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Founded | Amherst, New Hampshire, 1976 |
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Founder | Bob Eaton |
Headquarters | , United States of America |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Bob Eaton, Bobby Livingston |
Services | Auction House, Art valuation |
Website | www |
RR Auction is an auction house established in 1976 by Bob Eaton. The company headquarters is in Boston with a production office based in Amherst, New Hampshire. [1] The company is known for its monthly auctions of historical documents, manuscripts, autographs, artifacts, sports collectibles, spaceflight memorabilia, presidential items and more. [2] The auction house has developed a worldwide client base [1] and publishes monthly catalogs in print and online via issuu. [3]
In 1976, 19-year-old Bob Eaton, who recently graduated from Newton North High School, purchased, with help from his grandfather, $1,800 worth of sports memorabilia. [4] The memorabilia included a Babe Ruth baseball and Red Sox World Series programs. He then proceeded to sell them for ten times his original purchase price. Eaton continued to sell sports cards and signed memorabilia out of his basement afterwards. [1] In 1980, he decided to send out a mailing list of the items he had available for sale—thus founding the company in Newton Centre, Massachusetts. [5]
In the 1990s, Eaton moved to New Hampshire to sell his merchandise. [5] In 1995, RR Auction switched from retail sales to auctioning; Eaton settled in Amherst, New Hampshire, where the company maintains office to this day. [1] [5] At that time, the company was making a niche selling collectible autographs; later adding American history and pop culture-related items in the auctions. [6]
RR Auction launched the option for online bidding in 2004. [1] [7] This has contributed to the growth of the company over the years. In 2009, RR Auction brought in $8 million in annual revenue. [1] In 2010, RR Auction ventured into auctioning space-related items, beginning with a headset worn by astronaut Charlie Duke. [6] The company later became known for selling artifacts of spaceflight history. [8] In 2014, the company opened an auction gallery in a new 1,500 square-foot facility in Boston's North End community after expanding considerably after the launch of their website; the gallery is intended for displaying auction items, as well as for VIP benefits and live auctions. [1]
In 2018, after decades of selling historical documents, artifacts and autographs, RR auction went back to its roots, auctioning more than 650 sports-themed collectibles, in a strictly sports memorabilia auction set on June 14–21 of that year. [4] [9]
In June 2021, RR auction was hired by Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, to auction a seat in the capsule New Shepard, that went to space on July 20, 2021. [7]