[the 'stache]

First of all, welcome to the forum, Donnie.

I would agree that you pretty much have to throw out the price guide when it comes to T206 cards. What I generally do is look at recent sales for whatever card or cards I am considering buying. Luke referred to Card Target, and that's a good place to start. Cardtarget.com is an excellent resource. Go to the home page, select price history in the upper-left corner of the site, then select the t206 set. It will give you a list of all the cards alphabetically. Click on whichever card you are inquiring about (or right click on the name, and open it in a new window). On the resulting page, you can select price history. It will give you a list of all the recent sales for that card on Ebay and most major auctions. You can narrow it down by tpg (third party grader), numerical grade, and the card's advertisement back. That will give you a general idea of where the market is at. You can also check vcp (vintage card prices). That's a pay service. You can sign up for 24 hours or a month. It tracks the same information. I don't know if it's more or less thorough than card target. I usually use Card Target unless I'm looking at a high dollar card. Then I might sign up for 24 hour access at vcp and compare the data there against Card Target. Plus, I'll check Ebay's history to see where a particular card or cards have been selling.

I think the best place to look for T206 cards will be the BST here. I generally think you'll find the best prices here. The more active you are on the forum, the more you will get out of it. When you develop friendships here, you are establishing connections. I've found that the people on Net 54 are pretty amazing. Not only have the people I've met here been friendly and incredibly helpful, they also do what they can to police the hobby. We watch out for one another. If a member of the forum sees a card, or an auction that doesn't look right, they'll share that information with everybody else. So, I think this is always going to be the best place to start. Always exercise due diligence, even on the BST. If a member is newer, you might check their history to see if they've bought or sold here before, and how those transactions turned out. You can always send a private message to somebody that has done business with them, too. If it's an established member, you should be ok. But remember. Leon puts "caveat emptor" on the BST for a reason. Ultimately you are responsible for your own actions.

You'd do well to put together a list of trustworthy sellers. There are a lot of people on Net 54 that sell cards here, or on their own site, or on Ebay. Find out who these people are, what their user IDs on EBay are, and what their website urls are. If you are buying from trustworthy sellers, you immediately knock out a lot of bad seeds, and greatly diminish the likelihood that you're involved in a problematic transaction.

I'd also look at some of the auction houses, if you haven't. Watch the main forum. People talk about the different AHs, and you can judge for yourself with whom you'd like to do business.

Finally, if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask. If I have a question, I typically use the search function on the forum, as well as Google, to try and locate an answer to my question first. If I can't find one there, I'll start a topic asking for help, or some feedback. Remember that even the most seasoned collector was starting out once upon a time. You're already moving in the right direction by learning the ins and outs before you put your money in play.

Good luck!