Solutions

[68Hawk]

feel free to add you own.


1st Problem: dishonest people + ebay (and or most commonly used auction house format) = dishonest activities taking advantage of an easily manipulated format.

Answer: there will always be dishonest people, an inalterable factor, so the solution is to change the format.
Bids should be silent/hidden, no current bid level shown throughout the period of auction, and at the end the high bid displayed and winner notified. That way, a shill can't run up the number because they don't know what it is, and every buyer will bid what they truly feel they can afford and that the item is worth. You can still make multiple bids as an individual, but no-one bar yourself and the auction house/ ebay will know. If you don't honor your winning bid, both companies should/would have to bar you from bidding in their auctions. A verified credit card (or paypal acct) must be registered to participate, and any bids lasting into the last 24 hours would be considered final and irrevocable, so if remaining the high bidder your acct would be debited for the winning bid/item.
Could shills still participate, encouraged by the seller, to cover his investment or attempt to push up the price? Sure.....sort of. But they would have far less efficacy, and really only work in the way a reserve currently does in the present system. For shilling to have it's ultimate result, the potential honest bidders need to see the price being pushed, ever so slightly out of their original intention and reach, and in a moment of rush/panic/need, they continue to bid past their preferred pricing. The silent/hidden auction system would kill this.

2nd Problem: "the greater issue is, how do we stop AH's from jacking up their scans?"

Answer: Every year a poll is held on a respected web site as to which is the best scanner/most popular with collectors.....
For the following year, all major auction houses agree to use the nominated highest vote getting scanner, set on default settings, for all scans used for auctions. Ebay sellers, especially high consignment sellers, would be highly likely to follow and use the same scanner to extoll their virtuous intentions , or at least feel compelled to list what scanner has been used and whether any color/contrast/clarity adjustments have been used that would not reflect the image of the card if held in hand.


I haven't suggested my solutions with any belief that they would be taken up, but simply as a way to have a go at the problems.

Daniel