The Auction - conclusion

I went to the auction. It was good to be reconnected to some Mets history. I have a very very small part of it in my bedroom (in the form of signs) and my living room (Shea seats), but aside from that, I haven't felt that much (Mets) history or connection at any of the 6 trips I've made to Citi Field.

I got to talk to a few people, trying to figure out the source of tension at the auction and what's wrong with the Mets. I got quoted in the New York Times.

It's very sad to think that there were so many items that belong in Citi Field were sold or auctioned. I also think that today's auction was, in part, necessary because of the overpricing of the items when they were initially removed from Shea and sold. But I do like knowing that so many pieces of Shea have a home in someone's home and not in a scrap pile.

And I got to see some of the pieces of Shea Stadium probably for the final time. Certainly the final time I'd see it all together. This comes on the heels of the Mets dissing their history and Old Timer's Day (again). MetsPolice has that covered.

Part 1 - the items
Part 2 - the setup
Part 3 - the problems

The auction - part 3

Part 1 - the items
Part 2 - the setup

Problems:
Once things got started (it started late because the auctioneer and his crew were late arriving), there was some confusion as we went around the warehouse. The auctioneer needed a description of each lot as it was put up, and Barry Meisel of MeiGray wasn't always right there to help (he had to move around and answer some questions or look at something, even though he had his staff there). The auctioneer was a bit snappy about getting a name and money without delay from each winning bidder.

It was also time consuming to have to unroll some of the vinyl prints that weren't out on display when it was time to bid on them (think ahead folks). As we moved around the warehouse, the auctioneer had to step down from his ladder, his crew would move it, and he'd get back up. I'm sure neither of those are the case in an auction house. Barry Meisel up front estimated 6 hours to complete, so if we could speed things up it was good and if they slowed things down and weren't ready, it was bad.

There was a bit of confusion with this crowd over the bundling of items in a single lot. I can certainly see that someone would want to bid of a photo of Gil Hodges and leave behind the Kevin McReynolds photo, or at least pay a different price for it (there wasn't a real bundle of the two, but I'm using it for illustration). At the same time, I can't see how people would want a whole lot of 3 wide ramp signs when they're hard to put on display (one of the reasons why the smaller ones sold out and the larger ones were still there). One such sign would suffice. But it was bundled in 3s. That concept wasn't clear to some people, and wasn't real fair to some.

For some items - those that had enough to go around, like Ramp signs, bricks, section signs, outfield pads, box seat rail elbows, and foul poll pices - do a reverse bidding. Start at a price, anyone who wants any at that price can take it, for any number of the item, and then bring the price down until another person bites, then whoever wants at that price in order to clear the item out. Continue until a bottom price or the set is sold out.

To that end, when we got to the box section elbows, they started bidding at $1 and it got to $6. The lots were sets of maybe 40 or 50. $6 was the winning bid, and that person got to take however many they wanted and we moved on. The rest were left. That's kind of dumb.

I think there were some issues people had with the bundling of the items. Some people didn't understand it. I think MeiGray started bending the process at one point to accomodate that. Bid on a lot of 5 items, then buy 1 at that price and leave the rest and move on. To be fair, if we bid on every item, it would have continued all day and all night.

There was some tension growing between the auctioneer and Barry Meisel. I'm not real sure why. Maybe over the lots. Maybe over the speed people came up with their deposits (the lady with the credit card machine wasn't always there) or the speed of saying their name to be recorded. Maybe over the speed by which some items had to be unrolled. It was hot and humid in there (fans helped). I'm not real sure.

We ended up taking a break of about 30 minutes. The auctioneer stepped away for a bit after we continued and one of his crew. I don't know if it was tension or a personal matter (he was on his cellphone for a bit). He did resume his role, but it was getting very contentious. I think the backup auctioneer was ready to step away after one person argued that he saw bidding go up with only one person bidding. It was really getting sloppy, and unfortunately, it was getting also getting late for me.

Conclusion

The auction - part 2

Part 1 - the items
Part 3 - the problems
Conclusion

Now on to the day itself. I talked to 2 newspaper reporters. I don't know who else was there from the media. I know the New York Times and Courier News (Central NJ) covered the event. I was quoted in the Times.

The auction:
There were about 100 people there. A few families with kids came to look, some collectors, and some fans. When I asked if there were any smaller signs from Shea, Barry Meisel told me that the smaller signs sold out mostly (he thinks) because of their size - smaller is easier to store/hand and easier to transport - rather than the price. I'm sure price was part of it too (though both answers were correct in my case when I bought my small ramp sign).

Since we were there all afternoon and during the morning, MeiGray set up one of the Roosevelt Ave Pub carts for cold drinks and hot dogs ($1.00 and $2.00 respectively).

The setup:
Most items were laid out around the warehouse open for people to see and inspect. Obviously, there were no problems with people taking pictures. Most items were grouped together, but some of the photos and banners weren't (the banners were spread out along the walls).

The group (auctioneer up on a ladder with a microphone) just kept moving around the warehouse to try to follow the numerical order of the lots. Up one row, right turn, down the back, right turn, down the side, etc.

I've never been to an auction, but the rule here was deposits in $100 increments after a winning bid, and you need to tell the auctioneer your name for the record. Book keeping was done later. Cash was appreciated.

There were about 600 lots. Some lots were a single item (a single photo), and others were a set of 2 or 3 or 5 or 6 of the same type of item (6 photos together, for example, or 3 ramp signs together). Bidding was on the price to pay for each item, having to purchase all of the items. Some of the things they had many of were just in piles of 6 or 20 or 40, considered a single lot, and there were 5 or 6 lots of similar piles (for instance, 200 box seat rail elbows broken into 10 lots of 50 pieces). The lots of multiple photos weren't exactly photos of the same theme (for instance, a Gil Hodges photo and a Kevin McReynolds photo together). Get the idea? I eventually got it.

How stuff sold:
Most stuff did sell. A few items had a real bidding war. For instance...

• Most of the photo-based items started bidding at $25, went down to $10 before someone bit, and at best got up to $50 (in most cases). A few didn't sell.


• The ramp signs started at $100, went down to $25, and most sold for well under $100 each (these were packaged in lots of 3 signs).


• One piece of the foul poll sold for $500 and another for $1000.


• From the vinyl banners, most didn't break $100. Nobody bid on the one of Benitez. There was a nice 12' x 10' Doc Gooden banner (circa 1993) sold for $185. Even the prints of the artist's rendition of Citi Field sold (one lot for $12.50).


• At least one food cart went for $900.


• Lockers went for about $50 each, for the first few, then no interest. Maybe 25 total, less than 10 sold.


• The Nolan Ryan locker went for $1900 and the Tom Seaver locker went for $2600.


• Unfortunately, I didn't stick around to see the outfield wall sell or the big 2000 NL Championship flag sell.

The auction - part 1

I spend about 6 hours at the MeiGray Shea Memorabilia Warehouse in Bridgewater, NJ, yesterday for the live auction of Shea Stadium's leftover memorabilia. Unfortunately, I had to leave a little before 4pm, and the auction probably ran past 6pm.

I'll break this down into several posts. First I break down the items that were available. I am including my photo album from looking around at the memorabilia. I did learn that some of what was made available since September came out of storage at Shea, so these were non-recent items that maybe you didn't recognize. There were also a lot of things from the hidden levels (like the press level) that most people didn't see. Some of the photos were very recent (last season).



The items:
There were lots of pictures. Some smaller prints (in frames), some larger ones. A few that were large black and whites, and other that were smaller, with most in color. There were even some older photos that really really pre-date the Mets (I'm not real sure who these were, but I thought that the Hall of Fame should have them more than any fan/collector). There were "photos" printed on wooden board, kind of like a photo being printed right on the frame. There were large reprints of some of the old year book covers. A few photos of Shea, and a lot of players posing or action shots. There were some gigantic prints of some big moments/players in Mets history.

There were vinyl hanging banners of players/moments in Mets history. Some were prints of photographs, and some were the promotional banners. Not all of them were out on display for us to see, even though we were bidding on them. There were even more in a back room. Some that were out were probably 12' x 10' tall/wide. There were some flags, including (one of the) 2000 NL Champions flag from the CF flagpole at Shea. A few boxes of old American flags and old football flags from the Jets days at Shea.

Tucked away on a shelf on the far side were the large Topps baseball cards that we saw announcing the lineup above the RF ticket window at Shea. Piles of them. I wasn't around for their bidding. There were also large cardboard-like prints that looked like they were part of the RF/LF and press box facade murals of Mets history, except they weren't the right shape/size.

They had a few of the carts that scorecards and yearbooks were sold from. There were maybe half a dozen of the rolling Roosevelt Ave. Pub food carts. In the back, and I don't know if/when those were sold/auctioned, there were several hand-held Nathan's Hot Dog carts and even some of the grills and holding trays from the concession stands.

There was a display of about 2 dozen lockers - both Mets and Visitors. Some were labeled as having belonged to certain player(s), and some were not. There were many many bricks - some individually wrapped and boxed, and others out for us to touch that were different shapes and sizes, some crumbling.

They had lots of foul poll. At least four different 25' sections. Plus a bunch of cut up 1' and 2' sections. They had one foul poll screen in tact (ready to be reattached to the foul poll itself) and the other foul poll screen loose and rolled up on the floor. There were a few of the railings from the Loge, Mezzanine, and Upper Decks and a couple hundered of the "elbow" pieces from the Field Level boxes.

There were about 100 of the wide ramp signs that hung down from the exit ramps at Shea (one side points to whichever level you're entering and the other is Mr. Met saying goodbye). There were also about 100 cut section signs. At one point, the signs were sold whole (I bought one in September). For some time, they've been auctioned/sold in "cut" form to be easier to transport and store.

They had piles and piles of the outfield and barrier walls. The blue padding. Some with parts of an advertisement. There was one complete OF wall section (6 panels) that was just one advertisement (not even any blue). There were also light pods and LED pods from the Shea scoreboard.

They had a couple sets of seats from the Citi Field Preview Center that was in Shea last season. A few cushioned "suite seats" and a couple pairs of the regular seats. There were a couple sets of seats from the Shea press level too. There were even a few prints and banners that depicted an artists's rendition of Citi Field that we probably saw at Shea.

There were a few other things. Look through my photos and you'll get the idea. More to come later as a I review the how the bidding went and some of the problems that came up as well as my thoughts.

Part 2 - the setup
Part 3 - the problems
Conclusion

Going Once, Going Twice, Gone!

While I recover from today (being on my feet walking around the warehouse for 6 hours is exhausting), download my photos, and gather my 4 pages of notes, I'll say this about today's Shea Stadium Memorabilia auction:

No sign of Fred or Jeff Wilpon buying back anything that belongs in Citi Field. So anything that goes to the new park will be brand new. I would have felt a little better knowing that artifacts of Mets history at Citi Field actually came from Shea, but I'll be happy with anything.

It also would have been really cool if MeiGray (the group that did the sale/auction for the memorabilia) also did the sale of the Shea seats. Then we all could have sat down in the Shea seats to do the Shea memorabilia auction.

It was long, it was interesting, and there were a couple of reporters there. I'll have to look for the write-up in the New York Times (I think the reporter was also a fan).

Shea for Sale

I saw this over at MetsPolice.

Update: July 13 The release is also on meigray.com with an updated inventory list.

MeiGray is going to hold a live auction on the Mets memorabilia next Saturday morning at their Bridgewater, NJ warehouse. I'll be there to check it out and take more pictures.

The MeiGray Group
Thursday, July 9, 2009

SHEA STADIUM
MEMORABILIA LIVE AUCTION

SATURDAY, JULY 18, 11 AM
AT MEIGRAY'S SHEA WAREHOUSE
IN BRIDGEWATER, NJ

MICHAEL AMODEO, AUCTIONEER

DOORS OPEN AT 9 AM FOR LOT INSPECTIONS

2E Chimney Rock Road, Bridgewater, NJ 08807 (Off Route 22 East)

Directions: Route 287 to Exit 13B (Somerville). Make right at Chimney Rock Road

Want a piece of Shea? Section Signs, Outfield Wall Panels, Turnstiles, Original Clubhouse Lockers from Mets and Visiting Players, Mounted Photos, Ramp Signs with Mr. Met, Suite Furniture, American Flags that flew atop Shea, Team Flags that flew atop Shea, Blue Suite Seats, Citi Field Preview Center Seats, Bullpen Bench, Concession Signs, Hot Dog Grillers, In-Seat Service Carriers, Clubhouse Furniture, General Manager's Desk, Manager's Desk, File Cabinets, Office Furniture, Golf Carts, Scoreboard Sections, Original Stadium Bricks, Outfield Wall Bricks, Field Level Section Plaques, Clubhouse Whirlpools and Massage Tables, Gate Banners, Player Banners, Oversized Starting Lineup Placards, Parking Lot Banners, Program Stands, Foul Pole Sections and Much, Much more.

METS-MEIGRAY LETTERS OF AUTHENTICITY INCLUDED WITH ALL ITEMS

ALL SHEA MEMORABILIA IS MLB AUTHENTICATED

Terms: Cash, credit cards, bank checks.

10% BUYERS PREMIUM

For more information, phone MeiGray toll-free at 888-463-4472

The World's Coolest Yard Sale

Borrowing an idea I had back in January, ESPN sent Page 2 Uni Watch reporter Paul Lukas over to the MeiGray Shea Stadium Warehouse recently to file both a written report and video (embedded below). I invite you to both read and watch.



In the video, it looked like some of the banners and hangings were actually hanging on display (showing off for the cameras, I didn't see that when I was there). It looked like there were a lot of pieces of the blue outfield wall. I remember them being very dirty, otherwise I would have bought a small piece (I still might do that later on). Still lots of photos. I looked through some of them too - some were more like silkscreen on wood rather than a poster, giant photo paper, or a framed photo. There were still quite a few signs from around the ballpark sitting along the side wall behind the shelf. Not as many as they had 5 months ago, but still plenty to auction off or sell. I just laugh at the idea that someone would want a Nathan's hot dog cart. In this economy especially, how do those NOT move over to Citi Field (remember that the City took some of the fixtures and placed them in City parks)?

One note in the video from Barry Meisel was that the Mets did want Citi Field to be all new. The article itself links to a few photos from the demolition of Shea and from the warehouse. (I don't know exactly who to credit on the photo of Gil Hodges, so I'll just say that it was one of the photos linked from the article and hosted on flickr)


From the article, talking about the economy's effect:

The timing couldn't have been worse for Meigray, since the economy tanked almost exactly when it started marketing this material. But Meigray president Barry Meisel, who gave [Paul Lukas] a tour of the warehouse last week (see video at the top of this page), says sales have been good enough to cover the company's investment and then some, if not quite as brisk as he would have been before the stock market crashed. He estimates that he has sold about 75 percent of what was originally in the warehouse.

It continues to talk about the harder to sell items. That's worth reading, and photos linked from within the text.

I also wrote about my visit to MeiGray in early February. My opinion of the entire matter hasn't changed (much) since pieces of the ballpark went up for sale, and now on the auction block.

• The items are over priced - this stuff would move a lot faster (I may even buy more) if prices were half of what they are, and you know it has to be hurting their profit margin to have these items sitting on shelves all summer instead of being sold


• About half of the items should have a home in Citi Field, not in my apartment - that's been topics of other posts


• Seeing this stuff out of context (not in Shea) looks very creepy, so does the life-sized cardboard cutout of Willie Randolph in front of the "manager's" locker that they show

Looking at the auction, how can this classy picture of Casey Stengel NOT be in the Mets home?


I would like to know why they even have this item, a Fenway Franks Hot Dog Vending Box.

Thanks to Mets Police for the tip, and challenging me to "nitpick" what was in the article and video.

Update from MeiGray

I haven't heard anything from our friends at the MeiGray Group in a while about Shea Memorabilia, so I decided to go to their website and see what they said. They don't say much, you can see that here, but they do let you download their 2 spreadsheets (one of them is noted as being updated March 23, 2009) to see what's for sale.

As of 2 1/2 months ago, there seemed to still be a lot of overpriced Shea Stadium Memorabilia for sale. Some of it is on the auction block accessable from mets.com/shea, with some items ending on June 11, and new items listed that end June 25.

I'm just laughing at these items that nobody has bid on them, either because it's over-priced or just plain old stupid to be selling and buying. With this economy, it doesn't surprise me that there's so much available. I really do hope they drop prices (a lot) to move this stuff out quicker so they don't have to pay to store it. Even things that 1 person bids on tell you that maybe it was priced too high, but it only needs one bid to make a sale (and don't forget the fine print about shipping prices - if you can get to Bridgewater NJ, go visit them in person to pick the item up).

It sickens me even more than the prices that some of these items up for auction and sale should have just been moved to the new ballpark and given a home there. I still say that when a family moves to a new home, they don't sell pictures of the kids, they bring them with them.

For Sale

I don't want to get on my Shea memorabilia soap box, but I'm looking through the auction site and there's a few things that should have been moved to Citi Field instead of being sold/auctioned to fans.

1. SHEA STADIUM AUCTION:1986 NL East Celebration Diamond Club Restaurant Framed Photo - this should be hanging somewhere inside Citi Field and not up for sale.


2. SHEA STADIUM AUCTION: 1988 N.L. East Division Champions Sign - this, along with its friends, belong on the wall at Citi Field.


3. SHEA STADIUM AUCTION: 2000 National League Champions Flag - I know one of these flies at Citi Field

Sorry Mr. Wilpon, but this constitutes treason!

Shea Warehouse part 2

I've promised a few people that I've e-mailed with and met that I'd have more about my visit to the MeiGray Shea Memorabilia warehouse from a few weeks ago.

Where do I begin?

This is the place that all the signs (ramp and escalator signs, section signs, directional signs, bathroom signs, some concession signs, and others), some concession carts, scoreboard lights, blue wall padding, box identification plaques, player lockers, a large collection of photos and yearbook covers, and so many other things from Shea Stadium ended up.

With a U-Haul, I could have taken home so much stuff, but nothing was cheap. A lot of it is up for auction on mets.com that you can see for yourself. It's amazing what that was taken out of Shea that's not coming over to the new ballpark.

I'll point out a few items that I found interesting (aside from the collections of signs that are in my slideshow).

• We have the part of the outfield wall marked "358". I did see a pile of wall paddings that were all sponsored (AIG, State Farm, etc.) sitting next to piles of dirty blue padding. very dirty (I may have bought a small section of padding, but it was so dirty I decided against it).
  
  
• There was a pile of what looked like on-deck circle logos, with this special one on top. I didn't think to look deeper down in the pile.
  
  
• You can't see it well on top of the big wedge of section signs, but they had what looked like some form of the retired numbers. It looked like the retired number circles cut into two pieces. That looks like part of the number 41 on top.
  
  
• I don't think I realized it then, but looking at photos, there was at least one foul poll and screen (separated).
• They had some of the carts that the vendors would use to sell scorecards and yearbooks when you walked into Shea.
  
  
• There were two whole rows of player lockers - back to back. I think they've sold some already. These didn't look that impressive. I think the beat writers should each get one to remind them of working at Shea. Not pictured was the "manager's" locker with a lifesize cutout of Willie Randolph.
  
  
• Could someone please help me out and tell me where these small neon signs were in the ballpark. - Thanks to a reader for pointing out that these neon signs came from the gate markers outside Shea (see the comments for this post) - these are the same poses that were on the exterior of the ballpark, but smaller (actually, the exterior ones are still there, for the parts of the exterior that are still there).
  
  
• These are part of about a half dozen boxes of photos that probably lived on the press level and mounted yearbook covers. I think some of this is available on the auction.
  
  
• These are a very small portion of the box identification plaques that were there. It was actually very organized together in groups and by color, and this was the exception.
  
  
• Anybody hungry?
  
  

You can see the full album on my webshots page or the slideshow on my first post on the subject.

One other note on the items themselves. Anything you buy (auction or direct, delivery or pickup), CLEAN IT. Not knocking it at all, think about where it came from and where it's been sitting.

Overall, I thought the items were very over priced, but they know there was a market. There still is a market on the auction block. Communication wasn't that good when they were getting the word out that items were for sale in September. I actually walked into their setup on the Loge concourse (I think it was right across from the Citi Field experience around section 11 & 13) before the final game and made my purchase there, not knowing that items were even up for sale. After the initial pickup at Shea in the very early days of demolition, there was very very little communication with everyone as they arranged delivery (to be fair, the person who came in to lead the effort left during that time). I didn't get called until January to arrange delivery of my items, and found it would be cheaper to rent a U-Haul and pick the items up myself.

For other notes on the items I purchased, see my posts "Signs of Shea" and "Shea Signs".

Shea Signs

Just an update on the signs I purchased...



They're big, clean, and in the corner of my bedroom.

The black rolled up thing in the front-bottom of the photos is actually this (photo taken from the Mets auction site):

Signs of Shea

As a followup to my post on my trip to the MeiGray Shea Warehouse, this is the big Upper Deck section sign sitting in my living room. There are some scratches and it's not exactly in mint condition. Each item I bought needs to be cleaned (as in wiped down with disinfectent or soap).

Shea Warehouse

Earlier today, I took a trip out to MeiGray's Shea Stadium warehouse in Bridgewater, NJ, to pick up the items I bought from them. I took a camera along with me. I'll write more about it later.



Update - the full album is available on Webshots.