Salesman hyperbole
 

Did you ever see something you were possibly interested in but the exaggerated write up is such a turn off that you just write it off entirely because you have a gut feeling that buying the item would somehow be rewarding the idiotic write up? Maybe just me, but when you start throwing around terms like “once in a lifetime opportunity” and stuff like that you are on a very short pier.

The 'Don West' Phenomenon...........

absolutely! such hyperbole turns me off to a whole auction house.

I know my want list pretty well. I do not care what they say about the items, only is it on my list, what condition is it in, and how much do they want for it ( or alternatively how much am I willing to spend on it). I actually find the write ups to be entertaining sometimes.

Net54

Where the most knowledgeable and intelligent prewar collectors in the solar system generously share their wisdom and insight, offering nearly factual opinions regarding the authenticity of a panoply of the rarest cards, autographs and memorabilia from the elite sporting worlds of baseball's most regarded batsmen and mound craftsmen, pugilists from the golden age of the sweet science and the proficient pigskin toters and tossers when real men wore leather helmets without face masks.

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Where you can even rebuff another member's price, opinion or seeming ignorance, provided you do so in a jocular manner and post your full given name.

And where Leon Luckey is always hiding in the shadows, rarely showing his face, thank god, to graciously administer all of the activities honestly described above.

Lifetime memberships are absolutely free of charge, but come without an ironclad guarantee of sustainability.:eek:

Exactly.

No question about it...too much flowery writing makes for a big stink.

What also bothers me is when a member writes a description giving the impression like they are an expert and I know for a fact that they have no clue.

Jeff

I skim the paragraphs looking to see where the card attributes are. I do my best to ignore the rest. It would be nice if an auction company would do it all the same way. Say, put the flowery crap at the top but have the last paragraph (or first would be better) say what I really want to know. A flat screen is not 3d so things can be missed on cards and those I want to know about. I don't need to know Ty Cobb was great or Ruth was Ruthian, anymore. I got it.

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As long as the scans are clear, I don't even read the description.

Well done Frank! :p

There are times where fluff is requested by the consignor.

I’d be happy to read the description and learn something. But don’t need a full career retrospective.

Net54 in a nutshelll. Frank gets fluff. However if he were to stick to the basics on his own self-description it should read: Heavy surface wear and soiling, wrinkling on backside, 90/10 off-center Top to Bottom.

Brian

I always laugh when there's a write up talking about the career of a well known player. I never knew Ruth hit 714 home runs until now.

He has a lot of toning too, and is somewhat out of register.

Never
 

Never read, just look and make an opinion.

When I was collecting, I always read the write-ups very closely. Prior to the grading of cards, the write-up was all we had to discern whether or not we wanted to pursue what the seller or auctioneer was offering. The 80s - 90s SCD auction photos were postage stamp-sized and grainy, but we made due because at the time, they were "cutting-edge" tech. The masterpiece of my collection was won with this type of photograph in an SCD auction.

You've all made good points about needless overall history of the given player. However, I thought it was good to succinctly present the historical significance of the year the card was produced, in relation to the player's season.

No doubt some of you would be better experts of many of the cards than the auction house writer.

Be that as it may, presenting pertinent facts from PSA / SGC population reports is always a good idea. Calling out glowing characteristics of the given card is vital, particularly when any of those characteristics are quite uncommon for the issue. Finally, if a given card does not come up for auction very often, and especially if it is indeed "rarely", the auction house had better present this valuable information, and explicitly state such. They owe this to the consignor, as well as to all potential bidders.

Remember, many collectors are not as knowledgeable as you, and newcomers are babes in the woods. I mean, you'd be surprised how many collectors don't know what the hell they're looking at in an auction catalog, and the significance of the piece. Granted, some of the verbiage is outlandish, cheesy, unnecessary, and immature.

Regardless, good auction write-ups influenced me, along with good crisp photos / scans. Obviously, the latter, along with the grade, is the most essential to of all to us.

--- Brian Powell

I remember with the Mastro catalog descriptions, you'd have to skip the first 800 words to find out what was being offered auction.

I'm not near a knowledgeable as many here but the first thing that catches my attention is the scan of the card/s. I gets me when the description states great/perfect centering but it is so off centered that I wouldn't have it. The description is the last thing that I digest.

+2. As someone doing a well centered T205 set, and who searches for T205 "centered", almost every one listed that way isn't centered. I could almost rule out that word and do better!! Great scans are a must or many times I have to pass.

+1. That's exactly what I do. I hate it when they bury information on the product in a paragraph of information about the career of the player; makes it harder to skim through.