People simply need to stop relying on one site as a hard-and-fast pricing indicator. eBay will help give you an idea of what people are paying for a card, but without a large sample size you're probably going to be left with a wide range of prices that sellers and buyers are bound to view differently. The seller will favor the higher prices while the buyer will suggest using the lower values. And if neither side is willing to budge, well ... not very useful at all, is it?

Beckett isn't completely useless as a guide, but unfortunately some people mistake "guide" with "gospel". I think people need to lay off Beckett in this regard; yes, they make some big-time mistakes and need to be held accountable. But let's be fair about some things here: They can't possibly account for regional variations in the buying and selling price of certain cards. Many times the feedback they get back about values of cards is skewed by where that information is coming from. And keep in mind, they run price guides for all four major professional sports, plus a host of other pastimes. Their database runs into the millions. Want to take a crack at establishing reasonable price guidelines for a million cards and expect to be right every single time? No? Didn't think so. Unfortunately, as long as people continue flipping through the pages, eyeing up the HI value and thinking that's what they're entitled to, the Beckett slamming will continue ad nauseum -- and quite unfairly, in most cases.

If you want to establish fair market value for a card, then do your research. How limited is it? Is the player a hot target right now? What have similar cards sold for recently? Do you know a player collector who needs that card, and might be willing to part with slightly more to get it? Between Beckett, eBay, message boards and our own knowledge base, each and every one of us has more resources than ever at our disposal when it comes to pricing our cards. And if we aren't using them, then we only have ourselves to blame when we can't get a deal done.

Slam eBay or Beckett as you will, but their job isn't to do your homework for you. That's still your responsibility.