Mastro's

[mjkm90]

Just received my new Mastro catalogue and preparing to dive in. At first glance, most of the items are cards unfortunately. Robert Edwards seems to be THE memorabilia auction house these days. I much prefer their items to Mastro's. Anyone agree?

[mjkm90]

Re: Mastro's

What a dissapointment. Very little vintage baseball. Some nice football and great Americana, but I don't collect those unfortunately. I don't understand why they deal mostly in cards and game bats these days.

[slidekellyslide]

Re: Mastro's

Possibly an influence of the people that work there. The Leland's auction just opened up and I don't see a whole lot of interesting baseball memorabilia - That I can afford. A very interesting baseball with the original box though.

http://www.lelands.com/bid.aspx?lot=1147&auctionid=512

[Frank]

Re: Mastro's

Mastro has an Americana auction that is running through Dec 7th that I'm going to be looking at some of the items.

[HiNeighbor]

Re: Mastro's

Maybe it's because I'm just starting out with my collection, but there sure seems to be some nice stuff in this auction. I certainly wouldn't mind owning Cy Young's 1903 medallion or a 1908 Red Sox postcard. You guys must have some pretty nice collections if nothing in here interests you.
Greg

[mjkm90]

Re: Mastro's

Oh...there are many many great items in this auction, just a lot more cards than memorabilia. I was simply pointing out that in the past there were far more non-card items.

[slidekellyslide]

Re: Mastro's

I've noticed in these big auction house auctions that they rarely include vintage baseball equipment that is not "game used". I want to see rare store model bats, gloves, et cetera but you almost never see that stuff in these auctions.

[mjkm90]

Re: Mastro's

There are a couple reasons for this. One is that I believe many collectors won't part with thier best and rarest. A lot the the game used items come from family, friends, entire collections and estates. The second reason is that auction houses like lots to bring over $1,000 each. While there are tons of highly desireable store model bats, gloves, trophies, masks etc. there aren't many over $1,000. When you do see store model bats (my first love) they are in blocks of 8-10 unless it's a player model decal bat, or early ring bat. The 10-20% commission on the $200-$400 items most collectors can manage, aren't worth the time and effort for the large houses. And quite frankly, why not put it on ebay yourself and save time and money?