IMO, auction houses and their blind bidding structure create and the perdect environment for shillers and cheats who would bid up their own cards, or someone else's, for whatever reason.

I think ebay provides a safer system for bidding, albeit not ideal.

Total transparency is the only thing that I believe has any chance of legitimizing the realized prices that many pay for high profile items.

I've seen many times an item sell for X amount at an AH and then the same item nosedives on ebay. Why? Well because on ebay you've got a chance to research what happens during bidding. Most recently a member on CU was outed for shilling and item he consigned to an ebay seller, this would be impossible with the current structure of AHs.

Then you have the "no financial recourse" aspect of AHs ... which is a separate, but very significant, issue as well.

I hope we see some government regulation for these AHs as I fear they falsly inflate the prices of many high profile items, thereby hurting the legitimacy of our hobby.

As I've said before, and many have agrees, a little transparency goes a long way.