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LetsGoBucsI'll put the scenario in card terms, then. If you were selling a PSA 1 T206 Plank on eBay at, say, $20,000 OBO, and somebody made an offer of $1000, wouldn't YOU be offended?
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Well actually no. Why would I be offended? I don't see the OBO as being an auction either, but if I had the card and had chosen to do that I might simply decline the offer of 1000 if I thought I would get another offer that was much higher. But I view that as basically a retail sale.
If the card is put up at auction and the winning bid is $1000 then that is the value of the card. Now if there is another auction that gets 20K for the same card then I would question the choice of marketplace as being very limited. But if you truly own an item that is likely to fetch $20K then I would assume you would place it in an auction marketplace that has access to that type of buyer. But even in that environment, a card that previously sold for 20K may sell for 7K. If there are three people that are willing to pay more than 6K for that card and two of them have already acquired it (lets say both for 20K), when the third card comes up the highest price left on the demand curve is 6K and thats what the card is hypothetically worth. If the fourth person values the card at 4K then its likely to sell one bid above 4K. And I don't view anything wrong with that sale at all, from either the buyer or seller perspective. Sure the seller would wish they had sold their card earlier but thats the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. I think with cards an assumption is made that the highest price paid is then the value - that is simply economically wrong.
I view all collectables as merely having intrinsic value - unto themselves pieces of cardboard have little value. And while today that Plank might fetch 20K, in two years perhaps it fetches 5K or 3K? And perhaps it fetches 100k. Simply depends on supply and demand and people's intrinsic value of the card. I always smile when I hear dealers at shows saying "that card is worth XYZ" while they read from a price guide - its worth whatever it sells for.
However, since I collect for enjoyment purposes all the economic stuff is irrelevant. Reserve auctions waste my time (and offend my economic sensabilities) so I avoid them 