Hello Rich,
I do not disagree with your statements, but let's be fair here: Heritage will only negotiate their fees on high value consignments. I haven't sold anything at auction in a long time, but I seriously doubt that they are interested in reducing their fees for any consigments under $10,000. Not too many sellers deal in this league. Anything below, they 'burn the candle' from both ends, keeping roughly 40% of the sales result, maybe even more these days.
IF the statement on the Missouri website website (in the description of their WAR OF THE WORLDS Quad) is correct, the one sold at Heritage last week was a reconsignment. The original buyer paid $38,000 for the poster, and now got roughly $15,000 back. Ouch.
From a buyer's end, what worries me more: IF the Missouri website is correct, and IF this was the same copy, it had 'color enhancement', meaning the poster was badly faded. IF this is true, and I have no way to say for sure, this is a MAJOR flaw, and there was not a word on this in the Heritage description. I only found this information on the Missouri website a day after the auction and now I feel glad I did not win that poster. With this uncertainty in mind, I would have NEVER bid on that one. As it is, I now feel glad I did not win it. Same thing for the German M poster they hat: I can't help the feeling that their Fine+ label might be a tad too close to Good in my book.
From a consignor's standpoint, the Missouri descriptions are usually very, very good. I have repeatedly won posters that looked way better than expected. On the other hand, I'm not so sure this strategy helps the seller, as potential buyers might shy away when they see a low condition label in the overview.
Be that as may, generally speaking, I have no problem to bid on a 'good to very good' item in Missouri (after reading the detailed descripion) but (with rare expections) I only bid in a Dallas auction when the condition is stated as Very Fine+ or better.
Just my 2 cents.
Helmut
www.filmposter.net (Where we have less than 0.1% returns on condition issues. And I do take pride in that.)
Gesendet: Samstag, 7. Dezember 2024 um 21:38
Von: "Rich Halegua MPB.auction" <[email protected]>
Betreff: [MOPO] Is it Better to Sell at Heritage or "that Other Place"?
exclaiming how much better any consignor would do selling through their
auction or selling through Heritage, and cited 2 major items that were
recently sold at his venue or at Heritage, or Propstore.
I say, while the two items noted 'may' have done slightly better for
consignors (possibly or even possibly not), I say that the auctioneer's
post was pure puffery, designed to focus on a very narrow window and
selection of items, to mislead actual sellers that would believe his words.
It's possible, not a certainty, that a consignor may have gotten more
for the 2 posters mentioned at the 'other auction', but not necessarily.
lets examine the British War of the Worlds quad poster.
That 'other auction' says:
"while the results were similar ($23,733 [in MO] vs $23,125 at Heritage,
the amounts the consignors received were ANYTHING but similar ($21,360
at eMoviePoster.com vs $15,725 at the other auction, a difference of
$5,635!)."
Hammer at HA was $18,500. If the consignor got a no fee agreement, they
got $18,500. The 'other auction' would have paid you more - yes, but the
difference is less than the $5635 mentioned.
In that case the difference in amount would be $2810. Even though that
'other guy' makes a hard statement that you would have only gotten
$15,775, which he could not know for sure, even though he makes his
statement with certainty. If you were able to get a negative consignor
fee (aka, sharing some of the BP), the difference may be negligable
But Okay, let's say the seller of the poster got some extra out of Missouri.
BUT
what if the same consignor also gave that 'other auction' the Mentor
Hubner Forbidden Planet concept illustration that they recently sold for
$5877.00?
How much would you have gotten, if you sold it at Heritage?
Well, we can state the difference here with absolute certainty: Way way
more, because HA sold that very item today in their entertainment
auction, as the "other auction's" buyer consigned it to Heritage himself
and the result was $30,000 (hammer at $24,000.). Even if the consignor
did not have a special fee deal in place, they get $21,600.00 for the
piece, or a profit of $15,723.00!
even if they did not have a special deal in place for the WOTW quad and
actually paid the full consignment rate and got only $15,775.00, they
would have made an astonishing $10,087.00 more for consigning the 2
items to Heritage, instead of sending them to Missouri.
So it's obvious, sending your consignments of top quality items to
Heritage instead of Missouri, while not always matching one-for-one, in
the long run contributes way more money to your bank account than it
does sending your money to an auction with far few bidders (Missouri
claims to have 100,000 or so registered members) vs the 2,000,000
registered at HA.com.
For my money, when asked the question "should you send your high quality
consignments to Heritage or to 'that other auction' " has a clear
answer: Heritage auctions, because you get more.
Don't be fooled by carnival barkers selling you a pig in a poke, go with
the best auction house in the USA: Heritage. Period.
and PS; The piece today sold to a 'real bidder'
Rich
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