2nd Day Siegel's Gross Sale Comments And Overview

6-15-2024's Lot #102, Providence, Rhode Island, 5¢ Gray Black (10X1). Position 4, Mint N.H., large margins all around including left sheet margin, crisp impression, fresh and Extremely Fine, with 1998 P.F. certificate, SCV $350 as hinged Hammered at $550.00 in a superior condition not listed in Scott. This is the only lot to not sell for four or five figures as hammered or as hammered plus buyer fee. During the first 89 lots of the day. Two other lots required the 18% buyer fee to break into four figures.

Following lot 189, a short break was called. with Lot 190, which beginnings today's 1869 listings.

---Bargain of the day at 42.48% of SCV?----[most lots seem to be selling at or above SCV]----
Lot 214, 90¢ Carmine, H. Grill (144). Original gum, clear grill points, beautiful bright color, very well-centered for this difficult stamp very FINE. AN EXTREMELY RARE WELL-CENTERED ORIGINAL-GUM EXAMPLE OF THE 1870 90-CENT NATIONAL bank note company ISSUE with h grill, scott 144. A GREAT CONDITION RARITY AND ONE OF THE FINEST IN EXISTENCE. SCV $25,000 hammered at only $9000.

The next 80 (through Lot 269) lots all sold for at least four figure at hammer, except for three lots requiring the buyer fee inclusion to make four figures. One lot with a SCV of four figures was the one lot that did not make four figures (SC #153) perhaps due to a tear not listed on the 1984 PFC.


---From Lot 270 through Lot 308----- All went for four or more figures except:

Three hit four figures with the buyer fee.

Looking at the next set of lots, 270 and 271, each with a three figure SCV, did not reach four figures even with the buyers fee. These were the first pair of consecutive lots not to break into four figures.

2¢ Carmine, Type I, Imperforate Coil (459). Mint N.H. joint line pair, usual crease between stamps, bright color, Extremely Fine, with 1985 P.F. certificate, SCV $1,200 only Hammered at $475.

8 of the 15 postage due single stamp lots which did not break four figures, six have a SCV of only three figures with the other two two having a SCV of four figures.

The K12 hammered at $750.00 against a SCV of $550.00. With the K16 being sold, hammer and buyer fee, at three figures but over SCV.

The group lots, 309 - 317

All sold for four or five figures (Lot 310).

SALE CONCLUDED

The 144 might be the deal of the whole sale.

In terms of dollars saved over SCV, it was the best stamp bargain, and also exceeded the dollars saved on the bulks lots compared to the bulk SCV.

My comments are this. There was a Bill gross premium to every stamp. Very few if any deals. Most went over estimate and enough went over CV. These are not real prices though. People just wanted a piece of the greatest Classic US collection that will likely be put together, probably ever. If you won an item from this auction then you own history. Each stamp sold either on day1 or day2 now has an ex Gross attached to it for provenance.

Also, US stamps are overpriced compared to the rest of the world. Stamps with the same print runs from other countries sell for less. Much Much less. US stamps also have too many varieties and this is going to anger some people, I really think it is the same stamp. Who cares if it has a grill or the color is a bit different. But apparently many US collectors do care, as they paid exorbitant prices. US stamps are the like the S&P500. There are US stocks and then the rest of the world. Truly that was a grand collection. And something great to have witnessed in my life-time.

Do we have the total for the whole sale? I think I heard $15 MM for the first day.

Thanks for the live coverage on both days PPG!

Thank you and you are welcome.

In the first day thread, https://goscf.com/t/87116 , I wrote the 15+ Million Hammer Price as the total amount for that day was announced. Today I was ready to take notes, but no such total for the day was offered.

At this point all the hammer prices are in Bid Baller. Edit: Here is the link: https://auction.siegelauctions.com/...?Status=live . Those 317 lots and a calculator can get the total hammer which will then have 18% buyer fee added. Then again if not in a hurry, I trust Siegel's will be all over the press with the total soon.

There were dealers there as well. Despite the high prices, those were the wholesale price of ex Gross stamps. Don't be surprised to see a 1000 dollar hammer turn into a 2000 buy it now on ebay.

Price is about both supply and demand. All you addressed was supply. The fact is, US stamps are in greater demand than most other countries.

"There were dealers there as well. Despite the high prices, those were the wholesale price of ex Gross stamps. Don't be surprised to see a 1000 dollar hammer turn into a 2000 buy it now on ebay."

I seriously doubt a dealer bought many of the significant lots.

I agree that there was a Bill Gross premium, but also, most of the stamps were amongst the best you will ever see - even more common stamps in the sale, were just really well centered, often with huge margins, imprints, etc.

The remainder lots at the end were crazy - people were paying around full catalog for remainders - I find that a bit nuts - but it was a blast to participate. I did win a few singles

eyeonwall. You are right about that. The dealers are not going to buy the really high priced items. They want stuff they can flip. Collectors or single stamp investors picked up the expensive items. People who missed out will be able to buy later from the flippers. I still think some people bought to flip.

The US is the financial capital of the world. No surprise it has the most expensive stamps. Just to me there is better value out there. But still does not take away that we all witnessed history today. These are the stories that you pass down to others.

CV does not really matter with this auction. All caution went to the wayside. This was a first for me to see so many lots sell at those prices. I mean the Magnolia collection had runs like this but not the whole auction. Just about every lot was fought over.

I think there were some - not many - but some good values. This is from the fact that they did not show SMQ for many stamps - even graded ones. Mostly on day 2 - look around the 1857 stamps - like lot 120 -sold for ~catalog value (2500), but SMQ for XF is 6000. There was an XF-S graded 95 OG 17 that sold for half SMQ. I mean, some of these are so rare, that you can argue that SMQ doesn't mean much. But there were a good number of stamps like that.

Totals for the recent Siegel Gross sale (both days): Hammer $16,272,500, 18% BP $2,929,050, Total $19,201,550.

I managed to get one item, Scott 467 5c error. It was not graded, but my guess is it might get an XF-90 which has an smq of $1600. All in for this item was around $1200, so don't know if I overpaid or not. I didn't notice many graded items, it seems like Gross was more interested in front appearance and best effort for them to be sound. Some items from day 2 with old certificates may have been re-perforated. The items that went above SCV were usually well centered, likely would grade higher than VF. I'm not saying this was the basis for all the bids, but it seemed like some accounting for that could be reflected in hammer prices.

I expect that a lot of this material was acquired before grading came into vogue.