Recommendations for a SMALL auction house

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Posted By: Alan

I found a couple of sports memorabilia pieces that are not high end enough for Mastronet. I think they would sell OK in a smaller auction.

I have never consigned to a small auction house and would like to know any experiences with any - good or bad on your experiences as a consignor?

Thanks.
Alan

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Posted By: Andy Baran

I have had great success consigning my lesser value items to the Mastro Classic Collectors Auction, as well as to Will Hayes who sells the items on ebay as sandiegowill.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Scott Gaynor (scgaynor) on eBay is top notch. He offers a wide range of stuff and has a good bidder following. You can print out a consignment form from his website (scgaynor.com)

For your sake and his, make sure to send him a good description of the items.

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Posted By: Bottom of the Ninth

I think that Bill Goodwin and Brian Drent, Mile High, do pretty well, for a "small auction house". No offense but why pay an ebay seller to do what you can do yourself with a bit of effort. Despite what it appears, there are plenty of very big buyers who do not ever look at ebay and many who are too busy with their businesses who end up missing ebay auctions that run for 7 days because they just do not have the time to search.

If you need quick cash then ebay is the way to go, though you will be leaving money on the table in most cases.

Just my thoughts..

Greg

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Posted By: jay wolt

Contact Seth at 19thCenturyAuctions. He's a stand up guy and will give you a fair shake...jay

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Posted By: DJ

I think Greg is both right and wrong.

There are sellers like SCGaynor and Sandiegowill that have an amazing following and get auction catalog prices for items because of their clientele and their pied piper following.

I've seen Gaynor pull in $350-400 for Ted Williams balls where other "good" dealers can only manage $200 (I bought an authentic one for $145 a few weeks ago) for them on eBay and I bet there are people that buy off eBay just to send to Gaynor or Hayes.

Best of all, no hassle.

DJ

Edited to add: David is correct. The above statement is regarding autographs and sports memorabilia which is 'my bad' in this Baseball Card Forum.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

If the items are autographs, there can be a financial advantage in selling through someone like Gaynor. Most advanced autograph collectors (the ones who know what they are doing) don't randomly pick eBay sellers, they gravitate to sellers who are knowledgeable, trustworthy and have a good reputation. This is in part why someone like Scott can get higher auograph prices than others on eBay.

Advanced autograph collectors are about more likely than anyone to bookmark favorite dealers.

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Posted By: ted

We are a small auction house based entirely online. Our website is itailers.com and our ebay id is itailers. Our returns are great and our percentages are very competitive. Keep an eye out as we're going to start auctioning off pieces of a high-end lighter collection starting tomorrow in fact. Don't like to toot my own horn, but I'm always looking to expand the business.

Ted Golden
aka BlackSoxFan

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Posted By: Jim Crandell

Greg Schwartz is correct in that a number of large buyers only sporadically check ebay. In my case it is because I travel a lot and try to catch up with my family and golf on weekends.
If one has moderately expensive items for sale, you are better off putting it with a medium size auction house than ebay. I will always find time to page through a catalogue on a plane, train etc.
Bill Goodwin,Andy Madec, Brian Drent, Superior and recently Lelands are ones I regularly buy from.

Increasingly, auction houses are becoming more aggressive on commissions with certain ones now offering no commission and others 2 and 1/2%.

Dav

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Posted By: Anonymous

I think the best smaller houses are Goodwin and Superior. For ebay SCGaynor or Sandiegowill.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

family and golf over baseball cards? What is the world coming to? Oh, the humanity!

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Posted By: JimCrandell

Yeah but my last kid is off to college soon, I have found a couple of new hobbies for my wife, and my golf is horrendous, so soon there will be nothing stopping me from devoting every minute of my non-work time on sports cards.

Dav