Posted By:
Bruce BabcockI've seen the same practice at shows as well. The cards are on display with huge prices and at the end of the show they are packed up and taken home.
I think the catagories of "dealer inventory" and "auction items" have merged over time. Auctions items formerly were rare and unusually desirable items for which a "retail" price was difficult to determine. A T206 Cobb in vg/ex did not fit this description. Now everything is an auction item. Ebay and the internet have certainly changed the equation.
Still, for the situation that Barry describes, why not place a high reserve and start the auction with a low minimum and see what happens?