[raulus]

Circling back to something in this complaint that I'm still not sure that I follow. In terms of the damages side, the notion that the entire market was inflated based on an army of shills has always been an argument that I've struggled to really get behind. I understand the concept behind the market being inflated. I just don't understand why there would be damages.

It's not like someone forced you to buy these cards, or that you were somehow under any obligation to buy them at the offered price. You chose to buy them, and you chose to buy them at a specific price. Whether that price was X or 2X or 10X is kinda your decision to make. Each of us makes a bucketload of decisions at every auction or show to decide when we're ready to tap out, and let something go to someone who's willing to bid more irresponsibly than we are.

Setting aside the shilling aspect, which I agree is wrong for any auctions or items that were indeed shilled, the fact that someone chose to keep bidding until they won, and their level of bidding was based on what they thought the item was worth, which may also in part have been based on what others were paying, the whole thing just seems very contrived to me to suggest that you were harmed by your own decision to keep bidding.

Maybe just to emphasize again, I completely get the idea that shilling destroys the integrity of the auction process, and should never be allowed. But that's a different issue than your experience suffering damages, unless an auction item that you bought was specifically shilled, and therefore the price for that specific item was artificially inflated.

Setting aside the specific shilling issue, either you choose to buy the stuff at the going rate, or you sit it out until you're ready to buy, or you wait patiently (perhaps indefinitely) until the prices come to you. Complaining that you got ripped off seems really bizarre after you made your own independent decision to buy.

And if I'm being honest, it seems a little bit self-indulgent to suggest that you have a right to buy cardboard at a price that you like better than the actual price that you paid.