Why do many put so much emphasis on PAST sales??

[Yoda]

How about just using your brain. If you have been in the hobby long enough, are an active collector and/or buyer or seller and sleep with your want list under your pillow, you know what the game is all about. To become fixated on a key card with a specific grade in mind, becomes frustrating. The population of cards that we all hold that is tiny compared modern production. Regardless of price, within reason of course, buy the 1.5 Goudey Ruth and not the 4 you have been dreaming about. Just as Leon rightly points out, eye appeal should be the ultimate decision-maker not the TP Grade. I hope you land what you want. Nobody gets in at the absolute low and sells at the absolute high. Just ask some Wall Street guys about the Crash of 2008.