What would a 1914 Baltimore Ruth sell for today?

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

As an auctioneer I think "top all bids" is an horrific idea. For the reasons you mentioned, but also for the simple fact that an auction is supposed to be about determining the market through open competition. It's the same reason I'm not a fan of reserves, or even worse of auctions retaining the right to put "bad faith" bids in to lift items to just below a reserve and a number of other practices that seek to remove all risk from the auction process. If you want to remove the risk of an auction and have only the reward, you don't really want to run an auction.

Hell, Scott, no one who owns a card wants to run it in an auction; we'd all prefer a sure thing. Auctions just happen to generate sales more readily than parking the items in an eBay 'museum', but make no mistake: when I consign, I don't give a rat's ass about the 'market'. I ain't selling to determine a market, I am selling to make money, as much as I can. If my choice is between a 'market' price or getting paid stupid money by some idiot who has to have the item no matter what, I am all for the latter option.