Not A Good Day For Gurnseys

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Posted By: Bruce Dorskind

Yankee Stadium memorabilia not selling well
By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer
4 hours, 43 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AP)—Not even Yankee pride can overcome the poor economy.

The last ball hit out of Yankee Stadium didn’t leave the auction block Saturday in a memorabilia auction celebrating Bronx Bombers history.

The ball, smacked by catcher Jose Molina on Sept. 21, was one of several big ticket items that failed to sell in early bidding at Madison Square Garden on a trove of Yankees artifacts.

It was expected to fetch up to $400,000, but was pulled after offers fell short of the suggested opening bid of $100,000.

At least one fan on hand for the sale was disappointed.

“I was at that game. I sat in the upper deck up in right field,” said Scott Melman, 24, of Manhattan. “I was hoping to see that ball go.”

A collection of 15 World Series and American League championship rings that once belonged to former Yankees owner Del Webb was also pulled by the Guernsey’s auction house after the high bid of $325,000 fell short of expectations.

The gold rings from 1947 to 1964 had been expected to sell for up to $700,000.


A sterling silver Loving Cup p…
AP - Oct 17, 5:39 pm EDT
More than 400 items linked to the storied franchise were on the block, including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig’s insurance policies, old ticket boxes and game balls, and more than 100 architectural drawings of the original Yankee Stadium.

More than half of the items came from a New Jersey collector.

About 100 people came to the Garden and bid several hundreds of dollars for baseball card vending machines, pictures of Yankee Stadium under construction and posters signed by Mantle and Joe DiMaggio.

Mickey Mantle’s 1949 Plymouth convertible, expected to fetch between $50,000 and $70,000, sold for $34,000.

Bids were expected later Saturday for a three-page handwritten letter that Mantle wrote to his then-fiancee in 1951, a month after his arrival in New York City.

A 1918 pitching incentive agreement for Ruth was expected to fetch bids as high as $900,000. The stained, handwritten document offers Ruth an extra $1,000 if he won 24 games, and $2,000 if he won 30 games in the 1918 season.

“It brings memories back of when I was a kid,” said Joseph Pierre, 70, peering through glass at photographs of DiMaggio. And Pierre doesn’t even root for the Yankees.

“I’m a Dodger fan,” he said, “but I love baseball.”

Molina’s home run ball, hit in the Yankees’ 7-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 21, was caught in the stands by Wyoming state legislator Steve Harshman.

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Posted By: leon

I don't follow memorabilia like I do cards but this doesn't really surprise me...

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I guess the rings not selling surprises me, but 400,000 for Molina's homerun??? That's ridiculous to think that would ever bring that.

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Posted By: Alan U

I wouldn't be surprised if the economy had something to do with it, but it seems like they had some unreasonable expectations for the more recent items, like Molina's HR ball.

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Posted By: Anthony S.

He's only the 3rd best Molina.

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Posted By: barrysloate

If your expectations are too high, anything can pass. Why would someone want to pay 400K for Molina's ball?

Why not open it at 25K and let the bidders fight it out. I'm sure it would have sold for a fair price. The fact that the owner was disappointed with under 100K is plain stupid. It's just not that exciting an artifact.

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Posted By: Doug

Gurnsey's has had this problem before. They did a large movie memorabilia auction last year (Pugliese Collection, I believe), and they overpriced just about everything. Huge amounts of items didn't sell, and those that did, often had reverse bidding (starting at 10k, dropping to 9.5, then 9, and so on).

Doug

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

It's not like it was the first HR in Yankee history; it was simply the last one hit at one building (which had already been drastically changed in the early 70s). Big freaking deal.

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Posted By: barrysloate

And the first homer was hit by Babe Ruth, 85 years ago.

The last one was hit a month ago by a mediocre player.

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Posted By: CoreyRS.hanus

I agree with Doug. The economy is the economy and that is something a consigner has no control over. However he does have control over who he selects to auction the material. Based on what I have seen over the years, Gurnsey's is not the place I would go. They do seem to overprice a lot of the material, and at least in years past have exhibited an amateurism that makes them pale in comparison to some of their competitors. I remember attending one of their rock and roll auctions when someone while the auction was in progress walked in claiming he had John Lennon's driver license. Gurnsey's accepted the consignment on the spot (so much for due diligience and consignment deadlines), gave it to the auctioneer who then offered it for sale. Another time at one of their baseball auctions a high-priced lot was not coming close to reaching its reserve. The consigner of the lot was well-known and was in the room. After literally several minutes of the auctioneer pleading with the high bidder to go higher so the lot would reach the reserve, the bidder stood up and asked the auctioneer to clam up. The bidder went on to publicly scold the auctioneer for treating him like an idiot -- that why would he have any motivation to bid higher inasmuch as he was only bidding against himself, and that after the auction he would go to the consigner and attempt to buy it privately.

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Posted By: barrysloate

There are two basic ways to sell something: by private sale or by auction.

If you won't take less than $1500 for your $1000 item, auction is not the way to go. Offer it privately for that amount, and know full well you may not sell it.

But once you agree to put it up for auction, you should be prepared to take what the market will bear. If that scares you, then auction is not the way for you to go.

That's the way I see it, and I know not everyone agrees.

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Posted By: Rob D.

Auction houses in general -- especially the bigger ones -- need to wake up and realize we're living in a new landscape (and not necessarily the economic one).

Consignors (and bidders) have so many options, the practice of setting unrealistic reserves, hidden reserves, sloppy and flat-out error-filled descriptions in catalogs and eyebrow-raising practices in conducting business need to stop. Look at our hobby ... there are large auctions starting and stopping seemingly all the time. You would think that the auction houses might realize that the balance of power has shifted away from them a bit and to their customers.

There's currently an auction in progress that has a lot containing what was decribed as a vintage (1940s) display piece. My guess is that just about anyone who collects this type of item would know at a glance that the one being sold was a reproduction from the 1990s. And you would think that an auction company of this size would be able to realize that fact for itself. I notified the house before the auction started and e-mailed them pretty detailed evidence and photos, and, to their credit, they corrected the description online. That was a few weeks ago. I've yet to receive a thanks or acknowledgement for pointing this out to them. I'm not looking to have my butt kissed, but this just reinforces to me the mindset and attitude that remains prevalent at more than a few auction houses and why you see outrageously high reserves and estimates like at the Yankee Stadium sale.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

I have to laugh at some of the comments here directed towards auction house consignors with delusional values for their cards: have they all ended up on the BST here? Look at the mindest, it's the same: list an item for 2-3x what it's worth (as easily verified by checking out the VCP); hope some poor bastard bites; lower the price once, twice, three times -- and then off to ebay! Everyone pleads for cards and balls, etc. just to be auctioned off with a $1 starting price but the truth is sellers don't want auctions anymore: they want minimum prices met and anything higher is just a bigger score. You wonder why ebay will probably soon go to a solely fixed-price format...well, there's your answer.

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Posted By: boxingcardman

Plus, that auction was not well-publicized. No one out here heard of it and I did not hear anyone talking about it.

Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

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Posted By: Tony Galovich

They would be the Last auction House I would consign to
They just seem to be out of touch with reality

At their auction in 1989
The auctioneer was offering A Whitey Ford item & when she was asked a question on the item, the gal said she didn't know who Whitey Ford was

Amazing!!