Guides have their place for comps, but limited in value
I only use VCP to see the distribution of past prices. If I really want a rare card I might pay much more. We need some way to quickly check the comps, even though for pre 1900 comps might be difficult given the poses, variations of many cards. PSA is not good at pricing pre 1900 and they basically just list past sales in addition to their rather static price lists.
For example, I have the only Old Judge PSA 7 Connie Mack. Somehow PSA decided to reduce the value a few years ago from 10k to 9k. Based on what I do not know. Their price for the anson in uniform is way below what it would sell for. Useless for most high grade pre 1900 cards.
Guides that tell you what things sold for like VCP are very useful, especially when several have sold recently.
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