Does "Book Value" mean anything to you?

[JustinD]

I was just pondering this as I saw a bst listing using "book value".

It caused me to try to remember the last time I even gave a smallest thought to "bv" and I was guessing it was the late 90's honestly. With the advent of online histories, i have essentially completely ignored anything said about beckett or any other book source for decades.

As far as using it in reference toward things rarely sold, I am a firm believer that things are worth only what they bring that day, to that person. So I prefer auction formats, if it sold for 10k once but only 20 bucks the next time, then it's worth 20 bucks today. I don't care otherwise.

Any thoughts on this? Does someone out there still look at Beckett arrows and care?

[John1941]

BV means nothing to me for pricing cards, but it is useful for determining the relative values of cards in a set.

[forceplay sport]

I feel its still a useful tool.

[MVSNYC]

Haven't looked up "book value" on any cards in what seems like decades. To your point, it's all about current/recent sales (eBay, AH's, occasionally VCP, etc).

[Leon]

Book values are completely meaningless. They are laughable.


and a 1927 Ruth card with no book value.


.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

WHo cares about the value of books, this is a card site!

[CobbSpikedMe]

I'll still pick up a Beckett from time to time (usually the Vintage Collector one) for the articles and I'll scan the book values on cards I have to see how accurate they are against recent actual sales. But this is out of mere curiosity more than anything else. I don't take BV into account when buying/selling anything though.

Usually when I sell something (which is almost always a low grade card) I look for recent comps and then just decide what I'm willing to take to part with the card. If it sells, great, if not then I'll just hold onto it a bit longer.



.

[Exhibitman]

Online data has made 'book value' an obsolete term.

[todeen]

Book value means a lot to novice collectors. The more a person buys, and the longer they are around the hobby, people can kind of guesstimate on value, and then advance to online selling comps.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Maybe when I was 10

[carlsonjok]

I mainly use it as a guide for bidding on cards for set builds because looking for comps on a 598 individual cards in a set isn't a good use of time. So, I have Beckett high book on my want lists and I will normally bid up to 33% of BV for VGEX, 40% for EX, and 50% for NRMT. I don't normally pick up a large number of cards on Greg Morris set breaks, but my rule of thumb is enough that I still manage to make enough progress to stick with the rules.

[packs]

What book do you even use these days?

[butchie_t]

I have a lot of books and they all have book value. many are 1st editions.

As for cards, it is all on-line. I do buy beckett’s from time to time for research and as a guide. But it is all on-line and closer to being current than any magazine ever could.

[Yoda]

It should mean something to collectors who have realized gains or losses when tax time slithers around.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Yoda

It should mean something to collectors who have realized gains or losses when tax time slithers around.

Hey John
I think the only thing that matters when you sell, in so far as taxes are concerned, is what you bought it for and what you sold it for. I have been audited once and my few card sales that year made it through with flying colors. A 1099 that I never saw nor reported, didn't fly through.

.

[slightlyrounded]

Originally Posted by Leon

Hey John
I think the only thing that matters when you sell, in so far as taxes are concerned, is what you bought it for and what you sold it for. I have been audited once and my few card sales that year made it through with flying colors. A 1099 that I never saw nor reported, didn't fly through.

.

Book Value: the value of a security or asset as entered in a company's books.

There's two different meanings to riff off here....I think OP was using it in the context of "price guide value".

[Sean1125]

Originally Posted by John1941

BV means nothing to me for pricing cards, but it is useful for determining the relative values of cards in a set.

Bingo.

[RL]

book value means nothin to me.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by Leon

Hey John
I think the only thing that matters when you sell, in so far as taxes are concerned, is what you bought it for and what you sold it for. I have been audited once and my few card sales that year made it through with flying colors. A 1099 that I never saw nor reported, didn't fly through.

.

Blech, 1099.

I was audited 5 years later for a stupid 1099 I had completely forgotten about. The worst. Nothing like paying taxes and a penalty for absolutely no financial gain.

(I was on my deathbed and did not pay a credit card due to disability income. They added a s**t-ton of fees and interest to it and I settled for the original amount sans fees. The IRS calls this a 10K profit and nails me for the taxes and 5 years of interest. That law is direct from the depths of hades. Not that I hold a grudge, lol)

[Exhibitman]

Only two crimes have no statute of limitations: murder and tax fraud. Shows you where the real priorities are...

[Johnny630]

Usually dealers who sell hammered cards to really cheap people put it on their sticker so that they can show the cheap people wow you’re really getting a deal %6 of book.

Card is still beat but this is the big thing people always want to feel like they’re getting a deal whether they’re cheap or not.

[pcelli]

Book value is essentially a baseline number. It will mean little in the end , but its a number. We all carry different sets of numbers in our heads..
Its not totally meaningless. Look at it as a quaint old fashioned tradition if anything. It would be nice of PSA to upgrade those numbers to be more reflective of reality..

[cardsagain74]

Totally irrelevant, including for set pricing/value. It may be a lot easier to attempt valuing a set that way, but you're often going to get obsolete or simply inaccurate data.

However, it is useful for people who enjoy claiming the NM "book value" of the crumpled up card they've listed

[jingram058]

I guess when I'm not cutting up valuable cards, I am foolishly selling them to "dealers". When dealers purchase your cards, they give you a ridiculously low amount. The time I did it, I was on active duty in the Navy, stationed in Charleston. The family was in Coral Springs, Florida. I was driving home on weekends, 540 miles each way. Even as a Chief Petty Officer, the pay only went so far doing that. So, rather than take out a loan when the money finally got tight, I went to a card shop off of Atlantic Blvd in Coral Springs, I think in 1995 to sell some of my beloved cards to get some gas money, groceries and fast food. As I recall it now, I sold a 1958 Mantle, 1934 Gehrig, 1941 DiMaggio and Williams and several other supposedly valuable cards for $200, after he looked at them with his loupe. The "dealer" told me, "It's strictly business. I can't give you book value. $200, take it or leave it." I foolishly took it, because I was desparate. I'm certain he turned around and sold them for "book value". Sure, if I had the time, I probably could have sold them somehow for "book value". But I was in a jam, and did it. But I felt terrible afterward, and vowed, no matter what, I would never do that again.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by John1941

BV means nothing to me for pricing cards, but it is useful for determining the relative values of cards in a set.

+1

Use old SCD catalogs and you can get the idea of which cards in a set are going to be worth more than others, for example if shorted printed, a tough variation, or a rookie card.

Can also help in valuing cards between different sets. Say you're looking at a couple E102 and E103 Cobb cards. You quickly realize the Williams Caramel Cobb will likely cost you more when they are otherwise in the same condition.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Leon

Hey John
I think the only thing that matters when you sell, in so far as taxes are concerned, is what you bought it for and what you sold it for. I have been audited once and my few card sales that year made it through with flying colors. A 1099 that I never saw nor reported, didn't fly through.

.

The IRS eventually matches every single W-2, 1099, K-1, and all other information reports sent to them by third parties to every taxpayer's filed returns. Could take a year or two before they get it done, but if you missed something where you could end up owing them money..........you will eventually hear from them.

[BobC]

Yy

Originally Posted by JustinD

Blech, 1099.

I was audited 5 years later for a stupid 1099 I had completely forgotten about. The worst. Nothing like paying taxes and a penalty for absolutely no financial gain.

(I was on my deathbed and did not pay a credit card due to disability income. They added a s**t-ton of fees and interest to it and I settled for the original amount sans fees. The IRS calls this a 10K profit and nails me for the taxes and 5 years of interest. That law is direct from the depths of hades. Not that I hold a grudge, lol)

It's called debt forgiveness, and can be a real kick in the teeth for someone that couldn't afford to pay the debt to begin with. Special rules are involved, but basically if a bank, business or others had in effect loaned you money or let you buy and pay for something over time, and then later on let you off the hook and forgave you repaying the debt, the IRS can in some instances treat the amount of debt you had forgiven as additional ordinary income you could end up owing income tax on. Again, special rules apply to determine how much does get picked up as taxable income, and there are some exceptions to picking up any taxable income at all, like being bankrupt or insolvent at the time the debt is forgiven.

[bnorth]

Any more when I see BV I figure it is a scammer.

[jingram058]

Other than some of the people peddling cards via this forum, it appears virtually all card sellers are scammers. When I become inherently rich, as it appears so many in "the hobby" (read: club or clique, whatever) are, then I, too, will no longer care.

It's great that I have the old cards I have, because I won't be able to afford too many more of the ones I would truly like to have.

Book value? No longer relevant, really never was, so who cares...

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Only two crimes have no statute of limitations: murder and tax fraud. Shows you where the real priorities are...

Not necessarily true in regards to taxes. Civil tax fraud supposedly has no statute of limitations, but criminal tax fraud does still technically have a 6 year statute o f limitations

There is actually a 3 year statute of limitations for the IRS auditing and coming after your income taxes for any particular year that commences on the later of either the day your taxes were originally due (normally April 15th) or the day you actually filed them if filed after their original 4/15 due date. And that statute of limitations gets increased from 3 to 6 years for any return year where it turns out the taxpayer had underreported their taxable income by 25% or more.

Once your tax return has gone past the IRS' 3 or 6 year statute of limitations period for auditing it, you will likely never hear from them about that specific year again. That is unless you continue to commit whatever the civil tax fraud is in subsequent tax years and the IRS catches your civil fraud in one of those years still open for audit. Technically they can then decide to go back to the earlier tax years that are beyond the 3 - 6 statues for auditing a return and go after the civil tax fraud in those otherwise closed tax years as well.

Makes you kind of wonder why they even bother to have the 3 - 6 year statutes for auditing the returns to begin with. And I'm not even going to start on there being a separate 10 year statute of limitations to actually collect any taxes due the IRS from whatever civil fraud may have been commited. LOL