Have little faith that these auctions aren't being manipulated by the auction house, including shill bidding, to inflate the value of the items.
Jim Halperin, the boss and co-founder of Heritage Auctions has a history of inflating the value of collectibles and manipulating speculative bubbles. He was front and center of the collectible coin bubble in the 80's. He's been previously investigated by federal authorities and fined by the FTC.
Well worth watching this video, it's nearly a hour long but it details how Heritage and video game grader Wata Games colluded to massively inflate the retro video game market. But it also covers the history of Heritage and Halperin, and it is applicable to most forms of collectibles and speculative bubbles.