Why I'm not bidding on any items in the Heritage FEB Auction

[EJR]

You used to be able to pay anything under $10,000 by credit card. So that helped to offset some of the costs if you used a credit card with rewards incentives. EJR

[tabcom]

Edited from the Original Post:

 

1. The Highly Professional Marketing Campaign is putting a premium on prices.

 

If you are a collector and don't care about resell value, that thrill bid is going to hit the brain faster than a line of coke.

 

If you are at all interested in retaining value, sit back and watch the show.

 

2. The Heritage 20% buyer fee + sales tax rarely transfers at the time of resale.

 

 

 

Detective Comics #52 CGC 8.0 ow/w Billy Wright Pedigree

Heritage Pump price:

$1912

 

eBay (04/08/12) Dump price:

$1332

 

[ComicConnoisseur]

Edited from the Original Post:

 

1. The Highly Professional Marketing Campaign is putting a premium on prices.

 

If you are a collector and don't care about resell value, that thrill bid is going to hit the brain faster than a line of coke.

 

If you are at all interested in retaining value, sit back and watch the show.

 

2. The Heritage 20% buyer fee + sales tax rarely transfers at the time of resale.

 

 

 

Detective Comics #52 CGC 8.0 ow/w Billy Wright Pedigree

Heritage Pump price:

$1912

 

eBay (04/08/12) Dump price:

$1332

WOW!

[tth2]

Edited from the Original Post:

 

1. The Highly Professional Marketing Campaign is putting a premium on prices.

 

If you are a collector and don't care about resell value, that thrill bid is going to hit the brain faster than a line of coke.

 

If you are at all interested in retaining value, sit back and watch the show.

 

2. The Heritage 20% buyer fee + sales tax rarely transfers at the time of resale.

 

 

 

 

Detective Comics #52 CGC 8.0 ow/w Billy Wright Pedigree

Heritage Pump price:

$1912

 

eBay (04/08/12) Dump price:

$1332

Taking a bath because someone sold a book a few months after he/she bought it on Heritage isn't about Heritage pumping the book up or because of the BP. It's about someone being dumb for trying to sell the book so soon afterwards.

 

Quick flips can work if the book was won at a steal of a price. This book was not a steal when it sold on Heritage.

[etanick]

agreed...

 

Bill who?

 

It will be interesting to track how all the Bill books that hit the auction market in the next few weeks/months will do.

 

Mitch might not like the results.

[MrBedrock]

Please help. I'm trying to figure out where I need to direct my seething anger....

[comicdonna]

[Gatsby77]

to Tabcom and Bedrock.

 

Heritage is not at fault for marketing its books well, and I'd love to see anyone who speculates on books like the Billy Wright ones in order to turn them around and flip them within six months to post a huge loss.

 

Because they artificially drove the prices up for collectors like me, who buy and hold for years.

 

I'm also happy that majority of the known pressed Billy Wrights that are for sale in the next auction didn't receive a grade bump.

 

Let's see the books to go to someone who wants them for their collection, not just as instruments of short-term financial gain.

[Hank Pym]

 

Detective Comics #52 CGC 8.0 ow/w Billy Wright Pedigree

Heritage Pump price:

$1912

 

eBay (04/08/12) Dump price:

$1332

 

I thought I saw that sparklecity had a Billy Wright up for auction. Was this it?

[tabcom]

to Tabcom and Bedrock.

 

Heritage is not at fault for marketing its books well, . . .

 

The implication of your statement is that I have some sort of hostility against Heritage, I do not. I think Heritage is great for the hobby.

 

As I stated back in Feb., I felt the world class marketing campaign was going to bring out extremely high bidding. Hence, I abstained from bidding on many books I would love to have in the collection. This latest sale of the DC#52 from SparkleCity affirmed my skepticism on the resale price of the collection.

[Mmehdy]

Why is it that people here focus on the negative...90% of billy books are not available for sale, some not at any price.....but am I upset about some buyer who could not afford to hang on to a 1500 billy book....another example of people bidding with something else instead of their heads.

[jkrk]

Please help. I'm trying to figure out where I need to direct my seething anger....

 

It's san andreas fault.

[tabcom]

My intent in creating this thread is not to express negativity towards the HA Billy Wright Sell-a-thon. I enjoyed reading about it, watching the auction live, and seeing the reaction of fellow collectors after the sale. I still flip through the beautiful catalog devoted to his collection.

 

I simple have been expressing my personal reasons why I have abstained from the bidding. I'm the type of collector that avoids the conventions and marque internet auctions. Not paying full market value price tags is part of the dynamics of my comic book collecting equation. For those like minded collectors, this thread may be of great benefit to them.

 

I'm going to continue to monitor future Billy White books that re-enter the marketplace and see how they preform. As of now, the data count is 1. Too early to call a trend.

 

Resale entry #1

Detective Comics #52

HA.com $1912

plus shipping cost ($20); net $1932 (state sales tax unknown)

eBay (04/08/12) $1332

less eBay\paypal fees net $1223.43

 

-$708.57

net loss 37%

 

[Hank Pym]

This will be very interesting to watch - your BW re-sale "thread," tabcom. Thanks!

[batman_fan]

This will be very interesting to watch - your BW re-sale "thread," tabcom. Thanks!

 

+1

[bluechip]

Why is it that people here focus on the negative...90% of billy books are not available for sale, some not at any price.....but am I upset about some buyer who could not afford to hang on to a 1500 billy book....another example of people bidding with something else instead of their heads.

 

 

Other people focus on the negative when talking about books that aren't literally their own or precisely like them?

 

Other people do that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RedFury]

Why is it that people here focus on the negative...90% of billy books are not available for sale, some not at any price.....but am I upset about some buyer who could not afford to hang on to a 1500 billy book....another example of people bidding with something else instead of their heads.

 

 

Other people focus on the negative when talking about books that aren't literally their own or precisely like them?

 

Other people do that?

 

Pot, meet Kettle.

[markseifert]

Resale entry #1

Detective Comics #52

HA.com $1912

plus shipping cost ($20); net $1932 (state sales tax unknown)

eBay (04/08/12) $1332

less eBay\paypal fees net $1223.43

 

-$708.57

net loss 37%

 

I don't know what the Heritage buyer's motivation was in selling so fast, but the ebay buyer probably got a pretty darn good deal on this. It's a top-5 census copy, and the best copy sale listed in gpa since the census topping 9.4 sold for 7.7k in 2009. Only 3 copies at 7.0 or above have sales in gpa, period.

 

All things considered, $1900 probably wasn't an outrageously high price for the book. If the buyer had held onto it longer and/or sold it in a different venue, he'd have probably been fine.

 

[Bunky Brian]

I for one look forward to seeing Mr. Tabcom, add more data as it becomes available,

 

B

[conditionfreak]

The reason for sky high prices for many books, is us.

 

It amazes me what some will pay for comic books that are run of the mill. Is it for the (attempted) flipping? Or for the "fix"? It is rarely (Although I admit it sometimes is), for the collection.

 

$1200 for a book that is a couple of years old. Silly.

 

10K for a Hulk 181 in any grade. Silly.

 

1K for a 9.2 and 4K for a 9.4. Silly.

 

Six figures for a book that can be found on any given day. Silly.

 

Seven or more figures for a comic book. Any comic book. Silly.

 

It is like buying Beanie Babies. A mental, addictive problem.

 

But....it is your money, so have fun.

 

Just remember, there are a lot of people who have a vested interest in making and keeping prices high. The higher the better.