Are Private Sales good for the Marketplace or the Collecting Community?

[Wreck-It Ralph]

Are Private Sales good for the Marketplace or the Collecting Community?

 

[lejackal]

Between friends they're excellent.

 

[Mr-shifter]

Not sure I understand the question really. They are not good or bad. They are just a different way of selling.

All I will say is that some of the private deals I have had have led to great friendships. But then I guess that situations like that are what you make of them.

 

[jared007]

I think they are great for the community.

Only downside is that pretty much most of the high-end, and a lot of pre-production changes hands privately between friends so can be next to impossible to break into those circles if that's your goal. As a consequence, the wider community doesn't get to find out the market value of those. For example, take this Hakes.com auction at the moment - it's the only public sale I've known about for a carded DT Ben. I presume all the rest have taken place between closed doors.

But on the whole, private sales build friendships in my opinion and that's good.

 

[Wreck-It Ralph]

Most collectors have seen a lot of price escalation in the loose market as the majority of the sales are in the public domain. Do you think the Private Sales keep the prices down as they do not allow a bidding frenzy especially on the really rare items?

Does not knowing how much rare items sell for in Private Sales affect the collecting community, is knowing the current value of something important?

 

[_Lee_]

Private sales are fine. If we are getting to the point where people ask questions like this, or even think private sales are wrong then we are in trouble.

 

[Wreck-It Ralph]

Private sales are fine. If we are getting to the point where people ask questions like this, or even think private sales are wrong then we are in trouble.

These are just questions that people like me should feel comfortable to be able to ask, your answer seems very pro censorship!