Invite from Heritage Auctions at the National

PSASAP

I received an invitation from Heritage Auctions to attend a dinner at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. The highlight will be the auction of the best cards from the "Black Swamp" find, which has been all over the news lately. The catch is that all attendees must make a $100 charitable contribution in order to attend. I've never been invited to an event where the donation was an obligation, thumbs down to Heritage for this move.

ejguru

Read closer---donation optional

vladguerrero

at least they are making you bid on some of their questionable material, lol.

Griffins

Bear in mind that if you bid in Heritage that you may be bidding against the house, employees, and the consignors of the lot. It's there in their rules. They can also modify those bids, so you can be run up to be the underbidder and they can rescind the high bid, leaving you as the high bidder and themselves as the underbidder.

"21. The Auctioneer, its affiliates, or their employees consign items to be sold in the Auction, and may
bid on those lots or any other lots. Auctioneer or affiliates expressly reserve the right to modify
any such bids at any time prior to the hammer based upon data made known to the Auctioneer
or its affiliates. The Auctioneer may extend advances, guarantees, or loans to certain consignors."

PSASAP

I double-checked, and this confirms my earlier post:

basketballcollector

The donation is REQUIRED, NOT optional. But, as Tom C. said in the movie Risky Business, "Sometimes you just gotta say what the _uck !!!!" and do it.

Ironmanfan

The Ronald McDonald House is a worthy charity............You'll easily eat/drink $100 worth (at least I would)

IMF

JHS5120

I guess I spend way too much at their auctions, my invitation came with a card that offered to cover my donation.

jeffcbay

<< <i>The Ronald McDonald House is a worthy charity............You'll easily eat/drink $100 worth (at least I would) >>



+1

Dboneesq

<< <i>

<< <i>The Ronald McDonald House is a worthy charity............You'll easily eat/drink $100 worth (at least I would) >>


+1 >>


+2. If they were charging $100.00 and they kept the money, that would be different. Forget about how they run their auctions for this comment (I agree with what Griffins stated)... how can someone complain when they tell you that all proceeds are going to the Ronald McDonald House? People receive "invitations" all the time to attend fundraisers. An invitation does not mean that something is free. And has been stated already, you are probably going to get your $100.00 in food, drink and being at Camden Yards looking at some real kewl auction items!

jmmiller777

Ya, all the proceeds go to charity, except auction fees. I'm not a big fan of...

Dboneesq

OP was talking about the $100.00 to enter ... that's all I am referring to. If you want to bid on an auction where "The Auctioneer, its affiliates, or their employees consign items to be sold in the Auction, and may bid on those lots or any other lots. Auctioneer or affiliates expressly reserve the right to modify any such bids at any time prior to the hammer based upon data made known to the Auctioneer or its affiliates", that's your choice.

Griffins

which means that they can see your max bid and bid accordingly with their house account.
In an industry of dubious business ethics, this may set a new low.

addicted2ebay

I wonder what there policy is if you win your own card? 19.5% buyers premium is alot to pay to get your card back.

bking

<< <i>OP was talking about the $100.00 to enter ... that's all I am referring to. If you want to bid on an auction where "The Auctioneer, its affiliates, or their employees consign items to be sold in the Auction, and may bid on those lots or any other lots. Auctioneer or affiliates expressly reserve the right to modify any such bids at any time prior to the hammer based upon data made known to the Auctioneer or its affiliates", that's your choice. >>



+ eleventy billion

Dboneesq

<< <i>I wonder what there policy is if you win your own card? 19.5% buyers premium is alot to pay to get your card back. >>


Griffins states "they can see your max bid and bid accordingly with their house account". The house can bid one buck below your max ... and guess what? You win AT YOUR MAX BID.

Regarding Consignors bidding on their own item. They can bid so as to be assured that their item WILL NOT sell for less than 80% of the FMV.

bking

<< <i>

<< <i>I wonder what there policy is if you win your own card? 19.5% buyers premium is alot to pay to get your card back. >>


Griffins states "they can see your max bid and bid accordingly with their house account". The house can bid one buck below your max ... and guess what? You win AT YOUR MAX BID.

Regarding Consignors bidding on their own item. They can bid so as to be assured that their item WILL NOT sell for less than 80% of the FMV. >>



Good Lord!! Are there no ethics at these places??

CollectorAtWork

<< <i>I double-checked, and this confirms my earlier post:

... >>



Donation should be optional since you should have received one of these cards in your invitation also....

PSASAP

I've been a bidder in many Heritage Auctions in the past ten years, in both their sports and music auctions, and I think it's tacky that I am asked to donate money in order to attend an auction where I would probably end up bidding on some of the auctions anyway. And I did not receive the complimentary invite like the previous poster, so maybe I'm not considered one of their favored clients.

Maurice

<< <i>which means that they can see your max bid and bid accordingly with their house account. >>


Not according to a representative from Heritage that discussed rule 21 on net54baseball.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?p=841056#post841056

basketballcollector

I wonder what dollar amount do you need to spend or consign each year at Heritage to get that postcard (that CollectoratWork received) ? 5K ? 10K, 50K, 100K, 500K ????????

CollectorAtWork

I don't think it's a lot. I checked my records, and I only won about $2000 from Heritage in the last year. I did consign about $5K of items last year also, but the year before, I had never consigned anything and only had around $2K worth of wins also. I do tend to bid a lot even though I don't win many of those lots, so that may be a factor also.

Griffins

I won't bid with Heritage and would never consign anything, and I got an invite.
Obviously there aren't any requirements and they certainly aren't selective.