Valuable Autographs Often Show up at Live Auctions
I did attend one very good auction awhile back. An antique dealer's gambling addiction got him in trouble, and the government ordered his $2 million dollar inventory auctioned off to the highest bidders. I added some nice ones to my collection that day at a very nice price: P.T. Barnum, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas Nast (he basically invented our image of Santa Clause), Henry Clay, Booker T. Washington, World War 1 Flying Ace Eddie Rickenbacker, Peter Cooper (invented jell-o and a ton of more important things), General George Marshall as Secretary of Defense, and some other good ones. If you get a chance to bid at one like I described, don't let it pass you by.
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Today, when most people think auctions, the next thought is eBay, but before the internet auctions were mostly "live auctions;" that is, with an auctioneer and an audience with paddles in their hands. The old comedy sketch about the fellow afraid to scratch his nose is a classic. I don't attend many auctions, but they are alive and well. In fact, many eBay sellers buy some of their inventory this way.
