PSA Sports Market Report (SMR) price guide accuracy?

[Hollywood42]

I'm just working my way deeper into the vintage world now, and while looking up some sets that I'd like to tackle in the future, I stumbled upon PSA's Sports Market Report (SMR)- Basically a price guide for PSA graded cards from different sets. Can someone provide some feedback on how accurate this is? I know that Beckett's price guide is pretty much obsolete now, but I hadn't heard of the PSA SMR before and don't know how closely I should try to use it

For example, here's the SMR for T206 White Borders- https://www.psacard.com/smrpriceguid...te-border/1055

How closely should I be using this to look up target prices for specifically graded cards? I.e, Home Run Baker's T206 White Border in a PSA 4 is currently marked at $225- Is it generally accurate or helpful to look up prices in this way? If so, how should I use that number in what I try to buy copies at? (i.e. trying to buy something for lower, higher, or right at that number). Is the SMR generally more accurate for certain sets or types of players? I could see this tool working better for the better names and less well for the commons, but that's just me guessing. From the little research I've done, almost all the copies of cards I've looked at on eBay are listed as BINs for much higher than the corresponding price on the SMR- Is this to be expected?

I really don't know much of anything about this, so wanted to get some feedback from the community- I appreciate the help!

[Taxman]

You should join vintagecardprices.com for most recent market prices.

[sterlingfox]

Originally Posted by Taxman

You should join vintagecardprices.com for most recent market prices.

+1

PSA SMR values are mostly useless when it comes to true market value. VCP is much more useful.

Without VCP, you can use eBay and Auction House recent sales. ListingHistory.com offers eBay sales data going all the way back to 2014. Cardtarget.com is a free to use site similar to VCP, but not nearly as good.

Also, don't go exclusively based on the number that you see on the slab. Look at the card closely. After a while, you'll start to get a feel for what a card should look like at any given grade, and you'll be able to spot those that are under-graded, as well as those that are too generously graded. Use that knowledge to skew value up/down accordingly.

[ls7plus]

Originally Posted by sterlingfox

+1

PSA SMR values are mostly useless when it comes to true market value. VCP is much more useful.

Without VCP, you can use eBay and Auction House recent sales. ListingHistory.com offers eBay sales data going all the way back to 2014. Cardtarget.com is a free to use site similar to VCP, but not nearly as good.

Also, don't go exclusively based on the number that you see on the slab. Look at the card closely. After a while, you'll start to get a feel for what a card should look like at any given grade, and you'll be able to spot those that are under-graded, as well as those that are too generously graded. Use that knowledge to skew value up/down accordingly.

+++1

You nailed it!

Regards,

Larry

[ngnichols]

Another vote for VCP here. It may not give you an up-to-the minute idea of trends/cards getting hot, but it definitely will give you an idea of where the card may be headed and trends throughout the year of where cards spike and then drop.

[KingFisk]

While not perfect, VCP is an indispensable tool. Well worth the subscription.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[EYECOLLECTVINTAGE]

Originally Posted by kingfisk

while not perfect, vcp is an indispensable tool. Well worth the subscription.

Sent from my sm-g920v using tapatalk

+10000

[Hollywood42]

Thanks for the feedback so far. That's an expensive subscription tho

[Yankees1964]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Thanks for the feedback so far. That's an expensive subscription tho

As a collector the subscription will pay for it self at least once if you are a casual collector and many times over if you make a lot of purchases. I could not live without it.

[Snapolit1]

I have VCP too and appreciate it. But if you want to avoid a subscription I'd suggest a 1-2 punch:

1. do an Ebay seach for sold items (go advanced search, click on sold items) and type in name of card and see what recent sales have been

2. do Google searches for the name of card and condition; should turn up the last year or two (or more) of auction site sales.

[sterlingfox]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Thanks for the feedback so far. That's an expensive subscription tho

That's what I thought at first too, but all of the other tools I used for research before VCP just paled in comparison.

I also got the Silver subscription to start and regretted it. Having the pictures of the cards is very much worth the difference.

If you're serious about buying vintage graded cards, get the yearly VCP gold sub and don't look back.

[nat]

I don't have VCP (I don't spend enough to make it worthwhile), but SMR is worthless.

The "buy it now" prices on Ebay are almost always high. Lots of those cards sit there for months or years without selling. If you look at completed sales on ebay you can see the ones that actually sold, and the prices that they got.

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Thanks for the feedback so far. That's an expensive subscription tho

Find a buddy in the hobby who has a subscription and is willing to send you screen shots of the cards you need information on when needed.

[Hollywood42]

That just about sounds like the best option for now!

Originally Posted by Gobucsmagic74

Find a buddy in the hobby who has a subscription and is willing to send you screen shots of the cards you need information on when needed.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I don't think I'll be buying enough for awhile for it to make sense for me to subscribe to VCP, but I will definitely keep it in mind in the future if I do get more heavily into vintage

As a somewhat related followup question- Is there any place to avoid buying vintage from? Someone mentioned eBay BINs are often very high, so might want to stay away from those, but other than that, anything to consider? eBay auctions vs. auction houses vs. COMC vs. other places I'm unaware of?