Can anyone honestly say....

[Bigdaddy]

Agreed.

Unless you have some kind of head-start - a childhood collection, a bunch of cards someone gave you or you bought years earlier, etc - then the sum of the parts will always be worth more than the whole. Ask Greg Morris. In general, dealers will buy sets and break them apart to sell, not buy single cards and put sets together. This 'churn' and constant building/breaking apart of sets and the difference in value of the whole vs sum of parts is a singular profit motive for some dealers.

Originally Posted by eliotdeutsch

I think in general, the sum of the parts is usually greater than the whole, simply because there are certain buyers who will “pay up” for specific cards.

By buying specific cards, you are competing with the entire market for a single card. The market for an entire set is much smaller, and at the higher dollar prices, buyers want a better deal.

It’s the reason auto shops buy cars for parts and Wall Street mortgage traders slice up cash flows. You want to give each buyer exactly what he wants most and will payup the most for.