Posted By:
warshawlawBob S: It's Warshaw...Adam Warshaw. OK, not as elegant as Bond...James Bond, but those who've met me know that I am getting a lot closer to being Bond-like with my name than I would with my mug (thankfully, my daughter looks like my wife except for coloring and eyes). 
And I wish I could do everything face to face. Reality just doesn't allow for it. I do attend as many shows as I can, and probably buy 50% (by value) of my cards in person, but in this day and age mail order via the net and auctioneers is inevitable if you want your collection to grow.
Ted, gotta chime in--no offense, but you aren't the most objective observer on the question of ebay costs versus auction costs--you've got skin in the game. Your comparison of the time and other costs of ebay to the time and other costs of consignment is comparing apples to oranges. Yes, Ebay takes some time and effort, but the cost difference is dramatic for run of the mill nice stuff. When I give away 35% or more of the item's value to the auction house (don't forget that I am eating the 17.5% commission plus the 17.5% buyer's vig that is paid for the card but that I will never see), I expect that the auctioneer will be able to achieve visibility with the kind of folks who don't spend their time scouring Ebay and/or who do not feel right spending big on cards through ebay. If that is not the case, I consider the 20%-25% extra I net from an ebay sale to be more than adequate compensation for time and effort spent on it. Now, if I am selling an E107 Wagner, I agree, a top auctioneer is worth going with. But, as the initial poster observed, decent stuff consigned with average auctioneers can slaughter the seller as compared to Ebay. I think the consignor of the lot in question would trade a half an hour of his time in a heartbeat for the hundreds of dollars that his auction left on the table.