Posted By:
davidcyclebackUnrealized sales in a reputable auction aren't useless to a price guide, but few will take seriously a final bid one penny below the stated reserve.
Just one potential problem for eBay pricing as a price guide is you don't know which sales were finalized ($$ paid). A $5,000 winning bid has no meaning if the winner never paid ... I also hope that an economist doesn't calculate the value of a 1933 Goudey Babe Ruth by calculating the eBay sales of auctions titled "1933 Goudey Babe Ruth," as more than half of these are reprints and fakes! ... "After doing an exhaustive study of 7,544 sales on eBay and Yahoo! over the past 5 years, a Harvard mathamtician and his team have calculated that the market value of a T206 Honus Wagner is $37."