Hello again. The auction prep is coming along nicely but I still need more items to add to one of our main fundraisers this year. I have about 140 items so far (more if you count individual items that are in sets). I would like to get another 60 or so to finish things up, although if I'm right about how fast we may go this year, and the reduced post-auction effort that will be needed, I might go to 300 if we can get enough donors to fill out the roster and I don't think it will cause us to run too late in the evening. We'll see.

You can straight up donate your items to the club auction or you can consign them (club gets 10%). Currently, 80% are donated, 20% are consigned. Low book value (Nevada items only) so far is $14,560. I don't know how that compares to prior years (I'm working on getting prior stats for a lot of things).

The highest book value item (so far) is a Z4 Dunes $5 chip from the Alex Cilento collection that was recently acquired by David Sarles. David made a very large donation to the club auction and we thank him for his generosity, along with the other donors (I haven't been given permission to acknowledge the other donors yet, but will do so shortly once I get their permission to publish those who don't wish to remain anonymous).

Buyer's premium will be determined by several factors. It starts at the high of 20% for winners who bid online, are NOT affiliated with the CCA or any other affiliated clubs (more on that later), and pay with a credit card. The lowest premium will be 10% which is for CCA members who win by bidding live at the convention and pay cash (which is intentionally the same traditional low premium as previous years). There are 12 buyer premium levels total in that 10-20% range, depending on various factors. Sounds complicated but it really isn't (or won't be). The software I'm using should handle it all with ease, and adjustments will be made at time of invoicing/payment. If you are NOT a CCA member but want to get the lower CCA buyer's premium, you must become a member before the live bidding begins on the first item. Visit https://ccgtcc.com/membership to sign up today. It only takes $400 in hammer prices for you to pay for your membership (10% BP requires winning bids to be made live at the convention with payment made in cash at the show). All buyer premium details will be available in the auction description.

Shipping will be available for those of you who can't attend the convention but would still like to participate in the auction. A handling fee will be added to actual shipping charges. All shipped items will have tracking. Insurance will be a buyer option and quoted at the time of payment.

I expect to have the catalog online for review (just in case I goof up on anything) May 1st. Online bidding will begin June 1. And the live auction will take place at the convention (date and time TBD). All items will close in sequence with the auctioneer dropping the hammer with a traditional going, going, gone close. No soft close where last minute bids automatically add minutes to the timer. Proxy bidding will be allowed via online bidding only (or you can have a representative bid on your behalf from the floor with prior approval). Auctioneer(s) will not manually bid for anyone.

This is going to add a lot of F.U.N. (haha) and excitement to this annual function. We have 2 great auctioneers lined up to get you all revved up (Dick Bartley returns and Jerry Birl will be his partner for the first time). I'll be running the software (please don't glitch!).

As an added bonus... WE WILL BE LIVE SIMULCASTING THE AUCTION ONLINE, so all you remote bidders will be able to join the in-room fun from home.

Bidding is not limited to CCA members only. Literally ANYONE in the world who finds our auction will be able to bid. The auction is being hosted on the HiBid.com platform using AuctionFlex360 software which has great search capabilities, so people looking for any casino items or coins (we have some graded coins this year) will find us. Those with standing searches will automatically get notified of items in our auction that they are looking for.

Anyway, that's what's up from here at Auction Central. More later. SEND IN MORE ITEMS FOR THE AUCTION. Email me at auction@ccgtcc.com to work out details.

Thanks -- Barry