What would a 1914 Baltimore Ruth sell for today?

[BobC]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

That's pretty optimistic...

I know, I know, LOL!

But with the internet, cell phones, social media, sites like Net54, and everything else, it would be much harder to hide and get away with crap like that without everyone finding out about it pretty quickly. And I think if enough people started hearing those kind of stories, including consignors, there'd be some questions to answer to a lot of people.

But you do have a good point in how it seems like no matter what bad things some people do, it ends up getting forgotten. But in this case, the "stuff trumps everything" thinking wouldn't necessarily work. Because all the people that want the stuff and would be bidding on things still aren't getting it because of some back door deals between the auctioneer/seller and their "Special Customer". That would eventually get out and then you'd end up having all the other hobby whales wanting to get in on the "special deals" themselves. Enough other people, not afforded the same sweetheart deal, with enough money and influence like that, could end up creating an interesting situation for the auctioneer/seller, and the hobby in general. And you know with things like they are today, this would leak out there pretty quickly for everyone to know. And since modern auctions are all pretty much run online over the internet with software and all, how many people do you think would continue bidding if they found out they won, and then kept getting cancelled for some special inside deal after the fact. And an auctioneer trying to run auctions in another manner not along the way modern things are done would raise some serious questions among bidders, and especially consignors, if they were both getting screwed. They system will still work if just one side is getting continually screwed, but not if both of them are getting screwed for the sole benefit of just the auctioneer and his "special friend".

What would most likely happen today is that someone that had such a "special deal" in the past, like it is alleged that Copeland may have had with Rosen, would be required to put in outrageous max bids as opposed to being able to put in a "Tops All Bids" bid. And we both know, if people knew or thought there was someone out there doing that, there are those that would then purposely run up the max bidder as high as they could. Just for fun! And then we'll see how far the auctioneer and his friend's friendship really goes should the "special friend" suddenly then decide to say, "I'm not paying that much for that!"