Does Mastro have hidden reserves?
z2345
Posts: 92 ✭
Rules from mastronet.com:
"A Word About Reserves:
MastroNet, Inc. believes what makes a good auction is quality material and reasonable reserves. The vast majority of the minimums in this auction are extremely low. Most represent somewhere between 10% and 50% of a fair value. Many might be best described as nominal. The purpose of the reserves in this and all MastroNet, Inc. auctions is simply: 1) To limit inquiries to those bidders who are sincerely interested in a given item; and 2) To ensure that (virtually) all lots will be sold. In this regard, this auction has much more in common (in spirit) with a no reserve auction than a traditional reserved auction."
What does "resonable reserves" mean? Does this mean the reserves are hidden? Or do they simply refer to the minimum bids as "reserves"?
"A Word About Reserves:
MastroNet, Inc. believes what makes a good auction is quality material and reasonable reserves. The vast majority of the minimums in this auction are extremely low. Most represent somewhere between 10% and 50% of a fair value. Many might be best described as nominal. The purpose of the reserves in this and all MastroNet, Inc. auctions is simply: 1) To limit inquiries to those bidders who are sincerely interested in a given item; and 2) To ensure that (virtually) all lots will be sold. In this regard, this auction has much more in common (in spirit) with a no reserve auction than a traditional reserved auction."
What does "resonable reserves" mean? Does this mean the reserves are hidden? Or do they simply refer to the minimum bids as "reserves"?
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Comments
or are there hidden reserves and the lot is simply returned to the consigner if the highest bid is too low?
They started the minimum bid very low on mine ($900 for an SMR $6500 card) but that jumped to $5500 after a couple days. There is a lot of money watching the Mastro auctions and if two guys are competing for the same scarce item, the price can shoot far, far past SMR. That's the attraction, despite the seller fee.
Anyway, I would guess most items in this kind of auction don't really need a high reserve because of the big dogs who are registered bidders and there is no fear of being scammed (on either side) as on eBay.
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there is no fear of being scammed (on either side) as on eBay. >>
you have a lot to learn.i hope it wont cost you too much.
also,why mention ebay and not any other establishment on this planet?.
one more lil thingie,
@ mastro there are no returns and no viewable bidder history.
in advance,
I was not addressing whether it is possible to get PSA/GAI to grade an altered or fake card/pack, or to get Mastro to put one in its auction, or any other trickery that might be imagined. Whether that has ever happened, my point was that it's much safer for both parties than a medium like eBay where fraud is not only rampant, it's easy.
i have well over 4000 completed transactions on ebay
and was stiffed once with one of those nice empty
priority mail jobs.at mastro however ive purchased
only a few items and on one occasion the description
was so "fraudulently" misrepresented that i swore
them off forever.on another occasion my items (3 vending cases)
were delivered in one huge box that caused one of the
cases to split open and the result was 12000 cards
out of their boxes.furthermore i'ld never purchased
anything at less than super retail there but anything
i sold with mastro did less well than ebay.i wont even get
into the potential felonies involved in telephone or
"auction" house sales.ebay has been fantastic and they
police their site pretty well.furthermore it is up to the buyer
to beware sellers,anywhere and to blindly trust an auction
house that doesn't stand behind their goods is just plain stupid.
I sure hope to hell my theory that Mastro is more secure doesn't prove to be wishful thinking.
So let's play sad songs for each other and everyone else who's been ripped off.
Say what you want but with just a few exceptions most Mastro consigners are very happy with the sales of thier items. I have been one of the few that was slightly unhappy with the selling price with a couple of my consignments. I think the main reason was the timing of the consigment which was my own fault as well as how Mastro's grouped the lots. This collection was consigned in the Novemer 1999 auction which was one month after the famed Barry Halper auction. I DO believe that timing played a significant part in the sale of those lots while the the way those were grouped did not help.
A seller usually can figure to have a pretty good return on thier consignment. While most buyers know going in that you will rarely find a bargain in one of thier auctions. Mastro's big ticket buyers are for the most part big pocket collectors (sometime international bidders) that sometimes fly into Oakbrook (Mastro's headquarters) to look at the lots in person. These buyers are usaully not found scouring Ebay for these items.
I have seen several items sell for double of what the same item has sold for on Ebay. Game used items such as bats or helmets sell for alot more through Mastros than they do on Ebay. I have purchased game used items on Ebat and turned them over to Mastros and many times doubled my money.
No online or phone auction will ever be foolproof. How many times do you find yourself bidding on a must have item on Ebay and you are bidding against a person with 0 feedback? It is entirely too easy for a sellers aquaintnance to run up the price of an Ebay auction and it is rarely detected.
Do auction houses do the same thing? Who know's, but I am sure there are some out there that do, but I think that an auction house has alot at stake to do that kind of thing.
Todd
<< <i>
No online or phone auction will ever be foolproof. How many times do you find yourself bidding on a must have item on Ebay and you are bidding against a person with 0 feedback? It is entirely too easy for a sellers aquaintnance to run up the price of an Ebay auction and it is rarely detected.
>>
When this occurs on ebay, you will see the bid history and you can choose to bid( or not bid) accordingly.
When an aquaintance or business associate of a consignor does this in a Mastro auction, you can never know, because we are not allowed to see the bid history or who the underbidders are.
No doubt, there are certain items that sell for more in a Mastro auction.
Another friend of mine bought a set and was told on the telephone that it probably contained 20-30% 9's, with most of the rest 8's, but he only got 1 9 in the set, and most were 7's or less.