Best Auction House?

MattyC

Hi Guys,

I am sure this topic has been discussed in the past, yet I wanted to glean the most current opinions.

Of the main auctions, such as REA, Mile High, Memory Lane, etc., is there one that has risen above the rest in terms of prices realized and overall reputation?

Also, are they each perhaps known for a niche in the market, i.e., Pre-War, Post-War, sets, etc., say the way SGC has a rep in Pre-War, PSA overall, and some people like BGS for the modern stuff?

Thanks for any and all opinions. Have a piece or two I want to put up.

Best,

Matt

Sean1125

Do you mind me asking what the pieces are you want to put up?

It's hard to make suggestions not knowing what you want to sell.

MattyC

All Post-War.

Some high-end 1970's (say 30K value, very conservatively). Couple 1960's, same ballpark. Thx.

jeffcbay

I'm no help. I have never understood the reason for giving your stuff to an auction house as opposed to selling it yourself on ebay or even using an ebay consignor. You lose so much money off the top when going through an auction house. There are so many more eyeballs on ebay. I've really tried to understand this, but I guess I'm just dense. If things sold for so much better at an auction house, then I would sit here all day and buy on ebay just to flip it at an auction house. I just don't see it.

Sean1125

No idea to be honest but with 30k+ you can probably negotiate a 0% fee from one of the AH's

I'm sure some one else will chime in.

MattyC

That's right; I have spoken to a couple and there would be 0% from my end. I've been buying as an avid collector a long time but have only sold minimal stuff here and there, and that only recently. I know there are guys on here who have enormous volumes of experiences with selling and maximizing sales.

Edit to add: I suppose I should also ask for opinions when it comes to the main quality e-bay consignors as well, in terms of going with them versus a house. That would really round out the discussion.

DavidPuddy

I've only consigned to two different places. Both were this past year.
The first was Mile High for a complete 70's set. Bottom line on my item and my experience with them: Low hammer and nearly 100 days to get paid.
The second was Probstein123 on Ebay.
This consignment consisted of about 1300 graded cards. Bottom line: Very solid hammer prices, and quick payment.

smtjoy

I do my own selling on ebay as well as use Auction houses. On more expensive cards- 1k+ I prefer auction houses, I dont have to worry about any ebay charge backs and what not. Plus I do think some old school bidders do not use ebay.

I think whats more important is how your cards will get sold, if selling graded cards make sure they are sold as singles, I have seen way to many people auction off sets and get hammered. For 70's stuff I would want it sold on ebay, unless its like 1975 Topps Ryan PSA 10 quality then go auction house. If I was selling 70's stuff I would go with either Probstein, PWCC, Davids Vintage, etc on ebay and give the very best stuff if valued over 3k a card to Goodwin, Mile High, Legandary. I consigned to Goodwin 4 Pre WWII cards that sold for 5k and got paid in less than 30 days, was very happy with hammer and payment time.

Sean1125

Just remember on ebay consignments to factor in the % they take, and the % in fees - Not saying avoid them - I have stuff with Rick Probstein right now, but even if the auction house gets 10-15% lower you still end up netting more if they are taking 0%

jeffcbay

Even if there are no seller's fees at an auction house, they still charge the buyer a large percentage, and most smart buyers take that into consideration when placing their bids.

MattyC

Thanks so much; these responses are great and enlightening. I do wish I had the time to sell on eBay, as my feedback is solid and I'd encourage prospective buyers to look me up (my name is Matt Cirulnick and I am a writer based primarily in LA). I only recently started to sell off some fringe bits of my collection to get more focused on vintage stars and my main mini set, and it sure does take up time scanning and doing the listings!

70ToppsFanatic

<< <i>I do my own selling on ebay as well as use Auction houses. On more expensive cards- 1k+ I prefer auction houses, I dont have to worry about any ebay charge backs and what not. Plus I do think some old school bidders do not use ebay.

I think whats more important is how your cards will get sold, if selling graded cards make sure they are sold as singles, I have seen way to many people auction off sets and get hammered. For 70's stuff I would want it sold on ebay, unless its like 1975 Topps Ryan PSA 10 quality then go auction house. If I was selling 70's stuff I would go with either Probstein, PWCC, Davids Vintage, etc on ebay and give the very best stuff if valued over 3k a card to Goodwin, Mile High, Legandary. I consigned to Goodwin 4 Pre WWII cards that sold for 5k and got paid in less than 30 days, was very happy with hammer and payment time. >>



For Ebay consignors I would recommend PWCC and Rick Probstein. Both are profession, class acts who 99.999% of the time get 5 stars for customer service

For auction houses, all of them have had issues. After the fiasco and run-around that occurred a few years ago at Mastro (took more than a year to get paid) I am reluctant to recommend working with Legendary since many of the same people run it. I also experienced some delayed payment issues at MH (3 months), but I think these were more administrative issues and once I got Brent on the phone the problem got resolved. MLI runs a tight ship, but my experience is that they have been amongst the least flexible in terms of 0% consignment fees for 5-figure consignments. At times, it is my opinion that several of them have been a bit too conservative in their descriptions of items I consigned which resulted in lower prices being realized.

Perhaps the top auction house is REA. They only do 1 auction a year and they do it right. At the same time for many potential consignors in the 5-figure levels it can be like being a small fish in a big pond.

There are also some specialty people (Goodwin, Legacy/Bussineau) who provide excellent service and seem to realize superior prices for specific genres of items.

I'd suggest that before you even go the auction route you start with the B/S/T boards here and at net54baseball. Come up with prices that you think would be realistic if you were the buyer. Try to be objective and then see if those price match what you hope to get as the seller. You could avoid a lot of hassle and fees.

MattyC

That's a good point. I am not on the Net54 boards; perhaps it would be wise to make some contacts there. I'll try and sign up later this week for sure.

gemint

I'm seriously considering consigning some cards with the smaller auction houses like Bussineau, Serius, etc. They typically offer zero consignment fees for sellers and do a good job running their auctions. I've almost exclusively sold on eBay over the years but they've all but begged me to leave their service. Between getting bent over for 12-14% in fees (FVF, PP Fee, sometimes listing fees, shipping costs), considering I have to do all the work myself from listing to managing the transactions to shipping out the items and on top of that, having your items buried amongst thousands of high priced BINs and eBay doing virtually nothing to promote your items, I have a hard time continuing to justify using them.

eBay used to deliver some of the strongest hammer prices of all auction houses but even that's not the case anymore. Who now is willing to list an expensive card at $0.99 and let bidders determine the final value? After seeing multiple cards selling for a fraction of VCP avg value, I'm not willing to take that risk.

fiveniner

I use Probstein on certain items.He has shown me nothing but class and $s more than I could have made.His presentations and dialog are much better than mine

NickM

If you had pre-WWII material, I would suggest Brockelman & Luckey auctions.

The problem with eBay for oddball material is that it may not get noticed with 7 to 10 days by 2 serious buyers. Even when consigning to a PWCC or Rick Probstein, if you get 1 bidder, you're sunk.

Use the BST (and Vintage Trading) boards here as well as other message boards to sell without the eBay fees.

Nick

smtjoy

I agree its worth checking on the smaller auction houses, I have consigned to B & L twice and been very happy, good hammer and think I got paid in less than 15 days. I am also keeping close tabs on Sterling, I think Brian is running a great auction house and getting nice prices (I cant seem to win much), having monthly auctions and willingness to list $25 and up cards is awesome.

RonBurgundy

Jeff is spot on

Boopotts

<< <i>I'm no help. I have never understood the reason for giving your stuff to an auction house as opposed to selling it yourself on ebay or even using an ebay consignor. You lose so much money off the top when going through an auction house. There are so many more eyeballs on ebay. I've really tried to understand this, but I guess I'm just dense. If things sold for so much better at an auction house, then I would sit here all day and buy on ebay just to flip it at an auction house. I just don't see it. >>



If you're dealing with 30K worth of stuff you can probably get a consignor's fee of at least -5%. If the buyer pays 20% then the total fees would be 15%, which are roughly comparable to what would be paid on Ebay and probably equal to what you would pay if you mailed all your stuff to someone like PWCC and had them sell it. Plus, you don't have to worry about scammers and so forth if you deal with a major auction house.

CollectorAtWork

My advice is as others have mentioned, try to sell on ebay for the price you are looking for (e.g., min starting price or as a BIN). If you do that, and no is biting, then go to an auction house, especially if your card is obscure or rare. You'd get more eyes that may want to purchase your item. I've had items that I consigned to auction houses that went way over what I had listed on ebay for months. I've had others that went below what I had listed where I thought to myself, dang, if I just had that starting price on ebay, I would've done a lot better. Good luck.

jeffcbay

<< <i>

<< <i>I'm no help. I have never understood the reason for giving your stuff to an auction house as opposed to selling it yourself on ebay or even using an ebay consignor. You lose so much money off the top when going through an auction house. There are so many more eyeballs on ebay. I've really tried to understand this, but I guess I'm just dense. If things sold for so much better at an auction house, then I would sit here all day and buy on ebay just to flip it at an auction house. I just don't see it. >>



If you're dealing with 30K worth of stuff you can probably get a consignor's fee of at least -5%. If the buyer pays 20% then the total fees would be 15%, which are roughly comparable to what would be paid on Ebay and probably equal to what you would pay if you mailed all your stuff to someone like PWCC and had them sell it. Plus, you don't have to worry about scammers and so forth if you deal with a major auction house. >>



Yeah when you're talking money like that, I would probably prefer an insured professional take care of that kind of transaction. I was unaware of fee discounts like that.