Posted By:
peter chaoGuys,
The Chinese have a custom, where it doesn't matter how much money you have or how old you are. After the dinner party is over on a Friday or Saturday night, you walk guests outside into the cold night and wait for your friends to get into their cars and drive away.
It is a matter of curtesy and friendship and goes beyond the competitive nature of life.
It's a custom being repeated here in the Bay Area among the rich Chinese in Hillsborough, Woodside, Monte Sereno etc. It is simply a way of making the guest feel at home.
It's the same with card collectors. The best example is when we were young we would trade cards with each other. There were no price guides to insure the trade was fair, instead people just wanted to complete a series or they were interested in obtaining a card of their favorite player. It was that simple.
Once in a while if you had a double of a favorite player, you would simply give that double to a friend. You didn't worry whether the card would one day be a hundred dollar card. It was just a matter of friendship. 
Let's face it most of us have a competitive side, otherwise we wouldn't be scanning our fancy $1000 cards onto this website. Also, when I'm out in left field with some of my ideas, you guys and gals are smart enough to reprimand me. It's friendly competition. At one time or another each of us were probably the smartest in their class. Unfortunately for me, that was back in second grade.
In the hobby for a moment in time we don't have to focus on the competition. Chinese have another custom. Friends and family would go to a fancy restaurant and spend a $1,000 on a fancy meal. Then people would try to sneak out to the cashier to pick up the check. Everybody wanted to pick up the check for their friends.
At auctions we have to go beyond the competition and remember that the most important part of it is the friends and the cards are truly secondary.
Happy Mother's Day.
Peter