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Posted By: Joann

John,

I don't think it's quite like the cash drawer because in these cases the seller (leaver-outer of the cash, in your analogy) is willingly participating in the disappearance and believes he is acting in his own best interest. Not sure where the line should go, but I don't think I'd draw it there.

I also really hate that the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality is emerging, but I don't know what else to do or what people should do. If only 20% of all collectors are willing to approach sellers offline no matter what (meaning they are not just piling on because they have to), should those 20% be the only ones to get all cards of sellers willing to shut down auctions? I don't know if it's fair for the 80% to miss out almost by definition.

If I could have the world any way I wanted it, there would be a way to shut down the core minority (the mythical 20% above) from making the offline buys. If that happened, then I think a lot of people would stop on their own, preferring to let auctions run to the end. I just don't know how that would be done.

So I am glad Paul got this card - definitely. But I wish that the environment were such that he could have confidently and comfortably let the auction run, knowing he could have counted on having a shot. Who knows - maybe he would have gotten it for even less money.

Joann