Posted By:
warshawlawI think just about everyone here and certainly every advanced collector out there treats the catalogue as a checklist, not as a price guide except in the broadest sense. As a checklist, it is very encouraging to a potential buyer to see the card listed.
It is also true that when something new comes to light, the price guide editors have thus far shown remarkably little common sense in how they list the item. Putting in a three-tiered price system for many rarities is simply absurd. For example, the Lections listing in the SCD big book states that only 28 cards are known to exist, most of which are f-g condition, yet continues to list the set of ten cards with a full set price and individual card prices in three standardized grades. Nevermind that all of the acknowledged cards together do not add up to three complete sets, so even if each card in the hoard existed in a distinct grade, there would not be any basis to create a three tiered pricing system for every card.
By the same token, there are many advanced collectors who are very dubious as to the bona fides of a set that did not emerge until a few years ago. To those collectors, having the cards in the books confers a legitimacy that makes them potential entrants into the market for the cards.
I'll give you another great example: Last year I bid into what turned out to be an R94 Babe Ruth card. I did not quite know what it was when I bid on it because it was not in the book so I bid on it at a low level. It must have baffled a lot of others too because I got it for very little. Had the card been in the book I am certain I would not have been able to obtain it for what I bid because the casual interest in Ruth plus the book-conferred legitimacy of the card would drive up the price. Ditto for my unlisted Pinkerton-type PCs, which also came pretty cheaply.
My point is that anyone who knows cards well enough to be in the market for a rare or obscure card knows that the book prices are silly and can be disregarded. Anyone new to the hobby, however, needs the information available in the listing in order to feel comfortable participating. For that reason, I simply do not see that the pecuniary harm of letting the hobby know of the existence of a rare card is realistic or outweighs the potential longer term gains from the issue being accepted as legitimate by many more collectors.