's value? This comes more into play when one goes to sell to a dealer. A lack of continuity seems to exist to start negotiations under. Years ago thats where Beckett type values came in handy. You had more of a definitive starting point. Now you can go to EBAY or AH but the starting values can vary greatly. It seems starting points vary greatly. Most refer to current Ebay prices. Thoughts/suggestions? The suggestions will be used as a "guide".

MrNearMint

I have a pretty simple method that works great for me. I basically track certain graded cards on eBay. I have a word document that has over 30 pages of mostly BGS 9.5 Michael Jordan cards but also some vintage stuff and even a little unopened completed sales. I started tracking cards in 2012 and it works great for me as a guide. I've gotten some really great deals just being patient and having the knowledge about what price certain cards are going to go for. i don't particularly care for tracking AH completed sales only because there is usually a sellers premium which don't really make sense to me (maybe someone could explain that to me).

jay0791

I enter every card I buy into my PSA set registry.
That inc price, where/who bought from and date.

I will guestimate what is not exactly known and if its price I use current VCP.

and put in $00.01 to let me know this. EX 123.01