Auction versus fixed price
Buying and selling. . 1 min read.
An auction discovers what the most motivated bidder will pay on a given evening. A fixed price is one seller guessing and one buyer accepting. Both are legitimate and they suit different cards.
When an auction wins
- Genuine competition. More than a handful of people actively want the card.
- Uncertain value. Where comps are thin, an auction answers the question rather than guessing at it, which is the situation in valuing a card with no recent sales.
- Momentum. A player currently in the news, where interest may not last.
When a fixed price wins
- Thin demand. One buyer exists somewhere and is not browsing tonight. An auction with one bidder ends at the opening bid.
- Established value. Where comps are tight, you already know the price and an auction can only do worse.
- Patience. You are not in a hurry and would rather wait for your number.
An auction with no reserve on a card with two interested buyers is how cards sell for a fraction of their value. The format is not the risk; the format applied to a thin market is.
Reserves and starting prices
A low start attracts bidders and relies on competition arriving. A high start protects you and suppresses early bidding, which some formats punish. If the card genuinely has a floor below which you would not sell, that is what a reserve is for.
Whichever format, work out the number first, using how to price a sports card. Both formats punish a seller who does not know what they have.
The full guide
How to price a sports card
The method underneath everything else on this site: find comparable sales, discard the ones that are not comparable, and read what is left.