Book Value versus Sell Value Trading

[Yipper]

There is really no simple way to reach a conclusion on this debate.

However, my views are these:

Why would anyone go book anyways? And what is a book?

As far as I can tell, when someone says book, they mean Beckett. Beckett is a grading company and their company revolves around that. The creation of their so called "book value" is to capture their audience to use there grading company.

Has any of you heard of the famous Michelin Guide for food? or Michelin Stars for restaurants?

Same exact thing. Michelin created this guide to encourage drivers to simply drive more to wear down the treads of their tires. They invented it as a marketing tool and displayed only the best restaurants and over the years it became really famous. And now, almost a separate type of business they have.

However, it is quite inaccurate. Sure they definitely display some of the top world wide restaurants in the world and these restaurants proudly display the stars they receive from Michelin but what many don't realize is that its just a bunch of "food critics," "food experts," and of course the people running a tire company that is telling you what is great to eat.

And simply not all individuals are a like. It's great for recommendations by food preference is determined by the person eating there. Beckett is a recommendation of a price. I LOL on how someone can recommend a price of something when there is a market to determine it.

So basically this is exactly what Beckett is and is doing to you. People who use the guide for the most part are successful marketing subjects. There is no reflection of the market. It's their presumed value. Their presumed prices. In the past a pure marketing tool to get foolish collectors captivated, but now a whole separate "business" they do to get more money out of you since they can't survive from just grading cards.

...

To answer the question on how you tell what a true value something is if the same cards have sold for $30, $50, $100, or $300. Look at the history. Cards these days have no originality. Most would have the same card in the same set from the previous year. And you can go on the basis of a trend. Current year stuff always sell for a bit higher, and recently released stuff sell for higher than that. But the eventual value is more than likely to be what the previous year card sold for.

If it is a new card and first card ever designed and made that way. Common sense can come to play. How much more or how much less for the design of this card. They are all going to be auto, jersey, auto jersey, patch, auto jersey patch. I mean the difference isn't staggering.

Low print runs cards are also determined by the above. And simply what the heart desires and how many others want it more than you do.



So to sum it up. Yeah, sell value is a lot better in my opinion. Buy, sell, trade, I use that. There is no buy, sell on one value and trade on another.

You won't go to an European, Asian, etc. country pay for something 2x, 5x, 10x just because that is how they trade there or the currency is higher or economy is different. You will buy something to according to what the general market is at and stay away that something that is grossly off.

That's just my idea on this haha. Cheers!

[mingus_md]

This topic is always a tough one to discuss with many people conflicting opinions. I miss the days where trading was just trading. You have a few cards I want and I have a few cards you want so we trade. For me, I think trading has sort of two parts. There are cards that I want for my PC, mostly pre-lockout, that I can't find anywhere. If you have one of those cards I will trade anything (within reason) to get them. If the card I want books for $10 and you want a card that books for $20, well that is fine with me. Where it get more challenging is when the cards are more recent and readily available. Then I think using a sell value is a more reasonable approach, because the alternative to trading for the card is going on E-Bay and buying it for the going rate.

[Fred Bear]

Use what you want!

The key to the whole thing is that you have to convince your trading partner of what you want, doesn't matter which you use as long as a trade gets made.

I refuse to solely use one or the other. I know some people 'hate' or chastise BV, but, honestly, I collect base sets and finding recent sales of base cards (or even low-end inserts) is often an exercise in futility. It's nice to have 'value' numbers to be able to use when working a swap. The other side of that coin is that Young Guns sell by the dozen every day and get updated in Beckett's 'real-time' rag once, when they come out... Hard to justify trading a BV $50 SV $30 auto for 5-6 YGs with a BV $55 but a SV of $7 (and I don't mind trading an auto for base/RCs or other cards I need).

I try to stay flexible and, more importantly, only make trades that I'm comfortable making!

[adamslogik]

What is your SV-tradevalue for a card that has sold for $10 and $50 and $300?

From my experience, the Person whose card it is values it at $300, the person who is looking to acquire it values it at $10, lol.

[JD4short]

What is your SV-tradevalue for a card that has sold for $10 and $50 and $300?

if this card had sold at those prices depends on on how long ago the sales were. say they were within months a part. Like i said market value it goes up and down. Look at the crosby young guns, they were selling easy for 250+ now you can pick one up for around 150. Depends on who and the time your trading.

[jclouie]

it just gets really frustrating for me sometimes when people are trying to convince me scrub young guns are worth 5 bucks when you could easily get them for 50 -75 cents in a bargain bin.

but again different people have different opinions, i guess we just need to some how figure out some common ground.

[comfortably9numb]

personally I use BV more so than SV...but I think a heavy dose of common sense is needed. If I have a card that is hard to find, but book low...i expect more than BV...but for most general trades (not that I have that many), I've been looking at BV

[canucksfan007]

What is your SV-tradevalue for a card that has sold for $10 and $50 and $300?

Find me this situation somewhere on the internet and I will get back to you .... very unrealistic.

I personally like trading by current market values

Is someone right now really gonna trade a 07/08 SPA FW RC Quick /999 at current beckett value? A better question is, will beckett even give this card up arrows in the coming months?

Its pretty easy now a days to find card "X"s completed listings, and if you cant find the exact same card, there are many very close to that same card.

Shares in companies change every day based on the market
The price of gold changes every day based on the market
Global currencies change every day based on the economy

Why should we wait every month to see if a company can tell us how much our cards are worth, when we have a perfectly good, readily available tool like ebay.

Ebay should not be used as 100% guidelines, but pretty darn close. Sure, we cant see all the sales completed at shows, or shops ... or between anyone not online .... but really without a paper trail, it could be just a lie.

[Scottish Punk]

I have found trading collector to collector is pretty easy. Both sides building sets, getting cards they want, etc. The problem occurs when you get get one side trading specifically for flipping it. So, of course, they will site $50 book value for them, and $25 sell value for yours (finding the cheapest possible instance on ebay).

Personally, sell value is the only one that makes any sense to me. Your card is only ever worth what the last few sales are anyways. Anything else is just WAGs and should be take with a grain of salt.

[cygnusx1]

if this card had sold at those prices depends on on how long ago the sales were. say they were within months a part. Like i said market value it goes up and down. Look at the crosby young guns, they were selling easy for 250+ now you can pick one up for around 150. Depends on who and the time your trading.

Where are you finding that? I'll gladly take them for $150...

I just use whatever the other trader is comfortable with, within reason. If someone is interested in my $60 BV card that only sells for $10 and I like something similar of theirs, done deal. If I like someone's $60 BV card that sells for $10 and they're interested in my $60 BV SPA PK Subban Auto RC, then that's not going to work. I could easily just sell it for $50-60 and buy the $10 card with money to spare.

You can't really adopt any one type of value and have it work 100% of the time. I find a mix of both (and in general, just being fair to who you're dealing with) makes things go smoothly.