lou_fine

Soon after bob storm had a 3.0 go for 36 k I believe. This book is so undervalued still imo it makes my head spin. 3rd most impt bat book imo. Well, maybe old Bob will give it a bigger than usual bump in his price guide this year with these record setting sales that took place last year. I am still waiting for him to put Cap 3 ahead of Cap 2 in terms of valuation. I guess he did make a "bold move" in last year's guide by bumping up the bottom 4 grade condition levels for Cap 3 up to the same values as Cap 2. I guess we have less than a week now to see what he is going to do in term's of this year's price guide.

WOW indeed ! Thx for keeping it front and center Yes, looks like it was able to come along and beat out this 'Tec 38 that sold through CC in the March of 2017 by a few thousand dollars: https://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=676931 Now, that one there was a double WOWZA!!!

Way to go Peter!! Absolutely fabulous book, big congrats! +1 Yes, definite congrats here as you can't really beat a pre-Robin 'Tec that's a pedigree with nice white pages to boot.

Well, it definitely can't be for the covers as this looks like another year with just absolutely horrid looking covers from Overstreet. Any opinions here as to which cover version you will be picking up for this year?

Not sure what you are trying to say here as all auction houses generally uses their own standardized bid increments, including both Heritage and CC. It should be obvious to everybody what the final realized price for a book on Heritage is because this price including the BP is shown not only at the end of the auction, but throughout the entire auction process because every single bid on a book also provides the bidder with a calculated total which includes the BP. Since both CC and CL has no Buyer's Premium, there is no additional line where they add in a separate line item for the BP into the final invoice.

This really shouldn't be that much of a shock since this was already posted and talked about on the boards here back on February 1st: https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/428211-cgc-will-open-an-office-in-london-in-april/ What's even less of a shock is that the office is probably still not open even though its original target date was for April 2018. I was actually there a couple of weeks ago and spoke to a real nice young gentleman there. He said that the office was not yet opened, but that CGC was hoping to have it opened by the end of the month (highly doubtful from my point of view). Although he seem to know about banknotes and autographs, he was really curious and fascinated as to why there would be an interest to grade comic books. Spinks seems like one of those old crusty high brow places for the well to do from the appearance of their offices, and probably more so considering that they've been around and doing business since 1666. Although I mentioned to him about some of the key books from the GA and the recent increased interest of the comic books due to the movies and TV shows, I only realized afterwards that he probably did have a point. Especially in light of the fact, that probably well over 95% of the books graded by CGC are MA books fresh off the newsstand and really doesn't have any true collectible value on their own, except for the fact that they've been graded.

My take on the situation for what it's worth is that unlike most of the boardie's here, Jon was one of the early true collectors who was passionate about the comic books themselves and never really got into it for the money. Well, in those days nobody would ever dream that the books would be going for what they are going for in today's red hot marketplace. Heck, although I always used to look at the Overstreet guide to rationalize to myself (and later to my better half) all those decades ago that my books would actually be worth money one day, I never really actually believe it. Guess I must have been lucky to fall passionately in love with this hobby because look at where we are today. Remember that Jon is probably one of the most passionate collectors out there in this hobby as evident from reading so many of his articles in the pages of CBM back in the day. From his recent interviews about selling his collection, I got the impression that he had reached a point where he was at peace in his mind with disposing of his collection and passing the books onto the next generation of collectors. Like taking off a bandage, I think he probably found it much easier to do it in one quick shot as opposed to prolonging the agony and spreading it out over a few years, even though that would have made the most sense from a strict financial point of view. All I know for sure is that we as collectors should all thank Jon for being such an excellent caretaker and safeguarding these books over the decades and then giving us the opportunity to obtain some of them for our own personal collections.

I'm not sure if I'm following you here, but Heritage is happy to spread a consignment out over multiple auctions, with all books consigned getting the same terms however many auctions it may take before they're sold. Again, though, it may depend on the books and the negotiating skills of the consignor.  Hate to break the bad news to both of you, but the majority of us here (at least I do) do not have collections that are even anywhere close to the same ball park as Jon Berk's or John Veryzl's collections. Without a doubt, those guys can call the shots on when and how they would want their collection to be auctioned off. Although I may have a small handful of books that might hopefully be Signature Auction worthy if I am lucky, the large majority of my collection would most probably be relegated to the back pages of the Heritage catalogue or be pushed off to one of their lower profile Sunday auctions. Strongly doubt that I would be calling the shots and having much say here when it comes to Heritage.

+1 Same here although the info that I get right on these boards here makes all of the market reports dated and rather irrelevant. These market reports used to be probably my favorite part of the guide back in the day and the summary report by Overstreet used to be the first thing I turned to. Definitely not so much anymore as I finally managed to trudge my way through to the last report from the boys at Metro just last week. Figured I better finished them before this year's edition of the guide comes out in about 10 days from now.

I was rather surprised that they have been jacking up the prices the past 2 years for some of the HTF books by a much bigger percentage in the lower grades than they have in the higher grades. Looks like Overstreet is on the right path for these HTF books that fetches huge dollars in low grades and even in entry level grades as they simply never show up in the marketplace in anything close to high grade.

You seem to be placing far too much importance to the Heritage hammer price when you should really be focusing on the final realized price which would already include the Buyer's Premium. The HA hammer price is completely irrelevant in the marketplace except to the seller since both the BP and the SP would be calculated based upon the hammer price. All Heritage auction results and sales are based upon the final price inclusive of BP and these are the previous sales dollar amount that dealers, Overstreet, GPA, etc. would be working with. Nobody pays any attention to the HA hammer price because it is only an interim number that doesn't really represent anything in the marketplace.

Boy, was I ever excited and jumping for joy when I saw your message here. Couldn't wait to contact Barry Sandoval only to be told that he was not available after they had asked me for my name. Sharp as a needle, I decided to mention your name and presto, just like that..............Barry was all of a sudden available and I was patched right through to him. Maybe I should think about changing my name or something. Unfortunately, after a couple of minutes of friendly conversation, I somehow got the distinct impression that Barry was starting to nod off after I had mentioned my minty fresh right off the newsstand copies of Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters and my Spawn 1 which I had been carefully saving for the past 30 odd years. He did seem to wake up instantly when I mentioned my high grade copy of X-Men #1 to him and he confirmed that Heritage would indeed be interested in auctioning off that book for me. When I mentioned that i hoped the bidders would be as enthusiastic with the Jim Lee cover to cover artwork as I had been, the line suddenly went dead. Upon calling right back, I was then told that Barry would be out of the office for the rest of the summer convention season..............go figure that!!!

Dan; I believe you are still getting confused between the Heritage hammer price and the reported final cash sale price. If we go back to the Heritage $10K hammer price, the final cash price paid is $12K which is the price that is captured in Overstreet/GPA and also the one that is reported in all of the comic related media hype. Now, if CC or CL also gets this same price for the book in their auctions, the hammer price and the final sale price are exactly the same at $12K since both of these auction houses do not have a buyer's premium. So, this same book would than be reported with a final cash sale price of $12K for all 3 auction houses, and yet the consignor would receive a net amount of $10,800 (i.e. $12,000 less the $1,200 SP), and as you correctly stated a final net of only $8,500 from Heritage if we assume the standard auction fees without any big customer discounts. Your calculation of a net of $9,000 for CC and CL is not correct because the final cash price for the book is in fact $12,000 and not the $10,000 Heritage hammer price. This $10K hammer price is only an interim placeholder that is seen only during the actual Heritage bidding process and is not seen by the general collecting base as its gone once the hammer hits.

That mat be true with some stuff but I have certainly had a different experience with some of the items I have offered through Comic Connect. Richard; Are you also saying that ComicConnect is in some cases charging you more than 10% of the final cash price for their auction fees or are you saying that it sometimes amounts to less than 10% of the final cash price?

I don't see how this could possibly be true, Andy. I have made big consignments to all of them and I haven't been able to get any better than +5% from Heritage, which has translated to Heritage getting 14.5% of the final cash price. Richard; Are you saying that the total auction fees (both BP and SP) charged to you by Heritage are sometimes as low as 14.5% of the final cash price, yet it would be roughly 35% for regular consignors who are not entitled to any discounts? If that is indeed the case, then I assume Heritage must be giving a substantial portion of the now 20% buyer's premium back to you, along with some kind of discount on the seller's premium. Either that or some combination of both in order to get it all the way back down to only 14.5% of the final cash price.

Hi Richard You are referring to the combined buyer's premium (20%) plus the seller's premium (normally 15%) = 35%? Right? Thanks In actual theory, that would not be mathematically correct since I believe that Heritage bases all of their auction fee calculations against the hammer price and not the final realized price. So, if you go back to my previous example from above with a hammer price of $10K and a final realized price of $12K, O is 100% correct when he states that the total auction fees would amount to roughly 29.2% of the final realized price. Since the consignor would receive only $8,500 out of the $12,000 final realized price, this equates to total standard Heritage auction fees of 29.17% versus only the standard 10% charged by CC and CL. Dan: Although the buyer is indeed paying the buyer's premium, the consignor in actual fact also gets tagged for this amount relative to the final price since they will not receive it as it is also taken by Heritage along with the seller's premium.

Actually, probably a low price considering that a X-Men with not only the first appearance of Kitty Pride and also Emma Frost, but also the beginning of the Dark Phoenix saga should in theory be worth a lot more than a no-name non-key Iron Man 30 in equivalent condition: https://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=689571&title=IRONMAN Maybe the consignor of the Iron Man 30 is the same seller here and hoping to hit another grand slam home run with his book here.

I believe you are missing the point that the Heritage final realized prices that we see includes both the Buyer's Premium plus the Seller's Premium in there. So for example, if a particular book hammers for $10,000 then this means the listed realized price for the book will actually be $12,000 (i.e. $10K hammer price + 20% BP). I believe what the seller will get in the end is only $8,500 (i.e. the $10K hammer price less the standard 15% SP). If the seller is lucky and has the right books, they might be able to get this SP down to something like 10% which means they will see $9K out of the total $12K sale. So, in a sense, the seller is indeed paying for the buyer's premium in a Heritage auction when it's all said and done. If this same book sells on CC or CL for the same $12K finally realized price, then the seller would be pocketing $10,800 for this book (i.e. $12K realized price less the standard 10% SP). With the CC and CL auctions as far as I know, there is only a Seller's Premium, but no hidden Buyer's Premium as the hammer price is the final price. Hope this little bit of math helps to clarify everything for you.

Because they don't "just give it to you". You need to hit a very large minimum dollar submission every year to qualify for this type of discount. I help him with hitting that minimum, he helps me with reduced fees. If I tried to get that break on my own they would tell me to pound sand. Well, now this is a completely different scenario then and almost like comparing apples and oranges. So, unless you are a big time collector and ongoing consignor like Tim who deals in high 5-figure books, other BSD's who deals in 6-figure books, or hook up with one of these guys, you really are back to your hopeful 25% to 35% fees versus your standard 10% fees for both CC and CL. Sounds to me that if you are a collector sitting on say, $1M or $2M worth of vintage books in your collection, you will most likely have to sell it all in one or two shots on their terms if you want to get the Heritage fees back down to a reasonable level. Now, if you wanted to dispose of your collection on your own terms over an extended number of years, then you are most probably out of luck if you go with Heritage. Sounds to me like a long term collector would still be better off if they didn't want to cash it all out in one shot, and simply go with either CC or CL and parcel out their collection at their own desired pace. Especially since any additional monies they might have gain from the higher profile and longer reach of the immediate Heritage listings would most likely not make up for the fact that your better books would hopefully increase enough in value over the years to make up any difference by the time you do decide to sell them.

This. I consign through a friend and the Heritage fees end up nowhere close to those numbers. For what I actually pay they are a better option than Clink or CC. That's a surprise and is certainly good to know. Sounds as though Heritage will than give almost all of the now 20% BP plus a good chunk of their standard 15% SP back to the consignor in order to get the fees into the same ballpark as the standard 10% that both CC and CL apparently charges. The only question I have is why do you bother to go through the hassle of consigning through a friend when Heritage can give you these same monies directly?

Too bad I missed the convention then as I was still in Europe at the time as Ferd always tends to have a couple of nice books with him. Guess we'll have to wait and see if he decides to show up next summer or not.

Just compare the prices of the Berk books that have been resold on Heritage against their sale price on CC, and the answer will be clear. Well, as I stated in my previous post above, I don't believe the initial auctioning of the Jon Berk books on CC is a very reasonable or fair comparison. Now, if I had been the consignor of this Wonderworld 7 on Heritage back in August of last year, I would not have been too happy since I would have receive slightly less than $11K after all of the fees had been paid to Heritage: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/wonderworld-comics-7-fox-1939-cgc-vf-80-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/7166-91162.s?ic4=OtherResults-SampleItem-071515&tab=ArchiveSearchResults-012417 Especially when I could have pocketed over $20K after fees for the exact same copy of Wonderworld 7 when it was auctioned off on CC only a few short months later: https://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=758840 I am quite sure everybody can find examples that works both ways, but a whopping 35% for Heritage is certainly a lot of room to make up as compared to just 10% for either CC or CL.

With very few exceptions, resales of the Berk books since the CC auction have yielded higher results. This is likely due, at least in part, to the fact that the CC auction sold the entire collection at once. Some books got overlooked in the frenzy and some buyers simply ran out of money. The books were easier to target when they later came up for sale individually. +1 This would definitely be the main reason why the resale of Berk books are going for more money than when they were originally auctioned off on CC all in one shot. From my own personal point of view, I know for sure that I would have bid higher on most of the Berk books if there were not so many other ones available at the same time. Definitely easy to hold back on the bids since there were just so many other beautiful books to bid on and hopefully one of them would have fallen through the cracks and right onto your lap.

I assume this Winnipeg dealer was not Ferd who did make an appearance last summer with a couple of real nice GA books? Although he normally comes out to visit family members at this time of year, it usually doesn't coincide with a comic convention.

Definitely a beautiful copy with blazing colors, especially considering the seemingly harsh grade of only a CGC 5.0 VG/Fine. Any reason for this punative grading on what visually (front cover only of course) appears to be a much nicer copy, or is this just CGC's new normal when it comes to CGC over tightening the screws on their grading since it was just graded a couple of months ago?