Another way to look at it is that rare baseball cards are not commodities, in the classical economics sense. Because of a niche market, auction and any sale prices are "skeptible" as well. Your best indicator as to current value is trends (as we all probably realize). The longer the trend, the more reasonably accurate. Where that falls short is near the change point of a trend.
That being said... it also seems that there are those trying to justify prices based on "staying in business" rather than considering the possibility that supply is up or demand is down within the niche market (among other things). It is very probably that you will not see ANY profit on certain cards and even remotely possible that you won't see any profit on ANY cards. There are many ways to go out of business.
Keep in mind that even "museum" pieces will probably sell some day. Maybe for the crazy 100% asking price, maybe the seller making the deal for the reasonable 50% off, or maybe the seller's heirs taking pennies on the dollar after the seller's gone.
The only true value of a card is what it sold for on that particular day. Anything beyond that is mere speculation on the behalf of the buyer or the seller.
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