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Posted By: davidcycleback

What are the rules of the game, and are both sides following the rules of the game-- those are two essential questions. If one side is following the rules of the game, and the other side is secretly breaking them for financial game, it's not a fair contest and the result is at the least unreliable. If a boxer taped his hands with plaster, most boxing enthusiasts would say the match result was invalid. If a poker player snuck in a sixth card, most would say his win should be voided. And if a seller is secretly placing shill bids against the stated rules, most would say the final price is invalid.

In any game, if one side follows the rules and the other breaks them for material effect, the final score is considered invalid. Most will say the game and score doesn't count, the game is null and void.

If you force one side in a game, any game, to follow the rules and allow the other side to break any rule he wants, you'd be a fool to consider the final score seriously. 9+ times out of 10 the latter person will win, because the game is fixed to his advantage.


It should also be noted that most people consider fair market value to be what they would get if they tried to sell it on the open market. Assuming these people are going to follow the laws of the land, a past sell price inflated by illegal activity would not be considered an indication of fair market value.

I would think that it would be obvious to most people that a sale price obtained by illegal means is neither valid nor, more important, a reliable indication of the fair market. Law abiding sellers shouldn't use that price as indication of what they'd get on the open market, because they will get substantially less. Sure, a seller might be able to get $50 for a 1987 Topp Chuck Crim by threatening to beat up the collector, but, for the dealers and collectors who don't threaten to beat up their customers, the market value is about two cents.

As is often said, a card is worth to you what you can sell it for. If a Barry Halper Auction or chat-board-theorized price is not what you can get for your card, it's not what your card is worth to you. $150, $76 and $2,750 are pretty numbers indeed, but if you can only get $48 the card is worth $48.

I feel that some of these "Market Value" prices theorized in this thread are not market prices, as no law abiding seller would obtain the prices. If no selling Net54 board member would receive at eBay auction or sale $3,000 for that card, the market value for the card is not $3,000. Realized, not theorized, prices feed the bull dog. Bull dogs don't eat woulda coulda shoulda.