Do auction houses buy cards outright?

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by mrreality68

how big a collection? why type of cards? perhaps that can help but I agree with others selling to an auction house is not the best return on investment

I agree that a seller would probably get more by putting cards in an auction, but if they need money faster then selling is probably the way to go.

[Snapolit1]

Originally Posted by jayshum

I agree that a seller would probably get more by putting cards in an auction, but if they need money faster then selling is probably the way to go.

Or a cash advance if really nice stuff.

[the-illini]

I had an auction house buy a lot of my stuff at the National last year and I was very happy with the prices paid.

[puckpaul]

Auctions can be a gamble, selling certain items outright makes some sense. It certainly might be better selling a Cobb or a set with a fairly known value to a dealer or auction house than being one of 8 cobbs in an auction and perhaps yours doesn’t sell well that night. I mean, lots of people sell in the BST area, why would that necessarily be better than what someone like clean sweep (just for example) might pay, or you might get in an auction? And I cant see any evidence of any items being favored in auctions or being able to tell that one item might be more important than another. (I do some poorly-written and ridiculously grandiose descriptions in some of the major auction houses though!). Auctions are actually better for rarer items where value is more unknown, the more generic graded stuff could just as easily be sold than auctioned. Good items also attract buyers to auctions, so an auction house that is a buyer might just want to buy (or basically guarantee you a price) something at a very strong price to have the item in their auctions.