Great points!

But in all honesty, I think Hunts' latest live auction put a temporary "hold" on the infamous memorabilia drought.

That is a really good point as liquidity matters. We all use the same resources to try and establish value and when that information is unavailable or old you lose that sense of knowing what the “market” is. As we all know that information can and has been manipulated so it works both ways.

I am one of the back in the hobby guys and have been buying more type 1 photos, some tickets and an assortment of vintage cards. That said for me the market is for me what I am willing to pay and I am either going to lose or win in the long run, but at least I bought what I liked.

Absolutely Mark! The latest Hunts' Auction catalogue is jam packed with AMAZING memorabilia...

In the last 5 years I have gotten some incredible pieces of memorabilia from Hunts. Frequently for better prices than I thought. Let others complain about the website and refuse to look at their auctions. Wish there were more of those folks.

Look at Goldins latest auction and sort by highest price first. Card guys are ridiculous.

Even REA is incredibly light on memorabilia in their current auction. It's nothing like it was even 5 - 10 years ago. I believe people are holding on to the rare/unique memorabilia for the long-term, whereas there are many more "flipper/investors" in the card world.

In light of how light most AHs are on memorabilia these days, I've particularly amazed about all the amazing stuff Hakes gets. Their Negro League memorabilia alone has been off the charts great this year. So great I haven't been able to afford any of it. But amazing.

No kidding. REA has exactly one GU flannel - a 1966 Orioles coaches shirt. They used to have several quality flannels, usually including some high-end ones.

Right! They used to have at least a couple dozen Game-used pieces per auction. I am convinced that collectors are holding on to this stuff with tight fists.

While LOTG has some decent memorabilia in their upcoming auction, their catalog just reinforces to me that, if you want almost any card, it's just a matter of having the money. Quality memorabilia is hard to find, even when money is no object.

Mark,
I totally agree with this! ;)

A little off topic, but is the auction catalog out yet? I can't find anything online, just the old summer auction. Thanks!

Hunt Auctions Live Louisville Slugger Museum Auction this Saturday is almost majority memorabilia.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Thank you!

+1 agreed

every auction they get great Negro League Memorabilia and other nice and unique items also that I do not usually see at other Auction Houses

Since I live close I visited their office the last two auctions to preview the items. Although I only won one item it was incredible to see and hold many of their items. I hope we will see more in the future.

For the last several years, they've been parceling out items from perhaps the best negro league collection ever (Richard Merkin) and the best pin collection ever (Paul Muchinsky.) As the prices reflect, much of the material coming out of those collections are the only examples ever seen or at least rare as hell.

Agreed great stuff. Did not realize it was coming from just a few collectors.
Wish I would have jumped on it years ago when I saw it but never really paid attention to it and now looking at it there are great items and amazing history behind them

Are those 2 collectors still alive?

Just curious why they have had these items in their auctions 3-4 times a year for the past 5 years or so. Seems almost never-ending.

Why not have a big one? and what is their tie to Hakes......almost seems like 50-70% of their auctions are from those collections rest of the stuff is filler.

Richard Merkin passed some years ago. For those who do not know him, he was a respected avant garde artist, so reknown in fact that he appears on the cover of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album. There are several collectors/dealers I know who bought his baseball paintings, regarding them not only as significant works of art but also as prudent investments. As has been noted, his collecting interest was Negro league baseball, and he possessed arguably the most significant collection in that field. Richard was a very warm person, intensely loyal to his friends. Among his close friends was Ted Hake, founder of Hakes Auctions.

As to why Hakes has been selling his items slowly over the years, I do not know except to comment that if the Merkin estate did not have need for the funds upfront, given the size of the collection compared to the size of the market, selling it in one or two shots would have probably presented the market with more material than it could absorb, thus preventing the estate from maximizing the amount it could potentially receive.

very good info thank you.

Paul passed away several years ago. I’ve talked to his son and widow and the original “plan” (as I was told) was to put all his pins in “trust” for Paul’s then two year old grand daughter. Either the plan changed or the grand daughter still has a bunch of the pins.

Love of Games has a lot of variety of Memorabilia from pennants, tickets, scorecards, photos, figurines and so much more.

I am in sensory overload and actually put in alot of initial bids for alot of items

Good Luck all

Larry Ritter of "The Glory of Their Times" fame was also close to Merkin, and told me he loved to rib him about Richard's beautiful rent-control apartment in which he housed his collection and his art studio and for which he was paying peanuts. Merkin finally lost that apartment, and I think he might have started selling off his collection at that point.

With respect to Hake's, selling the Merkin and other collections has also increased their visibility in that market. I had a dozen or so negro league photos to sell and sent them in to be split between the most recent auction and the upcoming one.

While I haven't pulled the trigger yet, there are at least half a dozen lots in that auction I plan to make a play for....

I definitely agree that the Merkin collection has made Hake's the place to go for Negro League collectors looking for items. If I ever moved anything of mine, I would definitely consider selling through them for that reason.

And also seeing some nice pieces at LOTG

some nice Negro League items at REA:

https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...e?itemid=94990


https://bid.robertedwardauctions.com...e?itemid=95223

very nice in deed and some other really nice memorabilia including pictures, pennants, advertisements and more

Sensory Overload