So crazy, and possibly uniformed bidding undermines your faith in the auction system. I tend to agree with that, though I just step away from items that are going for stupid prices. Those silly bids have little affect on me personally. And we do tend to get excited about some sales prices that to the uninformed would seem silly, such as $2,000,000 for what is possibly the second or third best Action 1. The auction system itself is set up so whoever wants to pay the most for an item has ample opportunity.
So ultimately why is out-of-whack bidding a bad thing?

So crazy, and possibly uniformed bidding undermines your faith in the auction system. I tend to agree with that, though I just step away from items that are going for stupid prices. Those silly bids have little affect on me personally. And we do tend to get excited about some sales prices that to the uninformed would seem silly, such as $2,000,000 for what is possibly the second or third best Action 1. The auction system itself is set up so whoever wants to pay the most for an item has ample opportunity.
So ultimately why is out-of-whack bidding a bad thing?

if I have said it once, I have said it 3.7 times...this kind of bidding is BAD for our hobby!

Me + selling + crazy bidding = good

I believe this type of bidding causes some folks to "re think" their selling strategy...for example, because of a current heritage bid, a seller yesterday, can now want much more for a comparable book...thinking it is all of a sudden worth 3x, due to a crazy bid at an auction house (mind you, not a verified completed transaction, but a bid)... it inflates not only the auction copy, but in many cases (like someone pointed out today with an action on clink and like killercomics mentioned) other copies in the market...these inflated prices can slow potential buyers, and cause market stagnation...bad

it also takes some potential longer term collectors, and casts a very bad light on their purchases once they find out that they paid 10x FMV and can't even feel comfortable in recouping their purchase price... no matter how altruistic we want to be as collectors, anyone paying 10x market for a book is getting taken to the cleaners in a bad way...and that has to leave a bad taste in their mouth (and potentially others)...

it also can create the housing bubble analogy... we need steady and realistic price growth to maintain the health of our hobby...price stability is key in any market... in virtually all instances, these type of price variations hurt markets in both the short and longer term

So Rick, are you saying Mr Keller won't be return to comic collecting (I know I wouldn't if I took the pounding he took).

Heres one of many reasons;

First when a book goes for beyond stupid money, as we are seeing presently at HA, the next guy with that exact same book in the same grade thinks his book is valued at that same price level and now the book gets held hostage at its new over inflated price. The next guy with the same book but half grade point less believes his book is worth slightly less than the over priced book. And this also happens with the guy who owns the same book in a higher grade as he wants more than the HA price or even a multiple of that sale, and so on, and so on. You get the idea. Finally, collectorS who would like to purchase said book for their personal collection or to complete a run can no longer do so, as its out of their price range. Why? Because of one stupid sale at auction which may or may not be real. Proof of this is when this senario happens on a book, you see dealers pulling that same book off their website as they do not want to under sell that same book. Also, you see it happen on Ebay, the book goes from $X to $5X. The book gets stagnate all of a sudden due to that one sale at auction which most everyone sees. And if this happens on enough books, the average collector can not afford to buy therefore slowing down the hobby and some getting out. My 2 cents!

I'd like to add my 2 cents here...

Price stability is very important to any market. When prices take wild fluctuations, new investors/collectors who start to study the market realize that this is a poor place to invest/collect because of these wild fluctuations.

Additionally, more seasoned investors/collectors tend to back off for a time to allow the market to regulate itself in an effort to avoid getting caught up in an unsustainable frenzy.

Personally I find it hard to believe that big players like Keller could stay out of comics for good.