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Dear PSA...
olb31
Posts: 2,946 ✭✭✭✭✭
The online price guide is great, but is there really in need in listing every common card, with exactly the same value for a whole set? For example, when I viewed the 1978 basketball set, there are about 100 listings with all the same values. Would it be easier to just have a line that says all other cards not listed and then put the values in? Just a thought. Thanks for all you do.
Work hard and you will succeed!!
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People still use price guides?
Arthur
They sure do. When you to the National every dealer in there will have all the newest Beckett's at their disposal. Not much has changed since 1987. PSA has a really nice price guide on line. Here is their website PSACARD.COM, you should try it out.
Don't they have trouble with the inaccuracies?
Arthur
The only 'price guides' I use are eBay completed listings and PSA's Auction Prices Realized.
Any price guide is useless as the teats on a boar hog.
I love people that sell using the SMR, especially for lower grade vintage where the grade is lower than what is listed. A lot of times they just half the price for the lower graded and 1/2 of that for the next, etc. Can get some decent deals that way. It is so out of sync with what actual prices are and if their price is too high on other stuff that is listed, I just move on. I do a small show locally once a month and never take a price guide or price my cards using one. I can typically sell my stuff cheaper than the other dealers and actually replace it with online purchases to keep inventory up.
I wouldn't even use these, they're as inaccurate as the others unless you know for certain that the item was paid for and can account for listing fees, seller fees, and Paypal fees... as well as, was it bought during a 10/15/20% off coupon promotion, or a 8/10% eBay bucks promotion... or if the buyer used eBay Bucks or gift cards to fund portions of the purchase. The only guides I use is my heart and my head... to me, something is only worth what I'm willing to pay.
Ebay is the best way to gauge market value for cards and pretty much everything else you can find. When I’m in a store and go to pick something up I always cross reference Ebay and 9 out of 10 times I’m going with Ebay
The best deals I’ve gotten on eBay were from sellers using SMR as a price guide... no joke.
+1 for buying @ SMR prices, so out of whack I love it
Does the SMR still list prices for cards in a grade that don't exist yet? That was always my favorite part. It would show a PSA 8 at $X and a PSA 9 at $Y except there were no PSA 9s.
Arthur
Interesting posts from everyone. PSA I hope you are reading this. Most people that have responded, find the SMR pricing to be out of date. i assume that think the same thing of the online price guide as well. So, I want the price guide to be more polished and a lot of people want more up to date pricing. Overall, the price guide needs some TLC. Please take this thread as constructive criticism.
Let's go, PSA. Chop-chop!
Arthur
This
A price guide is simply a "guide." It is a starting point. Ultimately, you make the decision on the eye appeal of the card, condition, and how much you are willing to pay.
The difference between a price guide and completed ebay searches is context. Even as a kid, I knew the price guide was mostly BS. They stated that they based the prices on feedback they got from sellers all over the country and blah blah blah. Nobody was calling in to report on the thousands of cards they listed every month. Beckett got feedback on probably the 10-20 "hottest" cards and then just extrapolated the rest. But I digress. The price guide gives you a single price based on past data.
Completed eBay auctions, while possibly having a perceived (not actual) -1% to %10 swing due to eBay bucks (listing fees, seller fees and Paypal fees don't factor in, the seller pays those, not the buyer) also provide you with many individual results across a three month time period. There's much more data from eBay and that provides you with a much more accurate representation of a card's worth. But really, when we talk about eBay completed sales we're also talking about VCP, which is just eBay completed sales dating further back than 3 months.
Price guides like SMR and Beckett offer no advantages over real-time results. Except for the colorful pictures in Beckett. Those are kinda cool, I guess.
Arthur