[swarmee]

So are you guys on the side of outing the auctions to make it fair across the board going into auctionhouses and waiting for an auction, then stand up and scream "THIS CARD IS WORTH $8,000!!!!"? How long do you think the people bidding or even the auctionhouse would allow you to stay there? Counterpoint, after a card sells for way over the auction estimate or market value, do you also stand up and say "THE BUYER IS GETTING SCREWED!!! The sale should not go through!"

That's how I see outing auctions on this board. Even outing recently closed items, because there are plenty of immoral board members or lurkers who will read it, then immediately message the seller to cancel the auction and sell off-eBay themselves. It has happened NUMEROUS times in the few years I've been a member here.

And for you people claiming that everyone knows about every auction on eBay, you're woefully incorrect. People selling items on eBay often have no idea what their items are. If they did some research and put in appropriate keywords (their own due diligence), they would reap more from their listings.

Are only people who have half a million dollars to blow on a Honus Wagner T206 allowed or entitled to buy one? Part of collecting baseball cards is trying to be the one guy who gets the monster hit or finds the diamond in the rough. I know that I will likely never be able to afford one if I don't see it first, and priced in my zone. This board is interesting in that the millionaires are hob-nobbing with the hoi polloi. Just because it makes sense to you doesn't mean it makes sense to the rest of us.

I bought the Mantle/Bruton stamp from COMC for $100 and may now be worth $500 after grading. Do I need to seek out the original consignor and reimburse him his lost entitlement because he didn't have the foresight to grade the card himself? Or do I pat myself on the back for a job well done since I found the card sitting there for sale FOR YEARS and had the intelligence to spend my $10 to slab it?