Posted By:
bruce dorskind
Peter
The hobby is far from dead. Prices continue to rise at
a rate far exceeding Wall Street or the CPI.
Demand for the very best items soars.
The reason that so few extraordinary items are sold at
the National is that very few of the "major buyers" who
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or more a year
on baseball cards feel comfortable walking the floor
of a convention.
The reason that 80%+ of these items are found in REA and
Mastro Auctions is that the collector owners recognize
that auction prices almost always exceed private sale
items.
Most of the National Dealers do not have the financial
bandwidth to acquire $5000 items and keep them in stock.
Accordingly most, but certainly not all of the dealers,
take items on a consignment basis.
This is much the same situation that one finds in the
art world, with most stamp and coin dealers and others.
Cash is a rare commodity....
There will be a great deal of selling at the National but
the top 2% of the items will primarily change hands through
REA, Mastro, David Hunt etc
Bruce Dorskind
America's Toughest Want List