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Marc S.Hal has said that this is a million dollar set, and Greg has suggested a million and a half.
I would imagine that the buyer basically wanted to ensure that:
a) he was able to purchase the set complete and as a whole,
b) he wanted the set to be graded consistently by his favorite grader of choice (SGC)
c) he generally wanted the cards to have the best possible grades (obviously, we all want that - but his interest was definitely important in a $800k purchase).
Any seller and auction house definitely would want to get not only as much possible money for the set - but as much free publicity and promotion as possible along the way. Even SGC, too, would yield SIGNIFICANT brand equity by having such a large and influential run of cards auctioned off in a big auction.
I would imagine that in order to get Mastro to back off of the huge amount of exposure a 1914 CJ auction would yield, that a significant premium had to be paid. Also - remember that there could be an implicit threat that the buyer, if the first three conditions mentioned above were not met, would simply walk away from the deal, and not bid at all. This is a HUGE consideration when you're talking about a collector with a seven-figure collecting budget deciding to pass on a deal.
All things being said - I think that this set, if auctioned, would have sold for a discount (exceeding six figures) as compared to what the buyer offered, and the set ultimately sold for.
~ms