What do consignors want from an auction house?

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Posted By: scgaynor

Joe, I don't think that having a catalog helps me remember the auction any better than a postcard or a reminder e-mail. A perfect example is the Huggins and Scott auction the other night. I had every intention of placing bids, I even had the catalog on my desk next to my computer, but I ended up getting caught up in other things and completely forgot about it. I mentioned this to somebody else the next day the they responded with "Damn, that was last night? There were some lots I wanted to bid on too." Obviously he forgot just like me.

I was trying to be pretty conservative. We send out 14,000 reminder e-mails for the Lelands-Gaynor auction. To ship 14,000 catalogs costs about $50,000 by priority mail and I figured it would cost at least a few dollars apiece to print the catalogs (if not more). That is how I came up with $100,000. Now that I think about it, that does not even include the cost of behind the scenes catalog production.

I don't think that the Wagner card is the right example. If I sent out a postcard highlighting the Wagner card, it would do just as well in an internet only auction as it would in a catalog. I think that a better example might be the Lou Gehrig Day Uniform or something like that where you are trying to pull in people from outside the hobby and stir up media interest. If the price realized is your only concern, it should not matter. If, on the other hand, you wanted something to pull off of the shelf and show your friends the piece you used to own, then I see the usefulness.

I think that it comes down to what you are selling. If it is something of museum quality historical significance, it will look good in a catalog. Like I was saying, I enjoy the catalogs, but if they don't make sense from a business standpoint, I don't see how they can continue to be a large as they are now.

At this point in time, it makes sense to have a catalog auction and internet auction. It is my belief that will change in the future, but I am an internet guy so my opinion is biased.

Scott