As someone who once ran an auction house, I have opinions on this matter but choose to express them diplomatically. I do not participate in Goodwin's Auctions and have never placed a bid, so I am not going to pretend I know what's going on. And maybe it's nothing- but I do admit that some of the prices I see strain my imagination. I have often auctioned the same card in the same grade and see it go for double my price in a Goodwin Auction. Frankly, that's a head scratcher. Sure, there are some discrepancies in the marketplace, but they are usually isolated examples. I have seen prices consistently go 1.5-2 times higher than my own, and my experience is the same people bid in all the auctions. So I can't explain it.
I do agree with Leon that there may be an atmosphere of friends regularly bidding for other friends but I can't say for sure. For those who have said that their consignments didn't do well, well that's the free market at work. For those who got incredible prices for their cards, well above previous recorded prices, there has to be some explanation for it. I am suspicious by nature, so my take is I am concerned with many prices realized I see, and that goes for many of the auction houses out there. As far as exactly what goes on, I don't know and the auction houses don't tell me. But from where I'm sitting... I say hmmmmm.
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