Posted By:
JudgeDredThe one nice benefit of bidding with a major auction house is that you are relatively certain that what you are getting is real and the reputable auction houses will do their best to due dilligence in the cases where there may be a "disagreement" between the buyer and the auction house.
Ebay is somewhat like the wild west of collectibles. The reputable sellers do well because they take care of business and people are comfortable bidding on legitimate items by these reputable sellers. They realize higher ending auction prices than other ebay sellers because they have proved time and again that they will "do the right thing."
If John (or Jane) Q. Nobody puts up a nice card for sale on ebay then there is apprehension to bidding and that person will not realize the highest possible ending bid. It's a hassle to try and get your money back from a seller when you get that T206 Wagner in the mail only to find out it's another reprint. You get the idea...
If someone from N54 puts an item up for grabs then they can let the other forum members know and that might add a little more legitimacy to the item up for auction and the realized price may be a bit higher than John (or Jane) Q. Nobody.
Ebay does offer up some pretty good bargains because sellers are virtual unknowns. It's hit and miss - do you really like hassling with unsavory people? Just recently I was lucky to get a refund on a reprint card from an ebayer. Actually, the story is long and somewhat funny, but it was a hassle.
In my opinion if an item sold for $10,000 and the buyers premium raised the final realized price to $11,500 then the card's value is $11,500 because the buyer should understand the bidding dynamics and the final realized price is just that - a FINAL REALIZED price.