How Do You Feel About Public Auctions Without Live Viewing?

Battlestamps: The economy must be strong!

Watching DCA auction at SAN and noticed that the paddle no. of winning bidder is shown and sometimes not. Why is that?

We do it all the time on ebay.

Years ago I realized that one particular ahction house would give the bidder number when the lot sold to a real bidder. The rest of the time it was a house bid trying to a draw in an actual bid. Very sleazy on their part...

I hate the "Book Net".

That was rough lol. Some of the lots I was very interested in went straight to the express elevator and right on thru the roof, not stopping till they hit Saturn 0_o.

I knew it was going to be brutal as soon as the US stuff started blowing past estimates long before the lot was due up.

On the bright side, I ended up with several of the ones i'd marked as priority and several others for much more reasonable costs.

All in all, it was a good day.

Rasdale August 15th auction is now available on their web site;

https://www.rasdalestamps.com/auction_catalog.asp

Even the Dutch Country Auctions sessions were extremely active. I went 1 for 4 on the lots I was looking at, and that 1 pushed me above what I had originally intended.

I hate their pace and monotone patter though, and they frequently wait WAY too long to close a lot.

Another lame Collection's auction by Keller at the end of this month .

Looked at Rasdale Auction for August ,it is huge ,but I can't get a feel of a lot due to the lame descriptions they use on every large lot ......only thing is drive up and spend a few days looking at there bulk lots and collections .At this point in my collection life I am buying better sets but I still like a bulk lot to play around with and finding stuff as entertaintment .

I have picked out two lots at Rasdale's upcoming auction and respectfully request that all other bidders refrain from interest in them.

Thank You

PS: I cannot tell you which ones they are.

That's funny I saw 2 that I HAVE to have!

Rogdcam -----Years ago during the viewing ,I would check in with the local dealers to see what they wanted and stayed away from bidding on those lots ,I knew these guys and since they were in the business and I was buying entertainment for the Chicago winters months .There was always stuff I was interested in that wasn't on their radar .

It wasn't until New York Stamps came around and blew everybody away . I would watch as the locals dropped off on their bidding and then I would throw in a bid or two to press NYS to bid higher ,let me be clear it wasn't because I needed the lot ,it was to make them bleed .

The good thing about stamp auctions before on line bidding and being on the floor during the sale over a period of a few auctions and years of watching you can know who did what ,sat in on Kelleher in Boston,Greg Manning in New Jersey ,Rasdale in Chicago , Regency in St. Louis and Harmmers in L.A ,surprise how many of the same chracters show up at the different auctions .

This online bidding and changing bid numbers earses all this ,everybody knew 594 at Rasdale ,now it is a new number each time .

Kelleher August 8th Collections auction is up, another thin 1 day auction. Where have all the collections gone, I haven't seen a big WW collection since February.

All interesting comments. The good large lots seem to have dried up if only temporarily. The drought has occurred in parallel with Covid but I'll be darned if I can figure out why. I thought about viewing issues as one reason and the Houses being gun shy about not enough live viewing and as a consequence more conservative bids. Sooner than later the lack of material must affect sales downstream.

By all reports, virtually all major auctions held since COVID started have had phenomenal results. Competition has been fierce and lots have been selling for close to or well above estimates across the board. It's not just certain countries, areas, or specializations. It's EVERYTHING right now.

People are housebound looking for things to do. While many are negatively impacted financially by the quarantine, there are also those who are not. Many affluent or even just retired folks have had to cancel vacations, trips, etc., so they may now have extra money to utilize as they turn their focus to "living room hobbies". Thus, more people participating in online auctions.

Given that there is a lag in when things are consigned and when they show up to the public, as well as how auction houses can "switch gears" and ramp up to acquire more of, is it possible we're just in a bit of a lull while auction houses are scrambling to procure more consignments?

I don't think that anyone anticipated the unprecedented levels of demand we're seeing.