Should hard-to-complete vintage sets sell for a premium to breakup value?

[Carter08]

I think a mid grade fairly tough set should sell together for a premium. But I agree if with the post above that if the set has a whale card or two it’s not realistic to sell together and wouldn’t generate a premium.

[Casey2296]

The sets that should sell for a premium are smaller, difficult, and more rare pre-war sets to obtain. Think Regional, E-cards, smaller T-cards, etc. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of collectors that can afford a complete E94 set for example so you cut a big portion of buyers out who collect one or two at a time based on their budget. And often, if it is a significant set sold as a whole they don't usually make it to the market but is a private sale like Ryan's recent E107 Breisch-Williams purchase.

[Republicaninmass]

Traditionally, the sum of the parts was always worth more

[BobC]

I also agree that maybe some sets should likely sell at a premium to their break-up value, but it likely won't ever really happen for various possible reasons:

1. Overall cost. Buying an entire set all at once is already going to be way more costly up front and beyond many collector's normal budgets. Fewer potential buyers generally leads to less overall demand, and usually results in lower ending prices.

2. Dealers. Goes along with reason #1 in that if many collectors are unable to go after a complete set because of the high cost to buy it all at once, that will likely leave it more so to dealers with more readily available resources and cash who could possibly afford it. However, a Dealer will look to acquire and then resell the set to maximize their profit, which will likely come from breaking the set up. In which case, they will factor in the profit margin they expect to make and normally cap their top bid well below the expected break-up value of the individual cards in the set, so they can hopefully achieve the profit they want.

3. Collectors. Not as big a deal as items #1 and #2, but many collectors do seem to value the thrill of the hunt more than almost anything. And so aside from the up front cost, some collectors may not be as interested (or satisfied) in just buying a set someone else had the time and pleasure in assembling. And again, fewer potential buyers generally leads to less overall demand, normally resulting in a lower final price.

But all it takes are two interested and desirous bidders with really deep pockets to prove my points wrong.