Howard and Thomas is a boutique regional auction house serving the Louisville, KY area focusing on Fine Arts, Furniture, Decorations and Sports Memorabilia. Founded in 2017, H&T is the culmination of P.A. , Barry and Jody’s combined 55 years of experience in the Art, Antique and Memorabilia business. We have seen, handled and valued countless objects from all over the antiques and art market. Our expertise in the Sports Memorabilia market is unparalleled, drawing on experience as professional appraisers, Barry and P.A. have worked with some of the most prestigious memorabilia collections in the United States.

Howard & Thomas is founded on the basic principle of white-glove service no matter the value of the object, we strive to provide quality objects and personal customer service.

We sell objects in the following types of sales:

• Howard and Thomas Curated
• Sales of finer objects from estates and private collectors, the perfect opportunity to find the perfect object for your collection. Provenance driven and built around single-owner collections.
• Curated sales will occur at least three times a year
• H&T Sports
• Twice monthly sales of cards, memorabilia and sports collectibles focusing on what is good about collecting sports memorabilia, offering a wide assortment of merchandise in a manner that encourages collectors to build collections without any attitude.
• Focus on graded cards with ungraded cards as well so we can offer something for everyone, with every price bracket represented in every sale.

We are always looking for quality consignments. To schedule an appointment for an in-house examination of large groups of property, please email us and Barry or P.A. will be happy to come out and have a look. The best way to work with single objects (or just a few objects) is to email an image of the object or objects to [email protected]

Buying is simple…follow these steps:

• Register to bid at www.liveauctioneers.com (click the “Join” button)
• We require a valid credit card to be on file at LiveAuctioneers to be approved to bid in our auctions
• Inspect the property you are interested in bidding on
• Come see us at our gallery
• Request a condition report if you cannot come in
• Bid online
• Make payment through LiveAuctioneers
• Arrange for shipping of the property from our gallery

All of our auctions take place online at LiveAuctioneers (www.liveauctioneers.com). Register to bid on LiveAuctioneers and place your bids, we require a valid credit card on file with LiveAuctioneers to approve your request to bid. We do not store this information. We are available to help with registration if you are having any issues, please contact us.

Unless you are local (or picking up) and want to pay with a check, all payments go through LiveAuctioneers LivePayments platform (it’s easier this way, trust us!). LivePayments accepts all major credit cards and if you want to avoid the credit card fees, they accept ACH payments.

Whether you are new to purchasing at auction or a seasoned bidder, please take the time to read our Terms and Conditions of Sale. It’s not the most exciting reading material out there, but it is very important that you understand what you are agreeing to when you place a bid with us. Please click here to read them: TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Online Catalog
We publish an online catalog for every auction on LiveAuctioneers. Auction catalogs will provide everything you’ll need to be a well-informed bidder with detailed descriptions, condition statements, and multiple high-quality images detailing each lot offered for sale.

Condition Reports
Every lot offered in our auctions has been examined for condition issues. All lot descriptions in our auction catalogs contain some sort of Condition Report. Please remember, although we do our best to note and photograph every explicit condition issue, assessing the condition is often subjective. Please make sure you are comfortable with the condition before you bid. Feel free to contact us for additional photos or to answer specific questions or concerns. If possible, see the item in person. All items are sold as-is.

Auction Previews
COVID screwed everything up, but we learned from it! We used to have scheduled preview times, wine and cheese type affairs, it did not work with anyone’s schedule! We learned during the pandemic that serious buyers want to come in on their own, inspect items on their own time frame without the bother of a social event. If you want to come by and see an object you see at one of our auctions, drop us an email at [email protected] and we will set up a time for you to come in. This way you can ask all the questions without distraction and spend some time with us…if you want a libation, that can probably be arranged.

The Buyer’s Premium is a percentage additional charge on the hammer price of the lot that must be paid by the winner. It keeps the lights on and lets us bring you incredible stuff!

For Furniture, Decorative Arts, and Fine Art Auctions, Howard and Thomas charge twenty-five percent (25%) Buyers Premium on all lots.

For H&T Sports Auctions, Howard and Thomas charge 22% Buyer’s premium.

We ship the items from H&T Sports auctions in-house, each card will have a $5 shipping fee, we will ship sold H&T Sports auction items on Tuesdays and Fridays….

For our Curated auctions, it’s not so simple. We do not provide in-house shipping. Items need to be shipped via the UPS Store or through a UShip shipper. We try to be as helpful as possible in this process, so do not be bashful and reach out to us at [email protected]. We do have relationships with several route shippers that cross the country all the time, we will help to get quotes from them.

Here are some shipping recommendations:

• UPS Store, Broadway: [email protected]
• uShip: https://www.uship.com/

All property can be picked up at our warehouse (945 East Breckinridge St, Louisville, KY 40204) by appointment or during the designated pick-up times noted on your invoice. When picking up your items, please come prepared with boxes and packaging if necessary.

Unless specific arrangements have been made with us, all property purchased in a sale must be picked up within ten (10) business days after the sale closes.

If you do not pick up (or arrange for a pick up) of your items, we will charge a $25 service fee on the 11th business day after the sale and an additional charge of $5 per day after that. These fees are accrued without consideration of the lot size or value… If you think these will be a problem, give us a call, we will work with you to get your items to you as quickly as you can arrange shipping.

Our warehouse is located at 945 East Breckinridge St, Louisville, KY 40204 (Use that address for GPS!) and pull all the way to the back… We are in Alladins Cave!

We are usually at the warehouse from 10-6, Monday-Friday. We are often out and about looking at property, so it’s always safest to drop us an email at [email protected] to set up an appointment.

Yes we do! We conduct appraisals for

• Insurance purposes
• Estate tax purposes
• Pre-estate planning
• Equitable distribution
• Tax-deductible donations

But there are some things to know before you email us at [email protected] :

• We take appraisals very seriously. We only produce USPAP compliant appraisals, we cannot give you a “quick opinion of value”, it takes time to do this correctly.
• We are what you call “Generalists”; we have seen and appraised thousands of objects for clients all over the world.
• We have specific expertise in Furniture, Fine Art, Silver, Decorative Arts, Sports Memorabilia, and Wine and Spirits.
• Single object appraisals are $450
• For multiple objects, the rate is $250 per hour for time spent in house inspecting objects; we reserve the right to charge $100 per hour for research time outside the house if there are complex situations or objects that require significant research to correctly appraise…we will never charge you without approval

Please give us a call to discuss your appraisal needs in detail, we want to make sure that you get the services that you need.

Collection Management:

We offer clients consultation services for estates or collections that don’t require a formal appraisal. Often clients hire us to do a walk-through which helps with both family division of property and gives the client a sense of the current market value of the estate or collection. If the intent is to sell the items, we do not charge for this service.

Acquisitions and Private Treaty Sales:

We routinely consult with clients to acquire objects to add to their collections that are not necessarily available in our auctions. We maintain a wide array of professional relationships to help clients find works in the retail, secondary and private markets.