i have been only casually following this thread, but your last post has me a little intimidated (sort of like your team logo).
if we use the estimate, and it is proven to be incorrect, then we can be guilty of cheating?
additionally, the BB's recognize the estimator is flawed, to the point that it can produce ridiculous estimates? and it is the obligation of the seller to know when to and when not to rely on the estimate?
then why provide us with an estimate at all? it seems to me it is an elaborate entrapment.
i wonder why there is any discussion at all that proceeds from the premise there can be an "unfair" price for a player. the TL is a market that has its own rules, but works best when left to the participants. if someone thinks player x is worth $300,000, and the more experienced manager thinks that is ridiculous, so what? i can imagine an entire range of rationales for someone "overpaying", some good (i need a player immediately), some not so good (wouldn't it be neat to have a 7-foot PG), to "i don't know what i am doing" (wow, a Hall of Fame potential and he is only 26). the market teaches tough lessons quickly, and i think that can be a very effective way of learning this aspect of the game.
what i am saying, i suppose, is that if i have a player whose top skill is average, and i slap a million dollar price tag on him, and someone buys him, and he is in germany and i am in the u.s. and collusion is impossible, then why would this be "cheating"? idiocy, yes. my good fortune, yes. a huge mistake for the german player, yes. but i don't see this as all that different as when i chose to play FCP against a team and then learned what it is like to never get a rebound -- i learned a lot from that mistake, and my opponent benefited from my mistake. being dumb is not "cheating".