Thousands of pieces of sports and entertainment memorabilia from a Kelowna business are being auctioned off next weekend.
Dodds Auction & Appraisal Services in Vernon has been tasked with selling the collection of hockey cards, signed jerseys, sticks, figurines and a lot more on behalf of bailiffs who seized the merchandise from West Coast Authentics.
West Coast Authentics and owner Jason Bobbitt have been the subject of several lawsuits filed by creditors in recent years. On Feb. 9, a foreclosure order was issued for a Kelowna property partially owned by Bobbit.
The money raised from the memorabilia auction will go to one of his creditors.
“We work for the bailiffs. So, in turn we’re going to pay the bailiffs whatever and then they’ll pay out whoever the creditor is,” explains Bob Woodman of Dodds Auction.
He says this is one of the biggest sales, as far as the number of items up for grabs, that the auction house has even dealt with.
“I think that we have around 3,160 lots, or something like that. Which is the biggest number that we’ve ever had in a sale for us. But there’s probably 10,000 items because a lot of the lots have multiple items,” adds Woodman.
He says while Dodds can’t guarantee the authenticity of the items, some have fairly good provenance. “We have all the photographs of the actual, whether it was a player or a fighter or whoever, actually signing photos at West Coast Authentics. So, I think that we’re kind of (going) on the basis that probably most of this stuff is authentic.”
One of the most popular items has been a life-sized deadpool figurine. Someone has even contacted the auction house to ask if the figurine can be shipped to Toronto.
“There’s a lot of cool stuff,” says Woodman. “[A] Mike Tyson signed boxing glove. There’s [a] Bobby Hull framed jersey, signed framed jersey. He just died, so that might be a big one.”
While the memorabilia is on display at Dodds, the auction is happening online. Bidding will start closing, one lot at a time, at 8 a.m. on Saturday, February 25.
Everything is being auctioned ‘as is’ and there are no returns or refunds possible. Items not picked up March 1, 2023 will be considered abandoned.
