[Frankish]

It's a shame that PWCC's own ebay auction business and other alleged behavior is conflated with the vault business. Personally, I think the vault was a great idea. The prices were (for me) reasonable and made holding mid and high end graded cards I was interested in selling at some point easy. The fees to sell through them and the absolute lack of hassle involved was unparalleled. If someone offered that service independently, I would be all over it.

Even the PWCC additional ratings for eye appeal and whatnot were, I think, a good innovation. And, if I'm honest, I tend to agree that most of their indicated cards were in fact very nice for the grade (if not under graded). That only speaks to false positives though. I have no idea how many potentially under-graded cards they passed over.

Anyway, I can't speak to or defend their own auction behavior or potential sales tax issues (it's not something I was ever involved with nor am I an expert in those areas by any stretch). But I do think the vault and the way it operated with ebay was a terrific idea, well-implemented and a good value for customers like me. It's a shame to lose that.