Should Producing Auction House Paper Catalogs Cease?
I’m glad I was a trade press editor-in-chief when all magazines were printed on paper. You had to hold them in your hands to read them.
When the publications I headed arrived on my desk I took great delight in opening the package and paging through them. When I would come across my bylined article, I felt deep satisfaction.
As the years rolled by (34 of them altogether) I would tear out those bylined articles and store them away. Today I have six binders full of them.
But paper magazines have been dying for years now. More and more of those that are left have either disappeared altogether or gone digital.
Why does all of this come to mind now? A couple of months ago I received an email from auction house REA, asking if I wanted to continue to get their print catalogs. Catalogs from all the auction houses are getting bigger and bigger. They’re glossy and very colorful with well-written descriptions. They’re also heavy.
So when I received that REA email, the decision was easy: Thank you for asking. Please stop sending me your catalog each time you hold an auction.
Yes, they’re fun to page through. But I’m only interested in looking at vintage Topps baseball cards. So I never even looked at about two-thirds of each catalog. Then it went in the recycle bin with a big kerplunk.
Maybe if I was still an active vintage baseball card collector I would hang onto them a bit longer, marking the items I planned to bid on. But I could just as easily highlight items by going on the auction house’s website and printing out the cards that peaked my interest.
With the internet such a prevalent part of all of our lives nowadays, you have to wonder why would any auction house continue to publish a slick, glossy catalog each time it holds an auction.
A couple of answers come to mind. First, it’s understandable that any auction house would want to have some sort of permanent record of each auction it conducts. What better way than a catalog that can be easily stored for future reference?
Second, and most probable, is the need to please the consignor. Keep him (or her) happy by producing a slick catalog with all items nicely displayed. And don’t forget the flowery write-up. Sports memorabilia auction houses know that they have to compete with their peers for consignments. It’s all about marketing, right? And what better way to placate that consignor and market the items than to show them in a thick, colorful catalog. Auction houses don’t have any control over the final prices that their consignments go for but they can definitely control how those items are marketed.
Do I see auction house catalogs disappearing anytime soon? No. Why? Even though any auction house that eliminated paper catalogs would save thousands of dollars in paper and printing costs, doing so would give a competitor the opportunity to diss it. The competitor would probably say something like, “Look at XYZ auction house’s decision to eliminate its paper catalog. Do you want to consign your items to it and run the risk of not getting the most money possible for your items because they weren’t marketed as thoroughly as we do?”
It’s a weak argument because every day more and more people are using the internet to check out items for sale. And high-res scans allow potential buyers to see every pixel on every sports card or autograph.
So, does an auction house opt for saving money on catalog production (along with mailing costs) or keep that consignor happy so that he will continue to supply it with items to sell? The answer to date is clear.