Yeah, Probstein is clean as a whistle. Here's a Christy Mathewson signed ball which ended on ebay just a couple days ago:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=370937104344
The ball sold for $8990, solely because the underbidder put in a bid at about $1600 above the third bidder for the ball, three days before the ebay auction ended -- and the underbidder just happens to bid in Probstein's auctions
94% of the time. Curiously, the underbidder's bid of $8890 is almost identical to what the ball sold for in the 2013 REA auction ($8887):
http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/...85.html#photos
My guess is that either the underbidder/shill bidder won the ball in the REA auction and didn't want to lose any money on the ebay sale which is why his placeholder bid was identical to the REA price -- or that Rick Probstein himself won the ball in REA and sold it in his own auction above, shilling his own ball.
I'll email Rick now and ask him if this ball was indeed his.