Mr.Burns2

I know this is an old post, but I happened to stumble across it and can provide some clarity to the original topic since I used to work for the company. GMA started the comic sales after bringing in Bill Hughes. After a while, Hughes had a dispute over compensation and shortly thereafter he left for Heritage, believing that the comic division would fold without him. (There were only a couple of other dedicated employees for the division, with assistance from the sports card & collectibles, stamp, and general overall staff at the NJ facility pitching in for cataloging and the physical auction.) Instead, the upcoming auction proceeded on schedule with one of the other product experts learning to grade and describe comics over a weekend (they had a well-rounded background in antiques, autographs, sports cards & memorabilia, movie posters, coins, and stamps already). Before the sale went into catalog production, Heritage opted to buy out the inventory, mailing lists, and the descriptions/photos, which I believe became a significant portion of their first comic auction after Hughes’ arrival. That was the end of comics at GMA. They continued on as the 3rd largest auctioneer of stamps in the world (behind Sotheby’s & Christie’s), as well as a major seller of Sports Cards & Collectibles, a huge player in coins under subsidiary companies, as well as other areas, for many years afterwards. The company was delisted from NASDAQ after legal issues regarding alleged malfeasance between the company and the majority shareholder, AFINSA, of Spain. Not long after that, the company as it was constituted at the time was essentially no more. In regards to the flood that another user mentioned, that was caused by negligence on the part of the golf course behind the GMA facility. A large amount of wood chips were dumped on the back of their property before a massive rainstorm. They came down the hill, clogging the storm drains behind the GMA building and flooding most of it with about 6 inches of water under the loading bays. Most of the inventory losses in terms of value were stamps, a massive linen-backed King Kong movie poster (billboard size!), sports memorabilia, and comic art. From my recollection, very few comic books were lost, maybe 5 to 6 boxes of silver age. As a side note, Manning himself and principles from AFINSA actually sued various brokerages claiming that the losses of the company, and therefore losses suffered personally, were the result of naked short-selling - as opposed to any alleged improprieties. I believe the case is still pending, but part of it actually went to the Supreme Court! Something about the right to sue in state vs federal court. You can search it Manning v. Merril Lynch et al, if I’m not mistaken. They teach it in law schools. Wild.