[BigBlueAL]

OK so about a week ago or so there was a thread talking about the pricing of some cards.  I mentioned how surprised I was that Luis Robert's Topps Series 2 RC was initially listed at only $5 because they were all being sold on eBay for over $20 but I gave Beckett the benefit of the doubt because for the most part I feel they are pretty good adjusting the prices of baseball cards especially when it comes to eBay sales.

So today I log in and see that virtually every Luis Robert RC has gone down in price including his Topps Series 2 which is now listed at $4.  What is going on????  There have been a handful sold for $15, the majority of recently completed sales are all over $20 and the boxes of Topps Series 2 have been going thru the roof specifically because of this card since the rest of the set is worthless for the most part.  Not to mention the buzz he's been generating hitting monster HRs during summer camp and hitting his 1st MLB HR on Sunday.

I know Beckett's pricings aren't the gospel and certainly not anymore when you consider what's happened to the hobby these past few months but this is pretty bad on their part.  What's the point of even paying for their price guides if they no longer come close to having a pulse on the market, they'll soon become as irrelevant as Tuff Stuff was back in the day when Beckett was the go to magazine for card listings.  You couldn't go to a card show without a Beckett in your hand if you wanted to make deals, nowadays looks like at least on eBay and other online services Beckett is becoming irrelevant.

[ricelynnevans75]

they'll soon become as irrelevant

Beckett achieved the title of irrelevant when it came to values many years ago.

I imagine they hire someone to toss darts at a dartboard and somehow use whatever numbers pop up to assign a value.

[rjcj2017]

The opposite is sometimes true as well.

Back in my heyday as an eBay seller (and before the world lost its damn mind and decided second year, non-vintage base cards were worth $100+), if a card booked at $100 I knew it would be more like a $25-33 sale, meaning a quarter to a third of book.

I was always more understanding when it was a print-only product, because the production time to print prices created an obvious lag behind real time sales.

But now that everything is digital, I don't quite get it. The only thing I can think of is that with so many new sets, inserts and parallels coming out, they may simply assess some kind of formula multiplier across the brand.

So, like, Topps flagship will always book lower than Chrome, for example.

But, yeah, $4 for Robert's RC is pretty hard to justify.

[BigBlueAL]

Oh for sure, back in the day cards usually always sold for less than book value but that price was used as a starting point. Nowadays like you said with everything basically being based on eBay sales and comps it should be even easier for Beckett to be able to monitor the market because it's all done online.

I'm sure in alot of ways it's harder because the market is constantly moving and is so much more volatile but I'm not expecting changes every day, once a month is still a good way to do it like when it was print only. I mean listen I know I can sell my Luis Robert Topps Rc for $20 if I wanted to regardless of what it's listed in Beckett but still would be nice if Beckett kept up with the market more. I mean sure I can check sold listings on eBay to see the true market value but nobody has the time to check every single card or item individually, having this ORG is a HUGE tool that if Beckett would stay on top of really could be a big boost for them. Nowadays when someone wants to see the value of a card they don't bother checking Beckett, they just search the card on eBay and see what it's selling for.

[jaredhuizenga]

I'm trying to cut Beckett some slack right now in terms of valuations. Right not it's, to put it mildly, a volatile market. And they churned out the Series 2 base pricing pretty quickly compared to all of the other sets.

I expect a big jump is probably coming and it will be more in line with what we're seeing on Ebay.

That said, Ebay is only a part of the equation. For the first week or so, the going rate on Sportlots was $8 to $12, which is a bit more in line with what we're seeing in the OPG. We also don't see what brick and mortar stores that report sales are moving them for, what they're going for at the handful of shows that are taking place, and what breakers that are only after the hits and SPs are moving them for.

It's not a perfect system, but at least for the stuff I collect, the OPG has been pretty much in lockstep with sales.

[rjcj2017]

I'm trying to cut Beckett some slack right now in terms of valuations. Right not it's, to put it mildly, a volatile market. And they churned out the Series 2 base pricing pretty quickly compared to all of the other sets.

I expect a big jump is probably coming and it will be more in line with what we're seeing on Ebay.

That said, Ebay is only a part of the equation. For the first week or so, the going rate on Sportlots was $8 to $12, which is a bit more in line with what we're seeing in the OPG. We also don't see what brick and mortar stores that report sales are moving them for, what they're going for at the handful of shows that are taking place, and what breakers that are only after the hits and SPs are moving them for.

It's not a perfect system, but at least for the stuff I collect, the OPG has been pretty much in lockstep with sales.

There you go being all logical and reasonable again, Jared. 

[BigBlueAL]

I've often praised the OPG when people complain about card prices because I do feel for the most part they do reflect the online trends I've noticed. I do realize current times are very volatile and difficult to account for. But really Robert's Topps RC initially books for $5 then a week later it gets lowered to $4? That makes me think they aren't really looking at individual cards because as I mentioned every RC of his today had their values lowered. That happens often with players too, they at times seem to choose a player and arbitrarily just lower all of his cards from a certain year.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to attend a card show anytime recently and with the current climate can't see it happening anytime soon but I've seen footage and videos of recent shows and anytime there were people discussing deals all they did was check eBay comps. Similar with many different online sites and collectors, they post blogs and write articles and it's always talking about eBay market trends. I don't have a local hobby store unfortunately, I actually haven't had one in my neighborhood since the late 1990's. Can't imagine there have been many shows being put on recently and assume many local shops have been struggling if not closing due to the pandemic so right now it sure seems like eBay is the main thing driving the market and setting the trends.

Really I know I'm just ranting and complaining about something that's not that important but when you have alot of time on your hands and your home almost all day I have nothing better to do lol. Looking up cards and following the market trends is kinda fun to do.

[ricelynnevans75]

That said, Ebay is only a part of the equation.

That's the truth. I listed a bunch of cards Sunday night, mostly all at auction but I still checked completed BIN and auction sales to get a general idea of what it might sell for.

At auction I saw one of the cards had sold twice in the last couple of weeks and there were a few more currently listed. The completed sales were $15 and $3. Granted, there are a few other factors to consider in there (time ended/shipping cost/seller reputation/etc) but I still thought that was a big difference. So the cards got the old "list at .99 and let it ride" treatment.

[jbissell]

I agree with Jared in the market volatility right now. Robert is off to a pretty good start, and if we are able to have some semblance of a season, I think his cards will go back up.

On the other hand, it was pretty surprising that Gavin Lux was demoted, so it'll be interesting to see what happens to demand on his cards.