Official Gass 2023 Auctioneer - Kewriga Auctions

Just curious if folks are familiar with this auction house. Have they been in business for a while or are they a new outfit? Their website doesn't appear to have a lot of information. If they are a new outfit, would also be curious as to the reasons they were chosen versus the usual suspects, if a rep from the APS is around to comment. TIA.

The home page invites submissions for their inaugural auction, so, pretty new I'd say.

They should clean up their/his About page, as cut-and-paste creates some conflicts in the information presented.

Yes, they are new. He used to work for Schuyler Rumsey auctions. I believe his company was "chosen" as the show auctioneer because they were probably the only applicant. SR did the show last year - it is my understanding they did it as part of a deal they made with tee APS in order to get the APS to consign a major collection to the auction (they are only an hour or so from where the show was held). The last 3 firms (Harmer-Schau, Regency & Jacques Schiff) before that to hold auctions at the show are no longer in existence.

Edited to add - it is a lot of extra work to take an auction on the road).

Matt is formerly with Schuyler and Bennett before that. He's been a member of the APS since he was a teenager. He and his family recently returned to the East Coast, and Matt is opening his own auction house. His plan is to continue with GASS for the next few years in Hartford and Schaumberg.




Schuyler also sold the estate of former APS Board member Al Parsons and his family wanted the estate sold at an APS show. That was the driver for him to select Sacramento.

The APRL had a competitive bidding process, and Schuyler's bid was selected by the APRL Board and sold at two separate auctions, WESTPEX 2021 and GASS 2022. The Mason Estate yielded $230,000 toward the APRL digitization, along with cash that, combined with a significant cash contribution from the APS, eliminated the mortgage debt for the Match Factory.

Harmer-Schau is no longer around? I know that they have been pretty inactive since 2021, and I thought they were just lying low...

I believe the two partners of Harmer-Schau have separated. Chris Harmer comes to the occasional stamp show to purchase.

Matt left Rumsey late last year and moved to Richmond to start business under his own name. While he has not run his own operation before, he does have considerable experience. He was with Rumsey for the last 10 years and I believe he was with Bennett in Baltimore for a similar time. He is an international gold medal exhibitor and has an excellent knowledge of US fancy cancellations.

Full disclosure - I shared booths at stamp shows with him 2010-2012. He went to work for Rumsey in 2013.

Kurt Schau is currently selling on eBay under the username "petamarty".

I don't recall seeing him at a show for several years, but I know 3-4 years ago he was here in Texas at a couple of shows as I purchased material from him.

Edited to correct grammar.

Mike, Kurt is active on the WSP show circuit and always has interesting & unusual worldwide postal history - we both had booths at San Diego & Garfield Perry Cleveland. And he took on the unenviable role of Bourse Team Leader for next week's WESTPEX show. Steve

Harmer-Schau still operated under the name after Kurt left a few years ago. The last H/S auction was in January 2021. I've not heard of plans for any further auctions.

Kurt typically gets a booth at the Great American Stamp Show and will be at our show in Cleveland in August.

Scott

Scott and Steve:

Thanks for the updates. I am glad to learn Kurt is still active on the show circuit. I hope he can get back to my "fly-over" world again.

Mike

Kurt retired from the auction firm and with drew his portion of equity. He returned as a cover dealer, worldwide, at shows (and on eBay as noted above) but became invisible due to covid. Once shows returned he has done them here in the USA and abroad. As noted he took over as bourse director for WESTPEX 2023. He has, with the Redwood Empire Collector's Club, put on WINEPEX in October for near decades. Kurt remains the treasurer of RECC which meets tonight in Petaluma, CA.

Chris retired last year from running the auction firm, one year later than expected. All assets were divested and the offices closed. In retirement he still reps for a foreign auction firm, Australian I believe, and continues personally dealing in stamps. he most recently, for me made a solid offer on some certified Iranian stamps early this year.

Why do I know the details? H-S was my local firm and Kurt attends several of my stamp clubs.

Edit: While Kurt is a treasure, I added an "r" to the word to make it correct.

Kewriga lived in San Francisco while working at Rumsey and holding the position of one of two Vice Presidents. He also sold interesting material on eBay from his home. This all prior to the move east, or more accurately the fleeing of San Francisco eastward, as noted above. He was last listed in the Rumsey auction catalogs in the December 8, 2022 Gems of Philately Sale, Sale 107. This was the last sale held by Rumsey.

His name does not appear in the next two sales, 108 and 109 to be held beginning next week at WESTPEX 2023. Nor is there a replacement listed for his vice president position.

That all said, I am not sure of the bidding selection process to handle the GASS sale, but that is a great way to place your firm squarely on stage as being a serious philatelic auction firm. Of course that assumes the auction has gone well when run in August. I wish him and the auction well.

Edited for better word after strikeout. Then again for errant "]" as it was overlooked.

Looks like a lot has already been covered while was at work, but I will add I think it is Abacus that Chris reps for and I expect he will be at their booth at Westpex later this month (and likely at GASS in Aug too). Kurt added eBay when shows dried up due to Covid and he did so well I think he might do a few less shows now.

Just to close the circle on GASS auctions, there are two tiers: non-exclusive and exclusive (price point being the difference). To my knowledge, there has never been a bidding process to meet either of those; one need simply be a known auction firm, an APS member dealer in good standing, and pay the amount. The same is true for internationals where there are as many as four auctions happening during the show. Schuyler-Rumsey applied for exclusive status in Sacramento. Matt applied as a non-exclusive in Cleveland.

The location of the show dictates the number of auction firms willing to participate. Harmer-Schau came to Richmond, which was unusual, but H.R. Harmer also held an auction during the show. That was the last two auction show we held, though I have already discussed Hartford with several firms already.

I see that Schuyler Rumsey is already on board for Boston in 2026.

The owner is known, but it, the 2023 GASS Auction, will be that owner's firm's first auction.