MEARS Auctions

[stdrwt11]

Is Mears a reputible dealer of game used items? I am thinking of purchasing from an auction they have and want to know if anyone knows about them? Thanks.

[MSpecht]

MEARS items are very well researched and come with detailed authentications. They are well respected in the Game Used memorabilia hobby. Good luck.

Mike Jackitout7@aol.com (Jackitout7@aol.com)

[Lokee]

BUT like anything you need to do your homework don't expect it to be done for you.

[legaleagle92481]

BUT like anything you need to do your homework don't expect it to be done for you.

Agreed even the best make errors at times.

[Fraudfinder!!]

Speaking of Mears Auction did anyone win from their auction that ended early this morning? I was the high bidder on the Fisk jersey until the very end. I had a $5,000.00 high bid and was willing to go up to $10,000 until I read the thread from earlier this week. I was very concerned that if I won, I would be involve in the "litigation" and the jersey and or my money would be tied up for who knows how long. I think the winner got a great deal (ok, good deal) and beleive it would have gone much higher had the post earlier not been published. Hopefully the jersey will resurface in the future.

[skipcarayislegend]

Speaking of Mears Auction did anyone win from their auction that ended early this morning? I was the high bidder on the Fisk jersey until the very end. I had a $5,000.00 high bid and was willing to go up to $10,000 until I read the thread from earlier this week. I was very concerned that if I won, I would be involve in the "litigation" and the jersey and or my money would be tied up for who knows how long. I think the winner got a great deal (ok, good deal) and beleive it would have gone much higher had the post earlier not been published. Hopefully the jersey will resurface in the future.

I was surprised at the final price of the Fisk. I really thought it would go for much more. It's sometimes hard to buy in to the memorabilia-as-investment strategy but, assuming the Fisk is what many seem to think it is, that shirt seems like a smart buy at $6k. I think it would be perfect for an REA auction, personally. If I had the money, I would've gone for it despite any threats of litigation. At worst, you'd get a refund, right?

[Fraudfinder!!]

I was surprised at the final price of the Fisk. I really thought it would go for much more. It's sometimes hard to buy in to the memorabilia-as-investment strategy but, assuming the Fisk is what many seem to think it is, that shirt seems like a smart buy at $6k. I think it would be perfect for an REA auction, personally. If I had the money, I would've gone for it despite any threats of litigation. At worst, you'd get a refund, right?

Yes, but attorney fees are non refundable...

[legaleagle92481]

The Fisk is an important lesson not to air certain things in public as tempting as it may be because you are angry or upset with someone. If the dispute had been kept private the item would have sold for much more. In any auction the bidders are forum members and lurkers for the most part and people see a dispute like that and they do not want to be involved. There was nothing to be gained by either party to discuss it here and both lost big time because they chose to do so. If the sale ends up going through the seller will really be hurt by losing his legal fees, court costs and realizing so little for the item he practically will have given it away. Mears will be hurt because of their legal costs and the ad money they laid out and receiving such a small commission.

[skipcarayislegend]

Did anyone see the estimated value of the Reggie Jackson Angels shirt? I understand that it's direct from Reggie's closet, but $17k-$25k? Wow.

[CollectGU]

I noticed that during this auction, MEARS moved away from their practice of starting items at high opening bids without reserves and instead moved to a practice they originally dsiparaged of low opening bids with reserves. The end result was the same - a large number of featured items that did not sell.......

Personally, I would like to see them auction items at reasonable starting prices without reserves and let the market decide their values based on where they end at. If a consigner is not willing to do this, then don't bother taking their item....

Dave

[aeneas01]

I was surprised at the final price of the Fisk. I really thought it would go for much more. It's sometimes hard to buy in to the memorabilia-as-investment strategy but, assuming the Fisk is what many seem to think it is, that shirt seems like a smart buy at $6k. I think it would be perfect for an REA auction, personally. If I had the money, I would've gone for it despite any threats of litigation. At worst, you'd get a refund, right?

despite dave grob's fantastic research and excellent writeup on the jersey, there's an enormous elephant in the room: no one is saying that this is indeed the shirt fisk wore during that famous at bat - not dave, not mears and not lon lewis. simply put, no conclusive photo evidence has been unearthed. in the end you have a consignor that adamantly believes his theory about this shirt yet no expert willing to back him.

as such i don't find the hammer price all that surprising - in fact i think the uncertainty surrounding the jersey's history is what drove the price, not the consignor's public airing of his beef with mears. fwiw a fisk rookie shirt fetched $16k a few years ago at mastro and a signed 1975 fisk shirt fetched $5,800 at robert edwards not too long ago. other fisk red sox shirts that have sold in the past averaged about $3k a pop.

so if the shirt fetched $5,500 at mears, inclusive of mears' 15% bp, then it works out to $4,800 before bp. assuming mears hit the consignor with a 15% consignment fee, then we're down to $4,200. back out the $500 large for the research mears charged the consignor, then we're down to $3,800 paid to the seller - no five to six figure lottery ticket here...

....

[sayhey24]

I agree that it sold for about what it's worth, but I also think the consignor shot himself in the foot with all his talk of legal action. I think a couple of bidders might have gone a few thousand dollars higher on the off chance that it is THE jersey, but were probably scared away by the consignor.

[Schmoozer]

If that had been my jersey, I would have exhausted ALL possible avenues to photo match it before I consigned it to an auction.

Sometimes while just doing a random in-depth search on the internet, by exhausting all of the "key words" on a google search, I have located a close up photo of a few items I own that have had such good detail, a photo match was able to be made. And I'm not talking about new, digital 10-gazillion megapixil picture stuff, I'm talking about a good old fashioned
photos taken by photogs who worked for the papers, teams, etc.

If the guy who won it is able to do that now, then how sad would that be for our "rose14" fellow forum member? I understand his displeasure in regards to how he felt his item was "mis"-handled. I also understand the auction houses position. The answer would have lied in our member doing some extensive research before he sold it.

Either way, he made a profit on flipping it.

[Mark17]

A source for high-quality photos for photomatching is Steve's Baseball Photography:

http://www.thatsmyboy03.com/

I've purchased photos from him that are so clear they could be used to photomatch gray road flannels from the 1960s just by the bluish patterns in the felt, let alone the lettering.