PSA Sports Market Report (SMR) price guide accuracy?

[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.

[pclpads]

You sound similar to me. Not a dealer or a big buyer. I just have a few specific issues and names I am interested in acquiring. VCP would be a waste of $$$ for my limited pursuits. Always have found sufficient sold pricing models on Card Target and feebay.

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?

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

That just about sounds like the best option for now!




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?

Already mentioned, but CardTarget is free to use. It does include pictures as well. I don't find it as smooth as it use to be, but it is still effective.

I had VCP for about a year and found it was a waste of my money personally as I was able to find most of the information myself through free resources, not all the time, but enough to not make VCP worth my money.

[sterlingfox]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

That just about sounds like the best option for now!




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?

Deals can be had anywhere, even on eBay BINs. In fact, some of my very best purchases have been eBay BINs, but as a whole, yes, they tend to be on the high side most of the time.

The best way to find a deal on what you're looking for is to first do your research on market value, and then search all the venues (eBay, AHs, card shows, B/S/T on Net54, COMC, etc).

[EYECOLLECTVINTAGE]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

Already mentioned, but CardTarget is free to use. It does include pictures as well. I don't find it as smooth as it use to be, but it is still effective.

I had VCP for about a year and found it was a waste of my money personally as I was able to find most of the information myself through free resources, not all the time, but enough to not make VCP worth my money.

Just tried Card target and wanted to cry. It is so confusing and isn't working

[sterlingfox]

Originally Posted by EYECOLLECTVINTAGE

Just tried Card target and wanted to cry. It is so confusing and isn't working

I feel the same way about Card Target - it's too confusing and doesn't work well at all. If I had to give up VCP, I'd stick to ListingHistory.com

[bn2cardz]

As I stated it isn't as smooth as it once was, but it still works fine for me and I get the information I typically need.