I remember when I was working on Topps sets 20+ years ago and the Beckett Price Guide was the main source for prices. Each set had a complete set price listed along with separate listings for commons (by series for the older sets) and then individual stars and minor stars. Usually, if you added up the prices of all the listed stars and minor stars, you got pretty close to the price listed for the entire set which seemed to mean that if you could find a whole set to buy, you would basically get the commons for free. Since I couldn't afford to buy an entire set at once, I never was able to verify if that was really true, but it certainly was implied by the price guide.
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