After an action-packed weekend at Heritage Auction Galleries’ sale in Dallas, Texas I am back in Iola and people have been emailing and calling me all day to ask how it was.

This was the first ever major, live auction that I have attended and let me tell you… If you have never been to a live auction event, and if you are a serious collector, you must check one out.
The occasional good deal can be found, you get to hang out in a room full of some of the hobby’s biggest collectors, dealers and authenticators and you also get to view some of the sale’s highlighted pieces in person.

Heritage is located a few minutes from downtown Dallas and only a few blocks from American Airlines Center, the home of the Mavericks. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to hang out with Mark Cuban during my trip, but I did get a chance to chat with authenticators Dave Bushing and Lou Lampson, in addition to super-collector Nicholas DePace.

Currently, I am working on getting video interviews we conducted of Lampson, DePace and Heritage’s sports auction director Chris Ivy added to our website so everyone can check them out.
The Lampson and DePace videos are great, as they really give off a feel as to why they are considered some of the hobby’s most passionate collectors.

Ivy broke down the auction and talked about a pretty sweet new live video feature that Heritage was beta-testing for its Signature auction. It actually includes live, real-time video of the sale so bidders who couldn’t make it to Dallas can view the sale from home. According to Ivy, the feature worked perfectly Saturday with no problems.

I was very impressed with all facets of Heritage. The Heritage building is enormous and very cool. The auction setup was very professional and the auction itself went very well, as it tallied over $2.5 million.
The most excitement of the auction came when a 1922 Bert Cole game-worn Detroit Tigers flannel uniform sold for $47,800. Not too bad considering the min. bid was only $1,500.

Not far behind was a 1960s Ray Nitschke Packers home jersey that sold for nearly 40K.

As an added bonus, Lampson had a rental car and brought Steve Bloedow and I to the site wear JFK was assassinated. Let me tell you, that was something to see. It was at night, so it was a little eerie.

The picture to the right is yours truly next to the infamous white picket fence atop the Grassy Knoll.
If you ever have a chance to go to Dallas, this site is a must-see.
Heritage has another major auction in October, so start planning the trip now. I will hopefully be there as well.