Auction houses..make money but the owners are they "smart"
 

Mile high, lelands, scp, goldin, lotg
All ending 22nd 23rd and 24th
5 auctions in 3 days
Talk about not maximizing profits

There are other smaller ones ending now too. It is a lot to digest. It seems like a fairly healthy market right now. Putting simple math numbers to it (and I am imeninently aware of costs and expenses), it doesn't look like most are losing money.

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I’m guessing a good deal of profits are made by bidders who have the disposal income to bid strong in multiple auctions at the same time.

Auctions
 

I said theyre making money, no doubt,
But not possible that they are maximizing profits

Keep in mind Larry that closing dates are set well in advance without beforehand knowledge of each individual AH's planned closing dates.

That said, even with the number of closings this week, bidding for us has been crazy strong! Will be fun to watch tonight.

Or the consignors are collectors, can see how much cash they are going to receive, and are also bidding at the same time.

There are so many auctions throughout the year. Even with auction house cooperation I am not sure there is an ability to space them out much more than they already are. Cannot see that prices would be even higher if LOTG, Leland's and Mile High were spaced a week apart. Based on what I have seen prices have not been hurt in the least. I think the hobby has a great deal of tolerance for what is being offered.

I do not think that having this number of medium sized auctions closing at the same time is a problem. The total is probably not much different than one of REA’s or Heritage’s premier events.

Those were my thoughts.

FWIW, as a consignor of a top 3 lot in LOTG, I am very happy with the action the item has seen so far. And as a bidder on other lots, there's some really strong competition. So, I don't think the fact that several auctions are ending within the same week is hurting anything...one just needs to strategize when things close, and keep an eye on watched items, etc. It's manageable; in fact, it's quite exciting. :)

The fact that there is so many auction houses show there is adequate demand and supply in our industry. Like someone else said it’s healthy. I love window shopping!

Just the average schmo's.
If they were smart, they be selling t-shirts and coffee mugs with their names on it and among other things.

Yes!! I'd go for a LOTG coffee cup

With that being said, I'm sure it's no coincidence that several AH closing dates are all within one week of MLB opening day.

There also seems to be a plethora of auctions in the fall, around the time of the MLB playoffs.

Well, out of all the auctions this week, only one (Lelands) had an item that I just had to have, and could afford. I won it. And, I won it at 9:30 PM Central (nice and early, so I didn't have to stay up all night)!!!!!

There were many other items that for me, fall into the "nice to have", or are items that I'm looking for, but aren't sufficiently tough to have to spring for them now.

So it worked out great for me :D

Now, if I just could've afforded that T206 Plank and/or '33 Lajoie..........

Steve

I think it is great that the hobby is doing well and that auctions seem to be doing well (I have a couple of items ending tonight, and definitely could use some late bidding on my items). At the same time, I don't think there's any way that having all the auctions ending the same time can't be at least a bit of a negative.

I know that I haven't been able to give all the catalogs enough attention, so there are probably items of interest that I've missed. I know I don't have near the highest pockets, but on the items I bid on I tend to go strong, and I've definitely had to pick and choose which items to focus on.

I bid hard between two of the auctions ($40k+ each), and went in moderately on a few others ($5k+ each) because I thought the multiple overlapping end dates would mean market saturation and lower prices. Lower prices on the key cards did not materialize; each auction was getting very healthy bids pretty much across the board.

I haven't found any bargains.

I agree--the bargains are increasingly scarce, specifically in the T206 realm.

Sterling closes on Thursday night the same day as Mile High, it was one of the smaller ones offered lately but the last day was just as strong as the bigger auctions Sterling has offered.

As Jeff P. said, Sterling sets the auction dates in advance so if any other auctions finish around that time it is coincidence.

Thanks to all who support Sterling and allow me to have a job in a hobby I love,

Lee Behrens
320-219-1372

Has your research shown more last day bidding ending on Thursday as opposed to Saturday or Sunday? I would think more people would be free on the weekends.

Jesse, When I purchased Sterling it was set with Thursday closings. The only time I have not closed on a Thursdays is between Christmas and New Years and I have not seen any reflection that the weekend closing bumps up bidding but very tough to tell.

Thursday's seem to work great for the winners that like to have their winnings right away. They normally have them Monday morning.

Lee

Thanks for the response Lee. If it's working for you no reason to change I suppose. I just know I sometimes forget about auctions ending during the week, especially if I get stuck at work late out here on the west coast.