Chicago Area Mega Auction 8/26- 8/27
 

If you have not seen this and are in the area, Congrats and have fun. I wish I could be there. This is AMAZING!

http://www.auctionsbyjennifer.com/

That's what you do when you win the $759 million dollar Powerball jackpot -- you buy an industrial strength paper shredder and then go to this auction and buy the unopened cases of late 1980's and early 1990's baseball cards and go to work.....

David

what?
 

I guess you do not see the 70's unopened, goudeys, playball dimaggios, 1910 world series program and whatever crazy items are hidden away in this giant mess.

I saw those but my point was, if you have money to waste and want to help the hobby out, you buy this mass produced junk and get rid of it.

Also, the memorabilia looks to have better items than the cards.

David

The owners of this merchandise were major dealers going back to the 1980's and did this for a long time. Real good people. The husband died a few years ago and now it's just the widow left who went to the shows and knew the hobby perhaps even better than her husband

They specialized in the more modern cards, wax and memorabilia and had a niche in that.

I doubt there will be many "steals" but the sheer volume of what they have left is probably amazing.

And for us, remember this part of the hobby boom would probably have not been possible without the type of material available in that auction.

Remember to paraphrase something Leon says, we are probably about 1/2 of 1percent of the total hobby.(Leon if I have your quote wrong, please feel free to amend that) Now, we spend a much higher percent than that but rest assured, outside of a venue such as the National, we are a blip in the sports collecting world.

Regards
Rich

My dad just got back and said no deals to be had. People were paying more than the stuff was worth in most cases. He said someone paid 15K for a case of 1987 Fleer baseball & $2500 for a 1960 Topps baseball set in average condition. I think that says alot about what's going on there.

That's not unusual for cards in an auction that doesn't usually handle them. The one I used to go to would have some pretty rough 70's cards sometimes as well as the usual junkwax stuff, usually in unopened sets or boxes. It almost always went for more than retail. They were horrible with non- card stuff, getting way less than it was worth unless it was incredibly mainstream like programs or yearbooks.

Chicago auction
 

I was there for a while and my sense was that good deals were not easy to find. Mainstream racks, wax, cases, etc were bid right up to the BCE buy list and some of the junkier wax brought prices that seemed a bit aggressive. Tons of publications, postcards, paper items that I'm sure you could do better on. There is soooooo much stuff that prices might weaken throughout the weekend but I didn't sense bidders were shy about buying over and over.
The sets were available for viewing throughout the week so I'm sure potential buyers did a LOT of research before bidding.

more to come?
 

From what I heard from a bidder there today is there is part 2 tomorrow and parts 3,4,5 to come in September and October. WOW!

There is also some kind of stupid bidding process involved that drags it out. Say there is a lot of 10 signed baseballs, you bid $20 and win. That bid allows you to buy one or more balls from the lot at $20 ea. If you buy 2, then the other eight are then auctioned again under the same process. So a lot of ten baseballs may actually take 10 separate tries to sell the lot. That is about the DUMBEST scenario I have ever heard. No wonder it's going to take a week to sell everything.

Do you have a vested interest in this auction?

No, that person probably talked to someone who checked the web site, as I did just to see how many auctions there would be.

I was there Saturday
 

I was there Saturday and it was the 1984 Fleer Update case that went for $15K. Some big money was there buying what they could and yes, some of the cheaper cases went for a little higher-than-normal prices. Some deals could be had, but generally there was a lot of money in the room pushing up prices.

I thought the auction house ran a good, tight ship. The auction began at noon and ended at 9 pm. It took so long because of the aforementioned practice of auctioning and re-auctioning the individual items of a lot, such as autographed baseballs and the tons of unopened cases/partial cases. It would have gone much quicker to sell a lot 16 autographed baseballs for one money, but that wouldn't have maximized the income for both the consignor and auction house, of course.

I couldn't make it for today, Sunday. I suspect there was a similar pace to the auction today. I can't wait for Saturday September 16th! (I think.) :)

Thanks for the follow up info.....Seems like sometimes small auctions get more money than big ones, but not usually :).

If it was a sealed 84 fleer update case, $15k wasn't a bad price if it was a typical 100 set case.

I was there Sunday. The better deals were had on Saturday from what I heard. The 84 Fleer Update case was part of a larger lot from what I heard. $14K for that case isnt bad, considering how tough they are.
Other stuff went for pretty healthy prices.
See what happens when you don't have an estate plan in place?

I was there both days - no real deals to be had IMO. There were a LOT of dealers buying up stuff for their inventory, also some people were paying crazy money for things that they couldn't possibly have done any research on. For example, a lot of 33 Goudeys went for close to 6k counting premium - if there were $2500 worth of cards in the group, I would be surprised.

It was run by a small auction house, but they are very good at their jobs - the auctioneer (Jennifer) is a dynamo - she went all day Saturday running the thing without even taking one break. Super nice people too.

There are 50 sets in Fleer Updates. Topps Traded had 100.

Auction
 

I was there parts of both days. Saturday seemed to have more high end items than Sunday but there were a ton of items both days. I bought 4-5 lots for my collection but good deals were hard to come by when I was there. You are right about the auctioneer....she kept things on point and flowing as well as she could, a real pro. I'm sure they learned a lot this weekend and will improve the lot makeup in future weeks but they did a great job IMO.

The 84 Fleer Update case was opened
 

I failed to mention the case of 1984 Fleer Update was opened. All 50 sets were there, fresh as the day they were made. A check of the sets revealed all the big money cards were there. Nothing pulled.

How was the centering? That is the big issue with 84 Fleer. Most are 60/40 - 65/35.

Centering on 84 Fleer Updates
 

I don't know as I took it on Jennifer's word (the auctioneer) that the money cards were there.

Some of the Goudey's that were available at the auction are hitting the secondary market.

Bididng is...interesting on these cards. Buyer beware.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/282664126479...84.m1436.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1933-GOUDEY-...IAAOSw9fRZxX5Z

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1933-GOUDEY-...UAAOSwAj5ZxX2i