Watching Christies
 

Really impressed with their website and bidding platform. Not surprising, but it is total state of the art. I'm signed up to bid (haven't) but it couldn't be any simpler and easier to use. Balancing live bidders, phone and internet. Smooth as silk. And they move quick. No time wasted.

I'm in the room right now, this is tremendously fun to watch.

Guy is good. Pleasant but efficient and no BS. I may attend tomorrow.

I am watching online.....very slick, easy and professional....

In case anyone is interested in what the room looks like.

Wow!! Expected bigger! I've been watching online. No bids yet. I'm very impressed with the platform as well.

Only in NYC do people show up ready to drop a million dollars in a ratty looking sweatshirt. I'm guessing if this was in Dallas everyone would be wearing a suit.

Well, I made an effort over the phone on one item, but came up a little short. Maybe I'll try again. They make it easy to bid!

Heritage used to have a similar live platform for some of their larger auctions, but I don't remember any of the recent ones being live as well. Do they still do their live ones?

Some more photos from the preview, every item from both days was on view.

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...pshwn2eisi.jpg

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...psptozh3oi.jpg

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps51zvqsem.jpg

http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...psn9xevpz8.jpg

Thanks Jason. Very cool.

That Spalding bat rack was very cool. If I had a bat collection would have been all over it.

I was fortunate enough to be there, and had a great time. I had to leave to catch my flight around noon but was fortunate enough to win lots 14 and 41. 14 I paid full retail and Lot 41 was a steal in my opinion. I will post pictures later.

Here is lot 41 in the back of the cab rid to the airport.

missed lot 93, if anyone knows the winner i'd be interested...

It is a beauty -- and it blew away the$6-7 K estimate, finishing at $50,000 -- including the 25% buyer's premium.

when does the next session start?

Tomorrow 10am. Photos.

In LA it would be shorts and maybe an old ratty t-shirt, flip-flops optional.

Congrats on that one Bob!! That was the one lot I bid on. Looks to be in nice shape. Enjoy! :)
Michael

How does one acquire a prices realized list?

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/l...=6021348&lid=1

Click link and you can scroll lot-by-lot.

They made $6.2 million today. Was the under better on several autograph lots.

Tazmb: There was a Ruth signed ball today that was a nice specimen but I thought it went off at an astronomically insane price. Not saying Ruth autograph balls are a dime a dozen, but there are a lot of them obviously. Am I off on that one?

No the Ruth wasn't even that great of an example, and the price was insane-$35,000. It seemed (to me) the bigger the name went for bigger above market. A Snider contract went for more than a Clemente.

$35,000 + $8,750 = $43,750.

Did anyone win Lot 11, the group of Old Judge cabinets?

Sorry, does anyone know how to print out the entire prices realized list?

Maybe the guy in the pink shirt :)

Lot 1. Trophy bat
 

Sorry I'm on a plane so my connection is terrible. Did lot 1 sell or is it going today? Thanks. Aaron

It went yesterday I believe

Lots 1 through I think 251 were yesterday. Today starts at Lot 261.

Lot 129 anyone win that here?

I heard that the grouping was, in fact, *not* all Old Judge cabinets. I believe that two were studio cabinets and one was a Dog's Head cabinet, according to a friend of mine who was at Christie's for the preview.

m

I saw him :).... He wins everything.

Actually he did not win that lot.

Scott: mystery man in pink shirt says he was the underbidder. Just as well; he would be better served spending the money on some different color shirts.

Pink is the new blue
 

Ease up, guys. It's just a shirt.

Actually it was the white loafers that was over the top.

It must be a New York thing

Magee Horner went for a lot of money. Had my eye on that one.

I actually think it went cheap. I was the under bidder but just too much to bid on. Horners with full mounts are rare..especially an iconic card.

I don't know how to read Christie's. Their estimate on the Magee was $1,500 and it went for well beyond that. But then I see other stuff like a generic stadium photo appraised at $700 and can't understand why.

Four thousand for a mid grade Horner cabinet is a LOT of money. Well beyond what I believe most expected. I have several that I would sell for for 4k, willing to bet no one would even show a trace of interest.

Jay.....I'm not sure the man in pink in the photo would like your NY comparison.......

I am also willing to bet yours aren't a key card to the t206 set.

I regret not buying it. It was a very good price. If you have a Magee, with full mount I will buy it from you.

The estimates were all over the place... probably based on what were originally paid for. They surely didn't go by the recent sales or by current market.

That was a lot of fun! Wish all auctions were conducted that way. I couldn't tear myself away from the screen and loved to see what each item eventually hammered for. Gotta say the auctioneer today was much easier on the eyes than the one yesterday. :-)

Indeed she was. A Brit doing a baseball auction. Every once in a while she would pronounce something different and it amused me. Maryland was always "Mary" Land".

The oddest thing I noticed today was that some of the Ty Cobb photos went for rock bottom prices. There was a lot of them.

I was watching that one too. Figured it would go way higher than that. Especially considering what the other cabinets went for.

Tom C

Christies stuff that I didn't get, but now want
 

This was a super fun (and sometimes stressful) auction, but I really enjoyed it in the end. Given the huge quantities of material, I was bound to wish that I had gotten some things. If someone has buyer's remorse, I would be willing to buy the following lots for the next increment:

33 Page Fence cabinet ($8.5k)
68 Lloyd/Williams bat ($7k)
135 Charleston bat (10k)
203 Cd. Trujillo photo ($5.5k)
334 Hilldate/Daisies panorama ($5.5k)

Very fun auction.... wish that these happened more frequently, but my wallet could not afford it!

The traditional auction format has its merits--very clean, straight-forward and fast. Still, I was saving my cash for one of the later lots, and so I didn't make a serious effort at a couple of earlier lots that either passed or went under the low estimate. I guess that I wish that they would let me pick the order of lots.

+1 Would have been different if I would have known that I would get blown out on my most expensive item....

As already noted the reserves were nuts. The one Ruth photo from his Red Sox days had a reserve of $1,000-$1,500. Did the person who set this have a clue?

I agree. This approximately 8x10" photo whose image was used for Cobb's 1967 Topps Venezuelan card "only" went for $625 after BP. (I didn't win it.) There were others like this also.

Question still not answered: does any one know how to print copies of the prices realized list for both auctions?

I guess the answer is no one knows.

Second Item Won
 

Was thrilled to add this to my collection from Christie's first day of the auction.

Spectacular pickup, Bob. Seeing it in person, it was definitely one of the more magnificent pieces in the entire auction.

-Al

What's the take on the George Davis ALS? It seems to gone for less than I would have thought.

Was VERY surprised at the hammer prices of the Bain Mathewson photos :confused::confused::confused:

And That would have went for double(minimum) if it was not torn in half originally and repaired.

That Pittsburgh litho is top notch - the colors seem to have a glow about them. Bravo!

Reserves
 

I dont believe the estimates were the reserves. I was at day one and the auctioneer would take the bids and for example lot 1 reached a price of $5,000 but was a no sell. The reserves were secret so you never knew what it was.

As a side note, some of the Horner photos were a steal, many came with the original cabinets and were not disclosed. They only took photos of the photo portion and not the cabinet

SALE TITLE The Golden Age of Baseball, Selections of Works from the National Pastime Museum

http://www.christies.com/Results/Pri...id=26565&lid=1

Omg.. I had no idea. I wish I knew that. Crazy. Why would they do that?
I guess.. Same answer to "why not showing borders or backs". Damn..

Same reason that they sold multiples cards in one lot (old judges etc.) but only showed one card in the lot.

It was really fun and very smooth. Very few mistakes by the auctioneer or technology involved.

I got shut out on Ruth Conlons(I am sad as I wanted the portrait-30k hammer). I was, however, able to pick up a pretty special Gehrig Conlon with all the fixins' on back(writing, sig and stamp) and used for the star player candy card.

http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/a...smnkfkb1p.jpeg

http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/a...sagxgxfp3.jpeg

That is a great Lou photo, congrats. Now you need the card to go side by side :)....

Ha! Thanks Leon.
I know this is the card side... BUT... If I have the photo, no need for the card. It's part of the point. I have the rarer.. Older..purer version����

Agreed, card doesn't begin to compare.

1952 Topps Mays PSA 9 sells for $247,500 at Christies. A few months ago, a PSA 9 sold at Heritage for $478,000. Hmmmmm

Pretty big price fluctuation there.

Tony

I used to collect photos used for cards and enjoyed putting them together, next to each other in my collection. I am more of a card collector than a photo collector but still like the photos too.
To each their own....It's part of what makes collecting so fun. If everyone collected exactly the same way it would be boring.

Couple of thoughts on their auction. I got registered pretty easy and their credit line they gave me was very fair without doing any research on me. I was able to put in some absentee bids a week before it began. I was hoping they would let you know if you know if you was the high bidder going into the live auction part, but they do not.

I called a day before the auction to understand how reserves went. I was at first told that only some lots had a reserve on them and the auctioneer would tell us. Then another person jumped on the phone and said every lot has a reserve on it and it's anywhere between 60 percent of the low estimate all the way up to the low estimate.

I watched both days on my home computer and was pleasantly surprised how fast they were able to coordinate all the phone bids, Enet bids, room bids, against the absentee bids which the auctioneer had on podium. I enjoyed not listening to long auction descriptions and really enjoyed understanding what the auctioneer was saying unlike traditional auctioneers (Automobiles, Live stock, etc...).

I was texting a couple of friends during the auction who was in attendance in NY and watching back home as I was. It was nice hearing both perspectives on how they thought the auction was going.

What I don't think Christies did well was the photography of each lot. I wanted to see the backs of cabinets, postcards, and original photos. I was wondering why the Clarke Horner Photo went for more money than others... Answer it was in a complete Horner Cabinet mount but you would never know that from the description or picture. I too wanted to see the group of Old Judge Cabinets which included a Dogs Head. I wanted to see the other four punch cards in the group of 5.

My observation is that it's a tremendous advantage to be in attendance not only to view the actual items, but it seemed that bidders in the room always got their bids taken first which forced outside bidders to take the next increment up.

I like their format. Problem is I can tell it's no where close to their area of expertise. From images to descriptions and most of all the estimates. I feel they hurt many items with low estimates as many collectors/investors entering the hobby might put a lot of weight into what the printed price "should" be.

All and all It was a great expierence and had a lot of fun participating in it as I enjoyed the auctioneer mentioning where people were from when bidding online. I was Georgia and it seemed at times like it was an SEC battle as South Carolina was in almost every Cuban lot.. Well fought!

I snagged a couple of items and will look forward to their once a decade auction. I was hoping to snag the Joe Jackson Semi Pro 1908 team cabinet but ended up being the bridesmaid. I was glad they showed the entire cabinet!

I won one item also (the 1930 Yankees team photo). I believe the others have given really good descriptions of the auction. I just wanted to add that Christies does charge sales tax in a few different states, which might not be immediately obvious: NY, CA, FL, IL, RI, TX. In addition, you can charge up to $50K on your credit card for your winnings. Most auction houses only limit CC to $2-3K, so Christies does allow significantly more. One of the reasons their BP is so high, I guess.

Well done on the cabinet!

Jay cee.. You nailed a lot of my thoughts. The estimates were worthless. The only thing I could come up with is they went off of what the consigner had in them. They made no sense (in the photo auction anyway). And I believe this must have cost them money.
Also, it absolutely amazes me that auction houses continue to leave out the back scans. It is at minimum, 75 percent of how one can tell what a photo is online. It's absolutely ridiculous.
As much as I loved this format, I have a feeling there will be many disappointed people when they receive their photos if they thinking they are type 1s. I am not saying the majority or even half but I will guess double digit percentages.
I could tell just off the fronts and the sizes that some were problematic.
I will give Christies a bit of a pass on this as it is not their wheelhouse of items but there is NO EXCUSE for sports centric auction houses to leave back scans out of photo lots. ZERO. If they do, it must be by design and not for the bidder's/customer's well being at hand.

Was this image ever used anywhere? Hope it comes in as advertised as an Original Paul Thompson photograph.

Pretty sure that one is 100 percent legit. Give or take.. Lol!
Nice addition!

This is what I was told by an attendee that the reserves were based off of, and it sounds like the ranges were then based on the reserves. So the ranges could have been indicative of one collector's buying history, but not necessarily true market value of any one piece?

Correct. Not sure how the attendee knew but I agree with him/her(must be politically correct).

Anyone else want to share their winnings?!

Ty Cobb
 

By Paul Thompson