I sympathize with Bill here. First the use of SMR for pricing is crazy. I think almost everyone agrees that SMR pricing is way off, and VCP is much better. So to say that Bill got a great deal off SMR is like all of those ebay sellers with high BINs at SMR thinking that they will sell for that amount. The other part is REA should have checked the lots and the items in the lots. Isn't that what the buyer's premium is for, besides printing that nice catalog? This lot sold for a lot of money. No reason why REA couldn't check the lot before shipping. I mean I recently sold an 80 card lot of 33 goudey's in poor condition on ebay that sold for $100. I checked each card in the lot when I listed it, and before I shipped it to the buyer to make sure it matched. REA made huge $$$ here, and they should have checked to make sure that it matched the auction description. I bought a partial Goudey set from REA in this last auction, and other than the big name cards (Ruth/Gehrig), I never even bothered to check the rest even though I spent a mere 9K on it. I figured REA had the quality control to to do that. So now I'll have to start checking in the future. In the end, I think REA tried to make it right even though Bill had to jump through hoops, and in the end, I think REA is probably still one of the better auction houses.
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