Auction Houses and blind bidding

Originally Posted by drc

One thing would be to require the auction house to keep their bidding records, so they can be subpoenaed in case of lawsuit or the feds.

Definitely.

Originally Posted by Mrvintage

I am still trying to figure out why this issue is so important to Paul? There are probably only a couple of cards from the 78 and 79 topps baseball sets that are even worth sending to an AH and those are the only cards he collects anyways. I just don't get it......

It's like if you see someone standing near you is gonna get hit by a car ... you pull them out of the way.

I see a lot of people in this hobby who have set themselves up to get run over by fake prices at AHs because they simply don't see it. Artificially bloated prices threaten any industry, just look what happened with the real estate market. There are people that cheat out there who undermine the legitimacy of this hobby. When the bubble bursts it's gonna be messy.

This threatens everyone who enjoys collecting these pieces of cardboard.

The solution is the same thing that has worked in many other industries, transparency and regulation. People need rules, and people need to be able to see what's going on so they can police things themselves.

[whitehse]

Seriously....dont you think ANYONE who bids in an auction, regardless if it is an auction house or Ebay, know the risks? You would have to be a dolt not to see the risks in bidding in auctions and do not need someone to champion the cause. The good houses will have an excellent reputation and will continue to be profitable and the bad ones will fade away and have the government nipping at their heals. This hobby has seen this time and time again and yet you fail to see this and try to be that champion for this cause. All one has to do is look through back issues of SCD and other hobby publications to see how many auction houses have gone dark and see who the survivors are.

I think this is a cause that has you barking up trees that contain nothing to chase. Maybe it really is time to move on to something else and you can quit pulling people out from the front of those cars as maybe that person doesnt mind being hit now and then.