Conestoga Auctions Ends Saturday

[bwbc917]

I stumbled upon this auction. It features T205 and T206 and a bunch of Novelty Cutlery. Worth the look.

[Rollingstone206]

...

[Steve D]

Originally Posted by Striker

I did not get to see what the T206 Plank sold for so I'll be interested to see the results on it.

It looks like the Plank sold for $50K (before the juice).

[bigfish]

Looks like there was some spirited bidding. I won a t205 Joss and got blown away on everything else.

[doug.goodman]

I added some baseball magazine supplements to my collection. I needed the Ruth, Alexander, Johnson, Frisch, and maybe the Sisler. I think I'll be up to 824 different when those arrive in my mail.

Doug

[doug.goodman]

I'm now waiting to see what kind of packaging the $71 shipping charge is going to get me for the 13 premiums I won...

[Mikehealer]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

I'm now waiting to see what kind of packaging the $71 shipping charge is going to get me for the 13 premiums I won...

I was thinking the same thing Doug. I was charged $43 shipping for three graded cards with a value of less than $700. That seems a bit over the top.

[Bosox Blair]

How were the prices on the Novelty Cutlery cards? They had some great ones in PSA 5 up to 6.5...Wags x2, Wags & Cobb, Matty in 6.5, Speaker...I have not registered with them, so I can't see the final prices.

Cheers,
Blair

[vwtdi]

Originally Posted by Bosox Blair

How were the prices on the Novelty Cutlery cards? They had some great ones in PSA 5 up to 6.5...Wags x2, Wags & Cobb, Matty in 6.5, Speaker...I have not registered with them, so I can't see the final prices.

Cheers,
Blair

Here are some results I wrote down, all before the 18% juice and 6% PA sales tax

Cobb/Wagner 9500
Bresnahan 1600
Bridwell 1100
Wagner 16000
Brown 2400
Johnson 8000
Chance 1800
Chase 1800
Matty 12000
Lajoie 2700
Wagner 11000
Collins 2200
Crawford 1700
Plank 2400
Speaker 2700
Walsh 1500

Keith

[djrhanover]

I actually attended the auction on Saturday. Although there were only about fifty or sixty in attendance they had open phone lines and internet bidding at the same time so bidding was heavy. I thought they realized great prices across the board. I pretty much got blown out of the water on everything I was interested in.

Here are some of the prices realized (not including the 18% juice):

PSA 6.0 Novelty Cutlery Wagner - $16,000
PSA 5.5 Novelty Cutlery Wagner - $11,000
PSA 6.5 Novelty Cutlery Mathewson - $12,000
PSA 6.0 Novelty Cutlery Cobb/Wagner - $9,500
PSA 5.5 Novelty Cutlery Johnson - $8,000
PSA 4.0 T206 O'Hara (St. Louis) - $2,900
PSA 6.0 T206 Mathewson Dark Cap - $3,500
PSA 5.0 T206 Dahlen - Piedmont (Brooklyn) - $1,600
PSA 4.0 T206 Cobb Portrait (Piedmont - Green Back) - $2,700
PSA 5.0 T206 Cobb Bat On (Sweet Caporal) - $2,800
PSA 7.0 T206 Baker (Piedmont) - $1,900
PSA 2.0 E-95 Wagner - $1,600
PSA 4.0 T205 Cobb - $1,400

As was previously noted, The T206 Plank in PSA 2.0 went for $50,000 and I thought was one of the few "bargains" there. Bidding started with an online bid at $25,000 and came to a sudden stop at $50,000 from a bid on the floor. I was surprised, because upon inspection of the card I really thought it was under graded, showing no creases. I spoke with the winning bidder and congratulated him. He indicated that he would crack it and resubmit. He thought there was a good possibility it would get a 4. I agreed and, in hopes of getting his name, asked him if he was a member of Network54. He said no, that we are just a bunch of "blow-hards". Nice.

[h2oya311]

I bought a few cards too....thanks for the OP for outing the auction!!

On one of the lots I won, I had put in a pre-bid of $170, but then ended up being able to watch and bid on the auction live. I watched as the lot opened at $30...no bids for a few seconds, then auctionbidders.com put in a bid of $120 on my behalf. I thought, okay, strong opening bid but I'll be happy to win at that price. Then, auctionbidders.com bid $140 and $150 (both on my behalf)!!!! Excuse me!! Umm, why did I bid up the item I was already winning????

No other bids. Three bids, all mine. I think I'll be making a phone call today!!!

Maybe they can make up for it by reducing my shipping from $38 down to $0!!! In essence, they found a way to charge me the 6% PA tax via shipping charges and "shill bidding" me vs. me!!

[Gradedcardman]

I asked them about the shipping and apparently everything is given to the UPS Store locally and that is where and why the shipping charges are so high. If you spent $5K then they include 5K of insurance. Not sure that insurance hits that mark but that is what I was told.

The T205 Joss was a steal. The Plank was nice and had some back toning but definitely was graded a bit tough.

[Gradedcardman]

I believe the Plank was a 2.5

[h2oya311]

While the live online auction only showed me bidding against myself, apparently there were competing online bids that simply didn't show up...so I guess I can't complain. It did look odd to me at the time.

[Bosox Blair]

Originally Posted by vwtdi

Here are some results I wrote down, all before the 18% juice and 6% PA sales tax

Cobb/Wagner 9500
Bresnahan 1600
Bridwell 1100
Wagner 16000
Brown 2400
Johnson 8000
Chance 1800
Chase 1800
Matty 12000
Lajoie 2700
Wagner 11000
Collins 2200
Crawford 1700
Plank 2400
Speaker 2700
Walsh 1500

Keith

Thanks very much, Keith - I appreciate your helpful reply!

Cheers,
Blair

[ezez420]

So do you guys think the novelties went for good prices overall? How were the PSA 5 ones? Were they undergraded or did PSA just throw darts.

[vwtdi]

The PSA 5s looked just as good as the 6.5s in my opinion. A couple had some very minor what I would call toning on the back, but there were also a couple of 5s that didn't. All were consistently nice condition with sharp corners across the board. An amazing grouping with none postally used.

[h2oya311]

It seemed apparent that all of the Novelty Cutlery PCs were under graded. I think there were two 6.5s in the auction, both of which are the highest graded by PSA (or SGC). I think PSA was afraid to give out higher grades. The Speaker PSA 5 and Collins PSA 6.5 went for slightly lower than I expected, but the WaJo and Wagner prices made my jaw drop!!

Sick that a PSA 6 vs PSA 5.5 of the same card could command a $6k (w/ juice) premium. I guess the 5.5 buyer had to "settle" for second place....but saved $6k in the process. Maybe 5.5 cracks, resubmit a and has a 6.5. That would be AWESOME!

[ezez420]

That's awesome. The Nap Lajoie and Speaker looked better than 5s and thought would have fetched more.

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

I'm now waiting to see what kind of packaging the $71 shipping charge is going to get me for the 13 premiums I won...

Well, it's hard to complain about possibly the best packaging of any items I have ever received. Shipping charges were way too high, but there was zero chance of my premiums being damaged. If the (big) box had fallen out of the truck and bounced down the highway, I'm confident that no damage to the items would have occurred.

Kind of like TSA security at the airport, you can't logically argue against too much, but sometimes it's excessive.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

Well, it's hard to complain about possibly the best packaging of any items I have ever received. Shipping charges were way too high, but there was zero chance of my premiums being damaged. If the (big) box had fallen out of the truck and bounced down the highway, I'm confident that no damage to the items would have occurred.

Kind of like TSA security at the airport, you can't logically argue against too much, but sometimes it's excessive.

Did you get a tracking number or anything? I've heard exactly nothing since paying the Sunday they sent out invoices.

You'd think that a place demanding payment in 7 days or less would be a bit better about getting stuff sent out. The website says as long as three weeks!

Steve B

[Mikehealer]

Steve, I paid on Sunday as you did, and received tracking info on Monday and received the package on Thursday.

[steve B]

Well, finally maybe sorted out.

I doubt I'll bother bidding in any more of their auctions.
Emailed a question, got no response whatsoever

Waited two days, still nothing.
Yesterday
Call, "we'll call back in a few minutes"
two hours later call again "the UPS store person is doing deliveries we'll call before closing at 4:30" About a half hour from then. What? they close the shop? Apparently the UPS place only has one person dealing with them.
4:29 call again, "we had it written down as shipped but didn't ship it. We'll ship it tomorrow and send you a tracking number" How about crediting the shipping cost? ($17 for three cards ungraded) "Oh, the owner can do that but I can't they'll be around Tuesday"

Finally got a tracking number today
At 6:02PM -shipping date? Tomorrow. Not today as promised.

Irresponsible, incompetent, unreliable.

Second time trying live auctioneers for something, and the second bad experience. (First one the auction house "lost the connection" and continued on for 40-50 lots - including all the lots I'd bid on. Final prices around 10-20% of my bids.)


Is this sort of thing common with larger auction places? I've only gone through a few locals before this, and haven't had any problems at all. They run 3-400 items and manage to get them all shipped in a day or two on their own.

Steve B