Posted By:
Fred CScott,
The water damage will impact the value of the card by much greater than 10%. It'd be interesting to see how they came up with that number. You could ask a reputable grading company what impact the damage has. That would be a bit more definitive in determining actual lost value.
Now, when you say "newer items" do you mean new and shiney (post '80 material)? I'm not sure exactly how you'd get a good gauge on the value of common cards (or stars for that matter) on cards from that era. I'm not trying to bust your bubble but new and shiney might be easily replaced at a very reasonable price.
Good luck with the settlement. No, I'm not a big time dealer that can vouch for the value of your cards, sorry.