My first Mastronet submission!

StriderTB

Well, after going back and forth, I've decided to sell my 1941 Gehrig Memorial game ticket on Mastronet. They're going to have PSA grade it before they list it in the spring Premier auction. I've never done business with any auction house aside from Ebay, so I'm pretty excited. I just got a call an hour ago when the ticket arrived, and they were very pleased with the condition.

So, when do those catalogs go out? I can't wait to find out how it grades!

Parting with it doesn't really hurt either, since I'm a Mets fan...

edit: here's a scan...

Southsider

Good luck!

It certainly is a unique item. I hope you do well.

StriderTB

Thanks! I really don't know what to expect, outcome wise, but I've been following past auctions, and they tend to average a little ofer $3000 unslabbed, depending on condition. Mastro sold one that was slabbed, but had a major crease down the middle, and still made $3200.

Lelands sold a raw ticket in May for around $3400, and the buyer flipped it on Sothebys in December, and doubled his money after PSA slabbed it.

Unfortunately, I'm not a PSA member, so I don't know if there is a pop. report available for these. If there is a ticket pop. report, can someone give me an idea of how many are out there, and how high they've graded? I'd like to know if mine ha a chance at grading above what's already out there...

Griffins

Can't you check the pop report to see how it grades? You'd find out before they did.
Can't see the calender on their site, but it is usually late march/early april. The catalogs usually go out just after the auction begins, about 3 weeks before the close.
Best of luck!

jayhawke

Hum. I can't believe in this day that Lelands would not slab it. Obviously means more money for them.
What made you go with Mastro? I called them once on a nice item and was not very impressed with the guy. I got the feeling he was not paying attention to me and probably reading the paper. Oh, and he was full of himself. I don't care if you can get me a nickle more, no business for you. That is the problem with most dealers and auction houses, no customer service.

StriderTB

I had a pretty decent conversation with Brian Marren, and they were good about giving me information about when it gets graded and whatnot. As for going with Mastro, I actually talked to them at the National Show back in 2003, and they left me with a good impression.

Honestly, I could probably get a bit more if I had it garded myself, and had Sotheby's sell it, but I'm also getting married at the end of April, and timing wise, I think this will work out better.

I was just about to send the ticket to PSA myself, but I kept running into problems with my local post office, and it became too much of a hassle.

Griffins

So much for that idea. If there is a pop report for tickets I can't find it, sorry.

DirtyHarry

As far as I know, there is not a pop report on tickets at this time. There are tickets in the set registry, but they are quite general in categorization. This tik would not fall under any of the current categories. Good luck. That is a beauty. Regards.

Stone193

Good luck Strider!
That's one of the most attractive tickets I have ever seen! In great shape and with the pic of Gehrig on it - wow!
Hopefully you will get some guys fighting over it and have a great honeymoon!

your friend
Mike

koby

Great item! That one should do really well in an auction.

Is Mastro taking 15% for consignment fee?

StriderTB

I assume the consignment fee is the standard 15% that they mention on the Mastro website. They're mailing me a contract that should arrive soon...

By the way, has anyone seen one of these? I found it with the ticket, but no one could give me much info on it. It includes home schedules for almost all of the local NY/NJ baseball teams, and little guides for most of the area ballparks, including Ebbet's Field and the Polo Grounds. It was made in 1942.

WhosYourVladdy

Just curious how did you come to acquire the ticket? It is a beauty!!!!!

StriderTB

Actually, I found the ticket along with the schedule in a book that belonged to my Great Grandfather, after he passed away in 1985. I've kept the ticket and schedule in a plastic bad and a backboard like a comic, untl I put the ticket in a 5x7 screwdown a few years ago.

I think he didn't use the ticket beacuse the original game was rained out, and the ticket was accepted to a double header a few days later. I have a bunch of .pdf's from the NY Times archive where they actually talk about the tickets, and how they were made to give each fan a souvenir for going to the game.

Stone193

Strider
That schedule is a beauty!!! Schedules from the 40's go for about 30 bucks but that one has both the Yanks and the Dodgers - now considering the premium on those two teams and the fact that it is a combo - I could see a guy paying 75-100 bucks for that item with no sweat!
Now this is just my opinion - I have Yank schedules from the late 70's but that one is really cool!!! I got the base cost of schedules from the Sports Memorabilia Catalog 2004, Krause pubs.
Congratulations!

your friend
Mike

StriderTB

Just a follow up, Mastronet called me earlier and told me the ticket graded a 5 from PSA. Pretty much what I expected, since the corners were touched a bit. I'm also lucky because the yellow end tickets were fairly rare. It'll be in the Spring Premier Auction, so wish me luck!

Knuckles

Good luck!


Curious.. What's mastronet's % take on consignments?

StriderTB

The consignment fee is 15%, which is better than some of the other companies. They also tack on a 15% buyer's fee, so they're cashing in twice! Still, I'm not complaining.

goudeygold

Now THAT is impressive. Beautiful pre-war relic!! Simply Awesome!!!

GG

pandrews

hey look closer at this picture.. Stone's & Harry's sig lines are in the background..

Stone193

<< <i>hey look closer at this picture.. Stone's & Harry's sig lines are in the background..

>>


Hey Perry
it's time for me to bring it back!

your friend
Mike

baseballfanatic

Great looking ticket. I mainly see the green ones floating around. I've always dealt with Ron Oser in person for Mastro's (in Huntingdon Valley, PA), but have spoken to Brian over the phone many times before Ron joined Mastro's a while back. You can't beat the final results of what they bring through using the name "Mastro's". Ron and Brian are great to deal with, but some of the other office riff raff do give you the impression that unless you are consigning a guaranteed 10,000.00+ item, they just can't be bothered...........

jrdolan

Brian Marren's the guy I have dealt with, too, and I have no complaint with him. It might be too late for you, but the 15% seller's fee is not carved in stone. On a highly desirable item, the fee can be negotiated. After all, they know they're getting 15% from the buyer as well.

Stone193

I found this stub on ebay and as you can see, it's not exactly the same color - I wonder if the color on the end designates area?



This one is totally destroyed on the back.

your friend
Mike

Knuckles

Lelands had this one up quite some time ago.

pc

<< <i>I found this stub on ebay and as you can see, it's not exactly the same color - I wonder if the color on the end designates area?


your friend
Mike >>



probably.my yankee box seats from the 60s and 70s
were always thin yellow paper

StriderTB

Yep, the end colors were different for each section, bleacher, box, lower stand, etc. The green bleacher tickets are most common.

That Field Box full sold for around $3300 on Lelands, and the buyer had PSA grade it as authentic, with no numerical grade, and he resold it at the last Sothebys auction in December for $7400 or so. Not too shabby.

I'm hoping for something between the two, since I think mine as a 5 would grade better than that one, but I know Sotheybs pulls in some crazy money. Mastro's no slouch though.

Stone193

Strider
IMO, yours has way more eye appeal and if the guys looking for these has any auction memory, they will pay some coin for this tick! Hopefully, they play up the quality and eye appeal of the item.

your friend
Mike

StriderTB

Well, I'm not too pleased at the results for the ticket I sold... My auction ended at $3700. If I had it to do all over again, I'd have had PSA authenticate the ticket instead of grading it, and I would have went with Sothebys, which has a good history of doing well with these items, and their comission fee is very similar to Mastro's.

Live and learn, I guess. I know where I'll be doing the bulk of my consignments in the future...

Knuckles

Sorry to hear you didn't get what you expected. I think is deserved an extra $1,000.

baseballfanatic

I followed the ticket and can only say I was pretty disappointed in the final as well. This was one of those times that an ungraded ticket with a nice closeup photo and good description would have doubled the price. The PSA holder definately brought the price down. If it was graded "authentic", it would have done the same because collectors would have asked, "Why didnt he have it graded?" Sounds like some of the luck I've had with some lots at Mastro's auctions........

StriderTB

Yeah, the lack of quality pics really bugged me, as did the mention of a weak corner. I couldn't see any of the corners standing out as being particularly worse than any others.

Also, I was told that they would mention the rarity of the yellow-end version of the tickets, and that was nowhere to be seen. As I said, I know who I'll be consigning with in the future.

baseballfanatic

Mastros will sometimes take a full page with 1,000's of words to puff up a piece that is going to go for $100,000.00+ regardless, and just put a couple of sentences in with a tiny pic with the "smaller" items. Once they have an item, they are guaranteed 30% (15% + 15%) anyway so they would rather concentrate on the extra bids they can milk out of a game used Ruth bat, than out of 30-50 2,000-5,000.00 items. The catalogs are getting to big and too many things are getting lost in the pages.......

SoFLPhillyFan

<< <i>By the way, has anyone seen one of these? I found it with the ticket, but no one could give me much info on it. It includes home schedules for almost all of the local NY/NJ baseball teams, and little guides for most of the area ballparks, including Ebbet's Field and the Polo Grounds. It was made in 1942.



Also sorry to hear about the low bid on your ticket. It was obviously in much better condition than the other examples posted here.
Did the surface have any small creases or dents? Couldn't see any.

As for your schedule. My guess is that it is a piece geared for tourists, and military members in particular. NJ and NY had several Army training bases in WWII and NYC was the port of departure for many GI's.

koby

Your ticket was in far better condition than the one that sold for more in Lelands. I though for sure that Mastro would have sold the ticket for $1500 more than it did.

Certain items can definitely get lost in the shuffle in a Mastro auction. Certainly not worth the heavy commissions and fees IMO.

koby

Sorry about the dissapointing results.

Stone193

Strider
I feel really bad...I too thought it would go for much more...will they let you set a reserve? Or is the reserve too low anyway? Opening bid is not a good reserve IMO.

Sorry about the result and I wish you the best
mike

CollectorChris

Your ticket was MUCH nicer than the one that sold through Leland's, so I was expecting yours to go in the $8,000-$9,000 range. Whoever bought yours may very well sell it for that about much in another auction.

StriderTB

Thanks for your opinions everyone, for what it's worth, I appreciate it, and it also lets me know that I wasn't being very unreasonable in my expectations.

I sent a polite email to Brian Marren, who's been my contact throughout, just letting him know that I was unsatisfied with Mastronet's performance. Not that I expect anything to come of it, but at least I feel a bit better.

mikeschmidt

I think basing valuation on one auction result can be very problematic. Who knows - in Leland's - it could have very likely been two very deep pocket collectors who bid each other up much more than each was initially willing to pay. Tickets and stubs are a pretty thinly traded subset of this great hobby - it is not like there are hundreds of people out there clammoring for such pieces. Rather, in this case, I imagine that it was probably an advanced Yankees collector or a Lou Gehrig collector.

Sure - it's a nice piece. And the armchair quarterback can make many modifications or suggestions in retrospect. But, let's be honest here. Look at Mastro's overall prices. They generally get pretty insane prices for their stuff. Not all - but the vast majority. I don't think you could have done better going somewhere else.

I know this is a card-related factoid - but it is am important one to realize in our hobby as it relates to price bidding wars:

T-206 Joe Doyle NY Nat'l PSA 2 sells for $179,500 in July 2000.
T-206 Joe Doyle NY Nat'ls PSA 3 sells for $64,100 in August 2003.

That's a 66% decline in price for a card that was graded higher. Once you get into the upper echelon of collecting - there are a lot of factors that influence price. And taking a bid name bidder out of the auction frenzy - that can cause a serious decline in prices.

StriderTB

I know prices can fluctuate wildly, but I also think I might have done a bit better with Sothebys considering that they're a live hammer auction, and that the auction would have been held in NYC, which is obviously the market for an item like mine. Unfortunately, I didn't know Sothebys auction schedule, so I went with Mastronet.

It's definitely a weird hobby though.