How Do You Feel About Public Auctions Without Live Viewing?

They have put up some videos/PDFs of some of the collection lots. Was able to view a couple French collection lots that way - very useful. I hope this becomes a trend for all auction houses moving forward for those of us who cannot attend for viewing in person.

Almost 12 hours later Kelleher and SANS can't tell you if your bids have been successful. I thought we lived in the age of computers .Guess I will go to the old method of making a phone call because they don't post winning bids .......where are the computer people ?.

Rasdale Stamp Company canceled their May collections auction and will have the next auction in August ,statement is on their website .

I think that Rasdale was hasty in that decision but it is theirs to make.

I think it was the Governor of the State who made the decision for them .

I used to bid on collections and lots from Dutch Country Auctions The Stamp Center on Stamp Auction Network. These lots never had photographs posted and online bidding always ended one hour before floor bidding began. Most of the time I would be high bidder going in, however, not really seeing what the brief descriptions referenced, would usually end up loosing the better stuff to floor bidders who had the chance to examine it, and too often end up with junk they were able to see and pass on.

modern_who: I've had the same experiences with Dutch Country Auctions. I wonder how it's going to go with their next auction without the floor. There'll be many more people flying blind. I wish they would use the live auction bidding option through SAN like Modern Stamps did last time.

I emailed Dutch Country a couple of days ago requesting some scans of a lot I'm interested in, but have not heard anything yet.

Yep. Shelter-in-place order extended here in Sillynoise through the end of May. I don't blame Rasdale for postponing the auction. If I were a consignor I would laud that decision as well.

Wow, the end of May. Well, Rasdale must have the financial resources to last given that they delayed their auction for two plus months after that. Of course the Governor could extend it again I suppose through June or July or whenever. Best of luck to them. I guess from a safety perspective it makes more sense to stay shut down rather then space people out and require masks. I have never been to a Rasdale auction. Perhaps many bidders fly in? That will be very problematic it would seem for some time to come and hopefully most of the airlines survive. Best to be safe though and follow the scientists and medical professionals recommendations. I know that the Governors are making strict science based decisions and the predictions and models have been extremely accurate.

California's order has no end date, so there won't be extensions to complain about. Our rights will be returned to us when Gavin says they are. Civil rights groups apparently are waiting for epidemiological data and hospital usage data to go so low that suing him to reopen things could not be refused even by a federal judge educated at Boalt Hall. The rest of us, in counties like San Mateo with a 99.987 healthy rate and 20% hospital utilization, sit at home and decide which employees to fire, which vendors not to pay, how much to draw on the credit line and how long it will last.

My neighbor across the street has twins plus two other kids, a household of six. Today is the twins' birthday, so they each invited a friend over and there were six teenagers carousing in the back yard at 7pm on a warm night, waiting for birthday cake. The neighbor two doors down called the sheriff to report an illegal gathering. A deputy dutifully showed up but was turned aside when the father explained the foregoing, and also refused to allow a search of the back yard. What sort of country does that neighbor think we are living in?

I thought there would be more discussion here about the turn of events .The canceling of the May collections auction by Rasdale and the lame collections auction today by Kelleher would raise some postings here .

This lack of two sources for rebuilding inventory for a lot of ebay sellers is going to have a effect. My guess is a lot of sellers are going to be doing house cleaning for the next three months and then be aggressive buyers when things open up in the summer .

Apparently it has not occurred to you that the reason you have a 99.987 healthy rate is BECAUSE you have been closed down for the last 6 weeks. Viruses don't care about borders. And your rights have not been violated, the federal constitution gives the power to the state governors, and the state constitution gives them the power to shut things down in a medical emergency. It's totally legal. If you don't like it, then work to try and change the constitutions.

"Apparently it has not occurred to you that the reason you have a 99.987 healthy rate is BECAUSE you have been closed down for the last 6 weeks."

That seems to be a common retort but is the rate really tied to the restrictions? Is that provable? I very much doubt it. But go ahead and prove it using science and data. I await.

Some people are fixated on a one size fits all approach to an extremely complex issue. And some people just love government control. The government does have an excellent track record overall. Right?

And most of the people that want everything to stay closed for as long as the nanny state says have no skin in the "economic disaster" outcome. Do they?

Riddle me this, what has happened to the suicide rate in locked down areas since this began? Suicide Hotline Calls? Substance abuse help reachouts? Domestic violence and child abuse rates? Poverty levels? Food bank utilizations?

How have the models done that were relied upon to make decisions?

Why was the reason to shelter in place initially stated as "to mitigate overwhelmed hospitals", hospitals that would be overun and collapse from lack of beds and respirators and the reasons given now to shelter in place and shutdown businesses are ever changing to include "no cases" "number/percentage of cases (never quantified) at a certain level......

A lot of what is being down is good and a whole lot makes no sense, it is totally illogical.

So Rev, blind us with science because just stating that you must follow the governments instructions just don't cut it.

Question: Should NYC be treated the same as Florida Massachusetts and why? Because the two are being treated the same.

Food for thought: If Montana was experiencing a severe outbreak but NY was doing fine would NY be expected to shut down.

That's the standard, pat answer, but it cannot be applied universally and may never have been true for rural or low-density California, which has nothing in common with Queens. If the glass can be half empty, then it also can be half full. There is evidence the virus has been in the Bay Area since November 2019, so our herd immunity is vastly underestimated. And you can't create immunity if people aren't in contact with one another, so why not continue lockdown only for those over 70 and with dangerous comorbidities, which after all represent virtually all serious cases?

Even if the pat answer was correct in early March, it won't be in May, and certainly not in every county. The governor's rationale of uniform state policy no longer has a scientific basis and is looking more like political cover each day. There is growing sentiment that younger, healTheir people need to go back to work because most had or will have only mild cases. If 99.987 is not good enough, exactly what number is? Six nines? Seven? What will they cost?

While the Tenth Amendment reserves police power to the state, and the California governor has broad power during an emergency under the state's emergency powers act, Tenth Amendment reserved powers cannot suspend all Constitutional rights forever. An emergency cannot last forever, otherwise we would effectively have a monarchy and the Bill of Rights would mean nothing. The emergency has clearly subsided and the governor is losing justification for interfering with private contract rights, freedom of assembly and association. At some point due process of law must be followed by convening the legislature and forcing lawmakers to have accountability for restricting freedom.

Sacramento legislators, apparently having just become aware of their irrelevance under a governor who has issued 32 executive orders including recent ones that are purely economic and not directed to emergency remediation, are openly talking about returning to Sacramento to force him to step back. They are hearing from the average Joe constituent who is not on the internet, and cannot live long on a $1200 check. If the Bay Area's local orders are extended beyond their current May 3 expirations, or if Gavin asserts that counties cannot relax standards beyond the state order, the stage will be set for political revolt.

Among the difficulties of the situation is that those who became fixated on early media projections of millions of deaths cannot free themselves from fear even when given new science. But the working family deserves a more nuanced policy.