AH guys - ask me anything?

[Exhibitman]

#1: Odd lotting choices. My main interests are cards at the margins (oddball issues, regionals, boxing cards) and memorabilia and I cannot for the life of me understand why some AHs lot this stuff so horrifically for the consignors, with little effort made to sort the rarities from the junk or to properly describe them. Also, choosing to put one very popular or rare card in with a big lot of other stuff. A recent auction had a dozen cards, including duplicates, in a lot. I needed two and stopped bidding because I did not want to turn out the rest of the cards in the lot. I would have gone $150 a card for the two I needed. The lot ended up selling for half of that per card to a dealer. Piling multiple copies of $50-$100 cards into a single lot just doesn't make sense to me as a consignor. Bust them up and let the retail collectors have a shot. Of course, the evil Captain Kirk says "no, leave it that way so I can win the lot and bust it up on eBay at a big profit."

#2: Ignoring Experts. Why don't more AHs consult with experts in oddball or esoteric items, or follow their recommendations? The amount of misinformation and ignorance on more obscure stuff is startling.

#3: (already Mentioned) Career Recaps: Auctioneers tell me that they have to lump lots of stuff into large lots because of the cost of catalogs, yet they waste page after page with meaningless blather over the player's career. There is no reason to make an entire page out of a 1921 Exhibit Babe Ruth, filled with career data. Anyone bidding five figures on a Babe Ruth card already knows who Babe Ruth is. Just provide good images (front AND back) of the card and list any hard to see flaws you spot. The AH can reduce the number of pages wasted and actually put in better lotted cards.