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Posted By: warshawlaw

The SMR has never been an accurate pricing tool. It started as a pure promotional scam by claiming to price based on actual sales while at the same time issuing fake prices on cards that did not exist and compounding the fraud by jacking them up every month to show the supposedly great returns from those non-existent PSA graded cards. See some of the early VCBC issues for details. In recent years, the SMR has gotten better at reporting auction results THAT FAVOR PSA PRODUCTS, but it still persists in (1) publishing prices for cards that do not exist or have not transacted in the grades designated and (2) publishing prices that are out of line with reality on "basic" cards. Sure, we see a lot of touting of $2,000 PSA 10 commons from tough sets and we are going to see a $100,000 Ruth rookie, but no reporting of myriad PSA 6-7-8 cards selling at a fraction of SMR prices. When was the last time that you actually paid SMR prices for a PSA graded card that was not a "monster" rarity?

For my money, I far prefer having a guide like the SCD book that is usually low on vintage materials than having someone quote me prices from "7-11" as the retail. Maybe in Bizarro World the SMR is accurate, but not in the real world.

Hal's point w/r/t auction vig is absolutely correct. The total package the buyer has to pay should be considered the sales price. I know I factor in the 15% when I bid.