Mark Rucker Archives Sale Today

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Did any of you folks watch this auction today? Anyone bid or win?

I thought the starting bids on most of the baseball photo lots were too high, and I guess so did the bidders as there were quite a few lots that went unsold.

What did you Book guys think?

What's going on here with all the unsold lots? Is it the economy? Is it PBA Galleries? If Barry hadn't mentioned the sale on this forum I never would have known about it. I think this stuff may have done better if it had been consigned to Lelands.

edited to add: I just looked and 253 out of 576 total lots did not sell.

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Posted By: Rob D.

The thing that struck me as odd, and perhaps Barry or Max or one of the other guys more familiar with rare book auctions can chime in if this is the norm, is how few photos were included in the catalog. I realize that photos of all the lots were available online, but honestly, as I looked through the printed catalog I wasn't really motivated to go online and call up the photos. While this is the Internet age, I still think it's odd to print a catalog with minimal photos and direct people to your Web site.

As Dan said, I thought the starting bids on many baseball items were way above fair market value, so I guess I wasn't a motivated bidder to begin with. I'm sure had I seen some lots I really was interested in, I'd have gone online to view them. But man, the catalog seemed unimpressive to me.

Edited because I hate typos.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I was with Mark just this past Saturday and I told him that the catalog did not include enough information. The books and pamphlets in the group lots had no pictures or descriptions. It made it very hard to bid unless you were in San Francisco and could spend a day looking at the lots.

I don't think this worked out as planned since so many lots passed. I too felt the reserves were high, considering the softness in the book market. I guess you may be seeing a lot of the unsold material on ebay.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I'd be a little steamed up if it were my collection that was handled that way. There was one lot of 6 Real Photo Postcards and only 3 were pictured...how hard would it have been to include the other 3??? Also who decided what the starting bids would be?

Here's one lot which just happens to be in my specialty and there was no way this was going to get the minimum bid of $400. I buy lots like this on ebay all the time for less than $150 and they estimated it at $800-$1200!!!!

http://tinyurl.com/2zxyt5

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Posted By: barrysloate

I just went through the prices realized in detail and it was not a pretty sight. I'll have to see what Mark says about it.

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Posted By: Max Weder

It's funny, I spent a fair bit of change with a PBA auction for Baseball as viewed by a muffin, and I didn't even get an email about the auction, much less a catalogue.

Some of the pieces in my view had minimums that were too high. For others, reasonable reserves but didn't seem to attract bidding. I bid and won on two books (The Great Match, 168 with vig) and Us Baseballers in hardback (140 with juice) and were surprised to see them go end that low.

I haven't checked out the whole auction, but will do so.

Max

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Posted By: Jason Mishelow

I was the winner of the lot of 19th century newspapers and I think that I got a great price (with shipping it will work out to about 10 per paper).

I agree that the pictures may have been a major problem here. For example there was a lot which was a 1869 report on Central Park. The lots hook was that it contained an tipped in photo of the ballfield with children playing baseball- but they never showed this photo. I was bidding on the lot but dropped out early becuase it was to much of a gamble as to what this photo looked like

I would note that all of this stuff was listed on ebay as a live auction so anyone loooking for this type of material would have been able to find it

Finally, Max would you let me win one sometime- between here, ebay and leland's I think I may have beat you one out if ten plus times- may be we could both save some money if we talked before bidding.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Well it may have all been listed on ebay, but there was a Nebraska Indians postcard that never showed up in any of my searches and I never noticed it until the auction showed up in the Live Auction screen.

Was it really too hard to type out the entire word "NEBRASKA"?

http://tinyurl.com/2vx7sj

I'd say PBA Galleries really let their consignor down in this auction.

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Posted By: Mark

I think 75% of this was due to poor listings, with 25% attributed to a weak sellers' market right now. To Dan's point, I would not be very pleased if I was the consignor. Certain key words must be included in the title and/or text.

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Posted By: Max Weder

The Garry for 450, richter for 216, roff for $420. wow, low prices for those titles

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Posted By: barrysloate

I sold Steve Cummings my Roff book for $2000, and I also remember the Garry book when it was in the $2000 neighborhood. It is disheartening to see how poorly this material does today.

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Posted By: Max Weder

Barry

It is frustrating to see the lack of growth in the baseball book market. In fact, I even understand that the premier bookseller in this area didn't even have one baseball book in his last auction of baseball cards

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Posted By: barrysloate

I threw in the towel, and I actually do have some baseball books and guides for sale. When I get around to them I will almost surely use ebay, because it opens things up to a large pool of bidders I couldn't find anywhere else.

Although Mark's collection did appear on ebay, the combination of the large lots and the lack of any descriptions or pictures made it a user unfriendly experience.

Why did the auction house think that by stringing together 27 titles in a lot description that every bidder would be familiar with them? I needed a lot more information, and books is one of my areas of expertise.

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Posted By: Rob D.

Barry and Max clearly know the book market well, and I don't doubt them for a minute when they say it's extremely soft. But I almost wonder, because of the way this auction seemingly was mangled, whether it should be thrown out of the mix when evaluating the status of the market.

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Posted By: Max Weder

A couple of points:


1. items that didn't meet the opening reserve (1/2 low estimate plus vig) are still available for sale for a week
2. they had "busting em" in one lot (not a great copy) and they didn't even highlight it
3. Barry, email me on your books for sale

max

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

If anyone is interested in a good copy of "Fun and Frolic with an Indian Ball Team" there was one in this sale that had a minimum of $100 and it didn't sell. One on ebay in lesser condition sold about a month ago for $150. I would buy it, but I already have the fourth edition of this book and I think mine is a little better condition wise.

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Posted By: Max Weder

Hmm. thanks Dan. My copy on ebay arrived without a back cover, which slipped the auction description. I'll check it out.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Max- I'll get you a list, but it may take a little time. I'm working with my own auction deadline right now which should keep me busy for a week. I've got nothing rare however, just middle of the road stuff.