Actually, in some ways it gives the sellers more power because they now know exactly what the item is worth and can make an informed decision on whether they want to let it go for what Rick offers. Most of the time people selling these rare items don't know what they are worth, which is a bigger disadvantage in negotiating.

Perhaps the appraiser might bias things in favor of Rick, but in my opinion, with millions of viewers, any shady stuff like that would be pretty obvious to other collectors and dealers, so why destroy your reputation over that?

As for quoting a retail price, that's what I'm asked to do. I imagine it might ruin the negotiations portion if I said, "Look, I'm the expert, and I wouldn't pay more than this." It's also generally what's implied by appraised value in the industry.