[glynparson]

world if you honestly think every person in the market for a card sees it every time it is up for sale. It does not happen. I have many times bought cards from major auctions and sold them before i even received them. This idea that every collector in the country is aware of or remembers to bid in every auction is just unrealistic. As for your house argument not every house is maximized for profit either. That is why some people can buy and flip houses even without remodeling sometimes, just better or proper marketing (FSBO sales almost always lower than brokered sales). No market realizes maximum value every time an item is auctioned. It is just simple common sense. So you are telling me a brown old mill is only a $20 or so card because that was the auction result? Please, come on you can not truly believe this. I agree a card that sells every week in auction for relatively the same amount can be claimed to be market, but not things that not everyone sees or knows is listed. Many Topps test issues for example sell fairly reasonable when auctioned on ebay but sell for a lot more when sold straight retail because many people don't constantly search for them. The comics and pin ups from 1973 are just two major examples of this. I know PSA 8 Maris rookies also used to always sell fairly quickly for around 20-30% more than Ebay results (have not watched recently so don't know current trend on this card). Nothing that man controls is absolute or perfect in this world , and we control auction results. An example from another field I recently bought a JSA certified Andy Kauffman autograph for $40 from an auction advertised on this website, last ebay sale was 10-12x that so is the market really only $40 now because this item slipped through the cracks?