Posted By:
Jason LBarry,
you are correct. there just shouldn't be so much variability, regardless of the direction. Comments about trust, sellers' incentives, negative economic consequences, -I agree with parts of many previous posts above.
Buying remotely has really turned risky. The economic incentive to misrepresent the merchandise is skyrocketing with the prices, the chase for the cash makes people cut corners, and with the increasing comfort with online sales of all sorts, it is becoming far too commonplace for buyers to feel unfairly treated in a transaction. The cards are not graded in front of you, you make a decision from hundreds or thousands of miles away, and you need to be comfortable enough to send an increasingly larger amount of dough to get what you want...doesn't sound like much fun to me. -And yet I still play.
I'm sorry Barry, but I have no real answers. -except to maybe come up with a bidding formula to help you handicap the auctioneer's descriptions. For instance, place numeric values on each grade, then based upon the degree to which the auctioneer employs flowery language in the description, apply a premium or discount range to that item. If he is selling a T206 Cobb, raw but described as G-VG, but then uses more than 5 superfluous descriptors (words such as fabulous, superb, splendid, blazer, super-fantastic, and my favorite: exquisite), apply a 2 grade discount. If less than 5 such words are used, then apply a 1 grade discount...it's stupid, but at least it's a system...
We need more cards shows.