Yes thank you. Between this and your other comment to me in this thread I think you've really gotten to the heart of it. I appreciate you putting into concise words what was rumbling around in my head when I first asked the question.
Would this not require quantifying real, objective truth? How does one compute truth without relying on human input? (Which instead trends towards truthiness/the "feeling" of whether something is true.)
I am not being dismissive, I genuinely would like to know.
Even "pretty bad" condition Beta is still worth a pretty penny. Lots of people just want to have complete sets, or play "1994" League which allows only cards from that era. There will definitely be a market if you do indeed have Beta :)
> Interestingly, unopened packs seem to fetch a fair amount, certainly more than their “expected value”
Yeah it's a phenomenon seen in a few different CCG markets actually. Roughly 2 years after a set's release the Sealed box price and the EV start to drift apart.
IMO you'd get a lot of mileage from the "Reserved List" or "Vintage Staples" but site is decent for a general price lookup as well.
Feel free to shoot follow-up questions. There are a few cards that went from trash to treasure since you've been out of the game. Lion's Eye Diamond probably the most extreme example, but basically anything on the Reserved List has gone insane in the past few years.