Time Capsule: Mastro's 1999
 

Over the years, I've saved some impressive/special catalogs. Not many rival this one from 1999. This type of material was more common to see back then, but man, this was one insane auction...I know that a lot of those T206 cards were bought by the top few registry guys, and are in their "vaults" now.

It's just wild to see this caliber of stuff all in one auction; and shared lots on ONE page (AND many of these were towards the back of the catalog, wow)...if any of this material were offered today, these pieces would garner their own pages, and be #1 lots. Wild stuff indeed.

(Not intending this to become a negative/controversial thread about Mastro's, just thought collectors would appreciate seeing the cards, if they haven't before).

My gosh, that Magie...

Incredible blast to the past, awesome post.

I am the proud owner of one of them.:D

This is normally my rebuttal when people argue time travels exists or will exist in the future...

A lot of the old catalogs had exquisite cards in great condition, raw (and probably not tampered with.)

Very cool.

Catalog or card?

I remember that auction, Michael. What a trip down memory lane! Although many of those cards have disappeared from the hobby - I'd say that I have seen very very few PSA 9 MINT T-206 cards trading in the hobby over the last decade or so. All of those that sold in that '99 Mastro sale are likely to still be with the owner to whom they went back then, nearly two decades ago.

Incredible

Now let's see, is 1999 pre-shill?

To me, Sotheby’s Copeland Collection auction was AMAZING!!! Still have my catalog from the sale plus a duplicate, there was a buzz in the room....

According to the Government’s public accusations and Mastro’s formal public admissions to the FBI the answer to this is: NO! Mastro’s massive shill bidding scheme pre-dated 1999.

Hi Rob, hope you’re well...your time capsule will be posted later tonight (July 2000, I’m sure you remember). ;)

I wonder how many of those might have been "improved" by Bill Mastro prior to the sale?

Wasn't his quote 99% of 8 and above?

Hi Mike! All is well! If only we could go back in time to those early auctions...for starters, you'd have ALL the T206 Proofs now!

The 1990’s REA Auctions didn’t have the beautiful full color catalogs of later years, but looking back, they were PACKED with quality material.

I know that most old auctions are online somewhere these days, but if anyone needs early printed catalogs, I might have extras (I may even have some 1995s still) and am happy to send to anyone putting together a library.

robertelifson@gmail.com

Rob- glad you’re well. I often think back to that tour & dinner that you hosted at your house about 10-12 years ago. Very cool of you.

I actually will email you. I have been building a nice library, and could use a few early catalogs.

Best-
Mike

Well if that's true, that's most of what's shown.

My own recollection was that Mastro stated that anything from the '30's or older, in NrMt-Mt or better, was almost certainly tampered with.

May your collecting be joyful,

Larry

I am sure he also thought he wouldn't get caught either. I would guess there are a lot of tampered-with cards but I think there are quite a few not tampered with too. I don't own these any longer but the Cobby came back an 8...straight from the pack it came in. (along with several Cobbs too)

http://luckeycards.com/phuncrogerspeetset.jpg