Strong Results Schuyler Rumsey Westpex Auction Today

I sat through most of today's auction and was struck by both the prices realized and the virtually zero pass rate. My observation applies to all of the WW lots, which were very diverse. Strong bidding for Mexico to Tibet and all of the European and Latin American countries as well as Asia. Postal history and stamps alike did very well. The material was very strong IMO with a great many rarely seen high condition items which no doubt helped but you still need bidders and they were indeed out on the Floor and the internet. The market remains strong.

Thanks for that update .

I spent a lot of time watching postal history lots the 1st day and a bit the second. So far I remain empty handed, but many of the bulk lots come at the end. I agree bidding is active.

Watching the United States stamp lots today was a bit of a different experience than the WW yesterday. The prices realized, except for some highly graded or highly gradable stamps were much softer. People seemed very much to be laser focused on condition and centering and willing to pay up for standout material. Stamps that fell short for whatever reason did not fare all that well. Read what one will into it, WW stamps were very strong in comparison to US. Still though, the pass rate was virtually nonexistent.

The auctioneer was pretty punch-drunk from exhaustion near the end, denigrating some of the M&M and RW stamps and occasionally uttering sh*t under his breath (yet clearly audible) when ever there was a snarl up in book-keeping.

Did something happen with Rumsey at SAN today? I just got home from a daylong event and figured I would sit in on the tail end of the session, but when I pull up SAN, it looks like they only got through lot 4477 of sale 98. What happened to the rest of the lots, let alone session 3 of the Westpex sale? It doesn't appear to have taken place and the online session is dead.

Rev - They took a break without posting it. Running again. They are doing the Transportation Sale lots and will then start back into the regular auction. Confusing to say the least.

Thanks Rog, yeah it popped up out of nowhere. They're running so far behind schedule I wondered whether something catastrophic had happened.

They are sooooo slow.

I watched it from work and bid on a few lots but they soared past my top bid quickly. I was really only interested in the 1851 1¢ Franklin's and the ones I was interested in fetched good money. One of those sales I was kid of scared of. Could easily see my self spending multiple thousands on quite a few of the postal history items.

Today should be a interesting day for some including me . Watching how the Foreign collections will do and also the bulk lots.

Westpex and the auction are very busy! Unfortunately, there was a fire alarm at the show hotel and we had to evacuate the show & auction around 5pm PST Saturday. Took the local FD about half an hour to give us the all clear.
Steve

Ah, that explains it. There was no message on the SAN auction board so I was left guessing when I tuned in as to if and bidding would continue.

The real issue was that 300-350 lots per hour flow is generally expected by Rumsey, HOWEVER with the Transportation Auction, due to the active bidding, the rate slowed to just 30 lots per hour for a while. That killed the the planned flow of the sale. Yes there was a fire alarm (made a new philatelic friend while outside) but that may have hit the dealers but had little effect on the auction timing. Contrary to a comment above, the show was described as "slow" to me.

I have never seen any live auction plow through 300-350 lots per hour. Ever. Anyone else?

Never. That would be 1 lot every 10-15 seconds.