I think it's all about managing one's expectations of ebay and also parsing out the known, safe sellers. I would only buy a high end card in any major TPG holder on ebay from a known, reputable seller with a return policy. Sellers with rock solid feedback profiles containing high dollar cards stand to care more about their reputations over the long haul than one staccato score. Thus I tend to separate the tonyetrades, and would buy high-end from such a seller on ebay with no hesitation. Ebay has its Canal Street hustlers and its Madison Ave shops, and it definitely helps to parse the two when browsing ebay for high dollar cards. I have never bought a bad slab from a top notch seller and if one slipped by the goalie, so to speak, they'd make good immediately, so for me the salient aspect is point of sale. Being very picky about where to buy high-end is a great way to avoid getting scammed; in this way some of the onus (or is it Honus
) is on the shopper/collector.