New to auction houses - REA auction, low bids?
 

I have only successfully bought one at a major AH and I’m wondering if low bud prices this morning mean much - I believe the REA auction ends tonight.

I think the maneuver I’ve ready by some here is to simply put in a low bud early and that gives you the option to bid actively during extended bidding into the late evening…. Does that make sense?

And should I make much of cards that are priced quite low on Sunday morning of the last day of bidding?

Thx for any experienced advice.

Jeff

yes, it makes sense, placed your initial bid so u can bid in extended hrs. Real bids happen during extended period. Good Luck.

Rea
 

Hi Jeff- I've been an REA member for many years. Of the venues I've used,
none can compare in terms of the "sharks to blood" mentality of the bidders
(I'm one of them, I should know). If there is an item/items you like and the bid
seems shockingly low, it's almost certainly too good to be true. My advice
would be to avoid the notion that you can swing a "steal" on REA- bid strong!

Good luck my friend, Trent King

I would say focus on one card. As stated above, the sharks will come out. I do like REA, but the notion of an incredible deal is tough. I have gotten what I considered to be a deal once. Like stated above, the real bidding starts once the clock closes on initial bids. Bidding is no different than poker, and you don’t want to show your whole hand at the start.

Time will tell… I agree a lot of prices seem low at the moment. But based on the past I would assume that most desirable items will pick up today… and into extended meaning.

You only know about pricing when the auction is ended. Patterns before vary greatly.

Additionally there does appear to be fatigue setting in in the hobby in many areas. I mean the constant barrage of auctions is insane… in addition to the economy likely catching up to some degree.

Sometimes you get lucky. Your fellow bidders might overlook an item that you feel is quite smashing. They might be too focused on other pieces. They might lose power today. Maybe they all maxed out their credit cards and cashed out their 401k on the last auction. Maybe this will be one of those rare times where you get really lucky.

It doesn’t happen often, but it’s always worth a shot. Because when it does happen then you can brag about it here for the next decade.

This encore side piece auction...has 3500 lots.

Overload continues

Very true and don’t forget all of the added fees which may make your ““ bargain look like not such of a bargain anymore.

Keep in mind, guys on here may have what you are looking for. No sales tax, no fees.

It means nothing. Even if the price seems low at midnight tonight, it still means nothing. There is always plenty of last minute action. You could maybe get lucky on more obscure issues, but I wouldn't count on getting deal at REA, especially this year.

I dont think any “strategy” works. Nothing i really want goes cheap. Even when i decide I am going to overpay, i quickly must decide how much more i am willing to “overpay”!

Right? It goes from here's a dozen great cards on my wish list to "okay, these are 4 I really want", to "just give me a chance on these two", to a Sophie's choice" between those two and how much are you willing to overpay for one card.

Just add another zero before the decimal :D

I mean, I was interested in the N162s. Great cards, but several are not HOFs. The Dunlap is in an old SGC 3 which looks to have paper loss (description is sorely lacking), these are traded between $500 and $1200 except for a PSA 6 which went for $4k. I pushed my bid to 1500 total. Its already at $2700 now.

Yeah, a lot of us know that feeling. I will be whittling down soon.
.

we're closed! Atleast my lots are!

Pretty quick, hope you win your lots

I WON a card at a FAIR price.



Ominous....

I won 5 cards last night and feel as if they were all at a fair price so I can't complain.

Me too, after all that. Wasnt TOO bad. A few hockey cards went cheaper than I thought, and i won a couple better baseball lots, too. Cant complain.

As the original poster (sp?) let me first offer my thanks to all for your experienced advice.

I ended up with 3 "wins" - 1 that I really like, 1 that is fine and the 3rd is... why did a bid on that??

the one item I really wanted was completely unknown to me but just looked really cool (Red Sox opening day program, 1934 with the "New Fenway Park". If anyone here picked that up and are having regrets, call me!

Jeff

Maybe I was just due for some luck, but the three cards I won all closed at prices significantly below what I was willing to pay.

I won two items that I’d placed bids on before extended time started. They held and I’m happy.

Auction fatigue big time. Particularly for the ones that are nothing amazing but same old.

Does this mean that you're seeing prices dropping for pre-war? If so, I must be going after the wrong cards ;)

I think we're just accustomed to the high prices now, so they don't seem as high anymore.

Many prewar cars have retreated in the last 6-9 months. Not all of course. And the high end ones people talk about about the most (Ruth, Cobb, Jackson) are typically the cards that haven't dropped, but are not rising like they were a year ago. That's what I see.

Auction fatigue could be one reason but there are other reasons too. I bid on 24 lots when the auction opened and all 24 were probably what you would consider "nothing amazing" I only bid on 3 (won 2) of those lots last night but I would have bid on at least 6-8 more based on the prices they were at if I hadn't already spent as much as I have in the past few weeks.

How about some wins?

Bought one of these before they get out of reach:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0ea16e47_c.jpg

And I also won this cool LA train ticket featuring a colorized photo of Babe Ruth in his Dodgers coaching uniform. The advertisement is to "meet the Babe" while he's in LA. Coincidentally, the Babe's appearance dates are listed as August 28 to 31, 1947. Less than one year later, Babe Ruth would die on August 16, 1948:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...37f0dda2_b.jpg

I had about 20 initial bids in, but bid on nothing last night.

I was watching 4 cards, specifically. Three went for about what I expected them to go for and one was a steal. I was watching the Willard's Chocolate Ruth, the M101-5 Thorpe, and E90-1 Speaker (hot card now, about time). They all went for about what I would have expected, perhaps a little underwhelming if anything. However, in my opinion, the 1907 Dietsche Cobb SGC 3 was a steal at $9,300.

The one card that really struck me is the T206 O'Hara Polar Bear PSA 4. It closed at $25.2k, which confirms an 8/14 sale of the same grade at the same price (REA too), and shows a major increase in value in the last 4 months since the same exact card sold in Heritage in May of 2022. O'hara PB up $10k, 67%, in 4 months? Why is that? I notice Demmitt is way up too, Do you think everyone is scrambling to get to 520 and they are getting in on these two, since they are "tougher"?

Seems that way. Elberfeld too.

I thought the post card back bleed through and the mouse nibble on the upper right corner held the Dietsche Cobb price back a bit, still a nice card at that price.

Some very, very low prices on lower-grade Prewar HOFers! Of course this won't stop the pumpers from pumping the top-end stuff, but this seems to be a significant change from a year or two ago (or maybe longer)...

I wish that was my experience too. I'm glad someone is getting a break! As a set collector, I'm buying mostly commons, so not often up at that top tier HOF level for sure, and I haven't seen a noticeable drop in prices this year. In fact, I've been much less successful in auctions at all levels (Ebay, Heritage, REA, etc.) this year than I was for all of 2021. It could be a byproduct of my focus on T3s and now T205s, maybe those sets are outliers. Trust me, there is no one that would be happier with a market pullback than me. I had high hopes for one in 2022 but it didn't happen for me, at least not yet.

T206? I think about 25 auctions the last 6 months have featured a t206 set breakup it seems. I know because I have to scroll past all of the pages and pages of t206’s online all the time!

Yep, lots and lots of them lately...graded HOFers for under $100, $480 for an SGC 1 Matty (!?)

I share that scrolling adventure with you as a non-T206 collector. I'm constantly amazed as literally hundreds of T206's are available over and over again in seemingly every auction. I can easily see how a T206 collector would be suffering from auction fatigue.

Rea
 

Hmmm……try & buy a pre-1930 black & white Ruth or pre-WW1 E/Candy card Cobb/Wagner……that just may change your perspective. Their cards are on fire!

It's nice to see members start to get some relief and are able to add to their collections without selling a kidney, apologies to members who previously sold a kidney (I'm in that group). Stay focused on what you want your collection to look like, it only takes one arrow (per auction) to hit your mark.