Posted By:
Ed HansI agree with Barry's post above. In theory, If we assume the VCP is an accurate price guide (which I do not doubt), one should have little trouble fetching 60% of "book" for their cards regardless of the presence of a reserve, since the VCP is based primarily on auction results. Two caveats should be understood-1) No price guide can be completely up to date on all prices across the board. Markets fluctuate, sometimes dramatically (as we have seen this week), and prices realized last month, or even last week, may not be realized today for a variety of reasons. And 2) When selling the extremely high end material at auction, one needs to have two well-heeled collectors in competition for that material.
Basically, if the sales medium (auction, catalog, show etc) reaches a broad enough segment of the hobby, your cards should fetch "market price" regardless of what any price guide says.
As far as reserve auctions go, I tend to avoid them as most seem to be retail listings in disguise. When bidding in an auction (excepting those for extremely rare, one-of-a-kind items) the buyer is typically seeking to pay the lowest possible price. Ebay has become a haven for bottom fishers (myself included) just looking for bargains.
So how does one protect oneself from getting lowballed on their quality merchandise? 1) Don't sell when the market is depressed, and 2) make certain that you are reaching your target market segment.