Consigning collectors for those who do not collect

There has long been the debate of selling collections such as George D.'s, the Ty Cobb w/Ty Cobb backs, and others that came from collections of non collectors, as to whether they should be sold all together.

Well as a consignor that does not collect does he want to wait a year or 2 to sell everything off to try to maximize the dollar or do it all as once. I just can't see a non-collector wanting to wait it out.

I am sure Consignors are more than happy when there check comes after the one auction, is it worth it to them to wait a year or 2 and maybe make an extra 10% or what ever you hope may happen by slowly leaking them out.

My personal thought as a non collector of an item is to put it in the best place to get the one time shot.

Lee

Sometimes you get great value. Other times you don't. As you pointed out, a collection that comes from outside the hobby is usually best sold in one shot since the consignor is going to be thrilled with that huge check no matter how much bigger it could have been because they have no money invested in it.

I'll be talking to George later this week and I'll pass along his thoughts.

I compare this to the lottery ticket approach. You can be patient and take a series of small payments over time, or you can be impatient and take a smaller lump sum and cash out immediately.

For someone not involved with the hobby, clearly George D made the right moving going this route. That's money in his pocket now that he can use to enjoy with his family in things that matter.

I'm sure some of the collectors who bought bulk lots will be able to break them up and sell for a profit. And I'm sure in the years to come a couple of the individual cards will re-sell on the secondary market at a premium. However, the time involved here just makes it not worthwhile for someone not active in the hobby.

I think it was the right way to sell them...it's pretty easy to look back at it now and say it maybe wasn't the best way to sell them but who's to say that more of these don't show up and drive down the price even further?

Like from the comments above, assuming he's not a card collector, he now has a big chunk of change instead of some pieces of cardboard that mean nothing to him.