Becket (through Becket Price guide) told us what the market price was back then, only that it wasn't. We had no idea how many cards were being produced (it was

Becket (through Becket Price guide) told us what the market price was back then, only that it wasn't. We had no idea how many cards were being produced (it was A LOT) and we didn't even know that print run was an issue. Today, card prices is all market driven (there are some bidding shenanigan's that happen though). Today, people mostly buy graded cards, which have pop reports through the grading agency. There are also many good ways to know how many cards in a Print Run. Scotty B's cards on youtube goes over these in detail. Since there are serial numbered cards that have pack odds, you can reverse engineer the print run. That being said, its not a wise idea to buy base cards anymore. What you really want is licensed serial numbered cards, preferably rookies with on card autos of the base card. Of course this is sport specific, such as in hockey the young guns cards are most important. I have made about 40,000$ this year in revenue selling cards (revenue, not earnings - doesn't include cost).