Major Auction House Material - 5-10 Years Ago Vs. Today

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Posted By: Phil Garry

Is it just me or does it appear that there were many spectacular vintage baseball cabinets/cdv's/postcards that were available in major auction house catalogues from the early 2000's until around 2005 and the majority of these items have never seen the light of day since then? There have been some nice items in major auction catalogues over the past few years but it seems like so many of them keep recycling themselves over and over again. When do we think that some of the quality pieces from 5 - 10 years ago will hit the market?

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

It's fun to go back through my catalog collection to the 1990s and see all the spectacular items that were offered up....it does seem to me that much of what comes up today is recycled from the last 4 or so years and that much of that stuff in the 90s has never seen the light of day. The new stuff that does seem to be hitting the market is coming from the families of former players.

Cards really seem to recycle where memorabilia is often a one and done deal.

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Posted By: Alan

Much of it is recycled... I imagine that if you won a bunch of lots in the 1990's auctions, you could have reconsigned them in the mid 2000's auctions and made lots of money...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnMiwRj_C7Y&feature=related

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Posted By: Rob D.

I'm with Dan: A lot of the stuff from the past five years keeps hitting the auction block. But one only has to look through a few catalogs from the mid to late 1990s to realize that many great cards that were sold haven't been offered publicly since.

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Posted By: peter ullman

I ALSO agree with the "short term recycling" theory. It's so cool to look at the old auction catalogues...but there's still cool stuff these days...the prices are just much higher.

Weren't there fewer auction houses back then so the quality of material was more likely greater than the more diluted days we've had recently.

Those caramels and rare oddities used to garnish little interest and prices were low...too bad I was preoccupied in school and my only activity in the hobby was looking at and showing off my cards to friends.

My biggest regret is not having gone after ty cobb's partial dentures and study models that sold in the Halper auction...they well exceeded the estimate...but there was ty's dna in there...clonorama!

pete ullman