REA Boxing Card Results
 

Hi all, I rarely post, but I wanted to know what others thought about the results of the Boxing cards in last nights REA sale.

Low on the whole, I think. Kopec and Pet sets especially. Whoever won could break for a profit, I think. Jeffries gets no respect. Pet Gotch in a 3.5 outselling the Kopec in a 3 by a wide margin seems odd to me, but I guess it's the grade that sells. Old Judge lot winner got a good buy too.

Jack Johnson's did about what I would have guessed; T224 Pet a bit low.

I like these results, good for me.

The Ringside pairs lot of 15 was off the hook - over $200 a piece. I picked up the Cope’s and Dixie Queen lots which I though went very reasonable.

You did great with that Dixie Queen lot.

Some reasonable prices, especially with a lot of the 19th Century lots.

eBay-esque results with the typical items, low on the obscure issues, nice prices on the Jack Johnson Pet Kopec and Caramel cards.

One thing for sure: I got some SGC subbing to do before I sell.

Last REA batch looks like a mixed bag. Tough stuff generally low, common material very high though. REA sales I like to use as a barometer; they tend to lean pretty high with some bidders who seem to have lots of money but don't bother to look what the same card is available for on eBay, and unlike eBay or private sales that constitute my main other reference points aren't being inflated or set by my own bids and offers to juice the stuff I really want.


E78 Berger/Jeffries at $390 feels about right.

N167's are just awesome.

N223 Sullivan at $270 seems like a deal.

N269's for $144-$180 is about right.

T219 Red Cross Ketchell at $132 is ~half what it could get privately. Someone got a good deal. This price is encouraging.

T220 Silver Randall/Belasco in a PSA 2.5 that would get a 1 if I submitted at $108 is more than double the eBay rate.

T226's slightly high, the PSA 5 Walsh at $480 is very high. Over 2X premium to go from 4.5 to a 5 is not what I've been doing in private deals and not what anyone has asked for.

T229 Pet Monte Attell at over $800 is an awful lot, high price.

V153 Choyinski is less than a private sale would fetch. Also encouraging to see. All other Choyinski's markedly more. The tough one of the Choyinski's went the cheapest.

I can't figure out how the hell some stuff went so low. :confused:

I was very pleased with the results of my consignments. Some items went low, some went very high, some broke records (Turquinos Tunney). Overall it was strong enough to merit another round or two of my collection going to market.

Knowing what an item would sell for privately is an inherently suspect analysis, especially with a card that is rarely sold. We all have our pet issues and favorite cards. If I'd been asked to sell the Turquinos Tunney and the Robertson Candy Choynski privately, I'd have been at 20% of the hammer on the Tunney and 200% of the Choynski. For something like that you just cannot know what it will sell for until you test the market. I put up a few postcards that I would have guessed would go $100-$200 at most; they were both over twice that. Needless to say, I am reconsidering my planned private sales.

One certainly cannot know what it would go for, as one cannot know other offers that would arise in an informal type of bid taking; but one does know a minimum from what they've been offering for such items and many of us are certainly aware of the general range and the market. I've yet to find anyone willing to take $132 for Red Crosses or anyone who offers that low (if they exist, PM me and take my money right now, no questions asked). Auctions usually have some high, some low. It's interesting to me that it was the more difficult stuff that the dice rolls went low on and the more common material went high in the 1887-1912 period. Tough N/T/E boxing still seems to get little respect and the more common sets often go higher now.




If anyone wants to sell a Red Cross common for 150% of what the Ketchel went for, call me. 200% for a Ketchel Red Cross. Offering 150% of the Choyinski for a Robertson Candy in worse condition, paid without any fees.

Now you offer…

I hope you bought all of them in REA.

Adam - Just curious why did you decide to go with REA rather than the 20 or other auction houses including the one you assisted with a Boxing only catalog auction some years ago ?

sullivan $270
 

a steal

I really think things went well, and I did not get a chance to bid - boxing has been king at some of my local shows. The last two years has been hard keeping it - and glad I am keeping some for myself!

Jimmy

Ha, I did not though. I won't do business with REA; which coincidentally makes REA a really good double check of the market for me - because it allows me to remove the factor of myself.

A lot of the old boxing market is really dependent on just a couple of us. When I and a couple others were trying to build T218 Tolstoi at the same time, prices ~tripled on eBay and I had to match that in private offers. Now that I'm at 47/50, it seems the price is ~half of what it was again. There are other examples and I'm sure we all have them, but it's very helpful sometimes to monitor a 'reset' by removing oneself.

I was one of the T218 Tolstoi bidders. I have not added one in a while. 2 people can make a market, and 3 or 4 bidders can make a market explode like a small float pink sheet stock. 47/50 is great. I don't think anyone has publicly completed this set. You are the first to know it contains 50 that I know of. I'm in the high 20's still. Grinding away on a lot of sets.

Why no REA, Greg? I've found REA to be among the least offensive and most professional AHs.

We really drove up the price for a minute. I know a couple of the other active guys gave this set up. On the positive side, it flushed out more Tolstoi's into the active trading/selling market than I've been able to find before the spike we drove, which is more important. It's probably a bit easier to complete now than it was 10 years ago or 2 years ago. I don't know of anyone doing multiples or hoarding (except the Jack Johnson investors, but Johnson's Tolstoi is a superprint and not a hard card. I suspect Jeffries is too.) Did you pick up any of the cards Todd M. put on eBay? I grabbed the Abe Goodman I needed and someone else got the rest shortly after.

Shameless plug that I am happily overpaying for the 3 commons I still have left: Jack Goodman, J.L. Hartranft, and Unk Russell :D

I know he isn't running it anymore, but REA is Lifson's baby. Lifson, the library thief (a running ring stealing cards and then getting them into his buddies collections in some versions, a single incident while both high on drugs and drunk, during which he failed and was caught in his own telling). Lifson, the 'expert' who sold all the Halper fraud items as legit. Lifson, the President of Mastronet, a criminal fraud ring. Lifson, who was one of the guys getting card(s) juiced by shill bidding at said Mastronet according to the state. Could keep going, but you get the point.

A company founded and run for many years by this guy raises red flags for me. Don't deal with known thieves, fraudsters, or those who very suspiciously are always getting involved in frauds by their friends for decades. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and seems practically imprudent to enter into business with such organizations rooted in this kind of conduct. It has not been my experience that organization founded, run and shaped by such folks are likely to conduct themselves properly. REA has never sold something I needed bad enough to sign up with them; not sure there's anything I haven't secured yet that would make me flip around and do it anyways. I would not expect anyone to agree or draw the same boundaries I do, and am not claiming that those who make different choice are doing anything wrong. I lay no claim to virtue and do not expect those I conduct business with to possess it either, but I do expect them not to be repeatedly involved over decades in frauds and scams and thefts in the same kind of business as I am conducting with them. That this is such a difficult standard for card businesses to reach and that REA probably is one of the cleaner auction houses, tells one a lot about auction houses ;)

Rob Lifson has no involvement with REA. Brian Dwyer, who is one of the nicest, most honest people you will ever meet in this hobby, owns and runs it. He has assembled a crackerjack crew of professionals who run not only a clean auction but an outstanding back-office. My dealings with REA have been the smoothest experiences ever.

Alan, I selected REA for a variety of reasons, none of them in any way against Al and Love of the Game.

You have to choose an AH based on track record with the type of items you are selling and whether its goals mesh with your consignment. If I want to liquidate my Babe Ruth collection or my baseball photos, Al is my first and last stop. I had stuff in his last auction and I have stuff in his next. No finer or more careful person can be found in this business. That said, the Ringside auction I did with LOTG was a financial bust and was not going to be repeated. LOTG just isn't the place for a big boxing sale, so it didn't make sense to send the cards there. I'm a kickass construction and real estate lawyer but if a client comes in with a bankruptcy case, I refer it out because it isn't in my wheelhouse.

REA has been racking up a track record with boxing cards in the Encore auctions. Which is my 2nd reason for going with REA. REA has a monthly, low opening bid, single card format auction. If I am selling a large collection of cards, I want an auction that will sell the cards as singles, or as close to it as possible. If you let an auctioneer throw 100 of your cards into a grab bag lot, all you have done is hand a middleman--a dealer--a guaranteed profit when he buys the lot at a discount. I’ve made a ton of money breaking down and retailing cards that were inadvisably put into mass lots. I won't sell that way.

Lelands was my other choice at the time but the guy there who does the boxing cards was on paternity leave and they couldn't handle the sale in a timely manner. Which is my third reason: REA's process is fast and seamless. My cards were picked up at my office and in a few weeks they were up for sale. I will probably have a check in hand in a few weeks. Can't beat that turn time.

No, my last purchase was July 2022. I'm at 28/50. I don't have any on your want list. Good luck on it.