Giving Consignments to Auction Houses That Send Stuff Back

[Al C.risafulli]

Hi Jay:

There are a lot of items that just don't work for what we do. Most of the time it's related to value, or condition, or simply the cost to get it into the auction. For instance, lots of low-grade Topps and Bowman commons. 1960s and 70s partial sets. Old newspapers. Magazines (i.e. Street & Smith's, Sports Illustrated). Most sports books. Ticket stubs and programs from less important, more recent games.

In the case of LOTG there are lots of things we sell that aren't particularly high-dollar, but I like a large percentage of them to be interesting, or things you don't see very often. Things that a collector can get excited about.

Essentially there are two factors at play here: first, the desire to ensure that the stuff you want people to see is not drowning in less interesting items. Second, the economics of producing an auction and focusing on the material in it (writing quality descriptions, producing a beautiful, effective catalog, taking clear photography, effectively marketing and focusing on the individual auction lots) is such that we have to be careful that we don't spend more money making the auction than we can make selling the items in it!

Hope this makes sense, I've been writing all day!

-Al