I dont think however you can use one auction as "market price" as we all know two bidders can drive up prices crazy high if they really want an item... I'd agree if you go to alot of auctions you could average out a few items but just one would not set market value in my opionion.
remember guys this is not an exact science.. I just think putting info on this database is just a tool for an uniformed person to make there own averages... if they see 10 Vendo 81's that have been purchased on and listed on there and the prices range from 1500-2000 one each sale,, that person "SHOULD" be able to figure out what the average price for that model are, pending all factors involved.
I have to disagree. We are not talking about a rare painting, these are mostly common soda machines that you can find out what you can get for an item if you have to sell it today. Auctions records will prove the fair market value not the retail asking price. If there are 25 auction sales in the past 2 years for a particular machine and 20 get between 1800-2300 you can be pretty confident that you will get between 1800-2300.
Bidding war... Let get realistic, an auction is by definition is a bidding war. Just because they pay more then the tightwad collector doesn't mean they aren't setting the market value. Yes, there are ways to buy things cheaper, but that doesn't discount an auction value if they paid retail prices.
What you have to do is get into statistics and sampling, not just averages which means you toss out the fliers like the $17000 vendo 44 and the $175 vendo 81