Michael
though it is true that auction houses do get higher prices on many
items than you could get yourself... from a dealer perspective.. it
just isnt true.
This is a subject that I have had numerous discussions with people
from Heritage, Sotheby's, Lowery's and others and the reality is that
in each auction there is a select group of items that sell for more
than they might otherwise. This is due to a number of factors from
the particular day the item is being sold, to the particular audience
that sees it to the economy to available monies in the bidder's hands
at a particular moment.. These are just some of the factors for an
item to achieve a very high price, you can be sure there are many others.
But once you get beyond that select group of items.. the reality is
that about 5% sell for above value in a major auction... about 30%
sell for the correct value and that the large part of the balance of
the items really sell for considerably less than real value or don't
sell at all (which is like the kiss of death for that item. You may
never sell an item for it's value after it went unsold in a public
forum) . Ben Samuels of Heritage and I had a conversation about this
very subject at the san Diego comicon back in July and he was in
total agreement with me.
As a dealer myself, it is difficult for an auction to please me with
sales of my property. But I am in a situation of selling for a
living, most people are not and while an auction house has little
benefit for me.. for the average collector or owner (someone who
didnt collect and the item fell into their hands), you dont have the
opportunity to offer your items direct to a collector who will pay
the best price for a particular item, and that is why Dave Lieberman
can get on to MoPo and offer to buy a Forbidden Planet one sheet for
a price that some think low and that others are happy to sell for.
dave has a customer.. most of you do not.
So while you can successfully consign a Frankenstein 1sheet to
Heritage.. if you consigned your entire collection... in all
likelihood, you would not feel your entire collection achieved it's
true value in an auction where everything must be sold, even though
you can tell all your friends you got that great price on Frankenstein.
Why does Bruce do so well and why can he say he can get you a better
price than your own net if you tried to sell the item yourself? because he has:
A) a tremendous client list that even guys like myself do not have
B) a reputation with the intelligentsia that most of us have been
unable to cultivate, but let us not forget he did get to keep his
client list from when he did auctions for Christies, which gave him a
unique access to this group of people
C) very simply the best operation in the poster business
so when he sells a poster for $2500 that you could have gotten
$1500.. the reality is that you achieved a greater value ($1750)
without having to pay any listing fees, pack any packages or even
rel;ist the item multiple times to properly find a buyer. The fact
that he can do this continuously is a testament to the value of his
work for the past 20 years
Also, let us not forget that when you list an item on eBay, that you
do not have his reputation or client list and therefore when you list
the item for $50 and Heritage gets $100, it is because the buyers are
people who you will never ever get a shot at as they in an a
incredibly large number, only buy their posters from Bruce or
Heritage or whomever.. and will never spend any money with a person
who to them is an unknown quantity, or who may reveal their idenity
which is a major factor to well known people & collectors. So to
Bruce's buyers that WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL poster is only as easy
to get as many times as Bruce has one in his auction, while it may
otherwise be listed by any number of sellers weekly on eBay.. whose
auctions will never be seen by the bidder at Heritage or Bruce and
that is a major conundrum to most sellers. Bruce gets $100.. and you get $15
Finally another reason for you is that while Bruce or Heritage
literally compete with no one.. You are competing with every single
seller on eBay where we unfortunately have the face the fact that
eBay is a wholesale flea market open 24 hours a day in every country
and the prices are just so low for such a great majority of items
that you must be a Bruce or Heritage to be able to use your
reputation & ability to snag the great items for your auction,
and to muscle everyone else out of your way in sales
Personally I think the general price structure of all hobbies has
been decimated by eBay. Forbidden Planet will always get a good price
because no matter what it's price.. there will always be more people
wanting to own it than willing to sell it. But what about a poster
like Barbarella or the Sting? These films aren't shown that much on
TV.. so interest in them will diminish over the years and as such the
buyers will in all likelihood be smaller than the available supply
due to ebay where they are always for sale and the ability to get
$300-400 for the Sting for instance has clearly disappeared as they
Sting sells mostly in the $100-150 range now because ebay has created
a supply of them greater than the interest.. But I guarantee that
Bruce will still get a better price than that.
Rich=============================
At 08:29 AM 9/25/05, Michael B wrote:
heritage house will sell tonight a beautiful half sheet of THE
WARRIOR AND THE SLAVE GIRL. it is a rare title, with awesome graphics.
as of this writing, the cost of that poster is more than the
BUY-IT-NOW price i have of the insert i have listed presently on
ebay. my link to that title:
<http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7548992023&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7548992023&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1
i am not a dealer, but in the course of collecting, i do come across
some stuff that i put on ebay. for example, i just got 3 bundles of
awesome pieces on a fluke, which i listed. my prices are a
bargain!!!! we have always known that heritage and bruce h. always
get more. I buy from them both with total confidence.
last week, for example, i sold the half sheet of WHITE CLIFFS OF
DOVER on ebay for 52.00. i purchased the beautiful insert of this
title from bruce about 4 years ago, and paid about 80.00. and, i
think 80.00 was a great price. (i sniped it)
I have other listings at great prices............with BUY-IT-NOW prices:
<http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZdialmbbmbbQQhtZ-1>http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZdialmbbmbbQQhtZ-1
I am writing this to start a discussion as to the reality that the
auction houses get more. Bruce has always said that if you send him
your posters........he will likely be able to get you a "net" amount
which is higher than you would get on ebay.
???
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