[marzoumanian]

In the last REA auction, held Nov. 20-Dec. 6, I consigned two items, a 1970 Topps baseball complete set (with the top 10 stars graded by PSA) and a 1968 Topps baseball Mike McCormick card with white letters (graded PSA 7).
The process went very smoothly (thanks, Calvin Arnold). The catalog write-ups were very accurate. When the auction began I didn’t pay much attention to the bids. This wasn’t the first time I consigned sports memorabilia to an online auction house. I knew action in the first few days would be slow and, frankly, irrelevant. All that really counts for a consignor is the last dollar amount (before buyer’s premium) on the last day. I was grateful to see that on “opening day” my 1970 Topps set went from $300 to $450. There was interest.
But when I received the huge REA catalog in the mail and turned to my lot (#1435) I noticed that my set wasn’t the only one from 1970. One set had a huge number of graded cards but another (#1436) was very close in makeup to mine. Uh oh. I’ve got direct competition, I thought. Rarely did a day go by when a bid wasn’t placed for my set. And bids for that “competing” set rose in tandem.
By Saturday, December 5, bidding on these two sets was fast and furious. That’s when something strange happened. I found myself checking on the status of these two sets way too often. Like once every hour or so. Maybe it was because I couldn’t go out and see a movie or a live sporting event, thanks to COVID-19 restrictions.
Both sets stood at $825 late that afternoon. The rest of the evening I continued to check their status frequently. I didn’t understand why I was addicted to checking bids. I could have been spending my time much more wisely.
That’s when an old song popped into my head. Does anyone remember the singer Robert Palmer? Great voice. Sadly, he died at 54 of a heart attack. One of his hit singles was “Addicted to Love.” It’s a great song but the music video, made in 1985, is even better. If you haven’t watched it ever (or in a long time) it’s definitely worth checking out on YouTube. Five attractive young models, all dressed in tight black dresses. White face makeup. Bright red lipstick. Pretending to play their instruments. The “Ladies Edition” is my preferred version.
I found the lyrics to this song and printed them out. A couple of lines describe what I was experiencing:
“You can’t sleep. You can’t eat.
“There’s no doubt. You’re in deep.”
Forget love, I was addicted to tracking bids on my consignments.
By Sunday morning, December 6th, my 1970 Topps set had hit $900 while the competing Topps set remained at $825. Then everything changed. The bids for my set started taking off in mid-afternoon. When I went to bed that evening my set stood at $1800. The other set? $1500. When I woke up on Monday morning the 7th the final bid for my set (before buyer’s premium) was $2500 while the competition topped out at $1800. I was very pleased with the end result. But I wanted to determine why my set took off on the last day.
I found the answer by carefully reading the REA lot descriptions for these two sets. My set was described as 23 percent Nr/Mt to NrMt-Mt; the condition of the competition was 20 percent NR/Mt. But much more importantly, I had taken the top 10 star cards in my set and had them graded by PSA. My competition had submitted his set to REA completely raw. REA selected three cards for grading by SGC. I believe this difference was the main reason why my set went for $700 more than the other 1970 Topps set. And that’s why I can’t stress enough the importance of having your star cards graded and preferably graded by PSA. It remains the gold standard when it comes to auctioning of your graded cards/sets. Even if you disagree with the grades your star cards receive from PSA (or question its current struggles with customer service), the fact that they’re graded by PSA will, in my opinion, make a positive difference in the final auction price.
I still needed to pinpoint why I was “bid addicted” during the last weekend of this (and past) auction (s). It wasn’t about the money involved; I’m already financially secure for life. After much introspection I’ve concluded that it’s all about validation. It’s comforting to know that what I collected many years ago has value. Of course, the worst that could happen to any consignor’s item is to see no bids or one bid only. My 1970 Topps set had 52 bids. The check I received just 10 days later (thank you, REA) was the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae.
Now, I’m well aware that true addiction, in all its forms, is a very serious matter. I’m glad to see that people with drug, alcohol and gambling addictions can reach out and get help. I believe that what I did can help others with serious addictions problems. Specifically, I forced myself to take a hard look at my actions and ask that all-too-powerful one-word question: Why? No matter what the addiction, asking yourself, “Why am I doing this?” can aid in recovery.

I wish everyone a Healthy and Happy New Year!