Not always selling to a shop. Something like a priceless heirloom, there's a specific buyer who's hiring the Guild to go pick something up. In which case, it's their problem if they wave it around like a flag. Everyone still knows who did the footwork, because who else could?

Even if you pick something random to hock and it ends up being more important than you think, you gotta be smart about who you sell it to. Get it to your fences, and they'll take care of it from there, that's their job.

Hired thugs are morons.