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juliebut if you'll take a look at the Topps you used to collect, in 2003 they took a TERRIBLE beating (in the Castalogue). "But I paid twice that for it 15 years ago!"
When Clemens was traded to the Yankees, I decided it was about time I got his rookie card, before I could no longer count his Cy Young's on the fingers of one hand. A year ago, I thought I'd pick up a Puckett rookie to go with it (both cards are in the attractive and underproduced 1984 Fleer Update set). I looked Puckett up in the 2003 catalogue--$80! Why, he used to be $150. I called Dave's Dougout to enquire, and they said they'd get a small assortment for me to choose from (ungraded). It took them a while, but they did. "They're all $100," Dave said. "The Catalogue says $80." "Don't pay too much attention to that," he said.
It appears that Lemke thought the card market was taking the depression as seriously as the stock market--which we can all attest it isn't. The great cards just do a disappearing act, that's all.
I use old Becketts and not so old SCD Catalogue pages for checklists--as someone has already suggested. But when someone tells me the Diamond Gum Plank pin "only lists for $350," I think "That wouldn't be the first egregious error Lemke made."