Leland's catalogue came. I guess everyone who puts out a catalogue

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Posted By: julie

must think of how inferior to Mastro's it is...one thing about Leland's is--somebody there has a dirty mind! All the rest are squeeky clean. Are there REALLY fewer air-brushed-clean Billy Ripkin rookie cards--or is it just that nobody except me ran to the nearest card store to get the one conspiratorially (?) made improper?

I don't want a Joe di Maggio Tiajuana Bible, but I'm glad it's out there. I don't want the single signed Micky Mantle baseball with bragging rights ( number 664), but I'm glad it's out there too.

So there!

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Posted By: MW

I don't want the single signed Micky Mantle baseball with bragging rights ( number 664), but I'm glad it's out there too.

Yah...I thought that was kind of strange.

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Posted By: JC

Is it worth while for me to order a Catalogue? I've never delt with them?

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Posted By: Hankron

They have a nice variety of stuff, both sport and non-sport. You can view and bid at lelands.com You don't have to order a catalog to bid.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

to look for all the errors. Would probably make a good drinking game, a shot a mistake.

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Posted By: julie

More collectables, fewer cards...their ignorance about some of the things they auction is unsrpassed--which doesn't keep it from being good. Less really vintage stuff. More variety in sports (there are, for instance, some C55s--T206 era hockey cards), a bunch of attractive Joe Louis boxing trunks, a section on John L. Sullivan, a number of Mullin original art pieces--but not the very best Mullin. Probably more individual things--as opposed to expensive groups--than Mastro (with whom I've been comparing them all the time).
Incredable horror stories about shill bidding, sudden withdrawls, side deals, etc. I've never experienced these...

I have in the past bought great things from them--but you gotta have your own microscope (hm. just bought one of those for a Mastro winning...). I.E: you have to know your stuff, because they don't always.

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Posted By: RBCraik

Personally, I can't wait to bid on John Lennon's used opium pipe with COA...and the Cuban playing cards, wow!...I must, however, lay off those Champ's, so to speak...

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Posted By: petecld

Please, I haven't drunk that heavily since college.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

I'd be appalled at their poor listing quality. Talk about grab bags, bad descriptions, etc. Sellers of some of these lots are gonna be very unhappy with the results, I think.

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Posted By: leon

Ok guys and girl

I might take a hit on this one but I just went and looked at their auction (only vintage cards as quite honestly that's all I collect...and a few cig packs). Their descriptions could be a a little better but their scans are clear and are able to be enlarged. I know the Director of the Sportscard division, Leighton Sheldon, as he is a friend of mine. He is a young guy (25) and is eager to do the "right" thing by buyers and consignors. His email is leighton@lelands.com.........I just got off of the phone with him and he readily admits that he has a tough "row to hoe" and a lot of learning to do...He has been with Lelands only about a year now. He is extremely enthusiastic and friendly..........I assure you he will do just about anything to please customers. He said that someone called in, a day or so ago, about the Old Judge lot of 7. They were inquiring about "if they might be tampered with or not". Since he is not an expert (yet) he overnighted them to SGC to get pre-graded. NO cost to the customer whatsoever ...he just did it in the name of customer service.....He will be at this years National again and will be hanging around with me some, so ya'll be nice too.....again, I will vouch for his "wanting" to help as much as anyone in the business (hey, a lot of folks probably still don't like me as I am not a veteran yet leastwise in years....).....Again, I am only speaking about sportscards here...I think they aleady have a pretty good reputaion on memorabilia etc.....best regards.....btw, they have also hired an ex-SGC grader as part of their staff...

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Posted By: TBob

I purchased a lot of 3 vintage caramel cards in their last auction. 1 graded by SGC, 1 graded by PSA and the other described as "E98 Cobb" not graded. Some buyers stayed away because the borders looked too thin for an E98 but I took the plunge. Glad I did. It turned out to be an E94 Cobb which is 1.75 times as valuable and SGC graded it. Bottom line, careful of the identifications, especially on caramel cards, but there are some bargains to be had.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

great for the bidders, bad for the sellers. Heck, the first major auction purchase I made was from Leland's--a big lot of old boxing cards that were (you guessed it) under described and misdescribed. Miscellaneous lots turned out to be complete sets, cards were attributed to the wrong sets (most notably, a US Caramel Sharkey was listed as part of a 1948 Leaf set; the US Caramel is 16 years older and one heck of a lot rarer). Suffice it to say that I too received a lot better and rarer cards than the listing led me to believe were in the lot. I praise my luck but found the result to be disquieting.

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Posted By: leon

I am sure Leighton (and I) would agree that those consignors would, and should, not be happy. But hey...one out of two ain't bad ......Of course I am joking......Honestly, if I were a consignor, I wouldn't let that happen....but too, I know it's not the consignors responsibility either, it's the auction house's....best regards

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Posted By: Hankron

My gut feeling has been that a lot of the big boo boos in auctions are the result of the auction house relying on the consignor's description and not the other way round. I've never been behind the scenes, so this is only my guess.

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Posted By: Hankron

It's safe to say that trading cards isn't Leland's specialty, but I thought that one 19th century Rochester Team Advertising cabinet card was most interesting and unusual. Aside from the Old Judge Cabinets and such premiums, baseball cabinet cards with with actual advertising like that are super rare and, I would think, desirable to type collectors.

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Posted By: Charlie

means anything but I would estimate that ball lot # 664 to go for at least 6 to 8 thousand dollars.... probably more...99.9 % of sports celebrities would never sign like that...but Mantle was a big kidder and sometimes signed items like this for friends etc....didn't mean anything of course...all in fun...but now that he's gone those items are priceless...just my opinion too.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

has some questionable things in their catalogs.....(e.g. the Mantle ball) but overall they have decent items and good customer service. I do agree that they have some 'id' problems sometimes but more often than not, that comes out in the purchaser's favor (such as Tbob). I've bought numerous times from them and gotten really good deals and just some okay deals on things I just really needed. As for afforementioned shill bidding and other concerns, I've not witnessed any of that. I did win one time, when I was still doing shows, a lot of about 250 autographed exhibit style postcards. ALL hall of famers and paid about $3.00 or so each and made TONS of money off of them as there were DiMaggio's, Mantles, etc in the lot. Recently bought a near mint PM1 Speaker from them a while back. Unfortunately, the card sections are all too often about 10 or so pages. LOTS of memorabilia.

I've sold them a few things too......wish I hadn't......autographed 1936 Kentucky Derby Program with Babe Ruth signature in pencil on the front, neat Colgan's chips wooden box, and a really cool George Sosnak painted baseball for Rose's 4192 hit. Oh well, they made some bucks on those items......

I'd buy from them anytime......

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Posted By: James Verrill

My concerns about Lelands...

They have a number of big groups of T206s this time around.

My issue is that many of the ungraded cards appear trimmed. In one group, almost all of the cards appear trimmed.

Do they have a history of selling trimmed cards without noting they are chopped in the description?

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Posted By: leon

I would call Leighton Sheldon at 516-409-9700...tell him your thoughts and I am sure he will make you feel more comfortable.....yea or nea......best regards

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Posted By: Mark M.

Some are trimmed and those graded ones are not

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Posted By: runscott

you can barely see remnants of what might be a super-rare "toy town post office" stamp on them, which is even rarer on t206s since most are found only on e92's.

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Posted By: Julie

....

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Posted By: TBob

E97s with the toy town stamps on the back. I always considered it a hinderance and "value lowerer" rather than an enhancement and "value increaser."

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Posted By: runscott

But I was never really bothered by any of the back stamps, or even writing on the back, as long as it looked vintage. I have a Williams caramel Lord on ebay right now that has a vintage grocery list written on the back - I always thought it was kinda cool.

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Posted By: Jay Miller

Leon's friend Leighton submitted this lot to SGC after I (and possibly others) had asked him to check to see if the cards in this lot were trimmed. SGC came back saying that one was trimmed at the top(Stovey) and another(Baldwin) was too small to holder. First, I don't understand what too small to holder means. If the card is genuine it should be slabbed, if it is not it shouldn't. It is not that different in size than the other cards and would not have bounced around too much in the holder. Second, despite what SGC said, I still have my doubts about several of the cards. The Fessenden has virtually no side or bottom borders and the O'Rourke, Ryan and Radbourn cards have worrisome borders. I've seen alot of Old Judge cards over the years and these just don't look right to me. I'de be interested to hear what other experienced collectors, with a familiarity with Old Judge think.


edited only to correct formatting--Elliot

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Posted By: david

i think it is hard to say for sure because the photos have been cropped. i would ask for raw scans of the cards to get a better idea. sgc is hit or miss as far as old judges are concerned. i have a spotted tie that i submitted that i think is short and they graded it no problem. i was a big fan of sgc for a while but lately i have questioned a lot of their grades.