I was told years ago by a fairly high-rolling Heritage consignor (not of sportscards) friend of mine that Heritage would guarantee him a minimum credit - not cash - for his consigned item(s). I understood this to mean that my friend could tender an item with a potential retail value of, say, $20K, and Heritage would guarantee him maybe a $12K credit against that item to spend on other items in the same auction.

My friend claimed to do this often. He would take the credit, buy something from a 2nd consignor, and (in this example) if his item sold for more than $12K, his purchase and sale would be netted; if, however, his item didn't receive an outside bid of over $12K, Heritage would take the item and pay the the 2nd consignor for the item my friend bought.

My understanding is that Heritage would, in this example, report two $12K sales - even though no one wrote any checks except Heritage.

Besides my distaste for this practice, I also don't bid with Heritage because in 2 of 3 auctions I've participated in, I thought I'd won when I really didn't. I once "won" a Heritage auction through eBay, and was listed there as the winner but was told later (only because I asked) that I was beaten by a floor bidder. I also "won" on their web site - I was listed as a winner the following morning - but was told later that they had "overlooked" a floor bid that was better than mine, and they showed me language in their rules that allowed them to correct such a mistake.

So, for me, never again.