my first major consignment to mastronet...

wlf3

Any words of warning/wisdom or otherwise? I am fedexing 4 large boxes of material to mastronet in the AM for their auction (dec?)...been talking with Doug Allen (Mastronet President) for a month now about it and we are both confident in the outcome finacially, but was wondering if anyone had any good/bad experiences with consigning to them. My obvious concerns are with having this mid-6-figures in consignments sitting 1000 miles away and them "disapprearing" at some point... of course it's mostly parania, but...

let me know any of you consignors.

Vargha

I consigned an autographed Cubs team ball with them and they are great to deal with.

wlf3

Vargha, you were one of the guys i expected to hear from.... Mr. Allen has been farily prompt in responding and always polite and concise. This is about 1/2 my collection and will/should do VERY well with these items but like I said before, I guess part of me is a bit warry of letting these things leave my home and office... sadly I think some of it is just not letting go.

Allen

Care to tell us what some of these items were so we can all drool over them? lol

wlf3

all autographs amazingly enough... saving the cards for next round. Several 1000 signed cards, 3x5s and dozens of signed baseballs... featuring several vintage US Presidential signed baseballs and other Politicians. I have collected these myself for decades and haven't done much with them in the last 2 years and given the HUGE prices Mastro is getting for these right now... time to sell. Their last auction had a LBJ that went for $10k, I've seen a JFK sell for $40k, and the Taft a few years ago for $72-76k....etc.

I'm hoping that this will happen as discussed - something along the lines of an entire section dedicated to the political baseballs... how cool would that be? I know most of the guys (and gals) here are the card collectors, but this stuff always interested me and obviously has some others interested around... so hoping they all come out of the woodwork for this one.

oddly, i'll probally cyphen it all back into other items.

bobsbbcards

wlf3,

Did Doug tell how they were going to break your consignment up into lots? If so, were you happy with what was agreed to? My fear in sending off as much material as you did would be they would group too much stuff together into those "super" everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink lots. Maybe they don't do that as much in the autograph area as they do in sportscards, but still I'd still be wary.

Oh, and good luck!!! I'll wait till your cards make an appearance in a later auction since I don't do autographs.

Bob

Allen

Sweet- What all Presidential auto balls you got? I would like to have one with JFK, Joe Dimaggio and Marillyn Monroe lol. I have always been amazed by interesting items like that. Were the card in-person and thru the mail autos? I hope you clean up on you auctions.

wlf3

The discussion was to listing all of the US Presidents and World Leaders seperately (50 lots or so?)... the other 100+- balls will probally be in small lots. I'd like to push for that if not yet decided, it's optimise each for collectors to buy one or all lots and I'd hope it'd maximize the World Leaders being that many are few or 1/1s. Most are of political nature (Governors, Senators, US Presidential candidates, etc) but also a few celebs (Bob Hope, Stephen King, Muhammed Ali, etc)... also to fill in some empty spots i tossed in a 1984, 1988, 1992 US Oly team signed balls and two US Pan AM team balls (1985 and 1986) and a 1939 Wilmington Bluerocks team ball.

sent about 6500 signed baseball 3x5s and about 8000 signed cards (1939-2002) obtained in person and through the mail...they'll probally be in a lot of 3x5s and a lot of cards. I withheld my signed 1955 Bowman set and about 20 other near signed sets I have to see how these do.

I'm hoping that I can get my unsigned cards together and decide what to sell... I have complete sets from 1960-2004 (all mfgs), a 3/4 T206 set, 1939 playball set, 2 52 mantles, etc... just want to see how these do an make sure the check doesn't bounce.

Allen

Nice, enjoy your swimming pool full of cash when they are sold. haha
Awsome Collection !

wlf3

thanks maybe i can get it all in pennies! then take them to the bank to deposit. lol

seriously tho, i am looking to do well based on Mastronet's prices of like/similar items over the last few years, and Doug has emailed his drool already too, so they're obviously interested as well.... and I'd love to have some of the board members wind up with something toward a collection or perhaps find someone who is interested enough to want to start a collection... that'd be welcome as well for sure.

inFluX

Sorry a little off topic.. I just checked out mastronet for the first time.. impressive stuff on there.. are there any other notable online auction sites for sports cards etc..

gameusedhoop

DO NOT FEDEX yor stuff to Mastro. Check out the link in my sig line (insurance is good to $500 ONLY). They will accept you $$$ to insure the package up to whatever figure that you give them, but pay out a MAX of $500. Send it USPS registered mail, insurance can be up to $25,000 per package. It costs a little more, but your stuff will be safe!

wlf3

thanks GUHoop... i knew that but had forgotten... i did cover that with a statement in writing that Mastronet would cover the loss if it occurs and not FedEx - obviously for way more than FEx would cover - since i am using M's shipping account.

influx, Mastronet is the BIG dawg.... but there are a few other nice auctions around....

Sportscardsplus
Robert Edwards Auctions
Mike Gutierez - autographs

Stone193

wlf3
Great stuff! I will be looking forward to seeing it at auction. FedEx is horrible but if you are using their account, obviously they are self insuring the stuff - remember tho, if for any reason the stuff comes up MIA, you have to do the proving of what the stuff is worth.
On the autos - were all of them obtained yourself? The ones by mail, of course, can go either way. Is any of the stuff psa/dna? Mastro gets their stuff "lot authenticated" by PSA - are they planning on doing that with your stuff? Just curious.
Finally, Good Luck!
Have you got anything in mind to get with the sale money?
your friend
Mike

wlf3

stone,

just talked with mastronet and they are using their insurance rider to cover the items beyond fedex. I was told $100k a box x 4 boxes. I do have a list and pics of everything i sent. They're having the items re-authenticated, yes... the bigger items will be done individually and the others as lots as you mentioned.

i got what i could in person, granted the older Presidents i didn't get til after their deaths, but always bought from long-time dealers and auctions and am confident in 99% of them... the signed cards and 3x5s-again the more modern players i got myself in the 80s-90s when i wasted my youth at Veteran's stadium when i lived up there... the bulk of the 3x5s are 1940s-70s debuts and were gotten via the mail in recent years.

as for the money.... dunno. probally wind up buying other cards. some will go to a new home i am sure. Just bought a new car last year, so don't need that...YET (unless i blow it on a lamborghini or something!), probally toss a bunch on my non-existant retirement fund, honestly how many of us actually HAVE one?

koby

wlf3,

Sounds like you have an incredible collection. I look forward to seeing your collection in the mastro auction.

"...$100k a box x 4 boxes..." Go for the Lamborghini!

koby

wlf3

i'd burn 1/2 the money for the car and the other 1/2 over the next 5 years to maintain it. lol

Stone193

<< <i> probally toss a bunch on my non-existant retirement fund, honestly how many of us actually HAVE one? >>


That would be the right thing to do...I'm working on that right now with my new office of 5 yrs. but what kind of fun is that?!

wlf3

I've always wanted one of these, but not the smart thing to do as we all know. ;P

DCDSports

We just picked up a Porsche Carrera GT. An absolutely incredible machine. 600 plus horse, and zero to 124 in 9.9 seconds.

Doug

wlf3

i agree those are some hard working cars.

my list would be Diablo, Ferrari 355 spider, then a Acura NSX - realistic list i might add.... no vintage ferraris or mclarens.

gameusedhoop

You guys must all live in warm, sunny areas of the country. I am in Massachusetts and drive a Jeep Grand Cherokee, not flashy, but very functional. I was able to get to work and back in the 3 feet of snow that we had this past winter. My street wasn't plowed for 3 days after the storm. The snow started on Friday night, all day Saturday, and the first half of Sunday (anybody remeber the fans at the Patriot's game sitting atop 4 foot high snowbanks?). The next town over (where I work) was still under a state of emergency on Monday. I may have driven over someones Ferrari on my way to work that night, I had no idea what was under all that snow.

Stone193

<< <i>I may have driven over someones Ferrari on my way to work that night, I had no idea what was under all that snow. >>


Gameused
You have a great vehicle and very practical - we were doing some daydreamin - but as long as you want something for those snowy days.....let's shoot the moon!