A downside from this type virtual sale, alluded to in a prior response, is that while presenting new items to the marketplace, a majority of items will sell privately "behind the scenes" so only the buyer & seller know the price. When it becomes a private sale, the marketplace has no feedback on price/value. If would be nice to get that feedback, but I doubt it will happen, since we are all a little hesitant to divulge private buy/sell prices... just part of this collecting community's mentality.
I think a good way to view this type of sale is to acknowledge it's basically a new twist on advertising. It presents a good array of new items coming to market, which benefits all of us. A few items will be purchased quickly by buyers looking for specific items who accept posted seller prices, but after the initial excitement wears off, most sales will be private. And that's fine, since Brian has been open about it, encouraging after-sale offers and communications. We won't get the "good deals" available in public auctions that perhaps some of us were expecting, but that's not what this type of sale is designed for. Brian's sale protects the sellers, which is needed to get them to place these better items for sale... and give us the opportunity to purchase them in a safe, honest, lower fees, straightforward manner. We all want "deals," but when it comes time for us to start moving our own collections, and it becomes a daunting task, it will be nice to have a site that can do it for us and protect our investments better than an auction. And for those looking for "deals" like I like to do, we still have all the weekly big and small [my favorite] auctions to pick from.
Shelby Gallien
