private auctions. why good for one house, not the other?

[Whitey52-migration]

Hi.

personally have used ebay for years on and off to buy only. it has many faults obviously, ranging from the money grubbing way its run down to the cesspit of evil sellers that inhabit its murky depths.

it does however have a lot of plus points in terms of decent sellers. i am of course only referring to what is applicable to us comic collectors. also shady sellers or scammers i think are relatively easy to spot so i feel quite secure in my buying habits.

i hate private auctions and will avoid them, and i've noticed from reading material posted here that this seems to be the concensus of opinion.

 

my question is this. what is the difference between an ebay private auction and a comiclink/heritage/pedigree et al auction?

some of the blind auctions that appear on these sites are so obviously bent it is untrue.

for instance a book will appear on a given site and within minutes there will be a substancial bid placed, say about half to three quarters of the price, that will sit there for weeks sometimes.you have no idea who has placed it, its origin or whatever, yet books continue to be sold on these sites at big inflated prices, and then miraculously reappear sometimes so quickly. they cannot all be getting flipped surely?

 

my point is these auction houses attract huge volumes of business with no disclosure or proof that bidding is on the up and up, yet ebay private auctions continually get slammed.

personally for all its faults ebay feels safer to me in many respects. i know the quality of the books sold are way inferior these days, but if you wait long enough practically everything turns up on ebay sometime or other.

 

to conclude. i would never bid on a private auction on ebay so i will not do it anywhere else?

please tell me reasons why i should. am i reading it wrong?

 

cheers

 

al.

[fantastic_four]

Sorry, I don't use ebay as much as I used to, so someone correct me if I'm wrong--aren't all E-Bay auctions private now? I thought they used asterisks to blank out all parts of a username except the first and last characters.

[Whitey52-migration]

Sorry, I don't use ebay as much as I used to, so someone correct me if I'm wrong--aren't all E-Bay auctions private now? I thought they used asterisks to blank out all parts of a username except the first and last characters.

 

in that sense yes there is a degree of anonymity, but you can still see bidders feedback scores and check on who they are bidding with recently etc.

what i am talking about is the 'private' ebay auction as against the other comic driven auction houses, whose auctions are all run on this basis i.e. totally private

 

sorry if i did not make this clearer.

[Doc Joe]

There are always these accusations and of course none of them can be proved since you dont get to see the auction happening from the "control room" of their business.

 

If you know the people behind the business you may have more or less trust in their auctions. I have complete confidence in some and less in others.

 

Typically paranoia is an American exercise and a lot of it is seen/revealed on the boards.

 

If everything was scam then why do books sell for a loss compared with the last sale (and then -10% again). I just picked up a few book in the last Clink auction for less than they originally sold for (high value books).

 

Some books do kep getting listed on the exchange, I have paid list price for a book immediately I really want on the exchange. I have been in price exchanges where we get within $200 but neither of us will concede that last inch. So maybe it looks dubious when a book is listed for $2200 and the bid is $2000 but I have been there.

 

If you like the book bid to where you are happy to bid to, then there is no problem. If they are scamming you and you get the book for a price you like then whats the big deal.

 

 

Joe

[The Troll King]

There are always these accusations and of course none of them can be proved since you dont get to see the auction happening from the "control room" of their business.

 

If you know the people behind the business you may have more or less trust in their auctions. I have complete confidence in some and less in others.

 

Typically paranoia is an American exercise and a lot of it is seen/revealed on the boards.

 

If everything was scam then why do books sell for a loss compared with the last sale (and then -10% again). I just picked up a few book in the last Clink auction for less than they originally sold for (high value books).

 

Some books do kep getting listed on the exchange, I have paid list price for a book immediately I really want on the exchange. I have been in price exchanges where we get within $200 but neither of us will concede that last inch. So maybe it looks dubious when a book is listed for $2200 and the bid is $2000 but I have been there.

 

If you like the book bid to where you are happy to bid to, then there is no problem. If they are scamming you and you get the book for a price you like then whats the big deal.

 

 

Joe

 

And on that note, companies like Heritage who are licensed auction houses do go through an audit process by the State. Of course, it's easier to ignore reality when the conspiracy theory is so much more fun.

[Doc Joe]

I think what is weird is that people have a hard time believing that people would pay XXX amount for a comic book.

 

I remember when I was poor and would feel bad about spending $20 on a couple of CD's in a month. It would be inconceivable to imagine anyone paying $1000 on a comic, let alone $10,000 or more. Indeed infuriating.

 

But when you make a lot of money its not that hard to do.

 

If you make one or two or three hundred thousand dollars a month, its really no big deal to drop thousands of bucks on a funny book or two. The prices look nuts and no-one believes it.

 

 

Joe

 

[Bosco685]

If you make one or two or three hundred thousand dollars a month, its really no big deal to drop thousands of bucks on a funny book or two. The prices look nuts and no-one believes it.

 

Joe

 

Funny book or two? Who limited your budget? You give me a number, and I'll make a call right now.

 

[Doc Joe]

limited my budget, hmm, who could SHE possibly be???

 

[Bosco685]

limited my budget, hmm, who could SHE possibly be???

 

Mine too. The House CEO rules all!

 

[Doc Joe]

C-Comic

E-Expense

O-Overruled

 

C-Comics

E-Expenditure

O-Over

 

C-Complete

E-Epilepsy

O-Over all the boxes by the front door

 

C-Cant

E-Explain

O-Obsession

 

C-Cant

E-Excuse

O-Overspending

 

etc etc etc

[Bosco685]

[Whitey52-migration]

I think what is weird is that people have a hard time believing that people would pay XXX amount for a comic book.

 

I remember when I was poor and would feel bad about spending $20 on a couple of CD's in a month. It would be inconceivable to imagine anyone paying $1000 on a comic, let alone $10,000 or more. Indeed infuriating.

 

But when you make a lot of money its not that hard to do.

 

If you make one or two or three hundred thousand dollars a month, its really no big deal to drop thousands of bucks on a funny book or two. The prices look nuts and no-one believes it.

 

 

Joe

 

my original point is why is it good for the goose but not the gander?

it would be interesting to know (although there is probably no way of knowing) if the people that slam ebay private auctions as scam-worthy ever bid on other sites (totally comic devoted) where the private bid format is the way of it.

I know I don't but i suspect there are those that turn a blind eye to the private-auction style listing they seem to hate so much on ebay?

why they would, i dunno.

i can't see a difference between the two.

[Doc Joe]

ebay does not really care, you can list anything you like, so what if some comics are fake/whatever they are a small part of a large operation

 

Comiclink and others are based on selling comics, they have a reputation to defend, if they were truely found to be suspect then no-one would use them

 

The comic guys at HA are part of a bigger empire, but no where near as big as ebay. If they screw up and start listing dubious books or having a scadle or something they will be out of a job.

 

The slammers on this site are often just slammers. They would slam a nice breakfast and a back rub. Trying to understand them is like trying to understand the whole goose and gander thing, which I never have. Or more simply if you are wondering if people may at times be hypocritical the answer is yes. Or if they bid on the other sites then yes they probably do.

 

 

[Whitey52-migration]

 

The slammers on this site are often just slammers. They would slam a nice breakfast and a back rub. Trying to understand them is like trying to understand the whole goose and gander thing, which I never have. Or more simply if you are wondering if people may at times be hypocritical the answer is yes. Or if they bid on the other sites then yes they probably do.

 

 

that is not the answer i expected but it seems to be quite logical.

well put, and thanks.