Heritage's latest Auction catalogs!!!!

[Guest]

Just finished pouring through both the Cage Auction, and the Regular Heritage Auction catalogs. I'm actually hesitant to sit down with the calculator and add up the auction estimates on the items of my interest that I highlighted!! The Cage auction alone has an incredible amount of prime material being offered to the bidding public alone, but when you factor the Regular catalog into the equation, the weight and diversity of quality material is difficult to conceive of, appearing in one Auction event over several days. The questions are these: Was it fair to Nic Cage, to have his incredible collection auctioned at the SAME TIME, against SO many of the same books offered at the same time? In essence, you consign your books to an Auction House to achieve maximum exposure and dollar, and then your collection, mind blowing in it's own right, is pitted against the even VASTLY SUPERIOR collection of JP the Mint (best on the planet, dollarwise), and a few other consigners to directly compete for bidder's dollars against multiples of the same issue??? Are there enough disposable dollars in hobbyist/investors hands to disperse even 1/3 of these premium books, art, and artifacts into the hobby?

[murph0]

I think one of the things weighing in the Cage collections favor is that they're all marked "from the collection of Nick Cage". Sort of iffy that they should be marked like that but it'll certainly alleviate any problems of identifying them in the future..should be interesting to see what kind of premium they carry, if any.

As for the catalogs, very very nice. It's always cool to see so many great comics in one place.

Supapimp's "signed" comics sounded lovely too

 

Brian

[aardvark88]

Nic Cage is listing 2 Marvel Comics #1 (1939) about cgc 5.0 & 6.0 UNrestored. That alone impresses me outside of the many pedigrees he has listed.

[clobberintime]

I will agree with you on this one! I would be a little miffed. I think Heritage is starting to almost flood the market on very expensive high end books. Next week there are essentially 3 Heritage auctions at the same time! They have the monthly deal, the october quarterly big deal and the Cage collection. I personally don't think there is enough $$ to buy all this stuff from comic collectors alone- in one of them there is a 9.4 and 9.2 Spidey 1 along with several other copies too. I guess they are counting on folks outside comics brought in by his name and coin dealers. I will be interested to see what makes reserve!

[Guest]

C., It's not only as you stated, but think of it THIS way. When I list a BIG book, something that may bring $10Gs or more if successfully auctioned, I LOOK FIRST at what is being offered that week on Ebay that may CONFLICT with my book. The LAST THING I wish to do is create a situation where there are TWO of a very similar, very expensive item, stealing each other's thunder at the same time. The Heritage catalog has a partial run of Adventure in HIGH grade going directly against Cage's HIGH grade run of Adventure. It has some gorgeous unrestored Marvel Mysterys going against Cage's gorgeous Marvel Mysterys. A Flash ashcan against a Thrill ashcan, a Showcase 4 in 9.2!!! and another in 7.5 against Cage's 8.0, and on and on and on. I just see alot of conflict in presenting so many of the same book, over and over, in similar grades. ALL beautiful books but I'm sure that better dispersion could have been achieved by holding some of the multiples back for the next auction, UNLESS THERE"S AN ACTUAL RUSH TO UNLOAD NOW!!!

[comicinvestor-migration]

It really looks to be a big money grab by Heritage, as if timing was not an issue, then better coordination could easily be done. I really don't see where the money is going to come from, since even these new coin dealers can't be that flush, and unless Bill Gates starts collecting comics I see a lot not coming close to reserve.

 

The next few months will be very, very interesting, not only for the prices these books may/may not attain, but for the effect a lot of non-sales would have on rich dealers holding similar CGC copies.

[clobberintime]

That does give one pause to think. i started noticing this summer when they began the monthly auctions - they had lots of great stuff that directly competed with the big quarterly auction they do. I know if I were consigning stuff at 15% i would want my books sold in the most favorable environment possible!They do have the most incredible selection of golden age stuff ihave ever seen though! I have bought some early Batman and All Starbooks in the 7.0/ 8.0 range at steals lately - I buy mainly silver Marvel though- but the prices were so good I could not pass them up! May be a very good time to be a collector/buyer here soon! Who knows maybe some of those Texas tycoons are having to Liquidate their prized comics before filing bankruptcy or to offset stock fraud losses!

[drbanner]

I hear ya, the selection of accurately graded, mid-grade (otherwise known as affordable) golden age over the last 6 months via Heritage was better than the last 2+ years on ebay/the convention circuit. And since there really is no premium on CGC mid-grade, the prices have been at or near guide. Hopefully this trend continues with this round of 3, cause there are some great books in there that would fit in nicely in my collection

[cd4ever]

Man I love getting those Heritage catalogs. For a small-time collector like myself, it's such a thrill to see such high quality pictures of those old books in there. Now if only I could afford any of them....

[aardvark88]

I believe collectors needing to turnover chunks of their orig art collection to buy silver splash pgs or PRIME cover art has already started on eBay. Waiting for the rest of the fallout after the 3 Heritage auctions & 2 rounds of Sotheby's auctions fr collectors who overspent & need to come up w/ the scratch.

[Bonds25]

I added up the estimates on just the large pictures in the Nick Cage catalog, and it came to over $1 million dollars. I'm sure the other 90% is probably worth around $500,000 or so.

[blowout]

......i think his whole collection is estimated at $2 million dollars..............i wonder how this compares to what he paid for the books............

[murph0]

Just to point out this for the hundredth or so time. One of the arguments for Heritage having the B.P is that they spend a lot of money on the catalogs...and that they're probably not making a ton of money..well that's bs. If they sell the Nick Cage collection for estimate price of 2 million dollars thats 600,000 dollar take for them alone..now..that pays for the catalogs...it pays for the auction space..hell it even pays for the employees..am I still the only one that thinks their buyer's premium is ridiculous?

 

Brian

[comicinvestor-migration]

Nope, and I honestly think it costs them money, and will continue to do so as the market softens. A BP is relative, and it effects the rich guy spending $200K just like it would a mid-range guy spending $5K.

 

It sure makes me hesitant to lay down any money and I can't imagine anyone being happy about it, including buyers and sellers.

[drbanner]

BP or no BP, there are plenty of instances of the exact same book selling for less through Heritage (including the BP) than on ebay. There are also cases of dealers buying books through Heritage and flipping them on ebay for a profit. You should have a fun time there next week Murph, just keep in your mind what the maximum is you're willing to pay...BP or no BP! Plus, since you're going to be there in person, can't you just take the books home with you at the end of the auction to save on shipping?

[comicparadox]

I sold some Gaines copies through Heritage - John Petty was usually accessible by telephone and if he wasn't, his emails were prompt. I got anywhere from the "usual" 6 - 9x last year's guide for the books in 9.6 to 9.8, and about 1.5x guide on the 9.2's. With regards to the closing price, Heritage got 30% and I got 70%. They did ok, so did I. However, IF I had sold on eBay, I would have kept a higher percentage. The caveat is that there's no guarantee that I would have gotten the high guide multiples on eBay. One picks one's poison.

[murph0]

Yeah, I'm not worried about shipping..I'll just take them..I'm just trying to decide if I actually wanna spend.. probably some decent money..just on the chance to buy the books..which is basically what the buyers premium is.

 

Brian

[Guest]

Calculate your spending limits based on the buyer's premium and be done with it. Don't think of it as- "I'm spending x dollars and then they tack on that stinking buyer's premium" think of it as "I'm spending x dollars and somewhere in that total is the buyer's premium." You will never get your hands on certain high profile books without paying the dreaded buyer's premium. It sucks, but it's the cost of playing around in the heritage sandbox- which is a pretty cool sandbox...

[murph0]

Actually most of the books I'll be bidding on, are readily available..just trying to decide if I wanna pay a premium or not for a Nic Cage book..

 

Brian

[drbanner]

I sure hope there's no "Nic premium", as there are some great books in his part of the auction, but I'm not willing to pay any more to have the Nicolas Cage label...