How do reserves work in the Legendary auction?

[Exhibitman]

Matt: Your initial post discussed the card as auctioned but then expanded the discussion to a generalized discussion by labeling the auction result as:

"what the current market will bear for the card - if two folks out there there were willing to pay any more, they would have bid higher."

and then concluding:

"Hence, we know the value of the card in the current market."

I took issue with the two quoted statements because they conflated two definitions of market--the initial part of the post used "market" as a shorthand for a particular exchange for buying and selling an item but then shifted (as quoted above) to using it as shorthand for the aggregate demand for a particular product or commodity. My point was that it is not accurate to label a single auction result as "the value of the card in the current market" because of the factors that make a specific auctioneer such an imperfect measure of a market. If you meant to limit your definition of "market" to "the most two people were going to pay at this time, at this auction house" I don't disagree with you. However, I don't think that limited definition of market can stand as a basis for making a broader conclusion about the overall market price of a card.