Input on submitting items to Auction Houses
 

I talked with an old friend this week. He has a pretty substantial baseball collection. It ranges from 1910s tobacco- mid 60s topps. A lot of complete sets. Most of the cards are raw, some of the stars are graded. Most of the collection was put together from the early 80s-late 90s. Highlights are a complete 33 Goudey set minus the Nap, psa 5 52 mantle and mid grade or higher star cards.

After seeing the spike in cards prices, he told me has decided to sell it all at once and wants to use a major auction house. He also mentioned he wanted collectors to get first crack at the collection rather than use a dealer. Looking for recent experiences from Net54 members using auctions houses. How has the process been? Any recommendations? Got what you valued submissions at?

Any information is appreciated. Believe he will be looking to sell in the new year.

His best bet is Give it all to REA and be very happy, way less hassle. I bet they will give him a great consignment rate considering he has some killer stuff.

Rea
 

REA

POC is Dean Faragi there.

100%:)

This question will probably annoy people.

How much of the collection is graded?

An assumption here is that an auction house will probably end up submitting the higher value material. That brings another question - how does the auction house take car of that expense?

I like lots of AHs and don’t want to publicly support any particular one on this specific query. But I do have thoughts and have PMed you.

Give it to REA and they will figure out how to sell it. Also, if it is substantial, have REA create a separate thinner catalog of his material and they can mail it out with their main catalog, so his stuff won't get lost among the rest of the catalog. That thinner catalog will the [his name] collection.

They have it graded at their lower prices with the grading companies and deduct the actual cost from the consignor's take.

However, it is worth it if the cards are in nice condition.

REA is a good choice but so is Heritage, Memory Lane, and Goldin IMO.

I wonder:
- What the percentage of business the AHs represent for the TPGs.
- How much priority the AHs get over a typical submitter.
- What the turn-around time is for an AH on cards submitted to the TPGs.

Lots of people have their favorites but I don't think there's ever been a meaningful analysis showing any one AH consistently beats the rest across a range of material. We've had tons of threads like this and the answers are always all over the place. If I were ever inclined to consign and I'm not, I would call a number of the top ones and see who I felt most comfortable with and got the best terms from. There's no right answer.

-<5%
- a fair amt of priority
- quicker than it’d be if i sent it in

Whichever way he goes, he needs to be very very specific with them about lotting. Might even be worthwhile to give the less expensive slabbed stuff to an AH that specializes in single card sales of that sort, like Sterling. And whoever gets the Mantle (a $100K card) should give back a % of the BP in addition to a no-commission deal.

Whoever gives you the best finders fee

Based solely from a buyer perspective, plus one for REA. Heritage also great. LOTG too. With those cards it’ll be hard to go wrong.

Agreed a little bit of leg work is required. You want to get as much of the sellers fee back as possible 5 to 8% however you also want to ensure that the AH will take care of the cards the way your friend is comfortable including talking to them asking things like
1. Lotting
2. Like how his special cards be featured in email blasts, catelog etc.
3. How they handle duplicating competing cards of other consignors
4. How will they handle the ungraded cards, which should be graded, grading fees

Either way great sounding collection and most of the AH’s will do a great job just decide which is best for them

Whatever auction house he uses I’m sure he will do great based on the caliber of his collection ! I bet you have already received multiple pms from dealers/AH wanting to get the collection. We have a large number of dealers, consigners, and auction houses as members.

Used Heritage and REA and both were great but give the edge to REA. Also Love of the Game is good.

Rea
 

REA just came to my home & picked up items for their spring & summer auctions. I have consigned with them in other auctions very satisfied. They will work with you on consignment fees. Very professional & thorough. Good luck Joe.

REA gets my vote. I’ve had ZERO issues buying or selling through them, and I can’t say that for many others.

Based off another super strong auction last night your friend should just give all his stuff to REA for their spring auction, he will win !