[jonathani]

Have enough people bought, sold, and traded this product and then reported to Beckett about it that Beckett can actually publish a researched and analyzed price guide? Or are these numbers based on past sets that have nothing to do with this one, or zero research and all speculation, or totally made up for entertainment purposes? I've just always wondered where these numbers come from early on in a set's career.

[jacobystealshome]

it is based partly on market data, which includes online sales (ebay, stores,etc), brick and mortar sales reports, card show sales to extent. initial price points for common, semi-stars, etc are based upon two separate criteria: similar previous sets and msrp of cases and boxes.

[chester2002]

Basing a sets value on MSRP bothers the daylights out of me!!!!! I also debate whether card show sales and brick and mortar sales should even count. How do we know these sales prices are accurate? people could easily lie just to trump up the product value.
Ebay is one of the only outlets where a true price is stored. The problem is, Beckett has been so inaccurate/unreliable with its pricing that ebay responds the second a card gets priced. If Beckett lists it at $200.....the immediate expected sales price on the bay becomes $100. I have actually seen card sell for $150 or $175 and get a beckett published price for $200 and immediately go down to $100 on ebay.

[jacobystealshome]

Basing a sets value on MSRP bothers the daylights out of me!!!!! I also debate whether card show sales and brick and mortar sales should even count. How do we know these sales prices are accurate? people could easily lie just to trump up the product value.
Ebay is one of the only outlets where a true price is stored. The problem is, Beckett has been so inaccurate/unreliable with its pricing that ebay responds the second a card gets priced. If Beckett lists it at $200.....the immediate expected sales price on the bay becomes $100. I have actually seen card sell for $150 or $175 and get a beckett published price for $200 and immediately go down to $100 on ebay.

"initial" price point for commons, semi stars, etc. doesnt mean that doesnt move afterwards reflecting the market.

ebay is not true value. im so tired of hearing that. it's ridiculous on its face

[Hofcollector]

Basing a sets value on MSRP bothers the daylights out of me!!!!! I also debate whether card show sales and brick and mortar sales should even count. How do we know these sales prices are accurate? people could easily lie just to trump up the product value.
Ebay is one of the only outlets where a true price is stored. The problem is, Beckett has been so inaccurate/unreliable with its pricing that ebay responds the second a card gets priced. If Beckett lists it at $200.....the immediate expected sales price on the bay becomes $100. I have actually seen card sell for $150 or $175 and get a beckett published price for $200 and immediately go down to $100 on ebay.

Ebay= 1 market's price
Beckett= multiple market's pricing

Your last statement basically says that Ebay is the lone market for card sales because of your disbelief of the difference in Beckett's pricing. In no way, shape or form does Beckett's pricing dictate Ebay sales. No one that buys on Ebay is waiting for Beckett's newest publication to come out so they can offer a seller 50% of bv. Ebay sales dictate Ebay pricing and even those numbers can be extremely inconsistent. Ebay cards are basically traded like stocks within that market on a daily price basis, Beckett a broader stroke of multiple markets. As stated before, there are a tremendous amount of factors that determine Ebay sales which may or may not represent a card's value accurately. Is Beckett outdated on a lot of their pricing? Yes. They are extremely high on some and low on others. But, for those living on Ebay, you should not expect 2 sales on a card within the last month to change a cards value unless the card has an extremely low print run, which Beckett won't have pricing for anyway. Im not against using Ebay pricing on rarities but tell me, what pricing information can be derived from sales of a card over a 2 month span that has 4 sales ranging from $220-$510 in no particular progression or regression? The buyer will want it at the low, the seller the high. If the buyer gets it at the low he most likely will be trying to resell or trade it at the high.

[baseballmason]

"initial" price point for commons, semi stars, etc. doesnt mean that doesnt move afterwards reflecting the market.

ebay is not true value. im so tired of hearing that. it's ridiculous on its face

So, from what is the true value of a card based on? I just don't see how there are enough numbers from shows, LCS, etc. to base a true value on a card. I would think that if you had sales on 10 of the same card and averaged the price that would be a close value. True, there are large swings on prices for the same card but I think that is an anomaly. When I look at past sales of a card, it seems the sales prices are relatively close. In my mind the average would be the going rate. I certainly don't see this as ridiculous.

[Hofcollector]

So, from what is the true value of a card based on? I just don't see how there are enough numbers from shows, LCS, etc. to base a true value on a card. I would think that if you had sales on 10 of the same card and averaged the price that would be a close value. True, there are large swings on prices for the same card but I think that is an anomaly. When I look at past sales of a card, it seems the sales prices are relatively close. In my mind the average would be the going rate. I certainly don't see this as ridiculous.

If your talking base cards, then I'd assume pricing would be fairly consistent. If your talking anything desirable, then no. Anything worth any sort of money is going to have extreme highs and lows, most likely within days of each other. Take for example Kyle Schwarber' s Bowman Chrome prospect auto (or any other card really). During a months span last year his cards were ultra hot, then he slumped and went ice cold, and then caught fire in the playoffs and his cards went crazy again. The Cubs season ended and sales went flat. What type of pricing can you get when the sales chart looks like the Rockies? It's certainly no anomaly. That's Ebay. There's so many factors that determine sales it's impossible to pull definitive pricing from in most cases.

[jacobystealshome]

So, from what is the true value of a card based on? I just don't see how there are enough numbers from shows, LCS, etc. to base a true value on a card. I would think that if you had sales on 10 of the same card and averaged the price that would be a close value. True, there are large swings on prices for the same card but I think that is an anomaly. When I look at past sales of a card, it seems the sales prices are relatively close. In my mind the average would be the going rate. I certainly don't see this as ridiculous.

if you were to do it that way - and you certainly shouldnt - you wouldnt do an average of the 10, but a mean of the 110

i can tell you that high end insurance companies laugh at "ebay value." they run ebay sales through a complex formula to come up with acttual market value when there are no other sales to be found from other sources (its really complicated, but very very very generally and not true across the board, it comes out to 2 and a half times the mean of past sales. very very generally)

[crossada]

I used to follow BV all the time at shows and ebay. This year though I have not once looked at BV pricing when I go to buy something.

I have just judged by how much I am willing to pay for something and go from there.

There are some sellers on Ebay that do have insane prices compared to BV. One seller from MN will list cards for $1000-$2000 when Beckett will have the card listed under $100. Outside of things like that I have found things to be pretty balanced from shows to ebay.