Watching Christies

[bobfreedman]

Originally Posted by Forever Young

Omg.. I had no idea. I wish I knew that. Crazy. Why would they do that?
I guess.. Same answer of why not showing borders or backs. Damn..

Same reason that they sold multiples cards in one lot (old judges etc.) but only showed one card in the lot.

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by ajjohnsonsoxfan

That was a lot of fun! Wish all auctions were conducted that way. I couldn't tear myself away from the screen and loved to see what each item eventually hammered for. Gotta say the auctioneer today was much easier on the eyes than the one yesterday. :-)

It was really fun and very smooth. Very few mistakes by the auctioneer or technology involved.

I got shut out on Ruth Conlons(I am sad as I wanted the portrait-30k hammer). I was, however, able to pick up a pretty special Gehrig Conlon with all the fixins' on back(writing, sig and stamp) and used for the star player candy card.

[Leon]

That is a great Lou photo, congrats. Now you need the card to go side by side ....

Originally Posted by Forever Young

It was really fun and very smooth. Very few mistakes by the auctioneer or technology involved.

I got shut out on Ruth Conlons(I am sad as I wanted the portrait-30k hammer). I was, however, able to pick up a pretty special Gehrig Conlon with all the fixins' on back(writing, sig and stamp) and used for the star player candy card.

[Forever Young]

Originally Posted by Leon

That is a great Lou photo, congrats. Now you need the card to go side by side ....

Ha! Thanks Leon.
I know this is the card side... BUT... If I have the photo, no need for the card. It's part of the point. I have the rarer.. Older..purer version����

[Bicem]

Agreed, card doesn't begin to compare.

[e107collector]

1952 Topps Mays PSA 9 sells for $247,500 at Christies. A few months ago, a PSA 9 sold at Heritage for $478,000. Hmmmmm

Pretty big price fluctuation there.

Tony

[Leon]

Originally Posted by Forever Young

Ha! Thanks Leon.
I know this is the card side... BUT... If I have the photo, no need for the card. It's part of the point. I have the rarer.. Older..purer version����

I used to collect photos used for cards and enjoyed putting them together, next to each other in my collection. I am more of a card collector than a photo collector but still like the photos too.
To each their own....It's part of what makes collecting so fun. If everyone collected exactly the same way it would be boring.

[BeanTown]

Couple of thoughts on their auction. I got registered pretty easy and their credit line they gave me was very fair without doing any research on me. I was able to put in some absentee bids a week before it began. I was hoping they would let you know if you know if you was the high bidder going into the live auction part, but they do not.

I called a day before the auction to understand how reserves went. I was at first told that only some lots had a reserve on them and the auctioneer would tell us. Then another person jumped on the phone and said every lot has a reserve on it and it's anywhere between 60 percent of the low estimate all the way up to the low estimate.

I watched both days on my home computer and was pleasantly surprised how fast they were able to coordinate all the phone bids, Enet bids, room bids, against the absentee bids which the auctioneer had on podium. I enjoyed not listening to long auction descriptions and really enjoyed understanding what the auctioneer was saying unlike traditional auctioneers (Automobiles, Live stock, etc...).

I was texting a couple of friends during the auction who was in attendance in NY and watching back home as I was. It was nice hearing both perspectives on how they thought the auction was going.

What I don't think Christies did well was the photography of each lot. I wanted to see the backs of cabinets, postcards, and original photos. I was wondering why the Clarke Horner Photo went for more money than others... Answer it was in a complete Horner Cabinet mount but you would never know that from the description or picture. I too wanted to see the group of Old Judge Cabinets which included a Dogs Head. I wanted to see the other four punch cards in the group of 5.

My observation is that it's a tremendous advantage to be in attendance not only to view the actual items, but it seemed that bidders in the room always got their bids taken first which forced outside bidders to take the next increment up.

I like their format. Problem is I can tell it's no where close to their area of expertise. From images to descriptions and most of all the estimates. I feel they hurt many items with low estimates as many collectors/investors entering the hobby might put a lot of weight into what the printed price "should" be.

All and all It was a great expierence and had a lot of fun participating in it as I enjoyed the auctioneer mentioning where people were from when bidding online. I was Georgia and it seemed at times like it was an SEC battle as South Carolina was in almost every Cuban lot.. Well fought!

I snagged a couple of items and will look forward to their once a decade auction. I was hoping to snag the Joe Jackson Semi Pro 1908 team cabinet but ended up being the bridesmaid. I was glad they showed the entire cabinet!

[glchen]

I won one item also (the 1930 Yankees team photo). I believe the others have given really good descriptions of the auction. I just wanted to add that Christies does charge sales tax in a few different states, which might not be immediately obvious: NY, CA, FL, IL, RI, TX. In addition, you can charge up to $50K on your credit card for your winnings. Most auction houses only limit CC to $2-3K, so Christies does allow significantly more. One of the reasons their BP is so high, I guess.

[aljurgela]

Originally Posted by BeanTown

Couple of thoughts on their auction. I got registered pretty easy and their credit line they gave me was very fair without doing any research on me. I was able to put in some absentee bids a week before it began. I was hoping they would let you know if you know if you was the high bidder going into the live auction part, but they do not.

I called a day before the auction to understand how reserves went. I was at first told that only some lots had a reserve on them and the auctioneer would tell us. Then another person jumped on the phone and said every lot has a reserve on it and it's anywhere between 60 percent of the low estimate all the way up to the low estimate.

I watched both days on my home computer and was pleasantly surprised how fast they were able to coordinate all the phone bids, Enet bids, room bids, against the absentee bids which the auctioneer had on podium. I enjoyed not listening to long auction descriptions and really enjoyed understanding what the auctioneer was saying unlike traditional auctioneers (Automobiles, Live stock, etc...).

I was texting a couple of friends during the auction who was in attendance in NY and watching back home as I was. It was nice hearing both perspectives on how they thought the auction was going.

What I don't think Christies did well was the photography of each lot. I wanted to see the backs of cabinets, postcards, and original photos. I was wondering why the Clarke Horner Photo went for more money than others... Answer it was in a complete Horner Cabinet mount but you would never know that from the description or picture. I too wanted to see the group of Old Judge Cabinets which included a Dogs Head. I wanted to see the other four punch cards in the group of 5.

My observation is that it's a tremendous advantage to be in attendance not only to view the actual items, but it seemed that bidders in the room always got their bids taken first which forced outside bidders to take the next increment up.

I like their format. Problem is I can tell it's no where close to their area of expertise. From images to descriptions and most of all the estimates. I feel they hurt many items with low estimates as many collectors/investors entering the hobby might put a lot of weight into what the printed price "should" be.

All and all It was a great expierence and had a lot of fun participating in it as I enjoyed the auctioneer mentioning where people were from when bidding online. I was Georgia and it seemed at times like it was an SEC battle as South Carolina was in almost every Cuban lot.. Well fought!

I snagged a couple of items and will look forward to their once a decade auction. I was hoping to snag the Joe Jackson Semi Pro 1908 team cabinet but ended up being the bridesmaid. I was glad they showed the entire cabinet!

Ha! There you are GA! I was the South Carolina guy! Well fought! Al