Kelleher -June 2023 Collection Auction - A Monster Sale

Floortrader, I never bought a lot like that, but I have seen some smaller lots that fit your description to a tee. I always steer clear of that stuff, because regardless of what people think, it has been picked through, especially where these collections are aggregated into boxes. The likelihood of anything sneaking in, is almost 0. Collectors fall into 2 basic categories, bargain stamps, and premium (say anything over $10). If a dealer or someone starts to spot a section within a collection of higher-value items it becomes noticed really quickly. A cert pops up. Say you flip to the columbian page of US, and you see 1c,2c used, and not much else. Then you know, where the collection falls. Same like you mentioned with the UN/Israel stuff. But if you see mint higher denominations, then you are like, hmmm. whats up elsewhere. You can do these observations really quick if you know where higher priced material falls on pages, particularly 19th century. It is so rare, that a cigar box or something got overlooked w/ higher priced stuff, but that is needle in haystack level. Generally by the time it made it to the auction house, it was combed and recombed for any areas of 'value'. I am not saying a find isn't possible, but generally speaking you aren't going to get lucky, but the auction house is betting on you thinking a lot that size, will have gems hidden.

Sad what goes on .....what was surprising to me was the price these lots where realizing after Ebay started and a new generation came to the stamp auctions and these were the EBAY sellers who didn't collect but wanted something to sell on Ebay . I got a whole story of how they changed the auction houses outlook on selling large junk lots . I am sure we have a few here that can tell the same story .

Please elaborate on the story. I am a buyer from Ebay and am curious. My guess is that the auction houses create lots for them. Make them large enough to scare off most bidders but leave enough for the Ebay auction houses to make money.

At least in the case of Kelleher and Rasdale they do not "create" lots. That would be a nightmare for accounting purposes given that they have to pay consignors and apply commissions. They also do not sit on rooms full of material. They get it and move it making room for the next auction material. Passed lots get returned to their owner after a few tries and reduced estimates. Most stuff gets sold eventually.

I am someone that has dropped off hundreds of pounds of "stuff" (not necessarily proud of that) for auction.

Your assumption that sellers are the primary competitors for those monster lots has validity unless you find that special person that accumulates on a large scale (they do exist). Sellers like NYStamps and others need large volumes of material and are willing to pay up for it. Turn and burn. Pay $2/pound and extract one thousand or many more Ebay lots and you will make money. A $10 average sale of two thousand lots will gross you $20,000 for which you expended maybe $4-5 thousand. Not bad.

Edit to add:

The big sellers also pick the material up and save many hundreds of dollars on shipping.

India and Russia I could deal with; it's Hungary, Romania, and Czechsolovakia that are the real killers IMO.




In all candor, unless it is a pedigreed collection, you should assume that any collection or carton lot from any source has been picked over at least once if not numerous times before you see it. If you cannot view the lot in person, purchase or bid based solely upon what you see in any pictures, not based on what is implied MIGHT be included... which is where I think some people get burned. They buy based upon what ISN'T shown. Assume there will be unseen faults/flaws and choose accordingly. Also, personally I would never sink any major amount of money into such a lot without viewing or working with an agent. A few hundred bucks on a whim just for fun, fine, but blind buying this type of material for major amounts of money isn't prudent IMO.




Not just big sellers. Last month one of the unsold lots at Rasdale piqued my curiosity from a dollars-per-pound perspective, understanding it would likely be doggy poo, but the cost was nominal... except for the shipping cost, which would have been about 1.5x the cost of the lot + buyer premium ($280 to ship a $200 lot, yikes!). So instead I drove up to Chicago to their office and combined the trip with some other business stops. Out-of-pocket cost for gas was about $25 round trip, and the mileage is deductible.

Makes taking blind flyers on bulk lots much more viable. The east coast auction houses, not so much.

Rodcam thanks for the detailed response.

Well, the 2500-pound lot blew away the 10k estimate and went for 17k plus tip plus shipping (if applicable). Kind of a head scratcher to me. Hopefully the high bidder viewed it.

More Covid-era collecting that has continued on?

Prices seemed extremely high to me in this sale. I didn't win a single lot.

Just the opposite for me, I didn't want a lot but 2 items looked good. The 1st lot got 1 bid (mine) and the 2nd lot I was the third bid and won it for much less than I expected. It's a funny business!

festive auction results. It looks like. Wonder who bought the large accumulation. Very nice India in the lots. Wonder if those were real or reprints/forgeries. Maybe Investors or high end collectors were buying today. That is my assessment. It looks like better material went for a ton.

Investors? Buying stamps in general and particularly large bulk lots is NOT for investing unless you consider losing money a strategy. Buying this stuff and selling on Ebay is another matter.

selling on ebay counts as investing in my book. stamp dealers are also stamp investors. I just noted some better material went for very high prices.

So stock brokers are stock investors?
The greengrocer is a vegetable and fruit investor?

Sold to a floor bidder, so likely they viewed it, and are local so they wont have to pay the shipping. At $8 a pound, this is still cheaper than a lot of kiloware. This was supposedly one man's lifetime collection estate as-received. No doubt there are some good surprises in there, just need the time and patience to find them. Better chance of that, I think, than the big lots of "30 remainder collections" that have been poured over and cherry-picked so many times. Surprised this didn't sell to one of the NY internet dealers, though they were probably the underbidder.