✍ The Collector’s Crossroads
by Brews & Breaks

Shill bidding is back in the spotlight after influencers publicly admitted to “protecting comps” by bidding on their own or friends’ cards. Collectors are calling it what it is: market manipulation, not “defense.”

There are hobby scandals.

And then there is “we admitted to shill bidding on camera and tried to brand it as defensive.”

This one hit different.

Creators and collectors watched a couple of big voices in the space casually explain how they bid on their own or their friends’ auctions so that, quote, “some other idiot” does not get a good deal. That one line might go down as a defining moment in how out of touch parts of the hobby have become.

The community reaction was instant and brutal:

• “Any shill bid is deceptive and manipulative, therefore disingenuous.”

• “These two clowns have zero integrity.”

• “All forms of shill bidding are illegal in the US. It is a criminal act.”
  

People were not confused. They were tired.

“Defensive” Shill Bidding Is Still Shill Bidding

Collectors kept pointing out the obvious solution: if you want to protect a minimum price, use the tools that already exist.

One commenter put it perfectly: if you do not want someone getting a “good deal,” you can start the auction higher, set a reserve or list it as Buy It Now. Any version of “I bid on my own item” is not protection. It is manipulation.

Others drew parallels to spoofing in commodity markets, where fake bids are used to move prices. That is illegal in financial markets for a reason. You cannot have a fair market if people are placing bids they never intend to honor.

When Confessions Make It Worse

What really lit the fuse was not just the behavior. It was the tone.

Several collectors noticed that if the people involved had simply stayed quiet, the hobby’s short attention span might have moved on. Instead, they went on interviews, posted explanations and tried to “clear the air,” which only exposed how normalized this has become at higher levels.

One comment nailed it: this whole saga showed how deeply ingrained price protecting and market manipulation really are in the hobby, especially around high end cards. Long-time collectors shrugged and said, “Yeah, we have been talking about this for years.”

This time, though, someone said the quiet part out loud.

Comps Are Now Officially On Life Support

Everyone leans on “last sale” like it is gospel. But what happens when those sales are polluted?

Collectors shared stories of:

• Auctions pumped by burner accounts with under two months of history

• High sales that get relisted by the same seller after a “non-paying bidder”

• Whatnot and other live platforms where the same numbered card pops up again and again
  

One hypothetical from the comments summed it up. Three bidders think a card is worth around 23k based on comps, but a “defensive” shill pushes it to 25k. Is the true comp now 23k or 25k? And if prior comps were also shilled, does a real comp even exist?

If nothing is real, “comp” stops being data and turns into fan fiction.

The Legal Side Everyone Wants To Pretend Is Fuzzy

Multiple collectors brought up Bill Mastro and past auction scandals. People have gone to prison for exactly this behavior. Shill bidding is not a gray area. It is listed in law as fraud and wire fraud in many cases.

That is why some comments were stunned that certain hobby veterans could not seem to connect those dots. Publicly admitting to shill bidding, even dressed up as “defensive,” is not just bad optics. It is handing regulators a written confession.

Several people flat out said it: the hobby has proven it cannot regulate itself and probably needs outside intervention to protect consumers.

The Neo / Dusty Buns Question

Adding fuel to the fire, creators like Neo and Dusty Buns reportedly received legal threats around their coverage of these issues and pulled videos. That raised a simple but scary question:

What exactly was said that was so dangerous it needed to be erased?

Were they wrong, or were they too right? Were they exaggerating, or did they touch nerves higher up the food chain? When lawsuits and gag vibes start floating around, collectors do not suddenly feel safer. They feel like someone is hiding something.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Collectors in these comments are not asking for perfection. They are asking for:

• Transparent auctions

• Real enforcement against shill bidders and sellers who weaponize “non-paying bidder” excuses

• Platforms that require history and reputation before large bids

• Tools that filter out obviously manipulated sales from comps
  

Most of all, they just want the hobby to stop gaslighting them. Calling something “defensive” does not change what it is.

If you want the upside of auctions, you accept the downside too. Sometimes your card sells low. Sometimes you take an L. That is how a market works.

Once you start fixing prices from the inside, it stops being a market. It becomes a show. And a lot of collectors are done paying for that ticket.

🔥 The State of the Hobby: Beyond Shill Bidding

This scandal didn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s happening in a hobby where tension has been building for years:

• Box prices skyrocket

• Grading becomes a casino

• Breaks feel more like gambling streams

• Pop reports keep exploding

• Fake autos, mislabeled slabs, missing cards

• The same influencers who preach ethics get caught gaming the system
  

Collectors aren’t just mad about one scandal, they’re exhausted by the pattern.

Shill bidding is simply the moment the mask slipped off and everyone saw the machinery behind the curtain.

This isn’t a blip.

This is a temperature check on a market losing trust faster than it gains new collectors.

And the hobby’s response, everything from “defensive shill bidding” to deleting videos after “legal pressure,” isn’t calming anyone down.

It’s confirming every suspicion people have been whispering for years.

📣 CALL TO ACTION

If you’ve got thoughts on this, and let’s be real, everyone does, come hang out with us on YouTube.

Drop a comment. Vent. Share your receipts. Tell us what you’re seeing out there.

The hobby only gets better when collectors speak up, compare experiences, and call out the nonsense together.

Join us on YouTube at Brews & Breaks and let us know what YOU think about the state of the hobby — and where it needs to go next.

Grab a drink, pull up a chair, and let’s talk about it like real collectors do.

☕ Keep Sippin’ & Rippin’.

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