[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Rhotchkiss

Regarding the Mantle, I am confident the 3rd sale (the second PWCC auction) was a real sale/transaction. Why do I say that? Because the card next popped up in Goldin, an unaffiliated competitor of PWCC. The fact that it was bought from PWCC and consigned to Goldin indicates it was the type of collector who is attracted to those venues - likely new-to-the hobby money who is chasing the trends. But I think that’s a real sale.

I highly doubt the first PWCC BIN vault sale was real. Why? First, why did it pop up in a PWCC auction mere months later?, (2) We know PWCC started defaulting on loans, bc of loans made, and had to sell collateral - this was a big time card and the more it really sells for the more they get (obviously), and (3) PWCC did A LOT of sketchy and unethical things on the way up; they would not turn ethical on the way down as the sky was falling.

I think the first “sale” was a fake intended to establish a comp. We know this happens and a struggling PWCC…. Well, enough said.

The second sale may also be a fake. I like that it’s an auction, so people bid on it. But if the hammer price was not high enough, PWCC certainly could have won its own card; there is no downside since they owe nobody money, they own the AH so no BP, and pay no taxes or shipping. Also, it shows up next in another PWCC auction (3rd sale) a few months later. Sure, it could be a bona fide consignment, but it just stinks like fish. Instead, I think it’s more likely that by the 3rd sale, perhaps things at PWCC are worse and they really had to let the card go at whatever price to pay creditors.

So, I am saying- the first sale is fake, the second sale was pwcc buying its own card to protect from what was considered a bad price - so another fake sale (sort of). The third sale is real. The fourth sale is real, but not sure why the dude sold it - either the seller was in real bad shape too or he though he stole it from pwcc (based on the prior two comps) and thought he would do real well selling it Goldin.

This reads as a somewhat creative take to me. Accusing PWCC of being the owners themselves and creating their own fake sale to manipulate the market is a claim I would never entertain without evidence. It's just too far fetched. Especially when the data points already perfectly align with the plot I posted above of where the market was at that time. The sale date was literally right at the exact peak of that plot. Conspiracy theories are not needed to explain the outlier in this situation. The market itself perfectly explains the sale amount in this case.