Attend Public Stamp Auction Today -Results

Today was up in Chicago for family and decided to attend a public stamp auction and spend the prior day reviewing lots .

First let me say I attended over 100 Rasdale public stamp auctions over a 40 year time frame . I started with them around 1972 ,when I lived 3 miles away from their downtown Chicago office . This continued for many years ,later living in the Western sububrs of Chicago and they moving to the city of Westmont and still only 4 miles from our home .

This was my first visit since moving to Florida ,5 years ago ,the owners and their long time staff members were all surprised to see me and greeted me right away . My account was as good as ever and didn't need to pay for anything ,they just invoice my wife in a few weeks ,boy she will be surprised.

Sad thing to report ,a great friend and fellow collector who was a stamp dealer around the Midwest had his inventory up at auction . He lost his wife a few years ago and now planning to enter a Assisted living Home . Len will be missed around Chicago .

Naturally I purchased some of his red boxes and binders ,because over the years I had gone thru those same boxes and also refuse to bid against him when he was building and organizing those same red boxes .Having them shipped to Florida.

The auction today was different for me,first they don't hard copy print a auction catalog now it is all on line ,with self-printed pages on copy paper as office copies . This on-line stuff of bidding has slowed everything down and now your not aware of who is bidding ,hard to tell if NYstamps is winning lots or some of the bigger bidders are using two or three numbers when entering bids .

Won on some but the bidding was strong and prices were higher than I though on a lot of stuff . The market is holding up on collections and bulk lots .

I won some lots. I did not expect to bid in Rasdales auction today but jumped in because I could not help myself. I did not bid aggressively and won anyway. It seems to work that way. If you really want something the bidding keeps on going but if you don't really care it is easy going. Overall the bidding seemed pretty good. Not as crazy as the last Kelleher auction. That one was way too enthusiastic. I miss the printed catalogs a lot. I can follow along on SAN but it is not the same. The times they change.

floortrader: thanks for this update. I bid on one of the Polish World II items that were up on Rasdale. Haven't checked yet to see if they've posted prices realized or not.

Steve ---Prices are up on their site under Prices Realized but not on S.A.N.

Thanks floortrader. I checked and it appears I got my lot (#354), Polish forces in Italy souvenir sheets.

It looks like World War II Polish forces in Russia is a hot "mini-market" right now. All of those lots sold for much higher than starting bid. #360, in particular, went for $1,050.00 against a starting bid of $50.

Wow ---maybe the improving Polish economy , stuff is going back home .Much like we seen with Chinese material back in 1996-2003 or Germany 1955 to 1965 .

I haven't been at Rasdale's for years and was impress with the nice lots of worldwide accumulations that they were offering. Seems they had a whole crew of ebay buyers bidding on those bulker lots . After a few hours of watching them you start to learn how they bid and what they buy ,the puzzle was trying to understand the phone bidders ,but thats takes a few auctions.

Was there as well, and noticed much of Len's material. I will miss him; his table was a quiet place with no pressure. I talked with him many times over the years at many shows and enjoyed myself.
This was Rasdale's first auction without the catalog. I noticed many printed copies around the floor. I relied on notes, but will print the pages I want from now on. It does take more time with the online timer to run down on each lot, but it brings in the buyers. All in all, top marks for integrating the old style with the new.

so I have a question maybe someone can give my a guide line. I am from a small town in Wisconsin and there might now be 4 small collector. the local auctioneer told me he is auctioning off one of the older guys collection, he is moving into assist living. the sale will be in 2 or 3 weeks. so I will have some competition but not to much. we will have time to inspect, but I just started backup a while ago, when I inherited a hoards collection and still working on it, so I though I will start this up again.

They will be selling lots and boxes.

so I know without seeing the collection a price is hard to give. but if you went and he is respected as a collector, and I would believe the books are in good shape and full. when you go into an auction what is the prices you have set in your head like if the (US) book is 90% full and stamps look good in a good collectors book, off hand where would you be per USA book???

how do you set or find your basic price. I am looking for tips??

You need to review the material. You cannot just throw a number at it based upon basically nothing or assumptions.

I agree with rogdcam. It's not always possible to review auction lots before hand, especially for someone in "flyover country" (Denver) like me, when the auction house is back east. But since you live near the auctioneer, by all means do the review.

you can only set an accurate price if you review the lot, the price I set is based on supply/demand, quality/rarity.

i work AT an auctionhouse, and we buy from private collectors/estates and other auction houses.

Yesterday attend another Rasdale Auction .Stopped in on Friday to spend the day viewing lots . Just want to say the staff was good at handling all the lots and bring them to me . I like the access to a whole set of stamp catalogs and other supplies just to check stuff.

They have the best viewing set up of all the different auction houses that I attended ,I had a full size table all day and there were many people who came in to view and everybody had a seat .I been to auctions houses where it was like WALMART the day after Thanksgiving.

Picked out 4 lots to bid on out of the 12 that showed possibilites on their website . I ended up with two lots but it was aggessive bidding on a lot of items [ someday I will be awarded a gold plaque for 40 years of running up the bids on so many successful bidders or maybe a extra can of Coke ]

Happy with the two lots, would of purchased more but the lots I bought two auctions ago are still in the closet at home .Prices continue to be strong , the best advice is after viewing establish your own price limit Don't rely on a catalog description .

I cashed out of the stock market this week ,so thinking of driving up to Chicago in the spring now that I establish a group of two different ebay sellers in Florida who are happy to take material that I am not interested in .