Regency Stamp Auctions In St. Louis

I would think the data is just like other data such as stampstore sales, visitors ay at the Match Factory, etc. I do not see how you can improve something without actual data rather than rely on anecdotal data.

Back to the subject of Regency Stamp Auctions . The recent article in Linn's Stamp News tells a interesting story . David Kol outlines the current situations.
I am going to read between the lines and take some liberty to interpret what is being said . First and most important the banks who loan him money have taken over the firm .
Second and important to the stamp community ,he has not paid back stamp collectors who cosigned material to his auctions and has not send out stamps that collectors have paid for .I include in this group all the stamp supplies he was selling to collectors .This group could include the APS who cosigned donations to the APS which Regency sold at their auctions .
Third ,David was trying to sell the firm for over a year ,so his problems go back more than that . Everybody who looked at the balance sheet and P&L saw something they didn't want anything to do with it .
Fourth, I think how can a Stamp Auction House lose money if they take your stamps and sell them for X+15% and then take another 10% from X before they mail you the money . This tells me he was taken very little cosignments and was trying to buy material and was paying more for it than he can get for it at his auctions after expenses .
But I think the biggest down fall for him was the fact that he broke the firm with all his Space and Hollywood memorabilia auctions ,that never really added to the bottom line .
The question also comes up ,what happens now with the banks . If Regency has their assets in stamps then it would be easy for the banks to ship it all to another stamp auction firm and recover what they can that way . But if David sold off all the stamps on the downward slide. This would leave the office furniture, stamp supplies and all the Space and Hollywood memorabilia to a bankruptcy auction in St Louis .
Again this is all speculation on my behalf .

Chris,
Anyone who pays dues can fault the APS. The APS has a large subset of online members, this 'community' doesn't run things but they matter. And if APS wants to thrive moving forward, they most certainly will have to figure out how to also interface and attract non-member online collectors. (Who are probably the exact demographic that APS needs to attract; 35-55 year olds.)

Beyond that turning this into an reductio ad absurdum argument, that this is forcing operational minutia into the public domain for endless and resource consuming distractions, is a reach. Having input and suggestions is good; having them in a vacuum of meaningful metrics and factual data is bad. The issue here is 'how do we understand the breadth and scope of hobby's online activity'. I hardly think that publishing web traffic metrics already in hand, thereby educating everyone and raising the level of the discussion, rates as a distraction or non-productive.

The value here is for APS, the leading philatelic organization in the USA, to push back on the thinking that the hobby is dying. Understanding how healthy the online segment of our hobby is key to this discussion.
Don

It wasn't so much that they were buying material for more then it was worth. Regency always took in a LOT of dealer consignments because they were always willing to put whatever reserves the dealer wanted on all the lots. So there were a lot of repeat lots, sometimes showing up in auctions for 2 years in the hope that someone would be willing to pay at or near retail or more for a lot. The decent lots that had fair openings and/or reserves on them sold, and the rest did not.

They sold a low percentage of the lots they offered because the reserves were set too high on many of the lots. How much of it was unrealistic dealer consignments and how much of it was house owned, I do not know, but the house owned stuff will be auctioned by Rasdale and Dutch Country (if my memory is correct), and if they split it between 2 houses, that suggests it was a fairly large amount of stuff.

So is it really a decline in the hobby that took them down, or a failed business model specific to them?

It might be split simply because those are two of the largest creditors.

Don,

We may have to agree to disagree, but you seem to presume that APS doesn't have data on online activity, and isn't evaluating it or planning about how best to pursue online collectors. I believe these assumptions are incorrect. They just aren't playing the matter out in a public forum and that's how a lot of organizations run, properly in my view, unproductively in your view. I don't think there's a vacuum at all nor is there any disagreement that online activity is healthy. These fora and your comments are monitored and considered. The data is simply internally evaluated by executives who then decide what to do. I don't quarrel with that approach but I understand you would prefer everything to be published and debated. It's just a difference of opinion on how best to run an organization.

Chris

I believe if the APS was providing web data to the board it would be covered in one of the regular board presentations. They have may a big deal about web site improvements (recent solicitations) so wonder how they measure progress.

I currently serve on boards of several, non-philatelic, non-profits. The online data being discussed is for board review or senior staff, based on my experience. Being an APS member, I suspect I could obtain the data about web site visits, counts, document openings, etc. But as just an APS member, and occasional $$ donor, I don't have a need for that information. cjpalermo1964 and I seem to be on the same track here.

There are good ways and not so good ways to run an organization. It is usually better to be more open than less open especially for a non-profit that is looking for support.

Hi Steve,
How is web site traffic different than membership numbers which are published every month? Money is being spent on the web site; how do you measure if this effort is successful or not?

Last election virtually every person running for APS office was touting increased transparency and better communication with members. I voted for those who promoted this but other than Scott English it appears all the others have not followed through with this promise.

And lastly I would point out that there are multiple examples of justifications that APS does not have the resources to develop and support a relevant web site. How can anyone even discuss the topic in a vacuum of data? It is easy to blow things off when no one has any idea if the current web site is effective or not.

Many other philatelic organization web sites have figured out how to reach the growing numbers of online hobbyists with relevant websites and online resources. Stamp Smarter has had its traffic double every year for the last 3 years and currently has more than 45,000 files. If I can, as a single person and no real budget and most certainly 'non-profit', develop and grow this site then why cannot APS do the same with substantial more resources?
Don

Yesterday the owner of Dutch Country confirmed he was selling a portion of the Regency stock but he said there was very little inventory and most of the material he was selling were lots consigned to Regency. He said a good portion of the material sold over the weekend.

I would have presumed that the consigned material is still legally the property of the consignors, not Regency nor its creditors. So are the proceeds of their sale go to the consignors or to the creditors?

Sales go to the consignors because title never was transferred or comingle with other sellers ,sounds like Dutch Country can identify ownership of each lot .

There are so many unanswered questions regarding Regency that it is really hard to say.