David-
You're missing my point about why my wife prefers to shop there and why I believe that is best for her. eBay is not customer service-oriented and it is not a fair market place for the inexperienced. Sure, most dealers are 100% honest, fair, and service-oriented. But there are far too many unknowns and uncertainties for novices and non-collectors to attempt to wade into that market if all they want to do is buy (me) vintage baseball cards for Christmas.
We see multiple posts daily here about rip-offs and fakes on eBay. My wife and many other people who have neither the time nor experience to understand the market cannot use it with any semblance of confidence.
Certainly you could get better deals by scouring eBay or other auctions, waiting for the right deal to come along, and strategically bidding at the right moment. Many people do not have that ability. They want to buy something immediately with confidence it is authentic and assurance it will arrive in a timely fashion.
Your comparison of buying a Toyota from one dealer or another is flawed. To us it makes sense but to someone who is unfamiliar with eBay the comparison would be more like answering an ad in the back of the newspaper with no name of the seller who may or may not even own the car he is selling vs. buying from Carmax. You would expect to pay a lot less buying that car from the ad in the newspaper knowing you are taking some risk that a) the car may be in worse shape than advertised, b) it may have been in an accident, c) it may be stolen, d) it may be fake, or e) the guy might not even show up when he says he will to meet you in a back alley to sell you the car. I would be willing to pay more to go to Carmax for no hassle.
I like eBay. I do not want my wife buying cards off of eBay though because it is fraught with danger. Dean's Cards does not deserve the criticism...if buyers want to pay for the piece of mind that their store brings than that is the buyer's choice. The problem is the countless fraudulent dealers on eBay.
Andy
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