Kelleher Sale 759 - Collections, Stocks And Accumulations Of The World - August 6-7, 2021

I managed to get a few lots yesterday. Seems like there were a few big spenders that racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in items.They actually got good deals considering the catalog value of what they bought. I wish to have a nice fat check book but Oh Well !
I'm sure we will see a lot of this stuff up on ebay in coming weeks.

Bidding was steady but not too crazy yesterday on the worldwide lots I thought, many lots went for slightly below or in the lower end of house estimates. There were exceptions of course and French colonies realizations were strong, ended up picking up only one small French Africa lot.

I was surprised at the prices people were paying for a bunch of lots of higher-value WW items on dealer counter pages (e.g lots 2656 and thereabouts). They were so "optimistically" described & priced by the consignor, that Kelleher had warnings to heavily discount the owner's CV in their lot descriptions.

~Greg

It was Lang's stock and those lots needed a warning of sorts.

It seemed to me that Kelleher's estimates and thus openings were on the high to unrealistic side for material that I am familiar with. The Russian lots openings drove me away from bidding. They did sell on the low end of estimate except for one that was passed and one that went high. It seemed to me that they are adjusting there estimates upwards to match an exuberant market instead of staying the course and letting the market set itself.

Unless one actually views a lot, the market is making a (hopefully) educated guess anyway. The expected knowledge level of a particular house for the material involved is the most important factor in how one views the estimate. I suspect that most houses just use a basic formula most of the time, but raising them a bit in a strong market should be a natural expectation.

GREG/GMOT ----- I picked up two French Colonies lots ,I got the 2398 lot that was Benin lot at 650.00 and one of the Diego Suarez lots , lot 2421 at 800.00 . Did you get 2448 the French Africa ? You were bidding against me !

Ah, those were Lang's lots - explains it. I had the mistaken impression he dealt only in US.

@floortrader - Both nice lots! I picked up the Gabon lot (2453 the smaller one, not the pricey one). I didn't bid on 2448, although I watched with interest, as with 2442 (the one that went for $14K). Actually cutting down my French Africa collection and selling almost all of it off.

~Greg

Greg--- Congratulations nice lot you got . There was a lot of nice French Colonies lots , hoping to pick up more Fren. Col . at the next few auctions .

The nice thing about being a W.W. collector is putting one's effort into different areas as material becomes aviable at auction .