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Posted By: barrysloate

We've had variations of this discussion before and my feeling is that each situation of its kind has to be evaluated individually. If you make a score like that in an estate sale, I think it's okay because the people running the sale are professionals and it is their responsibility to know their business. On the other hand, if a little old lady answers your classified ad and says she found some old cards in her attic but has no idea how much they are worth, the onus falls on you to give her fair advice. This is always a tough situation to be in but what if the estate sale was auctioning the contents of the house and in it was some esoteric baseball photo from the 1860's that you knew was worth at least 10K but you won it for a price of say $500. Are you obligated to offer more for it voluntarily? Of course not, and that's why I think if the people running the estate sale don't know the value of old baseball cards it is their obligation to do a little research. That's what families pay them fees and commissions for.