Heritage or Comic Link pros and cons? seller and buyer.

[MR.COMICBOOK]

I have never dealt with either. just Ebay. any pros and cons about Heritage and Comic Link I should be aware of as a seller or buyer? thanks for any info.

[akaSteveRogers]

Heritage for me:

PRO: I've found a few hard-to-find HG slabs on here.

CON: Buyer's Premium: 19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $9.00 per lot) on top of your shipping cost

 

Comiclink for me:

 

PRO: Great selection and database of CGC books.

CON: BUYITNOW Prices are sometimes ridiculous. And since i live in NY i get charged sales tax!

[trmoore54]

Pretty apt description by akaSteveRogers...

I would add that Heritage to me has a bit more raw book offerings, and they do a lot of 3 book and multiple book offerings that sometimes can be a good deal...pay close attention to the total premium...it is KILLER!

 

Link you can make offers and get counteroffers...go that route and see how successful that is...if there's a book you really want, I'd recommend not paying over 20% going rate...many mark-ups are 50-100% above going rate...if it's an AF15 or ASM1 and you want it, buy it the minute you see it or it will be gone baby gone!

[whisp]

I don't buy from either since don't want to pay huge premiums. I rather wait it out and get that great deal then pay some of the prices I have seen on those sites.

[Jeff Ritts]

Comiclink auctions are sometimes a better alternative than E bay,they are usually no reserve and you don't have to worry about whether or not your shipment

will arrive.I have a few bids out now on their current auction now.

[musicmeta]

Heritage for me:

PRO: Very nice catalogs, pretty nice web site, can sometimes find those hard

to find books.

CONS: 19.5% premium, plus, since I live in Texas I have to pay sales tax making it very hard for me to win anything reasonable.

 

Comiclink:

PRO: Nice web site, despite some of the high prices you can make lower offers,

costs nothing to list. Much much lower buyer's premium

CONS: 10% comission when you sell. I would like it to be lower, say around 5% or less, none preferable . Some of the listing prices are just way too high for me.

 

 

[G.A.tor]

Heritage:

Pro: I do like the catalogs, and I like the "live" bidding aspect... from both a buying and selling perspective, that is a plus (from buying, allows a chance to win that "must" have book, from selling, allows price to be higher than if a closed bid win)...also like the archive!

The 19.5% is not a con for the buyer, because any reasonable bidder just factors that into their bid price (i.e. if they are willing to pay $100, bid $80.50, same diff)...

con: to the seller, the BP is a HUGE CON, because you only get 80.50% bid, and if you are not shrewd, you might actually pay a seller premium too

 

Comic Link:

Pro: great selection, attracting material that once only heritage did...listing prices might be high on some books on the exchange, but just offer what you want and negotiate...from a seller standpoint, 10% is a very reasonable price/commission to pay, and no buyer premium, so you/seller get 90% and don't have to collect payment, ship more than once, etc

 

con: outside of the non cash discount (I would like to use my CC, but don't want to lose the 3% cash discount, so I "lose" out on the miles the cc gives me) no cons for me

[lou_fine]

Heritage for me:

PRO: I've found a few hard-to-find HG slabs on here.

CON: Buyer's Premium: 19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $9.00 per lot) on top of your shipping cost

 

Comiclink for me:

 

PRO: Great selection and database of CGC books.

CON: BUYITNOW Prices are sometimes ridiculous. And since i live in NY i get charged sales tax!

 

Never understood the Cons with respect to the pricing point of view. Isn't this factor totally under your control if you simply factor this into your final price. Nobody is forcing you to look only at their hammer price or BIN price only.

 

It's really up to you to factor everything in and look at the full price and then simply bid accordingly.

[G.A.tor]

Heritage for me:

PRO: I've found a few hard-to-find HG slabs on here.

CON: Buyer's Premium: 19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $9.00 per lot) on top of your shipping cost

 

Comiclink for me:

 

PRO: Great selection and database of CGC books.

CON: BUYITNOW Prices are sometimes ridiculous. And since i live in NY i get charged sales tax!

 

Never understood the Cons with respect to the pricing point of view. Isn't this factor totally under your control if you simply factor this into your final price. Nobody is forcing you to look only at their hammer price or BIN price only.

 

It's really up to you to factor everything in and look at the full price and then simply bid accordingly.

(thumbs u exactly what I said in the post right above yours

[akaSteveRogers]

With the Buyer's Premium. Of course, I take that into consideration when purchasing my book.

 

The reason its a CON is because, in my experience, not every buyer does. There have been several occasions where a HTF book for me has gone ABOVE GPA at auction's close. Add the buyer's premium and you got yourself a doozy. And, in an extreme case like MUSICMETA, if you live in TX (Sales Tax) you either have no shot at that book or paid a heavy price for your "must have" book.

 

I'm going from my experience, maybe you guys have had different ones.

[thecollectron]

Heritage for me:

PRO: I've found a few hard-to-find HG slabs on here.

CON: Buyer's Premium: 19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $9.00 per lot) on top of your shipping cost

 

Comiclink for me:

 

PRO: Great selection and database of CGC books.

CON: BUYITNOW Prices are sometimes ridiculous. And since i live in NY i get charged sales tax!

 

Never understood the Cons with respect to the pricing point of view. Isn't this factor totally under your control if you simply factor this into your final price. Nobody is forcing you to look only at their hammer price or BIN price only.

 

It's really up to you to factor everything in and look at the full price and then simply bid accordingly.

I suppose you're right. I always calculate my high bid to include the BP on Heritage auctions, so if something is worth, say, $100 to me then I'll bid around $84 to make the total close to $100. Someone else who doesn't care about the BP might just bid $100 and end up paying $119.50. In the end, the item goes to the person willing to pay more. Still, I think Heritage's BP is excessive. They do get some nice things though, and I've bid on a lot of their auctions and occasionally won.

I've bid on Comiclink auctions without winning anything, and I've done a handful of BIN's from their inventory over the years. It all went smoothly, no gripes with them.

[namisgr]

Heritage:

Pro - Outstanding diversity of high grade offerings

Con 1 - Bidding process is not transparent (identities and history kept secret, house may buy books)

Con 2 - Many offerings are pressed and dry cleaned to achieve higher numerical grades

 

Comiclink:

Pro - Outstanding diversity of high grade offerings

Con 1 - Bidding process is not transparent (identities and history kept secret, house may buy books)

Con 2 - Many offerings are pressed and dry cleaned to achieve higher numerical grades

 

Needless to say, I believe the similarities far outweigh any distinctions.

[akaSteveRogers]

Con 1 - Bidding process is not transparent (identities and history kept secret, house may buy books)

 

 

Great point! I left this one out.

 

[MR.COMICBOOK]

Heritage:

Pro - Outstanding diversity of high grade offerings

Con 1 - Bidding process is not transparent (identities and history kept secret, house may buy books)

Con 2 - Many offerings are pressed and dry cleaned to achieve higher numerical grades

 

Comiclink:

Pro - Outstanding diversity of high grade offerings

Con 1 - Bidding process is not transparent (identities and history kept secret, house may buy books)

Con 2 - Many offerings are pressed and dry cleaned to achieve higher numerical grades

 

Needless to say, I believe the similarities far outweigh any distinctions.

as a newbie I would have never known about both con 1 or con 2. thanks for the tips.

[letsgrumble]

Con 1 - Bidding process is not transparent (identities and history kept secret, house may buy books)

 

 

Great point! I left this one out.

 

There were two books I wanted in Comic Link's focused auction a few months back. With under a minute left to go - in two auctions - I placed my maximum bids, which were more than double the current bid. Before each of the auctions ended, one more bid was placed. I wound up winning both auctions, but by exactly a dollar under my maximum bid.

 

 

[4GEMWORKS]

Con 1 - Bidding process is not transparent (identities and history kept secret, house may buy books)

 

 

Great point! I left this one out.

 

There were two books I wanted in Comic Link's focused auction a few months back. With under a minute left to go - in two auctions - I placed my maximum bids, which were more than double the current bid. Before each of the auctions ended, one more bid was placed. I wound up winning both auctions, but by exactly a dollar under my maximum bid.

 

 

I ended up losing two auctions on ComicLink ny exactly a dollar. Might have been you a lost to. My experience is that ComicLink is not messing with bids. He just has sellers go the reserve route if price is an issue-

 

 

[tth2]

There have been several occasions where a HTF book for me has gone ABOVE GPA at auction's close.

Ah yes, the 1st rule of most boardies: Thou shalt not pay above GPA.

 

I`ve often wondered whether people realize that if books never sold above GPA, that GPA for those books would remain static or decline after a while?

[PokerKid]

Weird auction for me tonight. There were two items I was very interested in and a half dozen others I decided to take a shot at. For once, I ended up with the two lots I was after and managed to lose all my thrill bids at the final minute.

 

But my big question is: Where did the Blackhawk fans come from? Those books sold for much higher than I thought - $550-$650 for 9.4s and 9.6s. Then the 9.6 '70s drek Blackhawk and Challengers popping $200+. (Just bought a 9.4 for $25 and didn't expect a 10x bump for the 9.6)

[cd4ever]

Heritage for me:

PRO: I've found a few hard-to-find HG slabs on here.

CON: Buyer's Premium: 19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $9.00 per lot) on top of your shipping cost

 

Comiclink for me:

 

PRO: Great selection and database of CGC books.

CON: BUYITNOW Prices are sometimes ridiculous. And since i live in NY i get charged sales tax!

 

Never understood the Cons with respect to the pricing point of view. Isn't this factor totally under your control if you simply factor this into your final price. Nobody is forcing you to look only at their hammer price or BIN price only.

 

It's really up to you to factor everything in and look at the full price and then simply bid accordingly.

True, but for me that doesn't change the fact that it is an excessive percentage and says a lot about the company and their business practices. Sure, I could blindly do the math and bid what I like. But I know in my head where 20% of that money is going and I think it's a rip off. The integrity of the company I give my money to matters.

 

So it's a huge CON for me.

[musicmeta]

Heritage for me:

PRO: I've found a few hard-to-find HG slabs on here.

CON: Buyer's Premium: 19.5% of the successful bid (minimum $9.00 per lot) on top of your shipping cost

 

Comiclink for me:

 

PRO: Great selection and database of CGC books.

CON: BUYITNOW Prices are sometimes ridiculous. And since i live in NY i get charged sales tax!

 

Never understood the Cons with respect to the pricing point of view. Isn't this factor totally under your control if you simply factor this into your final price. Nobody is forcing you to look only at their hammer price or BIN price only.

 

It's really up to you to factor everything in and look at the full price and then simply bid accordingly.

True, but for me that doesn't change the fact that it is an excessive percentage and says a lot about the company and their business practices. Sure, I could blindly do the math and bid what I like. But I know in my head where 20% of that money is going and I think it's a rip off. The integrity of the company I give my money to matters.

 

So it's a huge CON for me.

 

I agree, I do factor in the mark up juice, but I think that 19.5% is just too high, but apparently it works quite well for Heritage, so I guess they know how to get the maximum comission from a book...for now.