Mastro Auction

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

Anybody win in Mastro's auction last night?

I was shocked at some of the low prices realized... across the board really. Wish I could have gone on a shopping spree, but my daughter is turning 16, and needs a car

So many bargains though... especially when compared to traditional "Mastro prices". Does this signal the beginning of a down-turn in the market?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Can you give a few specific lots that you feel were undervalued? There is clearly some softness in the market and in the economy, and not every lot being offered is world class.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

I noticed a similar trend in another recent major auction. I put in several bids, fully expecting to be blown out of the water on nearly all of them. Lo and behold, I won everything. I was on the hook for a hefty amount, but the prices were so good that I was happy to pay up in a hurry.

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Posted By: leon

"and not every lot being offered is world class."


At least you didn't use "whilst" and "we". sorry to hijack....now back to our regularly scheduled program..

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Posted By: Max Weder

Mark

I was very pleased to pick this book up in Mastro



The English language edition of this book in dust jacket is very tough to find; I have never heard of the Japanese language edition. As such, it's difficult to say whether I got a good price, or just that nobody else has my taste in unusual books

Mastro indicated it was printed in 1931; I suspect that the Japananese edition was later, but I'll have to show it to a Japanese reader to verify.

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Posted By: CoreyRS.hanus

In slowing economic times, as we are currently in, I would expect soft prices overall on anything other than the creme de la creme. And the Classic Collector auctions, as opposed to the Premier Catalog auctions, by their nature does not have the marquee stuff. So I'm not surprised to hear of low prices.

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

Sure, Barry...

Al Simmons NRMT Cigar Box $180
Babe Ruth very rare Carnival Figure $250
Pair of Rare 1961 Yankees and Reds Photo Pennants $180
Very nice Babe Ruth SS Ball (7.5) $3,250
Very nice Connie Mack SS Ball (8.5) $325
Mordecai Brown Cut Signature (8) $800
Kennesaw M. Landis signed Letter $200
Eddie Collins signed letter- Red Sox Letterhead $325

Ultra-rare Catchers Mask with pivoting Ear Flaps $650
(May sound goofy, but estimate would be $1,200 - $1,500 in Hunt's)

And the biggest steal of the auction... a lot containing 2 Eddie Collins Signed letters on Red Sox Letterhead (perfect), an Eddie Collins Signed Contract (perfect), a Will Harridge signed letter (perfect) and more. This lot sold for $800. The winner could break this up, sell off the various parts for over $3,000 and keep one of the Eddie Collins signed Letters for free!

There were lots more examples... these few just stood out. Probably because I am used to seeing Mastro prices go haywire (for as long as I can remember, anyway). Hope this helps "paint the picture".

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Posted By: barrysloate

Leon- please substitute "world class" with "high end." I must be reading too many of The Groups posts.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Mark- since I never deal in autographs I wouldn't even recognize that those prices were soft.

But maybe with all the bad signed material circulating, some people are beginning to take notice.

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

OK.... perhaps not "World Class" stuff, but those items mentioned above are borderline "high-end"

Many of these pieces could have gone off in their Premier Auction, just as easily.

With regard to the autographed items, I would sure hope that the current Coach's Corner fiasco would be more impacted (by our Board's actions and negative PR) than Mastro's. But I hear what you're saying...

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

Max... very cool book!

What is the English Language version titled? I can't even begin to read those Japanese dialects on the cover(but the "Babe Ruth" name translation is quite interesting!)

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Posted By: Max Weder

Mark

It's called "How to Play Baseball", published by Cosmopolitan (no, not that Cosmopolitan), "written" by the Babe himself.

Max

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Posted By: scgaynor

Max, I was the underbidder on that book. For whatever it is worth, I thought it was worth $400-500. I guess I should have hit it again, but am glad that you got it.

Scott

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Posted By: Brian McQueen

I would agree with the opinion that some of the lots in the auction went low. Granted I don't follow memorabilia auctions very closely so I will just speak for what I saw on the card side.

My focus was primarily on the group lots that ended Wednesday. These were roughly lots #1-#20 in the auction. Several of these went low I thought. The group of 25 e92s was low, a couple of the grab bag lots were low and the e98 lots were very low, which surprised me given that e98s had been red-hot prior to this. I wanted to pick up several groups but I just stuck with the e98s and ended up winning lot #12 and #17.

Not sure why prices fell off, I think one reason might be that this was certainly an auction for the average collector - not a lot of really pricy or high end material. No e107 HOFers, e90-1 Jacksons, e94 sets, n167s, etc...Those things will probably be held back for their big spring auction so they can go head to head with REA again. In fact, the very first lot in this auction was a simple lot of five low-midgrade n28s if that tells you anything. So this auction might not have gotten a ton of attention from the heavy hitters in our hobby thusly keeping prices down.

Just my two cents and again, I'm just speaking on cards now, not necessarily memorabilia.

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Posted By: Max Weder

Scott

I agree. I'm not sure how much north of $500 I would have gone, but around $500 is where I thought it should have ended.

Max

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Posted By: Brock G.

Several stadium seats went real cheap.
Original Crosley field seat for $200
Two Fulton County Stadium seats for $120

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Posted By: Phil Garry

IMHO this was the weakest Mastro Auction that I can remember. They are probably holding all of the good stuff for their April Spectacular vs REA............

I did not find one lot to bid on

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

There are a couple of lots on which I now wish I had bid, but nothing incredible. Not a big deal.

Despite overall low bidding in the autograph area, I am rather sickened that somebody felt that $2300 was an acceptable price to pay for a Barack Obama single-signed ball. That's ridiculous, considering what a willing signer he's been while on the campaign trail.

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Posted By: James Feagin

You mean the same Obama balls that have been selling for $100 or less on ebay for months? As for this signalling a downturn in the market, I think that assertion gives Mastro WAY TOO MUCH CREDIT. Almost everyone thought this is one of their worst auctions ever, and as such, never gave the catalog a second look. However, I think the upcoming Goodwin, REA (especially) and Huggins and Scott Auctions will really tell the tale if the market has truly downturned.

James

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Posted By: barrysloate

I'll predict prices will be pretty strong across the board, mainly because those auctions will feature their best material.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

For what it's worth I thought the photograph prices in the Mastro auction were down and now wish I'd payed more attention to the auction, but whatever. Prices for photographs on ebay are down as well (Henry Yee's not withstanding). Even though this wasn't Mastro's best auction stuff it wasn't crap either. Looking at the toys I think they were down as well.

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

I'll give you guys over at H&S a lot of credit for the continued improvement from one auction to the next. You guys have been on an upward swing ever since I first started receiving the catalog. Good stuff.

REA's auction always seems so impressive because he only does one per year. Although many of us are familiar with Rob's dogged pursuit of quality material, who's not to say that another auction house couldn't come up with a selection of equally-impressive material if they were forced to reduce to one auction per annum? This means little to me, however, as I always look forward to both of the mentioned auctions. Enjoyable writeups from both firms, and the gorgeous layout/images really stand out in Rob's catalog.

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Posted By: Mark

Agree with you, Jodi...

I have gone back to look at and reference the old REA Catalogs more so than any others. There is a lot to be said for their "once a year" philosophy (and the resulting "cream of the crop" items that they attract).

Hopefully, this year's will be no different!

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Posted By: Mike

Remember the total price doesn't include the 20% premium plus shipping etc. So a $1000 item is really over $ 1200 in Mastro. Final price isn't as low as you think.

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Posted By: DJ

I couldn't agree with any of you more. H&S and REA do tremendous work. In saying that, I am amazed at the low prices in this Mastro auction. Items I expected to fetch $1000-1200 sold for as little as $400 and the Sandy Koufax signed photo lot only brought a little more than $100 per signed photo. Even some of the other signature lots could be had for song. Nice work to those who came away with items. Could the economy truly play a role here?

DJ