General Forum

No, I do not trust prices on this site.

I don't trust the prices here either, not in an all or nothing way, but not long ago there was a post about someone tossing up insane pricing on some cards. I stick to eBay and COMC for current pricing. 

P.S.- That is a really cool action shot of Miss T that you have as your profile pic.

Thanks, I think it's her drop curve.....deadly to RHB and lefty slappers!

Beckett marketplace is one, flexible prices to give you an idea, plus comc is what I've gone by recently.

As i only collect football cards, every couple of years i will pick up a copy of the annual football Beckett, gives a decent amount of information in the header of the yearly sets, will show some pictures of sets.  Comc will give you the best idea of close pricing, and most realistic!!

I am one of the dinosaurs apparently (and apparently one with money I'm willing to spend). I still pay for the Beckett Online Price Guides. I pick and choose what I get and when. I use the prices for comparison only and don't really stick to it as a strict guideline. My thoughts on Beckett prices is to trade for equal value, hope to buy for 1/3rd value and hope to sell for at least 1/3rd value. I bought the magazines once or twice per year (for multiple sports) from the late-80's to the mid-2000's. But before Beckett shoved everyone else out, I would occassionally buy Tuff Stuff or SCM instead of Beckett. I did like buying their annual books in the early 2000's b/c they listed every card in every set and included details about ERR/COR/VAR cards. Once I started using the OPG, the books and mags were completely useless to me though.

Since no one else answered this question for you, I will in detail. Beckett OPG's range widely in cost. You can buy just a single-card pricing for very cheap (like 50 cents or something). I think you can buy a price guide for just one player or set too. You have to load a minimum of $5.00 to your Beckett account though. But you can continue to pull out of that account until you've used all of it. A 1-month subscription to a single sport is $10 or a 15-day subscription for 7 or 8 dollars. The highest single-month price is a Total Access Online Price Guide that shows values for every single priced card in their DB (all sports and includes non-sports, figures, coins and diecasts) at $35/month. I usually use that option, but I immediately turn off the auto-renew feature. I deal with all of the major sports in some way and a bunch of non-sport stuff, as well as some figures/diecasts. I don't renew my TA OPG as soon as it expires either. I let it sit as expired for a few days or so before I renew usually. The package deals for multiple months aren't really a deal of any kind. A 3-month subscription to the TA OPG is $99 vs. the $105 it would cost if you paid for it each month. I can make that up easily by not letting it auto-renew and renewing when I want to do so. The only reasons for me continuing to re-new is that I need the OPG to continue to see my Collection that took me many years to completely add there and the ability to trade on there. You can get around that by spending $40/year for access to the Organize and Trade features, but you get no prices for any cards nor any market data research. Completely pointless to me. But then their MDR is pretty pointless too b/c they don't keep it accurate.

Beckett took a huge hit in 2011 when their "new" website went live and was so full of bugs and holes that it drove many collectors away. Then the prices started rising and drove even more away. The forums here on TCDB are much more active than Beckett's are in any sport and the Beckett employees don't seem to care. The company just keeps suing everybody with similar sites and buying competition that they can't outright sue in court. They have been shamed so much in the hobby that the card companies don't even send freebie boxes to them anymore to bust for showing the products to customers. The Beckett site is still a decent one, but the same can't be said about the company and employees. If it wasn't for the members (paying or not) and the Marketplace, Beckett.com would have died out already purely b/c of the prices they charge and the lack of attention to any member requests. For a great example, the Editor for the Baseball magazine hasn't even logged into the website for 3 weeks!!! I checked it the other day while I was searching for another old thread on the forums. Even the moderators, who aren't employees of Beckett Media, don't check in even every week now. They used to be on there every day! The Racing Forum moderator hasn't logged in for nearly 11 months now. I told Beckett staff several times before they added him as the first and only Racing Forum Moderator ever that I'd be happy to do it. No reply until they picked someone who only did it for 6 months.

Okay, enough about that subject. But to wrap this up, the sell prices for any auction site or BIN-type site give you an idea of what price for which cards are being listed, but it takes work to find out if they are selling for those prices. I still prefer Beckett prices for newer cards that actually have a value listed. Anything vintage (true vintage is still pre-1980), prices and values can be found everywhere on the internet. Just average them out.

I usually get a pretty good idea of current value of the the cards I'm looking for by watching the auctions on EBay. Once I know what a card typically sells for, I have an idea of how much I want to bid. If I really want a card, I'll bid near the recent selling price (or higher). If the card is offered regularly and I'm in no hurry to obtain it, I'll bid lower and hope to win deal. Most of the time (but not always), I can score deal eventually.  For some of the less commonly offered cards, searching the EBay sold listings will let you know what they sold for recently. 

I usually get a pretty good idea of current value of the the cards I'm looking for by watching the auctions on EBay. Once I know what a card typically sells for, I have an idea of how much I want to bid. If I really want a card, I'll bid near the recent selling price (or higher). If the card is offered regularly and I'm in no hurry to obtain it, I'll bid lower and hope to win deal. Most of the time (but not always), I can score deal eventually.  For some of the less commonly offered cards, searching the EBay sold listings will let you know what they sold for recently. 

Hi, I saw an interesting idea yesterday, not exactly sure how it would  work. BUT.....

A group of 4 guys subscribed to Becketts "whole enchilada" Price Guide deal [all sports, non-sports, whatever] for 12 months, then they split the cost 4 ways, and each member of the group had full access.

Any comment or suggestion? Do you think that would work?

LMK, ~BOB~

I think that would work if you got the right group of people. Obviously the big risk would be someone not paying their fair share, but I think when you deal with a community like ours, you can get an idea of who would be all in and who might try and cheat the system (no one that I can think of).

Personally, I wouldn't be interested, simply because I don't do pricing. Maybe someday, but there are so many common cards that I need to add to my player collections and Reds collection that pricing isn't a huge factor to me. I can go to COMC and/or SportLots and just browse by cheapest, and add 12 cards for $15 without being worried about if I'm getting a fair deal or not.

For someone who is trying to buy or sell on eBay or looking at more high-end or expensive cards, then perhaps something like this would be a good avenue for them. It would certainly make things more affordable!