Do catalogers secretly lament around the water cooler when another auction firm lands a choice consi

Longacre

With the finite number of really choice collections, along with small number of major auction firms, I am sure there is a lot of competition between the auction houses to land the prime consignments. Do professional catlogers/researchers ever lament how they would have loved to wet their beak on the XYZ Collection, if only it had not gone to that other auction firm? From the perspective of bragging rights at the water cooler during a convention, do the researchers/catalogers tell how great it was to handle the Eliasberg world gold collection, for example, or how cool it was to catalog the Reiver copper collection? Or is the sale of a prominet collection yesterday's news, and the buzz/braging rights focus on the big collections coming down the pike that an auction firm might get?

michael

lots of whailing and nashing of teeth

a nasty dirty little game

chabot510

I think some of the smaller companies (ANR, Goldberg, Superior, etc.) might. However, I do not think Heritage does. A couple of times that I have spoken with some of their upper level management, they seemed quite content with their current strategy of offering thousands of coins each week at affordable grades for most collectors. This is in contrast with having a few hundred high end coins for sale that only a tiny fraction of collectors could afford. JMO

ColonialCoinUnion

<< <i>I think some of the smaller companies (ANR, Goldberg, Superior, etc.) might. However, I do not think Heritage does. A couple of times that I have spoken with some of their upper level management, they seemed quite content with their current strategy of offering thousands of coins each week at affordable grades for most collectors. >>



You're kidding right? So you think they just sort of tried to get the Reiver consignment, but if they hadn't they wouldn't have been too upset?

chabot510

I am not saying that Heritage does not care if they don't get a big sale. What I am saying is that I think they aren't as concerned as the smaller companies because they have become so big.

ColonialCoinUnion

I disagree. Becoming big means big numbers to anniversary every year, and increasing pressure to keep landing consignments. I believe Heritage is unbelievably aggressive in going after the big fish.

chabot510

I am not saying that they are not aggressive, what I am saying is that I do not think they lament as much at a missed consignment.

Michigan

I have heard a story about how one well known firm got really angry that a rival got a certain highly
specialized collection as they felt they really deserved to get it because they could do a better job
of cataloging than the other guys. No names here of course