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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Sadly Rob's point is the truth. You just don't know what the true value of a card is even after it's been 'sold' at an auction. So many sellers use hidden reserves via shill bidders. One card I looked at today in one of the auction house auctions going on, for example: I checked out VCP to see what the card in that grade was worth and lo and behold the very same card presently at auction was 'sold' in November of last year. The seller was a well-known dealer/card doctor who employs shill bidders and wouldn't you know it, the card received dozens of bids and the 'winner' just happened to have private feedback -- and has zero bids in the past 30 days. Clearly, the seller had an extra ebay ID laying around to 'buy' the card at his hidden reserve. Just a couple months later the card is about to be sold at another auction.

The long-winded point is that at least with BIN or best offers you know you're not getting screwed; problem is any offer one makes is often predicated upon a false, prior sales price for a similar card with the similar grade.