REA observations

Is this the first time a Wagner wasn't the highest priced card in an auction?

The t207 Red Cross Lowdermilk went very cheap. The owner got a steal. Same all the other t207 Red Cross cards.

What's the story with the t215 type 1 Donlin? Gonna have to ask Rob why it got a lot by itself when it wasn't a dupe. It's pulled a HOFer price.

Everything Chance was hot.

Tyler was probably the second worst looking of the t207 Red Crosses so why did it go for more than the except Lowdy?

$13k for the beat up m101-4/5 Ruth seems kind of crazy

$900 for the trimmed down m101-5 Thorpe makes me feel really good about mine. The winner is happy with the card, so that's all that counts.

Kinda regretting not bidding on the T208 Cullivans Fireside Mack SGC 10, which ended up at $2500. I figure having two T208 Macks in the same auction kept the price down a bit.

I think the Doyle Nat'l outpriced the Wagner in the one a year ago. The Baltimore News Ruth may have too.

I'm no expert on 1915 Cracker Jacks generally, but I do follow the prices on Red Sox cards from the set pretty closely. REA had a bunch of 8s (or 88s) and the ones I tracked - including the 2 I got - all went for less than the "going rate" at other auction houses and even eBay. If anyone else looked at high-grade 1915 CJs other than Red Sox in this auction, I'd be interested to know whether they also went cheap.

[Note: I just reviewed the results and it does appear to me that the high-grade 1915 CJs in this auction went for low prices generally. OTOH, it seems the 1914s (lower grades, naturally) got relatively stronger price results.]

FWIW, a couple other cards I tracked (but did not bid to win):

Old Judge Nash/Radbourn SGC 84 - REA sold for $1410...exact card sold at Heritage in 2010 for $1673.

E93 Eddie Collins PSA 6.5 - REA sold for $1410...exact card sold on eBay in 2010 for $1700.

On the other side of the coin is Lot 559, the three short-printed m1015 blank backs (w/scrapbook remnants) all graded SGC 10. Those cards are not worth one-half and in my view not one-third of what was paid for them, which was+35K w/BP. Those cards sat on Ebay for three years with huge BINS--or so I thought--they were actually less than what they went for last night. Although they are truly scarce, I have not seen any one much less all three of these cards go for anywhere near the average price from last night. For example, the Wallace, presumably the most desirable of the three because of his HOF status (all cards are equally rare and were in the same condition--POOR) went for $8k last November in SGC 50 with a Standard Biscuit back. Ad backs are more desirable and the grade was world's better, and it still sold for about 2/3 of what the AVERAGE of these three sold for last night.

I have never raised my eyebrows like this on an auction. This group was clearly not bought to flip--it's way overvalued. A true collector of these could have had them at anytime for the past three years and saved $10K, i.e. paid at least a third less--and that assumes those ridiculous BINS reflected market value, which, given their three years on the shelf with no buyers, seems to be answered with a resounding NO. I know some are distrusting of ebay and/or get the REA bug, but this spread makes no sense to me.

The K-bats commons went for less than expected. Prices were really soft there, although the Connor and O'Rourke deservedly went for big money.

Last year all the other auction houses went after REA and had some weak results. This year, a slew of them went ahead of REA, and got some juicy results, especially Goodwin. That juice was gone by the time REA came around and therefore we didn't see a lot of obscene prices, though in general things reached their fair value.

The T207's went cheap, obviously Lowdermilk less than we expected. That's been a hot set recently, and it looks like it's taking a breather. N300's and N28's were soft, especially a PSA 9 N28 Clarkson. N172's and N173's did well as always. T206's were strong. It looks like the mainstream sets held up but softness in other places - unless something truly spectacular like the K-bats Connor and O'Rourke.

I mainly followed the 19th Century stuff so that's my window of perception for the auction.

$15,000 for the M110 Frank Chance SGC 50 4 VG/EX had me staring wildly at the screen. During the live chat (awesome experience by the way) we were commenting that several Chance cards drew heavy bids.

The M110 set in an SGC 30 all did very well, I feel, and honestly it was tough for me not to bid on the Chance (not the 15k one) and the Chase. I was glad to see after a poor performance in Memory Lane that an SGC 30 Matty sold strong (considerably more than what I paid from Mile High last year). I woke up today with non-buyer's remorse, but Rob seems to get a few each year so I didn't have the "that's my only chance!" reaction. I hope I have a win to report at month's end to justify my non-bidding performance.

Jay, I really hope when things settle down over there Rob can provide some insight on the T215 Mike Donlin.

Where are all these M110s coming from? Seems like every larger auction has one or two any more. I remember years ago that you never saw them, anywhere.

It's the rare card cycle. All it takes is one to pop out and go for good money to chase out a bunch more. Other examples are the e107s and t208s. Once the current crop of collectors get their fill they will get locked away in collections for awhile. When some new blood gets in the hobby and pay big coin again, then they start appearing again.

the-illini wrote:Where are all these M110s coming from? Seems like every larger auction has one or two any more. I remember years ago that you never saw them, anywhere.

Recently Heritage had Chance (SGC 10), Cobb (SGC 10), Mathewson (SGC 10), and Wagner (SGC 10). Memory Lane had Mathewson (PSA 2) and Wagner (PSA 1.5). REA had the SEVEN listed above. The pop reports are 'about' 10 of each, but they seem to be changing hands frequently lately.

On a postwar note, I was underbidder on the 1955 TV Color Bowman set that went for a whopping $1200. I was kind of surprised to see such a nice set in really nice shape with gorgeous looking mid grade hof and overall good looking set go for really peanuts. I know it's not worth a whole lot but 10-15 years ago would've been impossible to touch for that. I think it really says a lot for postwar cards and how they have really gone down the sh&*^er ! I still think that 52 Mantle was a gem steal and would love to get one that fresh and basically nrmt, you can't find a nicer one and the centering didn't bother me one bit. Bottom line is T206 is going strong and everything else is hit or miss, unless two people are really going to go balls to the wall stuff can end up lower than expected, which was a good thing for many of us last night !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BigGuy219 wrote:$15,000 for the M110 Frank Chance SGC 50 4 VG/EX had me staring wildly at the screen. During the live chat (awesome experience by the way) we were commenting that several Chance cards drew heavy bids.

Hi Chris,

A little correction on that - the M110 Chance was an SGC 60/5. Hammer in this REA was $15K. Here's the thing...REA sold that exact Chance twice prior to last night. They sold it in the spring of 2008 (when the market was flying high) for $21,150 . Then in last year's REA 2010, they sold it for $11,163. Card lost $10K in 2 years .

This year it comes in at $17,625. Decent - but not full - recovery on the pricing.

One other thing that caught my eye...

I don't collect auto'd baseballs, but I noticed a single-signed Hooper getting bid up. Ended at $9500 hammer - $11,163 all in .

One year ago, one with a Hooper sig every bit as nice (and older) sold at Heritage for $1,675 all in.

Can't figure that one out at all...

[NOTE: I see that the Heritage ball discloses that other sigs were professionally removed from that ball, leaving only the fantastic Hooper sig...I guess that makes a big difference in the value...but I still don't get paying over $11K for a Hooper ball...]

Not to go off topic, but whenever I read something about Harry Hooper, I hear Robert Shaw in Jaws yelling "Hooper!" at Richard Dreyfuss in my head.