Amazing Ww Mint Collection In Upcoming Schuyler Rumsey Westpex Sale

It might be any of them, although I think that genuine laziness is unlikely. The person whose name is on the door is still alive, so that would be frowned upon.

It could of been better written up , after looking at the scans for the past hour and rereading the catalog ,the best answer is you have to sit down and turn all the pages yourself . I like to know if those other 5 albums have pages that are as strong as those that was scanned .

If those other pages are as good than it could top the high estimate of $150,000 . My reasoning is that it would take many years of searching and buying to duplicate what is shown in this collection . So the ability to buy it all at one shot means a lot . Then getting this many complete sets and again all in one sale will add to any upward pressure in the bidding .

This collection 's strong point is a lot of complete sets and getting them all with one bid is a factor for one hell of a price where ever it goes ,I am at a lost without knowing those other 5 albums .

Sold for $80,000 plus tip.

What !!! Your telling me $70,000,000,000 left the banks in California and only $96,000 found its way into a nice stamp collection in California ...........something is wrong .

revcollector wrote:


With all due respect, hahahahahahahahaha. And may I add: hahahahahahahaha. You may not remember that I have worked for them as a contractor a couple times in the past. With no shame, they have taken consignments up to the very last day before the catalog has to go to the printers -- "and may the devil take the hindmost". That is one wonky description in style and content that was not written by any describer I've ever encountered, and that was my job for a number of years. Therefore, I strongly suspect it was written by the consigner/collector/consigner's agent. In the end, the description doesn't matter all that much since it would be one lot that would demand viewing to make a bid.

And: did it really sell?

You worked there, did they fake sales on certain lots? Their prices realized skip lots not sold, meaning withdrawn, combined or passed. In short if an unpublished reserve was not reached on the lot is a price published?

It is clearly listed as sold, not passed nor "closed" without a price.

2nd Edit above, swapped their for there.
1st Edit:

Lot 2750, Ken Lawrence's gold medal "Wake Island 16 Page Exhibit" with an overly optimistic estimate of $25,000-$35,000 when unsold as "closed."

I bring that up as an example of describing underhandedness, lack of time or just as an easy way out for the describer. It was NOT Ken's Gold Medal 16 Page Exhibit. It was Ken's 16 Pages of exhibit BUT with one cover removed from a page with a different cover added as a substitute. The description of the missing cover remained on the page and since in was a #6 envelope, the substitute #10 envelope way just slid into the page protector. To make matters even more sloppy, and easy, that same substitute cover, the one not actually a part of the exhibit was used for the lot's illustration (legal sized with a 3 cent defense 901 tied) in the print catalog. Why? Well it was the only cover not securely mounted on an exhibit page in the entire lot. It was also the main illustration on the e-version with a link to the 16 illustrated pages, each with serious lighting flare.

Additionally this is a further example that their high estimates are too high and their low estimates tend to be too low compared to the final sale or non-sale price.

Parcelpostguy, thanks for answering my question. Nope, never any evidence or suspicion that they ever faked auction sales, but contractors aren't privy to the bidbook or sales records. Under California law, if it didn't change hands, it's not a sale and cannot be reported as such in prices realized. That includes reserved items that didn't reach their reserves. I do know that lots are offered and sold after the auction is closed, a common European thing. A couple of dealers have told me that they bought things afterwards or were waiting until after the sale was closed to pitch an offer.

So it definitely sold and congrats to the buyer. Is the law actively enforced? Doubt it. Still, Rumsey has been one to announce on the auction floor if items actually sold or not, though not necessarily for every such lot. I've been beaten on at least one occasion where published results showed it didn't sell (obviously due to a reserve). Fair enough.

hy-brazil-I never worked for them, but I have worked for auctions in the past, including describing. If they actually took it last minute and put it up that way, that is different from the various people I have worked for in the past. Especially since the sale was more than big enough to be unchanged by this one lot.

KL is not know for being shy on his prices and may well have insisted on this estimate.

revcollector, the situation is that WESTPEX is the regional big event and sale, and everyone holds back to consign for that auction and until the last minute, since they can try to flog it elsewhere first. Note how big the WESTPEX sale is and compare their previous sale.

Now if you have a Kelleher-sized staff and add a decent consultant or two, it wouldn't be a problem. Rumsey never did have a stable of describers and does not today. I can understand the temptation not to turn away last minute consignments, but consignments tend to be IMO largely last minute, i.e., submitted two weeks before the absolute unmoveable deadline.

The small houses I've worked for in the past never had this problem, partly because auction dates were not always engraved in stone. Sometimes it would be in conjunction with a show with a hard deadline, but you would "run with what you brung". It was often more about not conflicting with someone else's sale the same day or week.

This is strange. I saw "CLOSED" too, and so I thought the lot went unsold. However, on the auction results log, it is "Lot 2750 SOLD. Book/NET for $ 19000". So was the lot sold or unsold? (I recall 19 grand was the starting price).

If you mean SAN and bidding before the actual auction time, I take "closed" to mean closed for book bids, nothing more.

So the book needs to record something and no successful bid is normally "net." So methinks the $19K was KL requested reserve (unpublished). Additionally even if unsold when the hammer hits and purchased afterwards, such would not be a "net" purchase offer with SRPA forgoing both sides of a $19K listing. They needed to at least pay the polite worker for his time bringing me the lot to view and replacing it on the shelf.




especially when he's selling ; buying, not so much. When it comes to personally owned material, all politics are out the window, he has always been pro-capitalism.

In a SAN live bidding auction log you will never see a "closed" result. Every single lot will have either a record of each live bid increment or a "Book/NET" designator. This is not specific to any one auction firm.