Posted By:
MikeUPersonally, I think Bruce tends to ask very interesting questions, but not in a very receptive way. I find it interesting to know that there are (3) new whales in the pre-war market. There is no question that the original PSA post-war whales had great influence that trickled down to the overall market significantly. I also feel that the original PSA whales lack of activity in the post-war market is partially, if not greatly, related to the post-war down turn.
However, an auction company's defination of a new player can be very deceiving:
1. Someone that simply did not buy from that house before, but spent plenty of money elsewhere. Some examples would be a shift from post-war to pre-war or PSA to SGC. Depending on your preference, you auction house of choice will differ.
2. Someone that this group would not consider new, but has upped the ante with a particular auction house. Jim C. mentioned Scott Ireland, which could be a good example.
3. Maybe the Beckett/REA auction brought in a completely new person with disposible income and only previos familiarity with Beckett.
My hunch would be that the three noted players are not completley new, they are relatively well known and have moved up from small/mid-sized whales to full sized whales.