Rich,
Well said and explained. This pretty much says it all, sad though some of
the conclusions may be.
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2005
16:21
Subject: Re: [MOPO] the auction houses
always get more $$$$$ (MY FOR SALE ITEMS)
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.
>
>???
>
>
>Visit the MoPo Mailing List
Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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