Unpopular opinion on VCP an other "comp apps"

[molenick]

I can see pricing being useful for cards that are traded often (Topps, Bowman, T206, etc.) but the cards I buy are usually not, so if I see the last sale was 2019, I know that price is essentially irrelevant. Although in some cases, I do find the pricing of recent sales helpful.

But besides pricing I like VCP for two things:

I like having info about my collection stored in one place. I know I can just use a spreadsheet, but the VCP interface is appealing to me.

I like that they image cards (or provide auction links) that were previously sold. Then I can tell if a price might be due to a card being out-of-focus, off-centered, over/under-graded, etc.

And I especially like it when a card in a current auction (the exact same card) is pictured in a previous auction. Because it helps me determine if any issues I am seeing are on the card or on the case, or whether a crease or wrinkle shows up in an earlier scan that is not in the current scan. Different scanners treat scratches/scuffs/wrinkles differently, and photographs of cards can look different to scans of cards.

There was a recent REA card that appeared to have several white spots on it and all of them were due to scuffs on the holder reflecting light. That was evident from an earlier scan of the same card (although I did call REA to check anyway).