Over 1,200 rare and vintage toys are in an online auction ending Feb. 11-12 by SeriousToyz.com

Nearly 1,200 lots of rare, vintage toys, many of them mint in the box and highly desirable pieces, will be sold in a phone, mail, Internet and catalog auction already online at SeriousToyz.com. The sale will conclude Feb. 11-12. It is an absolute auction (everything sells, regardless of price) and many lots have starting bids of just $5 and $10.

   Two lots in particular are expected to generate intense bidder interest. One is an 1870 patent model horse and carriage tin toy, including paperwork (a half-tag indicating when the toy was received, and a patent tag dated July 26, 1870). The other is a rare 1919 A.C. Gilbert & Co. ‘New Wheel’ building toy, mint in the box, also with paperwork.

   Both toys will carry suggested opening bids of $1,500, according to Tom Miano, owner of SeriousToyz.com. He added the auction was delayed a bit from its planned Fall 2010 schedule date. “It took us a little while to get our ducks in a row on this one,” he mused, “but in the end, everything lined up beautifully and we’re looking forward to quite possibly our best sale ever.”

   More than 40 consignors, including several 30- and 40-year lifetime collections, were brought together in an auction that offers something for just about every toy collector and aficionado. Featured are a large number of mint, store stock and factory-sealed items, plus in-depth offerings across dozens of collecting categories. A sampling of what’s for sale follows:

Hundreds of highly collectible die-cast toys, to include Matchbox, Hot Wheels, Corgi, Dinky and more, both boxed and loose, with many scarce and rare variations.

Dozens of sought-after and coveted character toys from the 1950s and ‘60s, many in their original packaging and many factory sealed. A trove for nostalgic baby boomers.
Over 70 beautiful vintage lunch boxes, with many highly desirable issues.

A large group of tin wind-up and battery-operated toys from the early 1900s through the 1950s, including many classic characters.

Scores of pressed steel, tin, cast-iron and plastic vehicle toys, to include cars, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, trains, ships and more.

Smaller groups of outstanding pieces, in categories such as sand pails, Halloween, Pez, lead soldiers, World’s Fair, tin, early pinbacks, rings, premiums, classic ‘60s toys and more.

Oversized, multiple-view photos of each lot, in full color and with detailed descriptions for each one, may be viewed at www.SeriousToyz.com. “We pride ourselves in holding auctions that offer quality items in all price ranges, so everyone can participate,” Mr. Miano said. “Our auction rules are set up so that everyone has an equal chance to get what they’re bidding on.”

Bidders have several ways to participate. They can log on to the SeriousToyz website, at www.SeriousToyz.com, and bid online. Or, they can mail in a bid (to #1 Baltic Place, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520), or phone in their bid, toll-free (at 1-866-653-8699, international 914-271-8669). A full-color catalog ($10 postpaid, $15 international) is now available. Call to order one.

There are no “sudden death” endings in SeriousToyz.com auctions. Each lot has its own computerized “clock,” and items will close individually when 60 minutes pass without a bid. As such, there is no advantage or need for participants to wait for the last minute to place a bid, especially if they are bidding by phone. Bidding before closing days and when using ceiling bids are both advised. Pre-registration with a valid credit card is required before a bid can be placed.

SeriousToyz.com was launched in 1995 by Tom and Patti Miano, dedicated toy collectors who turned their passion into a thriving business. For 15+ years, they’ve sold thousands of items to discriminating collectors worldwide. SeriousToyz  has earned numerous Toy Shop Magazine customer service awards, and is widely regarded as the premier old toy auction house in the U.S.

SeriousToyz is a regular contributor to vintage toy price guides, such as Toys & Prices and O’Brian’s Collecting Toys. SeriousToyz is always accepting quality consignments for future sales. To consign a single toy or a whole collection, you may call Tom Miano toll-free, at (866) 653-8699; or you can e-mail him at Tom@SeriousToyz.com.

For more information about SeriousToyz.com and the current auction ending Feb. 11-12, please log on to www.SeriousToyz.com

New companies to bid for 3G spectrum

 Predictably, the 3G auctions have attracted only existing 2G players -- Aircel, Bharti, Etisalat, Idea, Reliance Telecom, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone and Videocon Telecom -- with not a single new entrant, global or Indian, in the list.

TOI was the first to predict, way back on August 12, 2008, that new players would probably stay away from the 3G auctions after the auctions were first announced. Even after the guidelines were revised for the 2010 auctions, the barriers for new entrants remained unchanged. The absence of global bidders is likely to ensure that the bidding will be conservative, and probably lower than the ambitious Rs 40,000 crore revenue target first announced by telecom minister A Raja.

The BWA list has four new players -- Augere, Tikona Wireless, Infotel Broadband Services and Qualcomm -- while Spice is making a comeback into the telecom space. Infotel belongs to Anant Nahatta, the son of HFCL owner Mahendra Nahatta.
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It could not be confirmed if these are all pan-India applications or if players will eventually bid only for select circles. DoT is meeting at 11.30am on Saturday, March 20 to screen the applications. "We will check to see if the applicants meet the licence criteria. For example, no company can hold more than 10% in another applicant company," a senior DoT official told TOI.

The simultaneous, ascending auction designed by auctioneer N M Rothschild enables bidders to bid from their own computer screen with the value of the highest bid and number of bidders in each round for each circle visible to each player, the DoT official added.

However, he declined to reveal what the revenue expectations from these auctions were. "We expect it to be a good auction on the back of robust demand," he said. However, the government recently said it expects to earn at least Rs 30,000 crore from the auction proceeds.
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The reserve price for pan-India 3G spectrum is Rs 3,500 crore and the bids could go anywhere in the range of Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 crore for each pan-India slot. For BWA auctions, the reserve price is Rs 1,750 crore with bids expected in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 crore per pan-India slot.

However, data revenue growth in the near term is not expected to be robust enough to justify extravagant bidding, as India is primarily a voice market with over 97% of the market still vanilla voice with rock bottom ARPUs (average revenue per user) of less than Rs 200.

"Unrealistically high 3G bids were witnessed in the UK, France and Germany in early 2000 because large tranches of spectrum were on offer and data growth was expected to take off. However, data has been slow to grow globally. The US is the largest data market today and this growth has only been fuelled lately after the launch of the Apple iPhone," said a telecom expert.

The 3G auctions are scheduled to begin on April 9. The government is auctioning three 2x5 MHz slots in the 2.1 GHz band in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai) and Kerala (all A Category circles), Haryana, UP East, UP West, Rajasthan, MP (all B Category circles), Orissa, Assam and North East (all C Category circles). Four slots are on offer in Punjab (Category A), West Bengal (Category B), and Himachal and Bihar (Category C).

BWA auctions for two pan-India slots of 20 MHz each will begin after the close of the 3G auctions. BWA is used for high-speed data and video applications. 3G is also a technology that is preferred for data - essentially for triple play or voice, data and video which is far superior to the 2G networks used in India.

Source: http://www.prlog.org/10585068-new-companies-to-bid-for-3g-spectrum.html