Brockelman & Luckey Auction report

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Posted By: scott brockelman

As of this evening, 6-25-2008 ALL consignors have been mailed checks for payment in full. We are very happy to have gotten payment out in what we believe is one of the fastest payouts among any auction house.

We are now accepting consignments for our Fall Auction which will be in October. We will be accepting consignments in person at the National in Chicago next month or you may contact us to send consignments via USPS or other carriers. Please email us at info@b-lauctions.com with any questions or call Scott at 817-688-9499 or Leon at 214-282-4943.

Scott & Leon

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Posted By: Jason

Congrats on what looks to be a well executed first auction.

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Posted By: Rawn Hill

Very nice auction, a great selection!!!

Rawn

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Posted By: Jimmy

Leon and Scott,

great first auction, when the October auction gets closer please let us know the consignment deadline. It's nice to have the date so you can plan. I tend to get a lot of items in Sept.

Thanks Jimmy

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Posted By: scott brockelman

We would like to have all items by the end of August or very early September, but with our internet format we can take them as late as mid-September and still get them in the auction.

Scott

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Posted By: MikeU

Where are all the articles/publicity stating that. despite the econcomy, B&L Auctions smashed all their previous sales records with this auction? I hope B&L does not think they can throw a banner ad up on NET54 and that is all the marketing they need to do. On second thought, that would be a great sales pitch when selling banner ad's to companies. Hey, NET54 gets so much traffic, all you have to do is throw up a banner add and your will break auction records, just ask B&L.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

I wish you guys all the best for continued success. It takes a bit of risk and more than a smidgen of audacity to start up an auction house in these most critical of times. If you continue on the same, honest, customer-friendly route, I surmise that you both will receive your just rewards. It's also refreshing to see ANY auction house so frequently willing to seek out the opinions of the common man. Way back when, George Burns (the comedian, as opposed to the two ballplayers of the same name) said something to the effect of, "All the cab drivers and waiters should be President--maybe then something might actually get done in Washington!". Same goes here. Empires crumble when egos inflate.

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Posted By: Brandon Cacek

Congrats to both Leon and Scott for running a great auction! Email me some specifics, and I'll try to put together a press release for you.

Congrats again, and please let me know if there is anything that I can ever do for you.

See you in Chicago.

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Posted By: leon

We thought it very important to pay our consignors as fast as possible and let folks know we are understanding of what is important in regards to their support of our auction.
And to Mike Uhl.....We are forming a strategic marketing committee and will nomintate you for the chairman of it. Thanks for reminding me too....in addition to the many places we advertised such as Beckett, SCD, SportsCollectors Daily (article), Net54, Old Cardboard magazine, Old Cardboard email blast, VCP partner and a 19thCentury partnership email we also advertised for 2 months with a banner on the SGC site. Maybe only a banner on NET54 would have gotten it done but we wanted to do just a little extra..We know how much you appreciated that....
Brandon- I will get with you soon.......
Thanks again for all the support.....

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

When I click on your banner at the top it takes me to the man on the rock ebay auctions??? What was the final hammer price of your last auction? If this is not public info no biggie. I just like to see how comnpanies grow. JC

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

Wow!!! Talk about two extremes in the hobby. Yeah someone who is looking at bidding in Leon and Scott's auction probably would not want to be bidding in Man on The Rock's auction.

Jim, here is the link to the final bids.
http://www.b-lauctions.com/site/lots/lotseek.asp

Greg

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Leon,

I wish y'all the best and this is not meant to be negative but there seems to be quite a few items which got no bids and quite a few more that got one or two.

Is this a surprise to you?
Do you attribute this to high minimums for those items?
Is this to be expected for a first auction?

My opinion only but I believe that auction houses can be divided between those that put out a catalogue and those that don't and its night and day on the response you get.

Have you analyzed the incremental cost to put out a catalogue and mailing it to a wide list?

Jim

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

'This isn't meant to be negative', they are generally NEGATIVE people...........just another glaring case of this in the post above. Obviously Jim continues to grind his axe, so if that's all he has to grind, que sera sera.......

Won 3 lots from the auction and very pleased with them. Like Jodi said, tough time to start such an endeavor, so kudos for that. As to catalogs, while I do like them a lot, I find the search features of online auctions as well as category views of auctions to be more helpful. Not sure if the incremental cost, as Jim puts it, of putting out a catalog would increase the amount of bids such that it would benefit the bottom line. Plus, I got hundreds of catalogs which are basically taking up space now (as we all do).

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Posted By: Tony Andrea

As I've said before, catalogs are nice but they always seem to just end up as un-needed reading material in the crapper. My wife says I spend enough time in there as it is so on line viewing is just fine for me. As far as the no bids go on a few select items Jim mentions. All I can speak for is my consignment I had with B&L auctions. It sold for more than I expected and the opening bid was very minimal. No complaints here and I will definitely consign with them again in the future.

Regards, Tony Andrea

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Posted By: Dave F

Jim-

I think the point with Scott and Leon's auction in large part is the lower BP. Yes of course as a buyer that doesn't really matter to me...I dont care if the BP is 50%, as that will just be figured into my bidding. However as a consigner I think that's a strong point. Obviously with the addition of catalogs they would have to raise the BP. Also the fact they are able to keep shipping cost lower than any other auction house is nothing but a positive. Catalogs are pretty to look at...but as is everything else, the world has changed to an internet society for the most part.

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Dave,

We disagree.I think to many people a catalogue is critical. I grab catalogues and read them on my flights--I can't ever recall looking on-line at an auction. You are right about bp--meaningless number to a buyer.

Nothing negative in my post at all Dr. Bobbitt--but there are quite a few no bid items which you may have noticed. Just wondering if Leon has done an analysis of the cost of putting out a catalog combined with the cost of mailing and made an estimate of how much in the way of incremental price he would need to cover the incremental costs.

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Posted By: leon

Jc- our auction is public record and will be kept on line so everyone can see. I think our total was about 125k and we hope to grow it over time. Thanks for your participation in it too. We really appreciate it.


Jim C- Thanks for the well wishes. Yes, the first auction was a learning experience for us and showed us that sometimes a little lower starting price might be better. However, think about the consignors. If they want something we generally will give it to them. If they want to start a $200 card at $300 then that is their call. I had quite a few items in the auction and every one sold and all at prices that were pretty close to where I feel the market is. One item sat on my for sale site for close to 2 yrs and didn't sell at $250. It brought close to $500 in our auction. Double my estimate..go figure.
As far as auctions with, or without, a catalog just which ones are you participating in that don't have catalogs?
We think our response was extremely good....consignors and bidders seem to be quite happy. The cost for a small catalog, similar to Barry's, is about $7500.... and the cost for a big one, I can't imagine it. Since we offer some of the lowest BP in the hobby, and our auction is still growing, it's not economically feasible to have one at this point. If we grow to where we think we can then one might be more fiscally smart. Maybe if you participate next time you will know how it goes? You have to register first though. You can register right now if you want to and then you will get periodic emails and will KNOW when the next auction is. Some bidders told me they put in ceiling bids (we can't see them)and never have before, because they had that much trust in us and our process. That made us feel we are doing something right!!
One other thing too. Some of our lots were sold, after the auction, to folks that bid but the lot didn't meet reserve. We worked with our consignors and bidders, when asked, to sell unsold lots, which made our customers even more happy. It's a normal auction process that any good auction will do....So we protected our consignors where need be (with reserves) and made our bidders as happy as possible.....We think that is a recipe for success, don't you?
take care,
leon

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Yes, please keep in mind that the large catalogues issued by the big guys wind up costing them over $100,000 once all is said and done. As with Jim, I too enjoy having a catalogue I can hold in my hands and take with me wherever I go. The flipside to that, however, is the fact that more information on each lot can be found online (especially the extra pics/zoom-in features). Jim, if I understand you correctly, you state that you have never utilized any of the online features offered by the various auction houses? This is very difficult to believe, but that's how your post came across. If this is indeed the case, you're missing out on so much. Catalogue-perusing is a great for "separating the wheat from the chaff", but you are going into each sale with cataracts over your eyes if this is the only step taken. (Again, I hope something in your post got lost in translation--I can't see anybody in this day and age not using online resources, at the very least as a final precautionary step).

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

at 12.5% buyers commision on 125K, you got $15,625 commission. $7500 catalog eats 1/2 of that. There's obviously no way that additional bids would have covered the $7500 that a catalog would have cost. But....is it better to invest more money up front, hoping that down the road you'll get the bids that will make up the difference? Maybe so, maybe not. Funny how Prof. Crandoll can be here on a whipstitch to respond to any posts yet he didn't see the banner for B&L. Hmm.....sounds like an axe to me. I have a feeling that even if you had an obscure common PSA9 1964 Topps that would sell for $9000 that Jim needed that he would likely not bid in the auction. I could be wrong about that but obviously Jim's not bidding on 19th century rarities in PSA4................easy to stand back and fire salvos when your intent to bid is zero.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Leon is correct that my catalog, including design and printing, costs about $7500. And while I think it's a good thing, it really does make a significant dent in my profit margin, and I've debated whether I want to continue it.

One thing I've thought about is an 11 x 8 1/2 one-sheet, which could include dozens of pictures plus a listing of all the lots without description. That would be a half step below an actual catalog but would direct people to the internet, and would allow my non-computer literate customers to participate.

Still haven't decided for sure which way I will go.

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Jodi,

I don't recall ever looking at lots online or participating in online auctions except for ebay. I participate with Mastro, REA, Goodwin, Sports Cards Plus, Mile High, Memory Lane and Andy Madec. I also look at Barry's catalog and bid on an item or two but have not won anything. I couldn't tell you if any of these auction houses have their auctions online or not. Looking at catalogues is not the only thing I do I do use vintagecard pricing.com to figure out where I will bid.

Leon,

Excellent and thoughtful answer. Makes sense to me--I think you will be successful and I look forward to registering and hopefully figuring out how to look at an auction online. Agree that growing to where you can put out a catalog is smart.

If you start carrying higher grade material I think it increases the urgency of having a catalogue. The tech savvy people may be surprised but I would guess that the 50-and-over crowd(and there are a lot of big spenders here) would not look at online auctions.

Good luck!

Jim

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Posted By: barrysloate

Jim- every auction house wants to carry more high grade material. Nobody turns it away. Getting it is the hard part.

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Dr. Bobbitt,

Don't know why you woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning but I have not fired any salvos. I have been cordial and have offered my opinion and thanked Leon for his comments which were very thoughtful. I do scan the posts on Net 54 but I do not look at the banners.

And yes I would bid on high grade prewar material.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

Jim......if he's ever bid......

Kind of a double-edged sword I guess....I've frequently heard that there are a lot of bidders that are still in what many would consider the dark ages and don't bid via the internet but call their bids in. I guess for them, they have to have catalogs. As the proprietor, I guess you know your bidders and HOW the bids come in. Like Jodi I find it hard that people wouldn't take advantage of the search function and additional photos online. Many people just aren't internet savvy I guess.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

find online auctions intimidating, but if you bid in ebay auctions, all the auctions you mentioned, which I bid in as well, have online presence that is just as easy to bid on, provide similar search functions to ebay and typically offer better, more detailed pictures--ESPECIALLY on your PSA8/9/10 cards than what you can see in a catalog picture that is typically 1-2 inches big. Plus, there's a BUNCH of post-50 guys here that bid in online auctions.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Jim,

I would strongly recommend that you consider consulting the online features provided by the auction houses you bid with. If for nothing else, I really think you would enjoy/greatly benefit from being able to inspect high resolution close-up scans of the PSA 9's and 10's that I understand you love. Adding to this thought, may I ask you how many times you have disagreed on a card's grade once opening up the package from the auction house? How much of that can be attributed to catalogue photos that are too small, or which fail to depict both sides of the card? You might be able to save yourself both time and a greatly unwanted headache if you inspect the online scans. The majority of the online sites are extremely user-friendly. Should you decide to give it a shot, feel free to drop me a line if there are features you're having difficulty in spotting. A little time spent using the features will start breeding familiarity in fairly short order. Trust me--I think you'll like it more than you seem to surmise.

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Tom,

You can actually bid on the internet? I have never bid--I always call in my bids.

Also, if you actually knew what I have in my collection I think you would be surprised--at least in terms of dollar value and probably in terms of cards I would guess my pre-war collection is larger than almost all--I certainly do not think of myself as a post-50s collector.

I just bought over 1,000 pre-war cards in a deal a couple of weeks ago.

Jodi,

Appreciate the time you took to help--I will look into this stuff if I can figure it out.

Jim

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Posted By: Dave F

Jim doesn't use online resources for auction houses.


Jim, I bet your that older fellow in the line at the grocery store that holds everybody else up by still writing out a check instead of using your debit card?

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Whats a debit card?--hey I think of myself as young still.

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Posted By: leon

debit card
Definition

A card which allows customers to access their funds immediately, electronically. Unlike a credit card, a debit card does not have any float.

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Posted By: Dave F

Kind of like online vs a catalog Jim. You know. No float...no fluff.

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Posted By: T206Collector

I love my prewar ebay catalog that I get every month.

Sarcasm aside, I view B&L as a great way to sell vintage material through an online venue without having to deal with the hassle and cost of ebay. It is a terrific online alternative to ebay. If B&L ran an auction more frequently, I would never use ebay again and might stop using the b/s/t.

I sold three cards in the last B&L auction and got about what I would expect from ebay, if not a little more. I didn't have to do anything but ship the cards to them and it didn't cost me anything other than shipping. I didn't have to make scans; write a description (though I did); coordinate/pay for shipping to the buyer; or -- most importantly -- pay any fees. It was perfect. And almost anyone that is actively adding prewar cards to their collection will see this auction.



_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Visit http://www.t206collector.com for signed deadball card galleries, articles and more!

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Posted By: Rob D.

Jim,

So can we assume that when you open the museum to house and display your collection to the public, there won't be an online element to it, so that those not fortunate enough to travel to the brick-and-mortar site could view some of the majesty online?

Might be worth thinking about.

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Posted By: leon

Thanks again for the kind words.....Scott and I are discussing when our Fall auction will be. We know it will be October time frame....probably early. Another thing that was brought up via email was "what about the option of a pdf catalog?" It was our inention to have one this time but it just didn't work out. We hope to have a pdf option for the next one, AND when we get to 1000+ lots I will convince Scott to do a nice fancy catalog. Hey, we like nice big catalogs too. I don't have to tell ya'll about good reading material in the morning > It's all about consignments and we feel with the success of this auction we will do a little better next time and each time afterwards.....For the forseeable future we will continue to have some of the lowest BP fees in the hobby and 0 consignment fees!! I will also fess up that I made a couple of very small shipping errors and we believe we now have a system in place that will alleviate that situation in the future. There was nothing catastrophic but if I had hair it would have been blonde.....

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Posted By: barrysloate

Shipping errors?

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Rob,

One way to see what I have is the PSA Set Registry--I have 20,800 of my cards registered. However no pictures. And my SGC cards are not included there.

Might just have to mtravel to see it.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Jim, you're crazy not to use the online auction sites. While I like getting a catalogue, the scans online are sometimes huge -- you can see detail that you'd never notice in a catalogue picture.

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Posted By: Michael Steele

Scott, Leon,

I received my winning lot. Thank you! Great auction. Look forward to more in the future.

Regards,
Michael

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Posted By: Joe D.

"AND when we get to 1000+ lots I will convince Scott to do a nice fancy catalog. Hey, we like nice big catalogs too. I don't have to tell ya'll about good reading material in the morning "


Leon,

While I can bring up reasoning why a catalog is beneficial (and should increase overall bidding / future consignments) even with much fewer auction lots than you mention.... I will just say I am happy to hear that catalogs are a possibility for future B&L auctions.

When/If that time comes, I would very much enjoy the opportunity to print the B&L catalog. At the very least - if you have questions, or if I could be helpful in any way - do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,
Joe

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Posted By: Alan

Mazel Tov on your 1st auction. This calls for a when I see you at the National !!!

What you could do (as suggested) is to print up a flyer or a few sheets of paper (stapled together) showing pictures of the lots and snail mail them and hand them out at shows. Or, create a large PDF catalog & email it to anyone/everyone & let the potential buyer physically print it out. That might satisfy Jim's concern.

Alan

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Posted By: Rich Klein

And will be consigning more lots in the future

Regards
Rich