Auction Houses and blind bidding

[Bored5000]

Originally Posted by bubblebathgirl

AHs have blind bidding with NO buyer protection. You can get bid up and you'd have no idea ... you can have an item delivered not as described (or not at all) and you have no recourse. Whereas on ebay you have buyer (and seller) protection.

I am not trying to be argumentative, because it is apparent our basic opinions are very different. But an auction house that doesn't deliver cards people have paid for or consistently misrepresents what people are buying (i.e. shipping reprints depicted as real cards or consistently selling phony items like a Coaches Corner) will either go out of business like Mastro did or get a reputation as a place to avoid.

You keep talking in absolutes that the reason the cards you have cited sold for more at auction houses than eBay is because of shilling at the auction houses. I don't know the right answer -- and no one does -- but it seems just as viable to me that auction house prices are higher because each product is put in front of a greater number of potential buyers and a lot of people just don't want to deal with the scammers and rip off artists that so heavily populate eBay.

[murcerfan]

Then again you might consider that anyone paying a premium for PSA 9 and PSA 10 Topps cards has more money than sense. Bar graphs, sales history diagrams and conspiracy theories aside, you buy a bubble and ...well, sometimes they go poof. Ask the Dutch about tulips. I also think some in the hobby now don't recognize the difference between reputible auction houses and e-bay.

[CW]

Originally Posted by Bored5000

I am not trying to be argumentative, because it is apparent our basic opinions are very different. But an auction house that doesn't deliver cards people have paid for or consistently misrepresents what people are buying (i.e. shipping reprints depicted as real cards or consistently selling phony items like a Coaches Corner) will either go out of business like Mastro did or get a reputation as a place to avoid.

You keep talking in absolutes that the reason the cards you have cited sold for more at auction houses than eBay is because of shilling at the auction houses. I don't know the right answer -- and no one does -- but it seems just as viable to me that auction house prices are higher because each product is put in front of a greater number of potential buyers and a lot of people just don't want to deal with the scammers and rip off artists that so heavily populate eBay.

I would also add that an auction house auction may also get more bids over an eBay auction due to the format. In an auction house auction, the bidders have the ability to outbid each other during extended bidding. Often times, this creates a more competitive atmosphere in which bidders attempt to outbid the next guy to win the card. Nobody wants to be outbid, and extended bidding allows for a wallet measuring contest. On eBay, it ends at a certain time and that's it.

Also, while it may be easier to transparently shill an auction house auction, it's also more risky. In an auction house auction, you cannot retract a bid, and once you bid you must pay (no simply backing out like on eBay, and no bidding an auction up only to retract your bid like on eBay). A winning shill bid in an auction house auction also has to pay BP, so it's more risk in that sense also.