[drc]

It's always possible the seller was asking for way too much for his card. Sellers with ridiculously inflated asking prices is no rarity on eBay.

I think price guides are useful in their way, if just for checklists. But following auctions and sales is important too. There's no one source for information, and your observing the market is an important part.

When I used Beckett and SGC price guides years back, the prices were retail-- higher than the collector could possibly sell for. But when you learned to see them as 'high prices' or 'retail prices,' they were useful. It was information that, if correctly understood, was useful.