Major Announcement for Bullet and Cartridge Collectors

[Jim T]

This is the big week 

I know I'll see several of you at the auction Friday and/or Saturday.  I'll be wearing a disguise so emike does not know what I'm bidding on. 

[Roy A]

Any idea what time things will wind down Friday?

[Garret]

Just curious, was Dean able to display every single item in his extensive collection?

[Jim T]

Not sure what you mean by everything being displayed.  Obviously much of it is illustrated in his many books and has been set up at relic shows from time to time.  The 900 lots of his stuff are on display at Reddings now.  But Dean still has plenty of stuff from his collection that was never publicly displayed...the odd and misc stuff we all accumulate in our collections such as pulled, carved, melted examples of all the bullets.

[Garret]

No, I meant did he have a relic room big enough to display it all.  That's one heck of a collection. 

[Jim T]

Dean has a relic room.  But his entire collection was too large to be displayable.  Even with all the major stuff in the auction, there are still boxes of stuff around here.  As I said above, mostly odd collections of melted, pulled, carved bullets.  Some groups from very specific locations.  And boxes of relics from locations where he used to relic hunt.  All common stuff for the most part.  Now he has begun collecting ammo from all other periods...yikes.

[Daveslem]

I've got my bids in on some sweet items. This may be the last time we'll see a collection like this being sold. I wish I had about $30K to spend.

[Jim T]

It is fairly amazing to see this variety of ammunition spread out on the tables across the auction house.  I was texting emike pics of the artillery yesterday just to harass him...some big shells and cool weapons (not from Dean) in the auction also.  I think the largest is a 15" ball.  Will be back over there again soon.

[Roy A]

I'll be heading up to Gettysburg in an hour, hope to catch some of the auction tonight. Will hopefully be broke after tomorrow!

[Jim T]

Most stuff went very cheap today.  Any of you that think this stuff will cost too much should call Reddings in the morning (7:00 - 8:30am) and place some bids.  Even the "expensive" items were going for a song.  I am now the owner of the Shaler cartridge...for $100s instead of $1000s.  The non-dug .52 cal. Sharps pattern Gardiner explosive also sold in the $100s instead of the $1000s.

Again, this may be a unique chance to get some great specimens...call Reddings and place some bids in the morning...you may be surprised at what you can get.

[Roy A]

Hey Jim, do you remember how the Harpers Ferry trial pieces did? Got stuck in traffic and got there too late.

[relicrunner]

Can't wait to see a detailed report of what you bought Mike........especially the artillery,

[Bryan]

I did the phone biding.   When they called me it was a bad connection and he couldn't hear my bids
so I didn't get anything.

[emike123]

The artillery I bought was fairly unexciting, but the bullets were fabulous.  I probably got 30 or so including many I had never seen before outside Dean's books.  It will be a while before I can get pictures posted, but of course pictures of all of them are shown on the Reddings website and in RBTR IV.  A few are upgrades or doubles and so the bullet section of the commercial part of the website will be seeing some activity in the coming couple weeks which is overdue (including a super rare CS bullet I just listed there).

The auction was great and it was good to see 4 forum members and some other friendly faces.  I was really happy I went despite it being a big challenge logistically.  Prices realized were like a random number generator.  If Gettysburg was in the description, some phone bidder from Colorado basically put an unlimited price on it and it went sky high if anyone dared bid against him.  Same on the metallic cartridges and more common bullets -- Spencers we'd pay $15 for were realizing $75 for example.  Meanwhile some of the rarer items went for low prices.  For example, I acquired the Maynard mould on page 188 and the half bullet mould at the bottom of page 205 of RBTR4 for $35ea.  (Please don't hate me Dean)  Not everything I bought was that crazy cheap as there were some things like the little Tennessee rifle bullets that I fought hard for and won 3 of the 4 I went after.

Hopefully, the stuff that went for multiples of a reasonable person's value offset the other stuff that went for a fraction of value and Dean made out ok in total.  He seemed philosophically content to me when we talked after the auction, but he blew me off for dinner (to dine with his wife) so 6pdr (who got some nice pieces) and I ate a nice dinner alone and Jim (who also got several rare things) went back to work.

[Roy A]

Mike,

Was that you sitting with Jim near the front? If so, I was 2 rows behind you guys. Never got to say hi to anyone since it was non-stop bidding and I didn't want to be "that guy" talking up front.

As you mentioned, anything with Gettysburg in it went for dumb money. I was trying to get a lot of 5 bullets and one was a Gettysburg find and I ended up going way over my limit before I gave up to the phone bidder.  Those 2 Gettysburg Nesler slugs and the 5 .69's with one from Gettysburg were two that stand out for me as going crazy just because of the provenance.

I faired well with my limited limit of spending (just bought a new house). Got a Dance and Park/Tom Green for what I feel is a great price as well as a Whitworth for below what the normally sell for. The other few I got for what I feel was a fair price.