card sells in catalog auction...but still in dealer's showcase at shows

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Posted By: cmoking

I don't feel comfortable naming the auctioneer or the card. If I need to, go ahead and bust this post. I wanted to see how people feel about this. The card is a quality card, but post-WWII.

The card sold in a catalog auction, not ebay, but a "junior Mastronet". Other cards of this grade have been selling in the mid to high 3000 area. In the auction, their card went for low 2000s.

I went to a show recently....and saw that same card (the auction was at least a month before I saw it in a show) in the dealer's showcase. I didn't check the price, but it was clearly the same card. It had the same centering issues and the last three digits on the PSA cert number was the same.

It's possible the dealer/auctioneer got shafted with a non-paying bidder. So it's possible he's completely innocent (that's why I don't want to mention the dealer's name as I don't want to run his name through the mud). But is it more probably that he owned the card himself and bid on it himself? When no one topped him, he just kept the card and put it back into his inventory. If that is the case, then that is piss poor ethics IMO. What stops a guy who would do that bid on other cards just to try to run up the price. They don't lose anything if they win the auction (assuming it wasn't a consigned card).

Thoughts please.

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Posted By: T206Collector

That is standard auction practice. It may have been a hidden reserve. You'd have to read the fine print of the auction catalog to see if that is permissible. I don't know who you're talking about, what card or what catalog, but I would say it is highly unlikely that the dealer bid on his own card in his own catalog auction.

[edited out an unintended double negative.]

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Posted By: cmoking

I did not think of that possibility. That would make sense.

But...

When I go back to his website and check the card, it shows the status as "Sold" with a price on it. With other auctioneers, when a card doesn't sell, it shows up as $0 or "lot withdrawn" or something to indicate no sale. It's possible you are still right but he doesn't have the ability to adjust his software that way though. Thanks.

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Posted By: jay wolt

If you saw the dealer w/ the card at a show, why not ask him about it?
As stated above, it might not have met the reserve or the winning bidder never sent payment or possibly another reason. If games were being played at least he knows people do pay attention to the outcome of auctions...jay

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Posted By: cmoking

Jay, I probably should have asked him. My initial thoughts were negative, and I just walked off.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Inquiring minds want to know

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Posted By: Harry Wallace (HW)

Check and see if his prices realized shows the item as selling. If so, he has a lot of explaining to do.

If the item did not meet reserve, then there should not be a price listed next to the lot number. At least this is how I understood it.

Also, from what I understand, if the item only had a minimum bid in the auciton then it cannot have a reserve. The only way that an item can have a reserve is if there is a selling estimate, in which case the reserve cannot be higher than the low reserve.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

As to hidden reserves, stated reserves, minimum bids, seller participation, etc.

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Posted By: MW

Adam,

I'm guessing the state laws of Colorado would be applicable.