How Do You Feel About Public Auctions Without Live Viewing?

In every NYStamps listing:

Consignment Accepted:

Consignment fee only 15%, and $2000 minimal total cash value! We are leading stamp dealers, with extensive experience, regular worldwide customer, each item with large number of photos, to realized the full potential of your material. We also make on the spot cash purchases. Our contact info is inside our ebay store, "about the seller" link at the bottom left panel, or via ebay message.

We also make on the spot cash purchases.

I am sure that far more often then not that is what happens unless the material is VERY strong.

Wonder if they mean 15% only or 15% on top of ebay and PP fees, because if it is only 15% that leaves them with well under 10% even if they are getting a TRS discount.

Is it just me or do others get upset that Roger's/Kelleher Auction that they can't post winning results after the auction ,would like to see the price realized and see on SAN if I won a lot . I know they haven't in the past ,but have they got a reason for it .

I think Kelleher posts results for their major auctions, just not the smaller weekly auctions. Could be that those are handled differently.

It's this lack of transparency that contributes greatly to my not bidding at those auctions. It just strikes me as (for lack of a better word) hinky. It makes my spidey-sense tingle.

It's odd business too. Posting the results often means that people see the gaps and pick up more, unsold items at the reserve.

I suspect the house owns all the items in the smaller auctions.

Lots of discussion here about buying at auction. What are "red flags" to watch for if consigning to an SAN auction house.

W/r to the weekly Kelleher internet auctions, the house may own some (I have no idea), but for sure not all of the items. I've had a number items consigned to them included in those auctions.

A few thoughts...

High commissions (on either end of the equation)

An auction house you haven't heard of

An auction house that does not specialize in your type of material

An auction house that does not provide adequate photos (I'd negotiate that part- even offer to make scans for them)

An auction house that provides poor descriptions

An auction house that is very lackadaisical in breaking up collections properly for the benefit of the consignor

If your collection is focused on a particular area of foreign, perhaps seek an auction house based in your area(s) of interest. (e.g. If you have significant holdings of Scandinavia, consider consigning to an auction house in Sweden or Norway). Make sure to account for the cost of shipping your items insured in your assessment. Also consider consigning different parts of your collection to different auctions who specialize in particular areas. Again, this assumes your collection has depth including higher-priced individual items.

RONV ----There are a lot of red flags .......too many to list here .....the key at the beginning is to deal where you see people here are actively buying or selling .Even at the best firms there are caution steps to take .

I received my items from the Siegel sale today. Very interesting to say the least. I was a little disappointed with the auction, I'd spent hours reviewing the Youtube videos at 1/4 speed as Don suggested. After all this review I wanted lot 1801 (est. $4000-5000) and 1813 (est. $1000-1500) with a couple other fallbacks.

Lot 1801 went to $17,000 and I bailed, my wife was looking over my shoulder and I didn't think she could deal with it if I punched the 20K button. After this tragic loss I bid on a couple more and lost. I'd reviewed Lot 1807 but crossed it off but I really needed a collection to sell so I went after 1807 and got it for $5500 (est $2000-3000) and I was able to get 1813 for $3750. I second guessed myself about 50 times while waiting for my purchases but today they arrived. Here is a picture of the 1840-1940 portion of 1807.




Yes they are huge and it's a beautiful collection, far better than I expected. I appreciate all the work Siegel did with the videos but they just didn't do this collection justice. If I'd seen this collection in person I'd have happily bid $10K and probably chased it to $12K. That's the problem with not actually seeing the items, but this time it worked out for me.

Siegel's packing was also interesting. I bought a 4 volume Scott collection, a 3 volume Scott and an album of covers. Siegel shipped them all in one giant box which I had to carry into the house on a dolly. Their Invoice was in a high quality unbendable envelop but my collections were each in it's own garbage bag. They put 4 volumes in 1 bag and labeled it and the 3 volumes were in the other bag. The albums arrived undamaged but I guess Siegel doesn't have much respect for low level stuff like this, but I'm happy!!

OK, I now have bulging album envy. Size DOES matter.

Just like everything else when looking for an auction house try to do your homework. Do they typically carry/handle your type of material, do they post prices realized, are they transparent when it comes to procedures, how "visible" are they. All we can do, when either buying or selling, is be as informed as possible.