[M's_Fan]

My thoughts on recent spike in card prices:

• The economy is slowly emerging from its funk, and although its really tough for those without jobs, people with savings are beginning to feel okay about spending their money again.
• Spring is in the air, baseball season is beginning, and people start to reawaken their collecting pursuits
• The stock market has had a huge run in the past year, and I think a lot of folks (including myself) are wary of putting money into a market that doesn't seem like it can go much further
• More and more baby boomers retiring every day; with disposable time and income
• I think the "buy it now" push by eBay, as mentioned by another poster, has definitely increased demand for the few remaining true auctions. I think this is a big factor. As long as people don't buy overpriced BIN listings, these BIN listings will fade away or lower in price to meet the going rate for cards. But it seems that enough people are biting on BIN listings that dealers find them profitable, so I don't see that happening.