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Has anyone had trouble submitting to Heritage Auctions

Started by LSW,

23 posts in this topic

LSW

LSW

Posted
Posted

Hi guys and gals!

 

I'm new to the Society, this is my first post. I'm a loooong time collector who has rarely sold anything. (a few years ago a small # of comics on e-bay, that's all)

 

I have a huge and (in my opinion) great collection of comics and art. Mostly silver age. I called Heritage and gave them a list of comics and art I'd like to auction off. The stuff was really high grade silver age comics... not of the Amazing Fantasy #15 of FF #1 caliber... but the Marvel Tales #1 and Iron Man #1, Cap #100, Avengers #4 type, you get the picture. (all in all 10 of these types all in high grade)

 

I told them I wanted to "test the waters" with these. If it all worked out I would over time develope a relationship with them and send the the "heavy hitters" in the future.

 

The rep I talked to seemed offended by the "test the waters" remark. Told me they're interested in only the heavy hitters ($10,000 worth of stuff) at a time.

 

Told me to call back when I'm ready.

 

What say you community? Is this standard practice? Am I full of hooey? Should I sell myself without them?

 

Please let me know about your experiences.

 

Thank you all and stay well.

 

LSW

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Dave_Hennen

Dave_Hennen

Posted
Posted

Yup, that sounds about right. I contacted them about selling an early X-Men page last year and got pretty well turned off by their response. They'd only accept the page if I agreed to a 20% buy back fee if it didn't sell at the min price I wanted. Or they'd be nice enough to put it up if I would agree to a very low reserve so they could be sure to make their $$ off the listing.

 

Funny thing is they stick it to the buyers also, 15% buyers premium, substantial shipping costs and in the 4 or so times I've bought stuff through them I'd say the average delivery time is about a month.

 

I guess you've got to pay the price if you want to deal with them...

 

Dave Hennen

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sfilosa

sfilosa

Posted
Posted

Never sold through them, but have bought many times and will continue to do so.

 

My guess is it isn't worth the effort they go through to just sell a few books. It also depends on what you mean High Grade? Are the books CGC'd? Are they 9.0 or higher or 8.0's?

 

For Silver-Age CGC books, I would recommend any of the consignment sites as they really specialize in this material (even if it's not all 9.4). This way, it cost you nothing unless it sells, and you can put a reasonable reserve on the books (which apparently Heritage's wants a low reserve or you pay if it doesn't sell).

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fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
For Silver-Age CGC books, I would recommend any of the consignment sites as they really specialize in this material (even if it's not all 9.4). This way, it cost you nothing unless it sells, and you can put a reasonable reserve on the books (which apparently Heritage's wants a low reserve or you pay if it doesn't sell).

 

I agree. If they prefer to do as little work as possible to earn the comparatively large percentages they charge buyers and sellers, let 'em. Take your books elsewhere.

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tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted

LSW, I agree with the others on this thread. If you've got SA Marvels, particularly high grade, there are many better places to sell them than Heritage. You could go with ebay, which provides a pretty good market for Marvels and you can cut the middleman out, or consign at pedigreecomics, comiclink or highgradecomics.

 

Having said that, I'm a little surprised at Heritage's reaction, which makes me wonder what grade your books were in or what kind of reserve you were asking for. I have never heard of them asking for a $10,000 minimum, and the amount of small-ticket books even in their Signature auctions indicates that they must be taking smaller items. The only other thing I can think of is their next auction must be close to full, so they can afford to be selective? I've only had a very positive experience when I listed some books with them.

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rob_react

rob_react

Posted
Posted
I have never heard of them asking for a $10,000 minimum

 

I remember it being $5,000. There was a marketplace thread started by a guy who had attempted to sell a bunch of garbage through them and that was the figure he quoted.

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tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
I have never heard of them asking for a $10,000 minimum

 

I remember it being $5,000. There was a marketplace thread started by a guy who had attempted to sell a bunch of garbage through them and that was the figure he quoted.

 

Then where does all the small-ticket stuff come from? There are a lot of items that are worth only a few hundred bucks or less. Anyone who had to put up $5,000 worth of this stuff would have had to consign a LOT of stuff.

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Murph

Murph

Posted
Posted

I think you can commit to selling 10k worth of stuff to them, then parcel it out as you see fit over the auctions. At least that's sort of the idea I got from reading the surveys they used to have.

 

Brian

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LSW

LSW

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks guys,

 

Nothing I tried to submit was lower than 9.4. Mostly 9.6, with a few 9.8's.

 

Good stuff I assure you. Like I said I was very surprised by their reaction too. But thanks to you all I know I have other viable options.

 

Larry

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tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
Hard to elieve, but true.

 

Well, consider their bizarre position to be a blessing in disguise. With high grade Marvels like that, you don't need to monkey with Heritage's higher fees because you don't need to tap their market reach to sell such liquid books.

 

As has been suggested on this thread already, if you have a price in mind, list them in the marketplace on these boards and cut-out any middleman fees altogether. If you don't want to cap your upside then put them on eBay (although I'd suggest you have a good feedback record before you do so otherwise potential buyers might think it's a scam which will limit the prices you might realize). Alternatively, you can put your books up on one of the various dealer/consignment sites, although your fees will be higher (but not as high as Heritage).

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tay666

tay666

Posted
Posted

Man, just ran across a Heritage auction on ebay.

They have some messed up terms.

 

Occasionally the auctioneer may eliminate or reject an eBay Live bid, and the auctioneer may also reopen a lot after the close of the eBay live bidding (usually because we missed an audience bid), and may reject your bid even if it shows you as the winning bidder. By bidding via eBay Live, you agree that Heritage may award the lot to another bidder at its sole discretion under the circumstances described above or any other reasonable circumstances.

 

So even if you win the auction, you might not win it? screwy.gif

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