This is a topic that I have been tossing around for years and for whatever reason I still have not had my memorabilia insured. Most people would call me stupid, but I just never pulled the trigger.

I honestly can say that I am not all that informed on what goes into insuring collectibles, but I assume it is a bit different than the insurance I have for my Volkswagen.

Do you have to make an itemized list of what you have? What if you sell items? What if you buy items?

Granted, I live in a town that has very low crime, but there IS still crime and you never know when your house will get broken into.

Not to mention the risk of a fire happening, possible water damage, termites… whatever else could happen to my precious gems.

What about buying a safe? I am not sure on this one either. I would have to have a pretty big safe to fit all my memorabilia in and I guess a burglar could still steal the safe itself. On top of that, I am not sure that a safe would save memorabilia from all degrees of fire damage.

Most of my really valuable items are at the bank, but that doesn’t mean I would be happy if my other pieces got stolen or damaged.

What have you guys done? Does anybody insure his or her collection? Do you not worry about this? Let us know.

Bonds No. 715 homer ball is up for auction again CLICK HERE… This time it’s on eBay. Last year this same ball sold for 220K. What makes these people think that it will sell for more than it did the first time?
The hype is there for home runs 755 and 756, and probably not for 715.

Also, when you make an investment of this magnitude, you would probably like to make 20, 30, 40k or more on it. I just don’t see it happening. Maybe I am wrong.

Here is the press release:


July 24, 2007 -- Many may recall how Andrew Morbitzer was in a concession line on May 28, 2007 at San Francisco's Pacbell Park when the famed ball literally dropped into his hands.

Morbitzer ended up selling it to Symbolic Collection, an exotic automotive and collectibles business based in La Jolla, CA. Robert Rios, Vice President of Symbolic believes that with reports and offers that Bonds' Aaron breaking home run ball can be worth into the 7 figures, a lucky bidder is looking at a sweet investment in his #715 baseball.

"With no indictments, no suspensions, and seemingly no movement by Major League Baseball against Barry Bonds, I believe this ball is one of the penultimate sports collectibles available today for market appreciation", commented Rios. "Last year, there was a swirl of allegations that had kept many bidders from jumping into the competition for the ball. I believe when the dust settles, Bonds will rightfully be judged as the greatest home run hitter of all time", Rios added.

The auction launched Saturday night on eBay, in a listing being managed by Gazin Auctions, www.gazinauctions.com, a premiere auction management agency for high profile eBay items.
On eBay at: http://www.ebay.com/barrybonds

For more information:

Eric Gazin
President of Gazin Auctions
(323) 655-0554
www.gazinauctions.com

Last night I got a knock on my apartment door. It was the Fedex man… He handed me a small package, which I was not expecting. I opened it up, and low and behold, it was probably the nicest looking auction catalog I have ever seen.

Talk about first-rate. The catalog is for Mastro’s Live Aug. 3 auction at The House of Blues.
This auction contains 80 high-caliber lots and I don’t think they could have done a catalog any better.
High-quality paper, great images and delivered with plenty of time for collectors to drool over until the auction date.


Yesterday I announced the Gavel Chat “Guess the Final Price” contest. I got tons of entries, so thanks and keep them coming!

Man, I love pennants. What other pieces in the hobby carry the same excitement and mystery like pennants? Every year tons of new pennants are being discovered and many of them pop up on eBay. There are many that are one-of-a-kind variations and many that are rarely seen.

Here is one of them: CLICK HERE

I have never seen one of these and the price proves that many others share my feelings that this one is a great treasure.

First of all, I would like to thank all you guys for reading Gavel Chat. I have been writing these blogs for about five months now and I have literally had thousands and thousands of hits on this site. The positive responses from everyone have been tremedous. I owe it all to you guys.

As a little token of my appreciation, I am going to periodically be giving away some really nice prizes.
That said, I am gonna make you work for this. I think the contest should be auction related and more than just a simple raffle where we draw a name out of a hat.

This is the first Gavel Chat “Guess the Final Price” contest. All you have to do is guess the final price (before the buyer’s premium) on a designated auction item which will be closing in the near future.
I will take bids all the way through the day before the auction.

All guesses need to be emailed to me at: chris.nerat@fwpubs.com.

The winner of the first contest will get a complete factory sealed 2007 Topps baseball set!!

All you have to do is guess the final realized price of the Honus Wagner T206 card (CLICK HERE TO VIEW AUCTION DESCRIPTION AND PHOTO) that will be auctioned off by Mastro Auctions live sale at the House of Blues on Aug. 3 in Cleveland. The person who guesses the closest to the correct winning bid will win the contest. If more than one entries are the same, I will then do a random drawing to determine the winner.

All entries must be received by Aug. 2.

Make sure you include your full name and the city/state where you live in the email entry. Please, only one entry per person.


Thanks and good luck!

Last week a nice old lady called me and said she found a Babe Ruth signed baseball at her home. Her father actually played professional baseball and received the ball from Ruth at one of the Sultan of Swat's many exhibition games that he took part sometime in the 1930s.

The ball looked pretty good to me, although I will admit I am not Ruth autograph expert.

Anyway, she wanted to know how she could get it authenticated. Supposedly she has a man who promised her more than $30,000 for it if she got him a Certificate of Authenticity. (By the way, the ball I have pictured in this blog is not her ball. Her ball was toned and had a signature on the side panel that would rate about a 6/10.)
Using past auction results as a guide, I can’t imagine that a ball in the condition it was in could be worth much more than $10,000, much less than the man promised her. I stressed to her that something sounded very fishy about this and told her to be very, very careful.

I really have to wonder how many people get taken by crooks in the hobby. It is very, very scary.

I have no idea if she will ever sell the ball for that amount, if she will get ripped off or even ever get it authenticated (she didn’t like the idea of sending it into an authentication company). I probably will never find out, but it makes me wonder… you know?

I normally wouldn't write about the World Series of Poker in a blog, but one thing I've realized over the years is that card collectors are gamblers. Plain and simple.

I don’t know if the reason for this is because buying a pack of cards is more like buying a lottery ticket, or just because the majority of people in our hobby are sports fans (gambling is often associated with sports).

That said, tomorrow is the final table at the WSOP in Las Vegas, and I am actually toying around with the idea of ponying up $19.95 to Direct TV in order to watch the last table, live and unedited.

For those of you who don’t know too much about televised poker tournaments, most of them are not live, and almost all of the stations edit out the boring parts.

It’s kind of like televised fishing tournaments. During a day of fishing you could have your pole in the water for hours and never get a bite. When ESPN televises a fishing event, it seems like these guys are reeling in fish left and right…

Anyway, I have never heard of any participants who have a chance at this year's final table… Scotty Nguyen just got eliminated as I am typing this, but it should be fun to watch nonetheless.


Vintage Authentics and American Memorabilia’s auctions end this week. Vintage is highlighting a Babe Ruth home run bat (already at more than $57,000) and AMI is offering a wide array of high-grade Sandy Koufax cards as some of its headliners.

Make sure you check out these two sales, as there are still many deals to be had.


In other auction news, I received this email from the president of Mastro Auctions, Doug Allen, today. I am not going to give my opinion on this, as I would rather see what you guys have to say about it. As always, feel free to post your comments:
 
Dear Customer:      
 
 As a firm, we have always preferred to handle disputes with professionalism and discretion, even in the infrequent occasion that it is necessary to resolve them in court. Recently, we had what became a very public dispute with a former customer, autograph dealer Bill Daniels. Due to the public nature of this dispute, a number of you have asked about the legitimacy of his claims. Last week, the Honorable Matthew C. Kincaid from the Boone (Indiana) Superior Court issued a 46-page ruling. We thought it appropriate to communicate his findings, and resolution of this dispute, to our customers. Following is a synopsis of the judgment that the Court issued.  
 
 The Court found that Daniels’ statements that Mastro Auctions defrauded him, and conspired with PSA/DNA to do so, were defamatory. The Court also found that Daniels “affirmatively sought republication of defamatory statements in national media outlets such as Barron’s and New York Daily News.” In particular, the Court characterized Daniels’ conduct as “picayune, foolish, errant, resultant from a lack of understanding of his rights to publicly declare his complaints outside of a judicial proceeding and overzealous.” As a result, the court held Daniels liable for damages to Mastro Auctions’ reputation in the amount of $1,000.  
 
 The Court found that the proposed experts Daniels produced at trial – Richard Simon and Stephen Koschal (whom Daniels had testify that Mastro Auctions sold him forgeries) – were not qualified to render expert opinions. In particular, the Court found that Simon had undergone a “wholesale demolition in his deposition” and that Koschal was “not qualified to render an opinion on anything having to do with autographs.” Simon and Koschal were offered as witnesses after five other proposed experts “all refused to testify on [Daniels’] behalf.” 
 
 The Court sanctioned Daniels for his conduct of the litigation during discovery, specifically citing Daniels’ failure to disclose relevant documents timely and to “represent his claimed harm accurately.” As a result, Daniels was fined $2,000. 
 
 The Court found that Daniels presented “no evidence” of fraud and that Daniels’ claims that Mastro Auctions defrauded him—and conspired with PSA/DNA to do so--were “false.” The Court entered judgment against Daniels on those claims and awarded no damages. 
 
 Daniels was given $608.85 because a small portion of the 2,012 photos Daniels purchased in December 2004 were not as described in the lot description.  Mastro Auctions offered to replace those photos shortly after the auction, but Daniels refused. 
 
 The only negative of the judgment was that an additional award to Daniels was made on the basis that our catalog stated “LOA from James Spence  Steve Grad / PSA DNA,” but Steve Grad was the only one to physically sign the LOA on behalf of the PSA/DNA team.  Our attorneys will ask the judge to reconsider that portion of the ruling. 
 
 Overall, Mastro Auctions is very happy with this result.  Although it is unfortunate that this dispute had to go all the way to trial, we are pleased that the judge sent what we believe to be a resounding message against Mr. Daniels’ exaggerated claims and conduct of his lawsuit. 
 
 Sincerely,
Doug Allen
President
Mastro Auctions