[drc]

That's even another good point. When you see an auction price, you can't even be sure if the price was legitimate. Beyond shilling, you sometimes don't even know if the transaction went through. How can you use an price as an iron clad value, when you don't even know that price was ever paid?

Quite a few buyers have later deduced they were probably shilled when they try and resell the item and can't even get half.

For various reasons, I think going by a single sales prices is a dubious way to determine value. Obviously, savvy dealers buy things based on what they think they can sell it for later on. They are in the very business of knowing something's real financial worth is often different and changing from what the is the purchase price. The dealer didn't pay $500 because he thought it was worth $500. He paid $500 because he thought it was worth $800. He essentially bought it because he thought the $500 price tag was wrong.