Returning collector and new member -- Where to buy reasonable vintage??

[ASF123]

Thanks to all of you for the advice! I like the idea of developing a focused target list...it will be really hard to narrow it down that much though. The few purchases I have made have been of the “Tobacco card with decent eye appeal for $25? Sure, ok” variety. I don’t know enough yet about prewar cards to know which ones I would really want.

On the high end, mid-grade 51B and 52T Mays are definitely on there, but it seems like every listing for one of those is $2000 above the “most recent sale” for the same grade in the PSA database - from like two weeks ago.

I know that SGC and Beckett slabs are in less demand than PSA (the whole grading mafia thing seems pretty absurd to me, but I’m a realist, and the market is still buying PSA for whatever reason). How much is the general price difference between them?

Thanks again for the responses - I’m looking forward to getting to know people here and picking their brains.