ebay vs guides

[rdixon1208]

I use VCP to help determine a card's value, but there's more to it than that. VCP uses auction results only. They don't take Buy It Now's or dealer sales into account, which are almost always higher that auction results. VCP also doesn't tell you how many days the auction ran for, what day/time the auction ended, etc. All of these things can influence the price. The other thing, and probably most important, is the scarcity of the card. For a T206 Rube Kisinger with a Piedmont back that's graded SGC 30, you can pretty well count on VCP to be very accurate. The card comes up for auction often enough that people aren't going to over extend for it. For a card that hasn't been up for auction in any grade in three years, the price could be all over the place. There is no real valuation tool for a card like this. The longer a person looks for a card, the more they're willing to pay.

Each card has to be evaluated individually for value with a lot of different things considered. This is too much to ask of a "Price Guide". In my opinion this is why a Price Guide could never be printed accurately. They're a waste of ink. But ebay auctions don't tell the whole story either. Hope this helps