Getting "deals" in Big Auctions??

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Posted By: Rob Dewolf

Some of you might remember a short-lived Mastro endeavor when the company posted items for sale on its Web site. I'm guessing this was around 1999 or 2000 (?). Many of the items were large lots. One that I bought was a group of about 150-200 baseball pocket schedules that ranged in age from the late 1950s to the early '70s. The Web site description included only one photo and listed (maybe) 7-8 specific schedules. I don't remember the exact price and am too lazy to dig through my files, but I think I'm accurate in saying it came out to a little over $1.50 a schedule.

Given that pocket schedules are easy to mail and scan, I bought them with the sole intent of selling them individually on eBay. Aside from the pain of scanning 200 schedules, it was a blast. There were some gems that even I could recognize (a couple Colt 45s, a couple different 1962 Mets, etc), and I have no interest in schedules. When all was said and done, that lot cleared more than $1,000, counting eBay fees. A few of the schedules sold for more than $75. Not big bucks, but when you have less than $2 a schedule invested, it was a lot of fun to watch the auctions.

I later bought a bulk lot of 1950s-70s Cubs media guides from Mastro (with 5-10 from each year) and did well, but because of their size and lack of diversity that the schedules had, it wasn't as much fun.

Shortly thereafter, Mastro bagged the straight-selling idea.