anyone notice that EBAY auctions are mostly BIN/BO???

[maxpower]

BINs/BOs don't reflect market value but rather reflect what a seller happens to think a card is worth at a given time - they make a seller the second highest bidder. Sellers simply aren't always going to be able to correctly guess what an entire bidding population would pay for a card, they'll mostly either come up too high or too low...particularly with regard to rare cards.

I simply do not understand the talk of BIN/BOs sales being 'distorted'. It's a willing buyer and a willing seller agreeing on a single price! What's distorted about that? The true distortion occurs in the auction format.

Yes, but once a BIN/BO is hit, then they do reflect market value. A market of one buyer is all the market you need. And it's not a guess... it's an asking price. And the seller isn't necessarily trying to peg the 'correct' price, but could simply be listing the minimum that seller would accept.

It doesn't matter what the entire bidding population would pay for a card. If a seller has one copy of a card, he's only interested in what he can sell it to for the highest bidder. Why should he care what the second highest bidder would pay?

Saying that the 'true' price of a card is determined by closed auctions only (no BINs) is like pricing a Rolex only by what the owner could get for it from a pawn shop. Yes, some Rolexes sell super cheap because the seller is desperate and time limited, but that doesn't mean that such sales reflect the entire market. If I need $ today and the pawn shop is the only buyer, then yes, the effective market price is whatever the pawn shop will pay for it. But if I can wait for 6 months, bring it around to a bunch of watch collectors, and negotiate a 'Best Offer' sale with one of them, then the effective market price is completely different. Both prices are valid, depending on what the circumstances are.

 

[uniquebaseballcards]

I'm not trying to offend by using this silly example: A hit $1 BIN of a '52 Mantle doesn't mean a '52 Mantle is worth $1, certainly the value of the Mantle is distorted in that transaction.

BINs/BOs don't reflect market value but rather reflect what a seller happens to think a card is worth at a given time - they make a seller the second highest bidder. Sellers simply aren't always going to be able to correctly guess what an entire bidding population would pay for a card, they'll mostly either come up too high or too low...particularly with regard to rare cards.

I simply do not understand the talk of BIN/BOs sales being 'distorted'. It's a willing buyer and a willing seller agreeing on a single price! What's distorted about that? The true distortion occurs in the auction format.

Yes, but once a BIN/BO is hit, then they do reflect market value. A market of one buyer is all the market you need. And it's not a guess... it's an asking price. And the seller isn't necessarily trying to peg the 'correct' price, but could simply be listing the minimum that seller would accept.

It doesn't matter what the entire bidding population would pay for a card. If a seller has one copy of a card, he's only interested in what he can sell it to for the highest bidder. Why should he care what the second highest bidder would pay?

Saying that the 'true' price of a card is determined by closed auctions only (no BINs) is like pricing a Rolex only by what the owner could get for it from a pawn shop. Yes, some Rolexes sell super cheap because the seller is desperate and time limited, but that doesn't mean that such sales reflect the entire market. If I need $ today and the pawn shop is the only buyer, then yes, the effective market price is whatever the pawn shop will pay for it. But if I can wait for 6 months, bring it around to a bunch of watch collectors, and negotiate a 'Best Offer' sale with one of them, then the effective market price is completely different. Both prices are valid, depending on what the circumstances are.