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I feel the same.  But this is why it is important for members here to update prices when they feel they aren't reflective of what they are seeing.  A card might sell on sportslot for 18 cents but that same card might be in the dollar bin at most card shows or sell on ebay for a buck.  Enter the prices and the last five sales will balance out to be an accurate average.
And using more sources of sales will give more accurate pricing.  People complain ebay is high or whatever the complaint but fact is, people on these sites are actually paying that.  Those sales are true prices.  If a card sells for .18 cents on sports lots, $1 on ebay, and $1 at a card show, then $1 is more accurate a true price even if long time collectors see it as a "junk" card.  Things are worth what people are willing to pay.

Please note this section "be all end all and reflective of reality". Withthat said, yes, the goal is making pricing as accurate as possible. Those that have been around for awahile have seen the complete mess that was made of pricing here as people entered whatever they felt was good and threw things out of whack. Never mind those weird eBay sales of 91T where cards were going for $10+, but go to SportLots and there they were for .18. As mentioned, a good deal of the membership here knows what the true value of items are, values not infected by pandemic pricing and other factors. And yes, steps have been taken to make pricing better on here.

What I was refering to is geared towards those members you think that pricing in here is the gold standard. It isn't. Getting better, but not authoritive. Heck, no place is. Wait and see what happens when the bubble bursts again.

Drudpwn99 wrote:

Isn't the goal supposed to be that the price on this site can be relied on to some degree? And all of the data from Sportslots may be bringing things down, but wouldnt that also make it a more accurate price to use?

jimetal7212 wrote:

And as a friendly reminder, take the values here as a grain of salt. If you are taking pricing here as the be all end all and reflective of reality then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.

Why is $1 more accurate if it is the same card?  Two sold for a buck and one sold a lot cheaper.  To me that means that I should look for more options to find the card closer to the .18 cent mark. As you say things are worth what people are willing to pay.  I'm much more willing to pay 20% of what other sellers want if I can find that card in the same condition.  You also don't mention the card might sell at a card show for a buck but how many of that card are selling there, maybe 2.  Same with Ebay.  The .18 cent cards might have 20 sellers, so is $1 still the true price?

What I do agree with you on is that members should still be inputting sale prices from other sources on the site.  I don't think Ebay is high, but I'm more hesitant to buy a single card on there when I can get it for a reduced price elsewhere.  Usually when I buy cards on Ebay (and its been a while), its either in lots, or sets, bringing the price per card down.

card prices will continue to fall as I was looking and the card prices that are being ported over are the ones that are card 13 in a set. So it is gonna keep falling for a few months.

but again your prices can also come up because I know for me I have 10k+ cards that didn't have a price submitted

Amen! Cards that ballooned out of my price range for the last 2 years are starting to come back to earth. As a collector, I couldn't be happier. I cannot wait for hundereds of thousands of graded modern card to bottom out and start selling for pennies on the dollar. =) 

I think the comment about graded cards is going to prove quite pertinent.

I have always looked sideways at grading as it seems to me to just be creating fake rarity.

You will see modern cards graded say a 9 go for well above a raw card but generally there will be thousands of the same card out there in the same condition, simply ungraded.

I have always felt the fascination must end at some stage.  

Grading has been around for almost 30 years at this point, it's not going to go away.

The TCDB prices of most of the cards I looked at on this site since I joined in last winter were over the market value, often substantially over. There were several times I didn't even send a trade proposal because the TCDB values were so out of whack, I knew the trade wouldn't be accepted (even though the market values were even). It is hard to trade a $5 card for a $5 card when the database is telling you your card is worth $15. Even if you know you'd only get $5 at auction, you may get $15 in trade from someone who relies on the TCDB pricing. There have been several times that I've been surprised by a TCDB value when checking it against eBay, then just bought the card off eBay instead of trying for a trade and navigating TCDB value arguments and negotiations. All that is to say, generally speaking, TCDB values coming down is a good thing. Perhaps they'll be useful. This sportslots deal sounds like a good thing. It is the first I've heard of it (haven't been trading over the last two months). Thanks for giving it a try (whoever is behind it).

I'm not saying grading is going away.

I am saying for modern cards the fad of paying in the vicinity of 50x the market value of a raw card for a card graded a 9 — when there are literally thousands of that card in the same condition just ungraded — is something I do not think will last.

For instance how many people are out there now with graded Zion Williamson Hoops or Donruss RC that they likely paid a small fortune to get graded because at the time those cards were going for silly amounts, but will now never see a positive return on that investment.