MEARS Boxing Mega Lot
 

Not sure I've seen this here yet but Mears has a monstrous collection on the block: http://sports.mearsonlineauctions.co...LOT119021.aspx

Yikes!

2 thoughts immediately come to mind:

1. why mears?

2. and if you chose mears, why not have them sell such a group in smaller lots? they are certainly an auction house that can do that. look at how many $5 and $10 lots they have just in this auction.

I completely agree with the "why not break it up" point.

There's probably quite a few lots I would be interested in but no way I'm going to bid on a 1600 item lot. Seems like you're limiting bidders to only dealers - who will break up this lot and sell anyway. Odd.

The lot is my collection. The decision to try and sell it was not easily arrived at and I am conflicted about it. I am trying to raise money for my daughter to attend medical school.

When I did this, I realized that buying a collection is not for everyone and that collectors will see pieces they would love to own...and that there would be some grousing about the collection for sale structure. I get that. I have standing offers of purchase on a good percentage of the collection and I am sure that there are other pieces that would sell well at auction as individual items. However, I am not interested in having the collection cherry-picked. If I wanted to have that happen I could dribble the cards a few a week into the eBay maelstrom over the next two years and wring out every retail dime, but I simply do not have the time to do it.

I am of the view that offering the collection as a collection gives a potential buyer a unique opportunity to pick up a 'turn key' collection that can be expanded and improved upon over time. There is a hell of a collection-filling opportunity there for anyone who wants to fill out their collection without taking the 20+ years I spent amassing it, and then piecemeal sell the rest.

I am pretty proud of the comprehensive type card collection. There is stuff there from all over the world and from many issues that simply do not come up for sale. I am a bit of an obsessive and I spent a hell of a lot of time doing very tedious research and communications with the help of translation programs with vendors all over the world to get some of the most obscure foreign cards. Some of them have logged over 20,000 air miles with mail returns and errors that took cards from South America to New York to South America to LA.

The last thing I want to make sure to mention is that I have a reasonable reserve on the lot. No one will be 'stealing' the collection. That said, there is tremendous value there for anyone who wants to take the time to retail the lot. Check out the spreadsheet linked to the offering. That was one of the features that Troy and I agreed would be a unique feature of this auction: you get a comprehensive look at precisely what is in the auction. If you have questions about a specific card, please post them here and I will post a scan if I have one. I have nearly all of it scanned. If someone here buys the lot, I will even send you the scans via drop box so you can immediately use them as you see fit. That's not part of the auction verbiage but I am happy to do it for my colleagues on N54.

I had a feeling it might be yours Adam. Best of luck with the auction.

Good luck Adam.

Had a feeling also.

A part of me was hoping it wasn't, but of course priorities have to come first. Still paying bills off from my own daughters student loans.

good luck with the sale of an amazing collection. and thank you for disclosing here that there is a reserve. will mears add the reserve to the auction description or will it remain hidden to non-net-54 bidders?

I have no idea how that works.

Fair enough, Adam

Best of luck!!

boxing collection
 

congrats on the sale.

if any one here won the lot or knows who did, i'd be interested in a few cards.

The lot did not reach the reserve. I am deciding what to do next.

I would go with Heritage Auctions. They should promote the lot a lot better.