AH guys - ask me anything?

[Snapolit1]

I know there are at least 5 or 6 board members who run an AH. Sure we all know who they are. I think it would be fun to have an auction house version of “ask me anything”. Many questions I have always wondered about the business of running an auction.

I also realize AHs are in competition with each other for consignors and customers, so there may be a lot of issues that people will not want to publicly address. And I’m talking about general issues of running an AH, not anything specific to a specific sale or card.

Here’s one I always wonder about.

I’ve never had a reason to call an AH on the night an auction is closing. But most (all?) have a number and say they are available for bids and questions. How many phone calls do you guys get on closing night? Is it non stop or just one or two?

[Orioles1954]

I'll answer that one. We have 5 lines for auction night calls and we always have 2-3 going from 6 PM to Midnight and often have all 5 lines operating, especially when initial bids have to be in by 10....pretty non-stop. Most of the callers tend to be older.

[UKCardGuy]

Great idea for a thread. I have a question:

Do you have have specific theme for an auction and actively seek consignments for that theme or does a theme evolve from the consignments that you receive.

On a related note, do you take requests from buyers (e.g. when you have loads of buyers asking for an item, you tried to find consignments to meet the demand)?

[sb1]

I have not had a call in years. Last one I recall was the bidder was attending a game somewhere and had to place bids over the phone rather than online.

I also bid in about 100 auctions a year, and have not called one of them in over a decade, but certainly remember talking to Lew, Barry, Rob, Bill and everyone else in the wee hours of the morning. I don't believe it is really a factor in this era where nearly every bidder has a computer/phone/tablet of some type.

Scott

[sycks22]

For the auction house owners what's the "one that got away?". Have you been offered a T206 Wagner or something 100k+, but at the last minute they changed their minds.

[Snapolit1]

How often do you get a call or email after an auction closes of someone insisting he will pay more than the winning bid and begging you to take it?

[sycks22]

Not really a question, but more of a comment. I appreciate AH's telling you beforehand that they already have your consignment in the grade so it'd make sense to save it for another auction. There's nothing worse than seeing your card along with 5 identical cards in the same auction. Brian Dwyer comes to mind when he's honest about already having a certain card.

[Bobsbats]

Originally Posted by sycks22

Not really a question, but more of a comment. I appreciate AH's telling you beforehand that they already have your consignment in the grade so it'd make sense to save it for another auction. There's nothing worse than seeing your card along with 5 identical cards in the same auction. Brian Dwyer comes to mind when he's honest about already having a certain card.

Al from Love of the Game, emailed me that they already had a card that I had consigned and was it okay to hold it for their next auction. I thought it was a standup thing to do.

[cgjackson222]

Originally Posted by Bobsbats

Al from Love of the Game, emailed me that they already had a card that I had consigned and was it okay to hold it for their next auction. I thought it was a standup thing to do.

I love that about Al and Love of the Game. Great folks over there.

[Jewish-collector]

Another question is how the hell do you stop an AH from bugging you to consign an item. I made the mistake once of asking an AH what the value of something was and now they keep bothering me every 6 months or so....

[Yoda]

Do you think catalogues will gradually become a thing of the past? They are a big expense for the AHs but great for both consignors and buyers who now have a tangible reminder of auctions past. REA just messaged me if I wanted to continue receiving their catalogues. Emphatic yes on that one.

[sycks22]

I think everyone should adopt the $10 off like Huggins does for not taking a catalog.

[Bobsbats]

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[Mark17]

My question for AH would be: When you're offering a GU item used by a guy like Ted Williams or Willie Mays, why do you spend paragraph after paragraph telling us how great they were?

We know that.

What I want is a detailed description of the item and in particular, is it all original and if not, in what ways?