I found it interesting that for Leon's auction, there seemed to be people who felt prices were low on some items. Someone even speculated that he may have gotten different (better) results if he had used REA instead of Heritage. I even saw where Leon said that it looked like items he picked up specifically for his type collection did not seem to do as well as the items he picked up because of his liking them.
Here is an interesting, real-time comparison. There were two somewhat identical lots in Leon's auction, #79457 and #79458, where each was for a single W511 card of Babe Ruth. One was numbered #52 from the set while the other was #71. Both were SGC graded as 20s (1.5) and both lots sold for the exact same amount, $382.40. What I found interesting was that at 9:00 PM Sunday night, another W511 card of Ruth (#71) sold on Ebay. This card was also graded but, by PSA and not by SGC, and in this case the grade was only Authentic, no numerical grade.
The interesting thing I noted was that the Ebay card sold with a winning bid of $523.00, quite a bit higher than either of Leon's cards. The Ebay item number was #331624978829. I believe this is the link.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1926-W511-71...item4d3663998d
Would not have thought Ebay would deliver a higher price for such a not often seen card, especially so close in time to the one's just sold by Leon. Curious as to any thoughts others might have. I'm wondering if by Leon offering so many rare and unusual cards all at once in one auction like this, the people bidding had so many different things to go after that instead of them going after everything they wanted, they had to pick and choose which lots to bid on because of budgetary and other constraints. The result being that some items, maybe like these W511s, went for less than they would have otherwise. I know, I know, the same can be said about any other auction where there are lots of great items and people can't bid on everything they want either because of budget constraints. In this instance though, there were just so darn many great lots. Plus, it is so close to the National, and several other major auctions that just closed in the past couple weeks. Is it very possible that some collectors had hit their spending limits and/or already picked up some great items, and that may have contributed to some of the "perceived" lower prices on some items in this auction?
Still a great auction though Leon, congrats.
Bob C