Rating the Auction Sites

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Posted By: Kevin

It is interesting that we could all be dealing with the same places and have very different opinions of thier operations.

Mastro has the best cards, but the descriptions are way too long. The catalog would only be half as thick if they just cut out the useless information.

Lelands has the best memorabilia, but it takes forever to get your material.

Slater has many problems, the first being that they don't seem to know much about sports cards or memorabilia and if you ever read the rules, it is like be lectured by your 5th grade teacher.

Jerry Smolin was great, but he seems to have fallen off of the face of the earth.

I know several people who have had similar grading problems with both Lipset and Festberg.

Scgaynor has fun stuff and always ships the stuff quick.

Hunt has horrible descriptions and the conditions are too vague, but if you know what to buy, you can get some incredible deals. In the Sports Immortals auctions, many lots were selling for .10 to .20 on the dollar. Why would you hold a live auction in Atlantic City with mostly low to mid tier material?

Gray Flannel is not even worth talking about.

I can't consider Sloat, or McCann to be auctions houses. They are more like a couple of dealers who just have a handful of pieces every now and again.

Sportscards Plus is funny. I have never bid with them, but I find thier catalogs to be odd in that they always have at least one piece that they think is old, but is not. I remember they had an ad with the 1st issue of Sporting News pictured, but it was the repro and in this last auction they had those Tuxedo ad signs that are fantasy pieces from the last 20-25 years or so. Does anybody know if those ever sold, or did somebody clue them in before the close of the auction?