Posted By:
Bruce Babcock1. I think VCP is a great service.
As for pop reports, as Jim points out, they can be invaluable for popular widely traded issues. Topps baseball and football issues, certainly, but also many vintage issues such as T206, Diamond Stars, Goudeys and many others.
Leon is also correct in that many vintage issues are so thinly trading that most pricing information is nebulous. SF Hess, Kalamazoo Bats, Darby Chocolates, AWH, Western Playground, Diamond S Cigars and dozens of others trade so infrequently that a "book" price becomes pretty meaningless.
Having a recent transaction price from VCP is very helpful but the price alone doesn't tell us if this was the last card a player needed for a set, or if two bidders went berserk beyond reason to come out on top. Both scenarios could give an inflated idea of the "true" market value. Also, many of my recent pickups, and I'm sure this is true of others, have been private transactions, so the results don't show up anywhere.