When the original Merkin stuff was being auctioned by Hakes, I was an active bidder on a number of cards and photos. At one point about halfway through the collection, during 2012, I came across a Negro League photo that needed further clarification so I reached out to them. While they had plenty of expertise in handling the Cuban/Winter League cards portion of the collection, identifying former Negro League stars pictured on photos had been a tougher task as there are very few images to compare to. I offered my assistance, should they ever need help with identifying teams, players, dates, etc. Over the next two or three years, they would send me a number of Negro League player images to identify any key stars and/or HOF'ers. I guess you could say that I has helping them out on a consulting basis, much the same way as every auction house has their "go to" personnel when tough bidder questions/concerns arise and they are not 100% certain of the answers in-house.
At the point that the Merkin items stopped running, I was told that there is still a lot of memorabilia left, however the majority of the "big ticket" items had been sold. The plan, going forward, for the remainder of the collection was going to be handled through exclusive "Merkin Only" auctions, which would appear online only with no catalogues being mailed out. As to why this process has taken so long to resume, my guess is that since Hake's handles so many different types of collectibles besides sports memorabilia, other things probably became priorities and they are finally now getting around to offering the rest of the Merkin collection.
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