Ebay / Heritage price insanity

[clobberintime]

I was just able to win the spidey 3 9.0 on ebay for approximately $1700 less than the one at Heritage sold for this weekend! WTF? it's like that ToS 59 from a few weeks- $1000 at Heritage $350 on ebay. Makes absolutely no sense to me. Maybe those catalogs really do work! It's like hammer has said before -these people can't find ebay or Metropolis or ComicLink or High grade to see what market prices should be. it is puzzling!

[clarkkentdds]

Are you sure that Spidey really "sold" for that much?? I wouldn't be surprised to see it up again in the next signature auciton...Just a hunch.

[sullypython]

RZ -

 

I would say while not a bad price, $3300 is closer to "market" on the book. The last two 9.0's that sold publicly were back in June of 2002 and went for $4000 and $3800 respectively. Prices on Spidey stuff have generally come down since then (post movie hype let down) so $3300 seems about right. The $5000 Heritage sale is certainly higher than any sale in the past year.

[clobberintime]

That's what i mean! I bid up to $3800 on the ebay book - but heritge "sold" one 2 days ago for about $5000? What is that smell in Denmark? I actually bid up the one at heritage to $3500 so it appears that someone was bidding on that book - and the 9.4 went way over $10k.

[drbanner]

Makes you wonder if the high-rollers won't "stoop" down to the level of searching/buying books on ebay, and simply buy books only from the Heritage auctions to make life simple. Maybe JP invites his buddies? And yes, the pretty catalogs make it a nice quartery shopping-spree!

 

In the past there were many instances of "B-list" books selling for less via Heritage than on ebay, but I'm not sure the sellers are letting that happen anymore. I bid on about a dozen books this weekend, ended up 2nd on 3 or 4 Timelys, as well as 2nd on the Contact 12...but I didn't win jack!?!?

[hammer-migration]

Nice acquisition as well. No doubt about it being a solid "high end" 9.0 . There doesn't appear to be any "slack" in the grading on the Ebay book. $3000 to $3500 was the "can't get hurt" range on that book. $5K is a look into the far flung future on a 9.0 at this point in time.

[clobberintime]

Yeah those books even in under vf did well and even with restoration. I wanted few but gave up when the prices went beyond what I expected. Love those timely war covers. Hammer mentioned Centaur as being very good - which I know nothing about - and saw someone on ebay is selling a huge high grade collection of those books with many pedigrees! Have seen several Timelys on ebay recently - hpoe there will be more!

[hammer-migration]

For all Golden age afficionados of Timely titles, the Centaurs should be of similar appeal. I have a full set of Overstreets from #4 up and for a while, the Centaurs were starting to show major increases in price and popularity, closing the gap considerably on Timelys. Then, it seemed as though their popularity waned with the coming of the SIlver age Marvel high grade explosion stealing their thunder, the Golden age collectors/investors concentrating their efforts mainly on the two Golden age publisher's books, Timely and DC. Their look, cover-wise (for those that haven't seen them) are VERY close to Timely. Many of the Timely artists like Bill Everett and Carl Burgos were at Centaur before working at Timely. They're definitely worth a look at if you appreciate and collect Timelys.

[Bronty]

Just to echo Hammer's sentiments, clobberintime, you can pick up an issue of Amazing Man with both Burgos and Everett (#11 and prior) for much less than the Timely counterpart... i.e. A-Man 10 and 11guide for $1400 and were published about the time of Marvel Mystery 8 and 9... MM8 guide is 11,500, MM9 guide is $28K, although a better comparison might be the non-key MM 6 and 7 which guide for 7,500. In any case, an A-Man will cost you a fraction of a Contemporaneous MM if you're looking for Burgos and Everett as I would be..

[Tomega]

This is why I never buy from Heritage, there just to be to much instances where something that does not sit right with me. Whether true or not - shill bidding (inside Heritage staff bidding on their own auctions) , CGC 8.0's that suddenly become 9.2's when re-submitted to by Heritage, winners allegedly failing to pay so Heritage had to re-auction it, mid grade books asking price is 2 or 3 times guide, high buyer premiums for poor service, not great eBay feedback record, screwed up auctions, hints of some shady business practices ( one of the co-owner's of Heritage is supposed to be also one of the owners of CGC ?) - all add up to some major concern for me and I stay clear. If 10% of the rumors and allegations floating around out there are true then this is a very bad company.

Tomega

[Illiterati-migration]

If the guy's a co-owner of Heritage AND CGC and CGC is very obviously implicated as a willing partner in the scandal, then do you steer clear of CGC as well? I mean, I sure as hell do... that is, I'm not going to be buying any more CGC-graded books as the grades are about as valid as our president's reasons for starting the war.

[notch_top]

Actually that 3 is a "GIFT" at 9.0 as it is plagued with premarvel chipping along the entire right hand edge.

 

Tiny ebay pics always make a book look to be much nicer than it is.

 

Did you get a high res pic before paying too much for it?

 

 

 

 

[hammer-migration]

Didn't see that on the scan, Matt!! No way can a book with numerous pre-chips be a VF/NM even if the rest of the book is flawless. These idiosynchroses in grade definition interpretation causes much confusion:

 

Overstreet: no pieces or multiple tears along an edge in VF/NM (pre-chips, if at best are PIECES that have NOT separated as of yet, but at best, they are sections of the right edge of the book that are mildly separated by fissures or tears).

CGC: Just by the mere presence of pre-chips on the #3, as pointed out by Matt, obviously, pre-chips MUST fall within CGC guidelines of a VF/NM grading definition. An affect clearly denied in that grade by the Overstreet text.

[fantastic_four]

Who is the guy who is supposedly a co-owner of both CGC and Heritage?

[clobberintime]

Are you just asking rhetorical questions for the heck of it now?

[fantastic_four]

No, this is just a rumor I've been hearing for over two years now, and I'd really like to see if it's just rumor or if anybody has any actual proof that there's a link.

[hammer-migration]

Didn't someone on here say that they noticed that Jim Halperin's name was linked on OFFICIAL ownership documentation to both Heritage and CGC? I could have sworn that I read that here somewhere although God only knows how long it would take me to actually find the referrential post. I don't even remember who posted it. It is my OWN opinion that the two are jointly owned, if not entirely, the major portion of...outright, but NOT by Jim Halperin. I will NOT say who I personally believe owns both companies as I do NOT have 100% undeniable proof, so please don't ask. It's a moot point anyway. Heritage is the Ne Plus Ultra of Comic companys without peer and CGC is the only game in town if you live and die by the label and the slab. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was THIS tandem empire. It was 2 years in the making and took MORE money than anyone in THIS hobby ever was capable of fronting, that's for sure, or the "game" would have been afoot decades ago!!

[fantastic_four]

There were some posts about 5-6 months ago where clobberintime said he knew of something called "SunBiz" he had at his workplace where you could look up information on Florida businesses. I replied to him that I had found that it was a web site; here's a link to CGC's information on that site:

 

http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?a1=DETFIL&n1=L01000021846&n2=NAMFWD&n3=0000&n4=N&r1=&r2=&r3=&r4=COMICS&r5=

 

The only name on any of the legal documents scanned as TIF images on that site is Mark Salzburg.

 

Without mentioning the name of who you're referring to, do you have any evidence that he has any current ownership in CGC, or any ongoing influence over them other than the probable fact that he's a major customer who sends a lot of business their way?