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.