major auction houses a lesson to be learned

[Leon]

As an auctioneer I like the long drawn out descriptions- not. I mean does it really take 3 paragraphs to describe a T206 Red Cobby in vg condition?

The auctions I like most are the ones that give big, clear, front and back scans of cards. Most of us, especially on this board, have a darn good idea of what we are looking at most of the times. And every time I hear the term "pop report" I just cringe. But I am not a pop report kind of collector (not that there is anything wrong with that, all collectors are good in my book).....I would rather hear how many are truly known about in existence. That number, such as an example (this might not be accurate but is for example only) of a PSA 7 Red Cobb.....maybe it has a pop of 8, or something. That is wonderful. The known population is probably 350 but only 8 have been graded a 7. And some of these might not even be trimmed.....

Memorabilia is another story and a nice description is needed for provenance, dating etc.....

[Orioles1954]

Originally Posted by Leon

As an auctioneer I like the long drawn out descriptions- not. I mean does it really take 3 paragraphs to describe a T206 Red Cobby in vg condition?

The auctions I like most are the ones that give big, clear, front and back scans of cards. Most of us, especially on this board, have a darn good idea of what we are looking at most of the times. And every time I hear the term "pop report" I just cringe. But I am not a pop report kind of collector (not that there is anything wrong with that, all collectors are good in my book).....I would rather hear how many are truly known about in existence. That number, such as an example (this might not be accurate but is for example only) of a PSA 7 Red Cobb.....maybe it has a pop of 8, or something. That is wonderful. The known population is probably 350 but only 8 have been graded a 7. And some of these might not even be trimmed.....

Memorabilia is another story and a nice description is needed for provenance, dating etc.....

With type cards I tend to give pop reports as it often paints a picture, and bidders usually appreciate that kind of information. It's a somewhat tangible tidbit of information for certain lots. As far as needlessly long descriptions with flowery language, I envision a kid just out of college who is trying to regurgitate everything they googled in order to fulfill a word count. Not impressive.