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RedCleaning up the hobby sounds great and nobody would argue against it, but Mears had to be thinking their "deal" with the auction houses would go over big and they'd see a big increase in their market share for authentication services. It sort of backfired as the only auction house to sign on with them runs one auction a year. They may be the best authenticators out there but nobody wants to be told how to run their business or be forced to give valuable consignor and buyer info to a competitor.
But maybe what changes now is that a collector will need to send their item to Mears prior to giving it to a big auction house like Mastro for example. If the only reason you're getting something authenticated is to sell it then Mears would obviously be in a much more advantageous position of being able to make a play at handling the sale of the item as well. So while they'll lose out on submissions from auction houses where they have no chance of handling the sale, they would pick up submissions directly from collectors where they'll have a better opportunity of becoming the person handling the sale of the item. This will make them a bigger player in selling the stuff rather than just making a few bucks authenticating it.
11-13-2007, 05:28 PM
MEARS effort to help clean up the hobby. REA signs on.
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