1914 Cracker Jack collection find

Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate all your good advise. I found these in an estate sale El Paso, Texas, & only paid $50.00 for the box of letters. My wife actually discovered these after we got home. We always check our newly found items on ebay to see what they go for. She searched the cards and originally did not find anything. Latter that night I searched ebay for Cracker Jack and was amazed in what I found. This really could not have come at a better time! We are really grateful, and fortunate to have found these.

I am considering the two acuction houses Robert Edwards & The Mile High Collector card company. I think the desition factor for me would be the auction fee.
Mile high has an auction in October, and REA in April?

How do you all feel about The Mile High Card Company? They have an auction coming up in October. Last year they sold a nearly complete set of 1914 Cracker Jack cards for $502.775.00.

Auction fees- Mile high fee 19% , REA ?

Thanks again everyone
Fernie,

The buyer's premium for REA is 17.5% as of last auction. One of the lowest for major auction houses. Most have gone to 19-20%

Fernie- Make sure you negotiate a 0% seller's premium. I've heard of some people even getting part of the buyer's premium.

jpcw wrote:Fernie- Make sure you negotiate a 0% seller's premium. I've heard of some people even getting part of the buyer's premium.

0% seller should be given for a 5 fig card. try to negotiate for a rebate on the bp

Absolutely he should try to negotiate a rebate of part of the buyers' premioum, but more important he should go with the auction house that will maximize his net proceeds, that might not be the one that gives him the largest (or a ) rebate. Not all of the auction houses are created equally.

this brings back the argument that rob/rea should expand to at least 2 auctions a year. he has the best reputation/name/auction in the hobby, so he gets a TON of hobby grails every year. that might work against consignors looking to maximize their bottom line. the cj matty is a great card, but since it's held annually there might be 2 other mattys in the same auction.

for being the biggest, at least rob is trying not to squeeze every dollar out of the hobby he could, his bp is probably the lowest now at 17.5% and he doesn't hold 5 or 6 crappy auctions a year (cough huggins cough)

Before this thread becomes embroiled in financials, let's congratulate FERNIE on a terrific find, and presenting it to the right forum. Seems like great recoveries are often represented on the FC Board.

FERNIE wrote:Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate all your good advise. I found these in an estate sale El Paso, Texas, & only paid $50.00 for the box of letters.

simply amazing! great find, congrats!

An additional term to consider in thinking about auction houses is a cash advance. REA will give significant cash advances, particularly since they only have one auction per year. It is unquestionably the premier auction event of the year in the hobby and that Matty would fit in nicely.
JimB

Very cool find - congrats!

Lots of great advice on this thread. Nobody will ever be able to guess the perfect way to put these cards on the market. The suggestions here all make sense. Whatever you choose, don't beat yourself up over what else might have happened. You will get a very nice windfall out of this.

Best of luck to you!

Hello everyone,
Again I am truly thankful for all the good advice from each and every one of you. I thought it would be good if I let you all know which direction I went with this. I did consider all offers, & a few auction houses, but ultimately I went with The Mile High Card Co. After several conversations with Brian the owner of Mile High, we finally agreed the terms. He flew in to El Paso, and we made the transaction in person. I was really impressed with his knowledge, company, & way of doing business.

The cards will be graded by PSA at the National sports collectors’ convention in Chicago next week or so. The cards will be in their fall auction which opens 9-19-11, and closes 10-5-11. The Mathewson card is expected to grade a 3, but really hoping for 4. It could be a difference of $10K from the two.

Conservatively all cards combined, they could generate about $30K!!! I was blown away with those figures. If you like I can keep you all posted on this thread from time to time. Thanks to you all, I did negotiate a good fair deal for both MHCC and myself. I really can’t discuss the terms at this time, but I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Regards Fernie,

Just reading this for the first time, Holy F(*&^ / S&^&^% ~!!! Congrats on your good fortune what a find can't believe the Matty is so nice another amazing find graces Full Count unreal, what will be next ?

Wishing you the best of luck with the sale, Fernie. And please do keep us updated. Thanks for sharing your find with us!

wow-great find-good luck that matty will do just fine

Hello everyone, I thought I would share the PSA Grading results from this past week.
I was a little disappointed, but it is what it is. I thought they would grade a little higher.
I hope combined they do at least 20K. But really I am just grateful to have found these.

What ever they sell for is going to be more than what I have!
The MHCC auction begins next month. I will keep you posted.

(These cards will be sold as individual lots)

1914 Cracker Jack E145-1 series

#88 Mathewson PSA 2
#14 Crawford PSA 3
#30 Cobb PSA 1
#65 Speaker PSA 2
#9 Hoffman PSA 4
#92 Demaree PSA 4

(This will be sold as one lot)

PSA 3: card #’s 11,108,117,
PSA 2: card # ‘s11, 22, 51,108

(To be sold as 1 lot)
PSA 1: card #’s 9,16,19,27,32,64,90

Thank you

CJs are a little like Old Judge cards in that a lot of collectors are more worried about how the card actually looks rather than what the technical grade is because of the staining.

Agreed w/JAy...you'll do fine!

Anyone need a kidney? Because I need a Matty!

A 2 on that Matty seems a bit harsh, there's a couple light corner creases, but the staining on that guy is pretty minimal. Like Jay and Pete said, people will be buying the card and not the grade.

Heck, I'm guessing it will nearly sell for a 3 grade because people will be looking to crack it out and resubmit!

The edges appear to be warped in the scans - that might justify the grade and I doubt it would regrade differently. Nice eye appeal regardless.

Hi, great find. Was the envelope the cards were in from the company or Chicago? Curious. Thanks, Mike

Hi Mike, Unfortunately I did not pay much attention to the envelope. I do remember that it had a postmark from the 1920’s, and was hand written with a fountain pen. I am not sure from who or where it was mailed from. I have mixed it in a huge box of old envelopes. If I find it I will let you know what i find out.

Thanks

That would be interesting to know about the envelope, I took it for granted it was just a newer envelope that the cards were put into.

Lee

a 2 for the matty is harsh...but it'll go for 2.5 money or more anyways.

I'm new to this forum- If you consigned the cards to Mile High, why aren't they listed in the September 19th auction like you said? because I'm really interested in the Cobb...