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Posted By: John Spencer

As much as I love looking lustily at the amazing stuff that Mastro features in his main auctions, I fear that I can no longer compete with the prices he fetches. I am now 0 for 24 in his last 5 or 6 auctions I bid in for the simple reason I cannot match some of the truly amazing bids that come in. I think I will be sticking in the future to the smaller auctions houses, eg. Lipset, 19th Century, Sloate etc. where winning prices realized seem to have some relationship to market trends or perhaps sanity. Also, there is usually an assortment of mid-grade material in these auctions which is normally absent in Mastro's with the exception of large mixed lots which usually don't interest me.
And, Hal, I was not surprized that Doug allen was cordial and professional when you spoke to him. He damn well should have been; you are a big time player and he doesn't want to lose you as a bidder.