Heritage's New Reserve Policy Press Release

[HeritageJohn-migration]

This is the text of a press release that we're sending out this morning that I thought would be of interest to this board:

 

IMPORTANT POLICY CHANGE

Heritage will now disclose auction reserves on its web sites.

 

DALLAS, TEXAS: Heritage is initiating a new policy of telling online bidders which lots have reserves and whether those reserves have been met.

 

According to Director of Internet Marketing Michael Weems, “Beginning next month, we will post a notice showing the state of the reserve for each lot that we offer at auction. Prior to all reserves for that auction being posted, the notice will read "Reserve (If Any) Not Posted Yet.” After the reserves are posted -- generally 3 days prior to the closing date for Internet-only auctions, and 7 days prior for Signature auctions -- there will be three possible states for a lot: "No Reserve", "Next Bid Meets Reserve", or "Reserve Met". This method is very similar to eBay’s, but unlike eBay, Heritage automatically raises all reserved lots to one increment below the reserve, so the bidder always knows the approximate amount of any unmet reserves.”

 

Weems continued, “We plan to implement the necessary Website changes in time for our March 17 Dallas Movie Posters, March 24-27 Portland ANA coin auctions, and our April 1-4 New York City Comics/Comic Art auction.”

 

Each of the notices will be a link to a FAQ page containing the following definitions:

 

Reserve (If Any) Not Posted Yet: Although many lots will not get reserves, this signifies that Heritage has not yet posted any reserves to this auction.

 

No Reserve: Reserves have been posted for this auction, but this lot does not have a reserve.

 

Next Bid Meets Reserve: The reserve has been posted on this lot, and the Current Bid has been reset to one increment below the reserve so that the next bid will be the high bidder and the reserve will have been reached.

 

Reserve Met: Reserves have been posted for this auction, and there is a reserve on this lot that has already been met.

 

Heritage Co-Chairman James Halperin explains the reasoning behind the new policy: “This is part of Heritage’s continued efforts to provide bidders with as much useful information as possible, and to save them time. Some bidders prefer not to bid against reserves, while others don’t care. Either way, we feel that the eBay model has changed the market’s expectations regarding reserves, and that this information should no longer be hidden from bidders. And since we automatically set the Current Bid on items with unmet reserves at one increment below the reserve, we are now essentially disclosing the reserve amount, which is even more revealing than eBay’s policy. The bottom line is that we would rather have bidders focus on the lots they have a good chance of actually buying in the price range they are comfortable paying, instead of having to guess. We believe the new policy of always revealing the existence or nonexistence of reserves will also help create a more level playing field between dealers and collectors, since dealer-consignors use reserves more often than collector consignors do, and unreserved lots tend to receive more bids. Our new policy is designed to make bidders more comfortable, and should increase the number of participants in our auctions, which, in the long run, benefits our consignors as well.”

 

The policy affects all of Heritage’s auction web sites, including:

 

www.HeritageCoins.com

www.HeritageComics.com

www.HeritageSportsCollectibles.com

www.HeritageCurrency.com

www.HeritageMoviePosters.com

www.HeritageGalleries.com

 

 

Best regards,

 

John E. Petty

Director of Auctions

Heritage Comics Auctions

[AlexH]

Hmmm, maybe they are listening

[OldGuy]

Nice. Now they just need to stop allowing their employees to bid on auction.

[osborn_fr]

[AlexH]

Nice. Now they just need to stop allowing their employees to bid on auction.

 

Yup, that's their biggest problem in my opinion.

[drbanner]

Nice. Now they just need to stop allowing their employees to bid on auction.

 

 

What say ye of that motion which hath been put forth, John of Heritage?

[deathlok]

The question I have is when does Heritage raise the bid to just under the Reserve? Is it at the 3/7 days before auction end?

 

Reserve (If Any) Not Posted Yet: Although many lots will not get reserves, this signifies that Heritage has not yet posted any reserves to this auction.

 

So this means that it doesn't make sense to bother bidding until after they post the reserves.

[jbud73]

Wow great new policy, really went out on a limb there. This musta come out of one of those corporate all day brain storm meetings - you know the ones the employees hate going to because it takes time away from them examining books that can be cleaned and pressed to increase their grade. Hmm this has been in place on Ebay since inception no? Well I guess they are catching up/on - their policies are only 5-6 years behind now.

HERITAGE

[CGCMINT]

Will we actually see who's bidding on the books?

 

J.

[Timely]

This should be helpful!

 

Timely

[Filter81]

[Aces]

Good!

 

Now if only they will fix their darn email so I can talk to them!

[garthgantu]

Will we actually see who's bidding on the books?

 

J.

 

My question exactly. This reserve policy change is just smokescreen - an effort to appear to be fixing the problems, so that current/prospective customers won't bail en masse. The real problems are

- Heritage employees bidding on Heritage auctions

- Heritage not identifying the seller

 

The Heritage pronouncement at the top of this thread is akin to Exxon making this announcement two days after the Valdez catastrophe:

"Exxon has moved quickly to address the concerns of the public, by moving the "FREE BOOZE" kiosk from the Captain's deck to the Second Mate's deck on all of its oil tankers, and replacing the 12-oz. glasses available at the kiosks with 8-oz. glasses."

[LordRahl]

I agree that Heritage employees bidding on their auctions is a problem but why would we need to see who the seller is? I couldn't care less and don't see that as being any sort of a problem.

[garthgantu]

I agree that Heritage employees bidding on their auctions is a problem but why would we need to see who the seller is? I couldn't care less and don't see that as being any sort of a problem.

 

Well, I was thinking of this mostly in the context of problem 1 - Heritage employees bidding on Heritage auctions, and then flipping them after clean-press-resub... in that context, it would be helpful to know that the book was bought by X, and is now being sold by X at a higher grade and price. If problem 1 went away, I guess you might not need to know who the seller is as much...

 

On the other hand, if Heritage banned its employees from bidding on its auctions tomorrow, I'm guessing the problem would just migrate out the door:

Matt Nelson (or other Heritage employee) peruses new arrivals prior to their being listed for sale, makes mental (or written) notes about selected books that seem suitable for clean-press-resub process, and passes that list to a friend or associate after work. Friend buys book, and then the Heritage employee either sells the book themselves, or has friend sell book. Either way, a pattern could likely be established in at least some cases, to help trace the steps taken and the person/people taking those steps - IF the buyer and/or seller's identity were known.

If one or both of those identities remain unknown, Heritage employees will simply have to arrange a 'middleman' to buy and/or re-sell the books for them...

[jbud73]

 

The Heritage pronouncement at the top of this thread is akin to Exxon making this announcement two days after the Valdez catastrophe:

"Exxon has moved quickly to address the concerns of the public, by moving the "FREE BOOZE" kiosk from the Captain's deck to the Second Mate's deck on all of its oil tankers, and replacing the 12-oz. glasses available at the kiosks with 8-oz. glasses."

 

[drbanner]

I agree that Heritage employees bidding on their auctions is a problem but why would we need to see who the seller is? I couldn't care less and don't see that as being any sort of a problem.

 

Yep! Ebay...Clink...consignments thru the various ebay dealers...the identity of the seller and/or bidders are never revealed and I don't think they need to be on Heritage either. Allowing Heritage and/or Heritage employees to bid on their own auctions is the problem...

[blowout]

Nice. Now they just need to stop allowing their employees to bid on auction.

 

HeritageJohn, how about commenting on some important questions that have been raised here about your business practices, rather than just coming on the boards only to post free adverts and promo stuff for your company?

[texasknight]

Nice. Now they just need to stop allowing their employees to bid on auction.

 

HeritageJohn, how about commenting on some important questions that have been raised here about your business practices, rather than just coming on the boards only to post free adverts and promo stuff for your company?

 

You seriously think he's going to respond?

About the only response I think you'll get from HeritageJohn is if you're close enough to hear him laughing at us all

[blowout]

About the only response I think you'll get from HeritageJohn is if you're close enough to hear him laughing at us all

 

I would certainly hope he is not doing that, as Heritage comics auctions will not be in business for too much longer if they continue to burn the hand that feeds them.