Heritage Live Auction -- Black Swamp debacle

[calvindog]

Estimated to go for $1 million -- it went for about 240K instead. Perhaps if Heritage hadn't had the entire find graded at once, thereby increasing the population of E98s exponentially and lowering the value of all the E98s, it might have gotten to $1 million. Instead, all big bidders apparently felt they could buy high graded E98s at another time. And now the remainder of the Black Swamp find is hugely devalued and a $3 million+ haul is an impossibility.

Well, at least Heritage received a huge amount of international and national publicity and that surely triggered dozens of cold calls and new finds. And this helped the consigners of the Black Swamp find how?

[jimross]

It was definitely a dumb move to have those cards all available at once. Good for HA but bad for the consignors' family.

[Leon]

When I spoke with the executor of the estate one of his main concerns was for transparency with this find. He made it very clear to me that he didn't want hobbyists to get burnt by releasing some cards very slowly. I thought that was very classy of him and it was indicative of our conversation and the way the family is. I believe they were happy with the bidding where it was when the live bidding opened. Sure, everyone hopes to get more for the valuables but there are actually some kind and good people in this world. I wish our hobby was so nice sometimes. Sometimes it's not about going for the jugular it's about doing the right thing.

[calvindog]

The family was very happy when the live bidding opened? What does that mean? Were they very happy when the live bidding closed after being told that the $1 million estimate was 760K too high?

But if the family insisted upon releasing the full extent of the find instead of selling the cards a bit at the time then the fault lies with them -- assuming they were given good advice.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by calvindog

The family was very happy when the live bidding opened? What does that mean? Were they very happy when the live bidding closed after being told that the $1 million estimate was 760K too high?

But if the family insisted upon releasing the full extent of the find instead of selling the cards a bit at the time then the fault lies with them -- assuming they were given good advice.

It means they were happy with where the prices were when the Live bidding opened. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear.

[barrysloate]

If somebody in the hobby found these they would have done this much differently. This family was outside the hobby and likely didn't understand the nuances the way we would.

That said, if the cards went for 25% of their estimated value then clearly something didn't work out. The family may be happy because they have nothing into them and didn't even know they had them until a few months ago. I guess there are going to be some bargains down the road.

[bijoem]

Originally Posted by Leon

When I spoke with the executor of the estate one of his main concerns was for transparency with this find. He made it very clear to me that he didn't want hobbyists to get burnt by releasing some cards very slowly. I thought that was very classy of him and it was indicative of our conversation and the way the family is. I believe they were happy with the bidding where it was when the live bidding opened. Sure, everyone hopes to get more for the valuables but there are actually some kind and good people in this world. I wish our hobby was so nice sometimes. Sometimes it's not about going for the jugular it's about doing the right thing.

that is awesome to hear.
very cool perspective they had - and nice of them to want transparency.

[Davy_Kangaroo_Jones]

Originally Posted by Leon

When I spoke with the executor of the estate one of his main concerns was for transparency with this find. He made it very clear to me that he didn't want hobbyists to get burnt by releasing some cards very slowly. I thought that was very classy of him and it was indicative of our conversation and the way the family is. I believe they were happy with the bidding where it was when the live bidding opened. Sure, everyone hopes to get more for the valuables but there are actually some kind and good people in this world. I wish our hobby was so nice sometimes. Sometimes it's not about going for the jugular it's about doing the right thing.

Absolutely agree.

[atx840]

SCP did the same thing with the 42 red Hindus and 2 t210 Jackson's, not on the same scale but I'd think they could have easily kept the find quiet and auctioned them off slowly over a few years. I'm sure the publicity and bragging rights had a big part of it.

[atx840]

Scott, now you know why I like freaks...