I mostly agree. One target buyer for the scarcest items will be somebody who already has most of the other scarce items. If they buy the set, they would hope to make back part of the price by selling off the ones they already had. If they're right about that strategy, it implies you were wrong.

Then again, the same buyer who already almost has everything might be willing to pay more the the scarcest items, with the same hope, than they would if the auction was for a single card.
It's hard figuring strategy for such a "life-changing" decision it would be to buy the whole shebang. I'm missing 7 cards from the set, and if I add up the "recent average" from the Price Guide, it adds up to $4,283.93 for those 7. Which is about what the last (numbered) Pear Tree Leaves auction closed at. ...