lets say 3 major auction houses shut down. does REA pick up all the slack? if so he will have to do more than 1 per year, ebay should also gain alot of attention. the article on mastro may have an effect on consignments, no?

Like weeds or roaches, you kill three and five more pop up.

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The bidding on my 1991 Donruss near set doubles.

I think that a lot of the fall out will depend upon whether the closings were purely business/financial related (too many) or shenanigan related. The preponderence of auction houses and auctions is related to the number of bidders fueling the demand with a seemingly unending supply of cash. Would something unseemly industry/hobby related drive a number of them away, who knows?

Look, the top 2 art aution houses in the world were caught colluding to fix prices. Their execs were convicted criminally. Still, there is an art market.

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you're 100% correct.

The auction houses, Christie's and Sothebys, were convicted of price fixing regarding commissions that they charged, not over fixing prices.
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And it didn't drive away art collectors, nor has the long history of sales of stolen art.

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I read it the way Richard saw it - colluded to fix commissions, not prices. But now we know the whole story