Anyone Watching Kelleher's Mlg Auction?

I find the sparse descriptions and lack of pictures very frustrating as a bidder who is not able to be a floor bidder in all but a couple auctions here in Ontario. I have passed on many lots where the description sounds tantalizing but lack of pictures, specifics or (worst of all) the words "must inspect" kill my interest. I would think the auction houses end up losing out on potential bidders as a result.

I was talking to HR Harmer yesterday and they said they appreciated owner descriptions.

Requests by distant bidders for more pictures of box lots is common in this forum, but appears unlikely to happen. In this case, "good enough is good enough" appears to be the mantra of the auction houses. As long as they continue to yield acceptable results without those pictures, they are not going to incur the costs of making and uploading images. They would have to invest in a high-speed document camera and two people to unbox the material, move material in front of the camera, rebox the material, upload and check the images. The time and cost are not trivial. And perhaps they believe that the "mystery" involved in such box lots actually is better for them.

I believe that the "mystery" is the key Chris. In Kelleher's case there is no shortage of manpower available to handle material for imaging. You would need a qualified person to operate the camera. Notes and post-it notes on items/pages you want scanned need to be put together by a decision maker. The fee per photo on SAN is ten cents. Given that the House takes plus or minus 40 percent in total commissions on sales it should not be onerous especially if it increased high bids. They probably already know that what is left to the imagination is far better for them.

For most of the material I consign lots of photos would do wonders but then my lots would stick out like a sore thumb and people may wonder why the detail for one and not much for the others.

You hit it on the head though, lots of Marvel Mystery Oil and call it a day.

Kelleher offers lots of pictures for US collections, and for many other lots but for WW material 1 picture is more normal. I don't understand it.

" I have to believe that they really want floor bidders who have reviewed the material to be the primary bidders."

Anyone who views a lot has no right to complain about what is in (or not in) the lot. Much more preferable to an auction house than a bidder who bids blind and then complains.

Perhaps this is a lesson to see if you can get your auction house to agree up front in writing as to how many images they will provide for your lot, or even if they would be willing to accept yours to save them time and money while enhancing your lots.

Lot 1629 has jumped from its $50,000 opening to $70,000 as of this AM. Bidding will be very competitive.

Interesting that the lot made that big of a jump .I believe this is going to be a very aggressive auction for bidders .Today should tell us.

When I was at Kelleher's on Wednesday there were several people settled in reviewing material. It was quite busy. I hope that it is not too aggressive for my sake.

I am going after a few of those Internationals . I like the way they are broken down to areas of interest . Reading the auction catalog ,it sounds like someone done a nice job of seperating the pages .

Pickup a British area collection today in albums .

How was the bidding?

British Colonies held up very well,I don't collect U.S. or watch how U.S. Prices move .

I attended today, there were 5 folks looking at lots in the back room and lunch was pretty good. As always I was surprised that viewing the lots makes such a big difference. What I was expecting from the description is usually way off. I watched the US collection auction for a couple hours and was surprised there were only 4 other guys in the room. Bidding was pretty good but it was all on the net or the phone, I think the only time I saw a paddle raised was for the lot I wanted and we both lost. Tomorrow I'll get serious.

I would encourage folks in the area to attend a Kelleher auction if they can. The staff are very nice and they always feed us, and there is absolutely no pressure to bid.