My auction results with HA 1 1

[Lobstrosity]

There's been a lot of discussions lately about where prices as a whole are headed, and so I thought people might be interested in my results.
I've never really sold much, but realities dictated that I should probably liquidate a bit this year (Hollywood strikes have been challenging), so I consigned 54 pieces with HA. I would have preferred (and I had expected) that they would be auctioned off in the late summer/early fall, but instead they landed in Nov/Dec. I had 14 pieces in the November auction, and 10 pieces each in the 4 subsequent weekly auctions.

I made my own low / high estimates roughly 12 months prior to the sales.

Here's how things broke down:

November Auction
- 14 pieces total
- 14 pieces made money 
- 4 pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 4 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 6 pieces exceeded my high estimate 
- All together, I ended between my low/high estimates 

Nov 29th weekly auction:
- 10 pieces total
- 10 pieces made money 
- 2 pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 2 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 6 pieces exceeded my high estimate 
- All together, I ended above my high estimate 

Dec 6 weekly auction:
- 10 pieces total
- 1 piece lost money 
- 6 other pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 2 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 1 piece exceeded my high estimate 
- All together, I landed below my low estimate 

Dec 13 weekly auction:
- 10 pieces total
- 1 piece lost money 
- 4 other pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 4 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 1 piece exceeded my high estimate 
- All together, I landed below my low estimate 

Dec 20 weekly auction:
- 10 pieces total
- 1 piece lost money 
- 5 other pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 2 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 2 pieces exceeded my high estimates 
- All together, I landed between my low/high estimates 

In the end, I had way more pieces than I would have hoped that ended below my low estimates... but the ones that outperformed made up for them. My grand total is comfortably between my low and high estimates, which seems fair.
It's not the timing I would have chosen, but we don't always get to choose. The results in the weeklies seemed to trend downwards unfortunately. But overall, I'm happy with my result.
 

[Twanj]

That's great info!

How much do you think was the whole market being lower now than earlier vs people spending on other things before holidays?

[Lobstrosity]

Based on the 1st two auctions, it didn't seem the market was lower at all.

After that though, things definitely went downhill. I think it was partially due to the proximity to Christmas, but also partially due to the weekly auction format (and what I imagine is) a much smaller audience for those.

I do think having them run earlier in the fall would have helped a bit.

[cstojano]

Curious when you sent the pieces in to them? I get the sense HA had these early in 2023 if you hoped for a summer offering.

Edited December 21, 2023 by cstojano

[Lobstrosity]

On 12/21/2023 at 6:26 AM, cstojano said:

Curious when you sent the pieces in to them? I get the sense HA had these early in 2023 if you hoped for a summer offering.

They received them in July

[KirbyCollector]

Would you mind sharing a breakdown of type (cover, panel page, strip etc) and price range? I recently put in a panel page to HA at the last minute and they shoehorned it into the Nov featured, but the value was 10K+. I'm going to cycle about 20-30 more pages of lesser value thru them, and having an understanding of what their potential listing thresholds are (featured vs weekly, sooner rather than later) would be helpful. For example, do you know why your first 10 were listed vs the last 10? Or were the choices on their part completely random?

Edited December 21, 2023 by KirbyCollector

[Lobstrosity]

On 12/21/2023 at 9:15 AM, KirbyCollector said:

Would you mind sharing a breakdown of type (cover, panel page, strip etc) and price range? I recently put in a panel page to HA at the last minute and they shoehorned it into the Nov featured, but the value was 10K+. I'm going to cycle about 20-30 more pages of lesser value thru them, and having an understanding of what their potential listing thresholds are (featured vs weekly, sooner rather than later) would be helpful. For example, do you know why your first 10 were listed vs the last 10? Or were the choices on their part completely random?

The biggest items were in the November auction, although none made it into the 'platinum session'

November pieces ranged from 3k -25k+

Weekly items topped out between 5-7k

There were covers, double-page splashes, splashes, interiors, pinups, and commissions represented. All were in both venues except for commissions (weekly only).

[buttock]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:14 PM, Lobstrosity said:

There's been a lot of discussions lately about where prices as a whole are headed, and so I thought people might be interested in my results.
I've never really sold much, but realities dictated that I should probably liquidate a bit this year (Hollywood strikes have been challenging), so I consigned 54 pieces with HA. I would have preferred (and I had expected) that they would be auctioned off in the late summer/early fall, but instead they landed in Nov/Dec. I had 14 pieces in the November auction, and 10 pieces each in the 4 subsequent weekly auctions.

I made my own low / high estimates roughly 12 months prior to the sales.

Here's how things broke down:

November Auction
- 14 pieces total
- 14 pieces made money 
- 4 pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 4 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 6 pieces exceeded my high estimate 
- All together, I ended between my low/high estimates 

Nov 29th weekly auction:
- 10 pieces total
- 10 pieces made money 
- 2 pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 2 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 6 pieces exceeded my high estimate 
- All together, I ended above my high estimate 

Dec 6 weekly auction:
- 10 pieces total
- 1 piece lost money 
- 6 other pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 2 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 1 piece exceeded my high estimate 
- All together, I landed below my low estimate 

Dec 13 weekly auction:
- 10 pieces total
- 1 piece lost money 
- 4 other pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 4 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 1 piece exceeded my high estimate 
- All together, I landed below my low estimate 

Dec 20 weekly auction:
- 10 pieces total
- 1 piece lost money 
- 5 other pieces failed to meet my low estimate 
- 2 pieces landed between my low/high 
- 2 pieces exceeded my high estimates 
- All together, I landed between my low/high estimates 

In the end, I had way more pieces than I would have hoped that ended below my low estimates... but the ones that outperformed made up for them. My grand total is comfortably between my low and high estimates, which seems fair.
It's not the timing I would have chosen, but we don't always get to choose. The results in the weeklies seemed to trend downwards unfortunately. But overall, I'm happy with my result.
 

This has been my experience with Heritage over the years.  Some will disappoint, some will blow you away, and the latter tends to make up for the former.  But unfortunately that means you have to consign volume to keep your average up.  Thanks for sharing!

[ThothAmon]

Sounds like a win to me!  Congratulations for a successful sale and deepest sympathies for the anguish that comes with that many new holes in your collection. 

[JollyComics]

I am sorry about your financial hardship/challenged but i congratulated you for making money through HA. 

I know nearly four month SAG/AFTRA strike was tough especially living in LA area which is not cheap to live in.

I can relate you because I was on strike at Columbia College of Chicago since October 30th.  CFAC (unionized Adjunct Faculty) ended 50 days of strike by reaching the tentative agreement with Columbia College on December 17th.  CFAC members voted upon the ramifications recently and unanimously approved the agreement.  It affected my financial but it's rather temporary too.  I thought the strike would have last through Spring Semester and was about to option out of the union but I am happy with the outcome early.

Hopefully SAG/AFTRA won't see other strike for a time being as mine.

[Lobstrosity]

On 12/21/2023 at 11:31 AM, JollyComics said:

I am sorry about your financial hardship/challenged but i congratulated you for making money through HA. 

I know nearly four month SAG/AFTRA strike was tough especially living in LA area which is not cheap to live in.

I can relate you because I was on strike at Columbia College of Chicago since October 30th.  CFAC (unionized Adjunct Faculty) ended 50 days of strike by reaching the tentative agreement with Columbia College on December 17th.  CFAC members voted upon the ramifications recently and unanimously approved the agreement.  It affected my financial but it's rather temporary too.  I thought the strike would have last through Spring Semester and was about to option out of the union but I am happy with the outcome early.

Hopefully SAG/AFTRA won't see other strike for a time being as mine.

Yes with any luck it will be a long time. The last one I went through was back in 2008 (Writers), so it had been a while. This year was a one-two punch with both the Writers and SAG unfortunately. Congrats on yours ending early!

[JollyComics]

On 12/21/2023 at 12:55 PM, Lobstrosity said:

Yes with any luck it will be a long time. The last one I went through was back in 2008 (Writers), so it had been a while. This year was a one-two punch with both the Writers and SAG unfortunately. Congrats on yours ending early!

I just learned about AI using their headshot or screen test. That was the one of reasons for the strike.  That's scared me off.  I am a part-time actor and don't want AI taking advantage of my hard working acting job.  Your writing too!

Edited December 22, 2023 by JollyComics