Hunt Pickups (Clemente or otherwise...)

[Forever Young]

I feel fortunate to pick this up. I found it very compelling as we all know where his flight was headed "the day... the great one died".

"Description: Roberto Clemente original Puerto Rico Winter League photograph with handwritten inscription c.1970s. Original sepia tone 3 1/2"x6" image picturing Clemente in Puerto Rico Winter League jersey granting an interview at a stadium in Chinandega, Nicaragua. Reverse of the photo features a period ink inscription which is written by Clemente (in Spanish), "For a photo made in Chinandega, Nicaragua" along with unidentified name. Includes auction LOA from JSA (handwriting) and letter of provenance from the Clemente family: EX"

[71buc]

I think I won this. I have not received any confirmation notice or invoice but....I can't stand Hunt's website and this live auction was a challenge for me. I bid I saw my bid flicker and then it sold for what I bid. At least I think it was my bid.

[Snapolit1]

No idea auction was on and I spend hours a week trolling for new auctions. Good for you guys they don't advertise on Net 54 or anything.

[hcv123]

Originally Posted by Snapolit1

No idea auction was on and I spend hours a week trolling for new auctions. Good for you guys they don't advertise on Net 54 or anything.

Funny you mentioned this - I have never bid in their auctions before - I learned about this one browsing ebay and coming across a lot of 10 Daily juice fan club cards that said they were part of a live auction. Nothing in the description of that lot indicating it was Clemente's personal collection. I looked at a few other ebay lots in a "sellers other items" search - saw additional Clemente items (nothing high caliber) and ended up seeing it was Hunt - went to their website and only when I browsed to the end of the auction lots did I see they had the Clemente family collection. I suppose their reach is far enough that they had a lot of action and some really strong prices, but I wonder how much better it could have been had it been better publicized. I would think the sale of a collection of this significance would have been newsworthy - I saw no articles about it in any major media. Happy for me as competition was fierce enough, but think the family could have done much better!

[btcarfagno]

Never hurts to advertise to your target market.

Perhaps they do feel that their reach is already enogh, and that anyone who doesn't know about their monthly (or especially their live) auctions by this point is likely a small fish and won't amount to much.

While this may be true, if even one or two "big fish" miss out because they didn't know, the impact could be fairly significant.

Tom C

[perezfan]

They've been around forever, and have a huge customer base. Actually, the ebay presence is fairly new and represents an increase in their reach vs. years past. Still could be lots better... the website is horrendous, and the pre-live bidding means very little. The best way to actually win something is to attend live, or request a phone line on auction day.

The photos are terrible too... not sharp and the zoom function stinks. Plus you get limited views of many items. Autographed Balls often have only 1 or two panels pictured. Not enough to place an educated bid, in many cases. Their competition is light years ahead, in terms of visual presentation.

That said, I used Invaluable to place my lone winning bid. It worked well, and you can follow each lot live, as they go off. Pretty cool process, and very entertaining. Here's my pickup... one of my favorite figural trophies in the auction, and an early one (celebrating Clemente's 1961 Batting Title). Was happy to get this for a reasonable price...

https://huntauctions.com/live/imagev...=568&lot_qual=

[slidekellyslide]

I still bid, but haven't won a lot in Hunt's for probably 5 or 6 years now and they still send me every single catalog so I have to think their reach is huge.