BBCE Auction? Anyone win anything?
ndleo
Posts: 4,136 ✭✭✭✭✭
Anyone bid in the first BBCE Auction? The box selection was amazing.
Mike
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ndleo
Posts: 4,136 ✭✭✭✭✭
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I didnt see it. What were the highlights?
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
i bid and got outbid while i slept
Didn't know there was an auction. They should this forum
to advertise the next one.
I was outbid on the lots I was bidding on. Prices were strong for unopened baseball. 162K for a PSA 8 52 wax pack. 9K for a PSA 7 71 cello and 11K for a 71 rack were some of the highlights. Vintage unopened is alive and well.
https://bid.bbceauctions.com/lots/gallery?category=22
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Is it me or did some of the PSA singles slightly underperform? The wax seemed to do well as expected.
I agree the advertising was lighter than I usually see.
I bid and lost. Mine went for like 10% higher than the highest recent sale. There was a really nice PSA 9 Stabler which if I had more disposable cash I would now own. 😁
I won two individual cards. Very happy with the bargains I got.
Late 60's and early to mid 70's non-sports
Curious why they waited until now to begin their first auction. Did they make a large purchase,material not moving at a higher previous price?
My two cents…
I think sometimes it just takes time to see a decision like this come to fruition, meaning the decision to start to auction material through their own newly created website was likely made some time ago. In addition to the time for the website build, you probably want to get word out and leverage some connections and friendships into consigning some great material, too.
I don’t know Mr. Hart and I don’t recall ever buying from BBCE because unopened is not my niche but if you generally follow the hobby, he’s a massively important and wildly busy figure in the unopened world; so busy that this new aspect could have evolved from a decision made 2-3 years ago as many existing auction houses started to see serious growth and strong prices as the overall hobby did the same. As someone who tends to be optimistic about things, prices are maybe off some all time highs but I think a great item still generates a very strong price. If you bought a card more than five years ago, you’re probably still ahead though maybe not by the margin you were two years ago. Still, there’s always someone or something that re-ignites the collecting of cards every few seasons.
As for BBCE, it already seems to be a very solid business, as is, and I’d hazard a guess to say they’ll still have large inventory available, as well. But I think it probably helps them value and price items in inventory in a public way and it will also ensure that when a product gets hot that inventory prices can be adjusted so that not much money is left on the table. Their stuff now already populates auction house offerings and draws a significant premium to non BBCE certified material anyway so I’m sure as the overall data was looked at, it became clear that they could and should add auctions to their platform to capitalize further on the value of their brand.
Curious about the rare, mysterious and beautiful 1951 Wheaties Premium Photos?
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/987963/1951-wheaties-premium-photos-set-registry#latest
Thank you for your viewpoint.
I've been waiting for BBCE to get into the auction game. It seemed like an obvious move since he has a strong niche and advantage over other auction houses.
Please tell me it was UFFDAH.... Please tell me it was UFFDAH.... I really need to see another 1952 Topps Wax pack opened.
Judging by the number of bids per item, vintage unopened seems to be a small niche market. It is quite active but dwells within a small group. This may be due in part to the high prices. I thought there would be many more bids per item then there was given the scarcity of the product.
The hockey seemed to go cheap, 2K for a 78 OPC wax box feels like good value and the Mario on back pack, same thing, i would have bought both at those prices but didn't know this was a thing.
There may have been fewer bids but the bids that were placed were assertive ones as all of the vintage unopened baseball lots I was following finished at strong prices. There was a lot of early activity within the first day or two on the more highly sought after lots which is not always the case with auction houses where "chip or placement bidding" is routine.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
As stated, despite the market softness in the hobby this end of year, vintage wax was real strong. No “deals” to be had there
My collecting blog: http://ctcard.wordpress.com
The number of bids on an item does not represent the number of interested bidders for an item.
If there are 100 interested buyers for an item at $5,000, and one bidder places a first max bid of $4,900, and a second bidder places a bid of $5,000, then there are just 2 bids on the item. That obviously does not mean only 2 people were interested in the item.
Vintage unopened wax has a very strong group of buyers that is only growing over time. And many of the buyers have very deep pockets.
I bought the Lemieux pack for my PC. I've seen way fewer 1985/86 OPC Hockey packs than I have 1986/87 Fleer Basketball packs in my life, and I can't imagine this pop growing by much in the coming years. I'm not even sure how it got to 10 packs in the first place.
Is that the next Reed-buy ?
Great buy, I would have bid you up! That pack was a steal.
I have no way of ascetaing how many interested buyers there are for any lot. Hence, why I based my viewpoint on the only specific number available, the number of bids placed.
No doubt the bidders have deep pockets, what with the realized prices.
Of course, there are many "interested" bidders on desirable items. I dont think sellers really care how many are "interested" though. They want "serious" bidders. When I set up at the local card show, many of my higher value items have lots of "interested" people looking. However, there are only 5-7 guys who are serious buyers for those items. It would be the same for high priced unopened. For example, I am an "interested bidder" for the 1914 Ruth that is up. I am not, however, a realistic buyer for that card.
I think the earlier assertion that vintage unopened is a small niche, is no doubt accurate. It is a small part of a larger hobby. I would agree that the small group of real buyers do have very deep pockets.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
By "interested", I mean willing to bid / pay.
The point was that you can never judge the amount of willing bidders an item has by the number of bids. An item can have 100 bids and only 2 active bidders bidding in small increments - or it can have a very small amount of bids with bidders bidding in big increments.
I would not look at the BBCE auction or any auction and say, "Wow, that unopened box only had 4 bids. Only 4 people wanted to buy it - the market for it is small." Only the price realized matters in the end...
Yes, the realized price does matter. However, if there are a very limited amount of serious buyers for an item at a certain price level, once those buyers are satiated, the price will drop. and sometimes by quite a lot. It has happened over the years. You may remember the Omar Vitzquel craze from a few years ago. prices went nuts, but it only ended up being just a few serious buyers and once they got what they wanted, prices deflated greatly.
That is the uncertainty with a niche market. Once serious buyers have had their fill, or age out of their prime earning years, what will happen to prices? will a new generation enter the market? No one knows. Anecdotally, the young folks I have had dealings with are very much into modern and ultra-modern and not much else.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
its sad some of us didnt know this auction was on... there used to be an app that carried all auctions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_players_from_Panama
Surely BBCE would have "advertised"it on this forum.
Are you referring to Auction Report? They list all major active and upcoming auctions.
https://auctionreport.com/bid-now-collectible-classics-current-auction-ends-november-16-2023/
I thought the 1979 hky wax box sold for lower than usual.
I consigned a few things and was happy with the hammers. A couple higher and a couple lower but in total, a little higher than I thought.
Only bid on that 65 Mantle SGC that looked undergraded, but not hard enough.
Bosox1976
Bid on the 1964 cello pack and 1971 1st series wax pack…but I bailed at $4k on both items. I did sell a 1989 Donruss Rack Pack w/Griffey Jr on top…happy with the sale price of $66 w/buyers premium.
Why did a 1975 Topps baseball PSA 8 wax pack sell for $1000 but a 1975 PSA 9 cello pack sell for $606? 1975 wax packs aren't THAT scarce now, are they?
75 wax packs are way more scarce than cello packs.
According to PSA pack population. There were 3 times the amount of cellos grades vs the wax.
I thought the 1975 baseball wax box went a little low for how tough those are
Do they advertise their auctions anywhere besides their Website?
the Exchange will post up over on the Insta...
i'm ignorant.
What is "insta"?
@GroceryRackPack
the Exchange will post up over on the Insta...> @Tibor said:
Instagram
Thank you. You would think they would make mention here.
Or maybe some forum members.
100%, thanks in large part to Fritsch.
Speaking of OPC, I won the PSA 9 1978 wax pack with Murray face out on back.
Prices were fairly strong overall I thought for the most part.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
For aware bidders less advertising may benefit them,less competition to drive up bid prices. Better deals for those folks. On the other hand less public awareness hurts the company,less bidders.
The more bidders there are, the better the competition for the
auctioned items. Better for the auction company and consigners.
Which would you rather have, 20% of $400 or 20% of $600. Most
if not all auction companies get 20% from consignees and 20%
from bidders.
I am fairly plugged into the hobby and had no idea they were having an auction. where are they advertising?
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I consigned to the first BBCE auction and was concerned about the lack of advertising. However I was very happy with the results. I know Steve hit his regular customer base hard and this could be a case of quality bidders over quantity.
you are probably right. it seems as though it would take minimum effort to throw out on Socials/message boards once a week in the 6 weeks or so prior to the auction and then a few times in the week in advance of the auction to significantly increase the bidder pool with minimum $ output. He could also increase his consigner pool with simply pushing out messages on socials/message boards
I am not much into unopened, but if he were also auctioning singles, I would be in!
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
BBCE is auctioning singles, sets, unopened boxes, unopened packs, graded packs. If you go to the website you can sign up for email notification.
PS. There are Singles!
It's not the worst auction site in the world. Most of the platforms are terrible.
I was looking at the 76 cello with Eckersley on back I did not bid to aggressively because in the MHCC auction they had 2 sweet cello packs 74 psa 8 with Ryan on top and 76 psa 9 with Ryan on top that ends this weekend, I was saving my cash for those 2 packs.
obviously after BBCE auctions ended I did not get the 76 cello to make matters worse MHCC pulled both of the ryan cellos from their auction and now I was left with 0.
had I know the 2 cellos from MHCC would of been pulled I would of bid much more on the 76 cello in BBCE.
Nice Tim. I actually got one of these in a CU Group Break about 8 years ago. I've been meaning to send it into PSA ever since. It always amazed me how honest Steve was when breaking a box for us. He could have easily switched it out for a different pack and nobody would have been the wiser.
Doug
It was inevitable that those cello packs at Mile High would be pulled. FYI, this would be the pack you want.... collectauctions.net/1976_Topps_Baseball_Cello_Pack___Nolan_Ryan_Back__-LOT54075.aspx
fortunately MHCC pulled both of the ryan cello packs because I was going to go all in on both of them ... If I had known this info a few days earlier I am sure I could of got some gold from collect auctions or bbce, but I am thankful they did pull those 2 cellos...