Auction houses do a lot more than you think, they authenticate the material, they market and advertise the memorabilia and you can also trust whom you are buying from. With eBay you roll the dice wth some of the sellers (not all obviously).
Auction houses also build relationships with consignor who have vast collections and can pick up large collections if necessary. They in turn create printed catalogs to market, describe and photograph material. When items are sold you know you are going to receive the item well packaged.
So there is a lot that they do do and even more than I have described here
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