Father Passed and Left me his collection. Please Help.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

An independent third party consultant, who knows vintage cards, with no vested interest in selling your your collection is where I would start.

A knowledgeable collector, who lives close to you, probably exists on this board.

You are an unknown to the hobby and for many of this board would your collection would be considered low hanging fruit. The diversity of opinion in this thread suggests to me that this could end well for someone other than you.

People who want your business can be very nice.

Not a terrible idea, but in essence an honest auction house is trying to make you the most money possible as that is how THEY make money. Also is the bolded portion supposed to be a bad thing?

When Jerry Mason was looking at what to do with the Miner's Extra collection he found in a house he was cleaning out, I met with him and gave him a lot of free advice on how to deal with auction houses. He originally had only committed to giving me the non-sports, but I didn't want to see him get taken. I spent quite some time with him going over things without any thought to getting the baseball and boxing cards.

A while later, to my surprise, he called me and asked me to take on the whole collection.

Maybe I'm naive or a Pollyanna, but I believe in helping people regardless of whether or not they consign to me. It's just who I am.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Not a terrible idea, but in essence an honest auction house is trying to make you the most money possible as that is how THEY make money. Also is the bolded portion supposed to be a bad thing?

When Jerry Mason was looking at what to do with the Miner's Extra collection he found in a house he was cleaning out, I met with him and gave him a lot of free advice on how to deal with auction houses. He originally had only committed to giving me the non-sports, but I didn't want to see him get taken. I spent quite some time with him going over things without any thought to getting the baseball and boxing cards.

A while later, to my surprise, he called me and asked me to take on the whole collection.

Maybe I'm naive or a Pollyanna, but I believe in helping people regardless of whether or not they consign to me. It's just who I am.

If Net54 is the Times Square on New Years Eve for the hobby, then a cry for help will be heard by both the angels and the wolves. As a novice, it could be difficult to distinguish between them. Just sayin’

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Can't argue with that, and I did like the overall point of your previous post, just that in a perfect world an auction house can provide that service as they should be on the seller's side wholeheartedly. I mean that's who our fiduciary duty is due to. In PA you can file a complaint against an auctioneer who you feel doesn't keep your best interest first.

That's also an interesting difference. In PA you have to have a license to hold an auction, live or online. that's 360 hours of class time and 60 hours of practical experience OR a two year apprenticeship. Most sports auction houses are in states with no auction regulation. Does that mean those auction houses automatically disreputable? Of course not. But it is something to consider.

[frankbmd]

An experienced and knowledgeable collector is better equipped to deal with an auction house than a novice.

Satisfying suppliers (consignors) and payers (bidders) simultaneously is the art of the auctioneer, but can certainly lead to conflicts of interest.

[Ricky]

REA is an excellent auction house for higher end vintage material and they'll waive the seller's fee on top notch cards. On top of that, some of these cards are tailor-made for individual listings, not group listings. So, it may be worth consigning the top-end cards, like the Cobbs, to an auction house like REA or LOTG and, for the cards that might get grouped into lots, go a different route to sell those.

I'm also one of those who's curious to see better scans, because some of the tobacco and Goudey cards look almost too good to be true...

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Not a terrible idea, but in essence an honest auction house is trying to make you the most money possible as that is how THEY make money. Also is the bolded portion supposed to be a bad thing?

When Jerry Mason was looking at what to do with the Miner's Extra collection he found in a house he was cleaning out, I met with him and gave him a lot of free advice on how to deal with auction houses. He originally had only committed to giving me the non-sports, but I didn't want to see him get taken. I spent quite some time with him going over things without any thought to getting the baseball and boxing cards.

A while later, to my surprise, he called me and asked me to take on the whole collection.

Maybe I'm naive or a Pollyanna, but I believe in helping people regardless of whether or not they consign to me. It's just who I am.

I can say from personal experience as a buyer and seller with Scott he is the most honest guy in the business. All you have to do is look at the descriptions he has used in his previous auctions. There is no BS and he honestly describes the cards.

I can't say enough good things about the man and the service he provides. If going the auction house route I would highly recommend putting him on your short list of prospective AHs.

[packs]

Whatever you do don't sell any of the cards yourself. Send them to an auction house and let them handle the sale. People will make offers and they'll sound good to you, but they won't be.