Along these lines, I'd be interested in hearing Al describe a start-to-finish process for a seller / consignor. As a buyer I'm familiar with the buyer's premium concept : ) but I have no idea how different auction houses structure things on the seller side. 

Hi Garrett (and Matt)!

In general, eBay is a "payment processor" in that all they're really doing is providing the software to facilitate a sale between a seller and a buyer.  The auctions begin whatever day the seller chooses, and end accordingly, with a clock that ticks down to zero - and whoever is high bidder at zero is the winner.  Those auctions are happening all the time, and it is incumbent upon you as a collector to constantly be aware of what is being auctioned, when it's being auctioned, when it closes, and whether the seller and item being sold is legitimate.  Then, the seller ships to the buyer, the payment processor facilitates the transaction and takes a piece of the revenue.

In the case of an auction house, there's a curated and finite assortment of items that are all opening on the same day and closing on the same day, at the same time.  The auction house is taking possession of the material, handling all the research, evaluation, photography, and description-writing.  They execute the auction, collect the payment from the winning bidders, ship the material to the winner, and pay the consignor.  As such, as a bidder you can choose the auction houses with which you feel comfortable - the ones with accurate descriptions, clear photos, knowledgeable staff, etc - and bid with them, and you can steer clear of the ones you don't trust.  As a consignor, you can choose the auction houses you feel best about, who do the best job, and consign your material there.

With auction houses, the closing process works differently than eBay as well, in that with eBay, once the clock hits zero, the auction is over.  While auction houses use a variety of closing methods, ALL of them permit bidders to continue bidding on an item until the bidding is actually finished, meaning auction houses get much closer to that exciting "going once...going twice...sold!" thing you see at live auctions.

Matt, in general, I like to speak with consignors - or at least have an email dialogue, to determine what it is that they have to sell, and whether or not it's right for our auction.  Assuming that it is, we have a consignor agreement that spells out our obligations and sets expectations, and contains a list of what is being consigned, along with any fees, cash advances, etc.  The consignor signs the agreement and then ships the cards to us (or, in the case of particularly large or valuable collections, we pick it up).  We try and make things as straightforward as possible. 

-Al

@al-crisafulli that's one hell of a convincing sales pitch (and I'll say, your catalogs are the best in the biz!)

As someone who buys-and-sells a lot of cards, I'll say that Al's sales pitch is spot on. When I find deals, its usually because items are auctioned in a way that doesn't bring the right set of eyes to the auction (timing or the type of material in the auction surrounding it). 

Al does a great job curating and organizing his auctions; they're informative, even when it's not something I'm bidding on, and the catelog is just fun to look through. When I have things that I think belong in his auction that I want to move, I'll pay him a visit (usually at the National). And, I can affirm that he'll even turn down consignments that he doesn't think will do well with in LOTG for some reason. 

-Burl (Justin Burleson)

@al-crisafulli thank so much. this is great info.