Quote Originally Posted by ChrisCavalier View Post
Very interesting thread. I will add a couple of my observations to the mix:

1) Regarding eBay, for the reasons suggested here, it appears almost all of the quality sports memorabilia items are now offered via BINs.
Unfortunately, almost all of the offered prices are so unreasonable that it discourages me from even looking.
I mean, when someone lists an item for five times retail, why would I want to spend time making an offer when it is telling me the seller probably has no intention of selling it at a price that would seem reasonable.

However, I often wonder how many auction venues do use hidden reserves and whether or not those reserves are revealed when items do not sell.
This is especially true when I look at eBay data online for items that 'sold' via the BIN option.
Please note I am not judging anyone in this regard. I just wonder if the data that is available online is truly an accurate reflection of the market.
Chris-

Very interesting comments; I do think the high BIN's on eBay have discouraged any offers from most buyers. Even with a reasonable retail BIN, I think you have fewer people willing to even make an offer, similar to the issue of auctioning there with a reserve—buyers just assume they're not going to win the item and don't bid. BIN buyers just assume that whatever offer they make will get haggled/countered . . . The items that are 5x market value for me just add to the noise that needs to be waded thru to find good items at fair prices.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I think some are still out there, but not as many. So, obviously collectors are holding items more, etc.

I did notice in rereading that I used the last decade as the timespan I'm referencing. So, maybe in 2008 with the economy tanking, more good items were being made available for quick cash on eBay and now they're being held onto?

re; your market analysis. I found that interesting and agree, I don't think online auctions are a reliable source for this info. It is too easy for a couple auctions to skew the average value. An auction that goes unnoticed and sells cheap (as mentioned earlier), an impulse bidder who overpays, etc. Since every item is also one-of-a-kind, so many variables toward figuring it out. Does it basically come down to specific sports auctions and dealer sales (without being able to access private sales numbers of most transactions) for you?