Chicago Area Mega Auction 8/26- 8/27

[ctownboy]

That's what you do when you win the $759 million dollar Powerball jackpot -- you buy an industrial strength paper shredder and then go to this auction and buy the unopened cases of late 1980's and early 1990's baseball cards and go to work.....

David

[NATCARD]

I guess you do not see the 70's unopened, goudeys, playball dimaggios, 1910 world series program and whatever crazy items are hidden away in this giant mess.

[ctownboy]

I saw those but my point was, if you have money to waste and want to help the hobby out, you buy this mass produced junk and get rid of it.

Also, the memorabilia looks to have better items than the cards.

David

[Rich Klein]

The owners of this merchandise were major dealers going back to the 1980's and did this for a long time. Real good people. The husband died a few years ago and now it's just the widow left who went to the shows and knew the hobby perhaps even better than her husband

They specialized in the more modern cards, wax and memorabilia and had a niche in that.

I doubt there will be many "steals" but the sheer volume of what they have left is probably amazing.

And for us, remember this part of the hobby boom would probably have not been possible without the type of material available in that auction.

Remember to paraphrase something Leon says, we are probably about 1/2 of 1percent of the total hobby.(Leon if I have your quote wrong, please feel free to amend that) Now, we spend a much higher percent than that but rest assured, outside of a venue such as the National, we are a blip in the sports collecting world.

Regards
Rich

[quinnsryche]

My dad just got back and said no deals to be had. People were paying more than the stuff was worth in most cases. He said someone paid 15K for a case of 1987 Fleer baseball & $2500 for a 1960 Topps baseball set in average condition. I think that says alot about what's going on there.

[steve B]

That's not unusual for cards in an auction that doesn't usually handle them. The one I used to go to would have some pretty rough 70's cards sometimes as well as the usual junkwax stuff, usually in unopened sets or boxes. It almost always went for more than retail. They were horrible with non- card stuff, getting way less than it was worth unless it was incredibly mainstream like programs or yearbooks.

[Bkrum]

I was there for a while and my sense was that good deals were not easy to find. Mainstream racks, wax, cases, etc were bid right up to the BCE buy list and some of the junkier wax brought prices that seemed a bit aggressive. Tons of publications, postcards, paper items that I'm sure you could do better on. There is soooooo much stuff that prices might weaken throughout the weekend but I didn't sense bidders were shy about buying over and over.
The sets were available for viewing throughout the week so I'm sure potential buyers did a LOT of research before bidding.

[pingman59]

Originally Posted by quinnsryche

My dad just got back and said no deals to be had. People were paying more than the stuff was worth in most cases. He said someone paid 15K for a case of 1987 Fleer baseball & $2500 for a 1960 Topps baseball set in average condition. I think that says alot about what's going on there.

I was there Saturday and it was the 1984 Fleer Update case that went for $15K. Some big money was there buying what they could and yes, some of the cheaper cases went for a little higher-than-normal prices. Some deals could be had, but generally there was a lot of money in the room pushing up prices.

I thought the auction house ran a good, tight ship. The auction began at noon and ended at 9 pm. It took so long because of the aforementioned practice of auctioning and re-auctioning the individual items of a lot, such as autographed baseballs and the tons of unopened cases/partial cases. It would have gone much quicker to sell a lot 16 autographed baseballs for one money, but that wouldn't have maximized the income for both the consignor and auction house, of course.

I couldn't make it for today, Sunday. I suspect there was a similar pace to the auction today. I can't wait for Saturday September 16th! (I think.)

[Leon]

Originally Posted by pingman59

I was there Saturday and it was the 1984 Fleer Update case that went for $15K. Some big money was there buying what they could and yes, some of the cheaper cases went for a little higher-than-normal prices. Some deals could be had, but generally there was a lot of money in the room pushing up prices.

I thought the auction house ran a good, tight ship. The auction began at noon and ended at 9 pm. It took so long because of the aforementioned practice of auctioning and re-auctioning the individual items of a lot, such as autographed baseballs and the tons of unopened cases/partial cases. It would have gone much quicker to sell a lot 16 autographed baseballs for one money, but that wouldn't have maximized the income for both the consignor and auction house, of course.

I couldn't make it for today, Sunday. I suspect there was a similar pace to the auction today. I can't wait for Saturday September 16th! (I think.)

Thanks for the follow up info.....Seems like sometimes small auctions get more money than big ones, but not usually .

[basesareempty]

Originally Posted by pingman59

I was there Saturday and it was the 1984 Fleer Update case that went for $15K. Some big money was there buying what they could and yes, some of the cheaper cases went for a little higher-than-normal prices. Some deals could be had, but generally there was a lot of money in the room pushing up prices.

I thought the auction house ran a good, tight ship. The auction began at noon and ended at 9 pm. It took so long because of the aforementioned practice of auctioning and re-auctioning the individual items of a lot, such as autographed baseballs and the tons of unopened cases/partial cases. It would have gone much quicker to sell a lot 16 autographed baseballs for one money, but that wouldn't have maximized the income for both the consignor and auction house, of course.

I couldn't make it for today, Sunday. I suspect there was a similar pace to the auction today. I can't wait for Saturday September 16th! (I think.)

If it was a sealed 84 fleer update case, $15k wasn't a bad price if it was a typical 100 set case.