Heritage Live Auction -- Black Swamp debacle

[calvindog]

Honestly it's hard to say without researching whether or not facts withheld are material. But considering Heritage bids on their own lots and buried it in paragraph 21 of its rules, I suspect they have some pretty aggressive lawyers. Of course I'm not suggesting that their paragraph 21 is illegal.

[T206DK]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Honestly it's hard to say without researching whether or not facts withheld are material. But considering Heritage bids on their own lots and buried it in paragraph 21 of its rules, I suspect they have some pretty aggressive lawyers. Of course I'm not suggesting that their paragraph 21 is illegal.

Jeff has a great point. I thought most members on this board understood Heritage bids on their own lots. I'm pretty sure it has been brought up before

[bbcard1]

As someone who is in the business, I can attest that attention whoring is fun, but often not profitable. They got the find on the Today Show and stuff, but while it is interesting to a lot of people, the real market is rather thin. I added a great card to my collection today and while my friends at the office were happy for me and at least feigned interest, none of them would have given a $20 bill to own it.

[tbob]

Three thoughts now the dust has settled:
1) I am going to patiently wait for the singles to eventually be released because I think the prices are going to be lower than initially thought.
2) Prices for low and middle grade E98s will stay relatively stable because of their scarcity in general. I know that there will be some collectors who buy the Swamp Find E98s to upgrade and release the lower graded condition ones to the collecting public, but it may be that people buying the SF cards are investors or collectors who don't have E98s in their collections.
3) The E98 Lajoie card bears watching. Not one single Lajoie found among the 700 Black Swamp E98s and Lajoie was a tough card anyway.

[Matthew H]

Tbob, there was only one SF Matty too.

[ls7plus]

Collectors and investors are not mutually exclusive categories, and there's always some hard feelings as fallout when a large find of what was formerly a scarce to downright rare item occurs. Reminds me of the Dormand Gil Hodges I bought in NMt in the early-mid '90's for $400 or so, when only about 3 dozen were thought to exist, mostly in much lower grades. Then the Dormand estate comes up with 1200+ in NMt/Mt which Gil apparently simply forgot to pick up! Instantly, my $400 item is worth $40-$50--maybe!!! Unfortunately, that's simply the risk the collector who is also concerned with value and potential appreciation takes.

As a fellow lawyer, I do agree it would have been a fraudulent representation to have marketed just a very few of these at a time, representing them as extreme condition rarities, while knowing that was not in fact the case. But like anyone elses,' lawyers' opinions vary from one to another. That's why the judiciary system is there for civil cases.

Best,

Larry

[bh3443]

I hope all my Net 54 friends are enjoying the National. I want to thank my pal Mr. Fowler for those great photos!
Our member Frank Barning sent me an interesting link for a good opinion on the Black Swamp find. Check out Keith Olbermann's blog (Baseball Nerd) for his insight into the find as well as his feelings on this particular issue.
I want to thank Frank for linking me to Keith's site, as I have read every single blog from start to finish. The Baseball card content is truly amazing and his Baseball blogs are great, too.
I truly hope you all enjoy the weekend at the show (and for those of us at home we're enjoying it on here!). Have a safe trip home everyone!
God Bless,
Bill Hedin

[tbob]

Originally Posted by Matthew H

Tbob, there was only one SF Matty too.

Matt- I missed that. Matty has always been a toughie too. Interesting that in 700 cards there are no Lajoies and only 1 Matty....
With so many of the SF cards being red backgrounds, and with the red Lajoie being almost impossible to find, I guess it makes sense that no Lajoies surfaced although you would have thought a green Lajoie would have reared its head.
tbob