[Ron Wood]

Or, if you are not careful, the opportunity to learn about and bid upon some real crap being offered as authentic. I am appalled at some of the stuff that is being auctioned that is totally bogus. The auction houses aren't necessarily any more well informed about the veracity of some of the pieces as the uninformed buyers, although it should be their responsibility to do their homework. But profit motive sometimes dims complete and honest analysis of the items being auctioned...better to keep it ambiguous, if not misleading. That is a business model that doesn't serve the hobby well. I will say that open discussion on forums such as this has resulted in a lot more weasel-worded descriptions that allude to non-original or "constructed" offerings.

With regard to the fees associated with auction bidding, as someone near and dear to our hearts once said: "The tuition at Luger U. is very expensive", and that includes lab (buyers) fees.