When do you do when multiple people want your art? 2 2

[Doc Joe]

Have numerous pieces over the years where I have received CAF mails asking to sell something; what do you do in that situation when you are finally interested in selling? 

At the moment I have messaged the 4 people who did show interest in a piece and said feel free to make an offer. 

I know I hate the old 'there are several collectors interested' but there really are!!!!

Or do you just stick it in an auction and see what happens when you open it to hundreds of collectors?

Joe

 

[Brian Peck]

4 minutes ago, Doc Joe said:

Have numerous pieces over the years where I have received CAF mails asking to sell something; what do you do in that situation when you are finally interested in selling? 

At the moment I have messaged the 4 people who did show interest in a piece and said feel free to make an offer. 

I know I hate the old 'there are several collectors interested' but there really are!!!!

Or do you just stick it in an auction and see what happens when you open it to hundreds of collectors?

Joe

 

I contact people who have showed interest just like you did. I have also had collectors do the same for me. Since they made the effort to inquire about a piece in the past I want to give them initial option on it.

[GreatEscape]

Joe—  Always a good dilemma.  First, you need to decide if it’s a piece you’re really prepared to sell— can be difficult to do but often saves time and headaches down the road.  My suggestion is to create a short list of folks with prior expressed interest ie, sent email/PM or favorited/commented on CAF with implied interest (ie, “if you decide to sell...”).    I’d send a quick note that you are open to selling the piece and, if possible, give your asking price.  As I mostly find myself as the recipient of such emails, I’m more likely to pursue a piece with an asking price (no matter if well above my eventual offer).  A reasonable asking price tells me (1) the owner is ready to sell so I’m not wasting time and (2) how my prospective offer price aligns with the owner’s price expectations. This way, you are not only selling the piece in a quiet/private setting (so you also restrict the For Sale status among a few parties) but you also create goodwill with buyer(s) for remembering/recognizing their past indication of interest.  Who knows, they may be in position to return the favor someday.  

Hope this helps.  Good luck on the sale!

Edited May 27, 2018 by GreatEscape

[BeholdersEye]

The best way to handle this is to simply consign it to Heritage or ComicLink or put it up on eBay for an auction and let the strongest bidder prevail, not limited to those 4 interested parties but the entire landscape of aware collectors, ideally creating a bidding war, but truly is a level and fair playing field allowing everyone the opportunity to vie for the piece and purchase it.  Any sour grapes from those hoping to get it for a cheaper than FMV price or feel they were entitled to it because of a previous inquiry (unless you made a specific promise) are S.O.L. and just bargain hunting.

The relationship between buyer and seller is always conflicted,  A seller wants the most revenue.  A buyer wants to pay the least amount possible.  So, the auction model allows the survival of the fittest to your benefit to maximize profit potential. 

[Doc Joe]

all valid points...thank you...I suspect there is no right answer, and what you may be happy with could be way under what it gets at auction. 

I feel some degree of obligation to reach out to the people who expressed interest (maybe in the hope that others would do the same to me) 

One has already said they cant do it, emails ranged from 2012 - 2016 , so some are quite old. 

of course...the real issue is my son just said no to selling LOL

so it may be off the table again anyway!

[comix4fun]

7 hours ago, Doc Joe said:

Have numerous pieces over the years where I have received CAF mails asking to sell something; what do you do in that situation when you are finally interested in selling? 

At the moment I have messaged the 4 people who did show interest in a piece and said feel free to make an offer. 

I know I hate the old 'there are several collectors interested' but there really are!!!!

Or do you just stick it in an auction and see what happens when you open it to hundreds of collectors?

Joe

 

Joe's Milkshake brings all the boys to his CAF...... 

 

[ESeffinga]

If it’s back off the table then this is probably a moot response, but maybe it’ll be interesting in terms of discussion.

 

Id dare say most collectors want the maximum bang for their selling buck, and if you’ve had multiple recent inquiries, it stands to reason that the piece would be of interest to far more folks than just the few that have emailed about it. In that scenario, I’d think an auction format may well bring you a best financial result. Nothing is a guarantee that all those folks will be ready to buy, the day you decide to put the piece up for sale, but if it’s an auction with a few weeks lead up, it gives them some advance notice to try and make any fiscal or mental arrangements to be ready.

 

That all said, I’ve very frequently sold pieces direct to other CAF members. More frequently than via auctions for sure. And the way I’ve always looked at it is the way I choose to view much of the hobby, which is as a community. And maybe it’s a little naive of me, but I’d rather leave a few bucks on he table and do a fellow collector a solid, than line a 3rd party’s pockets in the hopes of striking it rich on a fluke payday. Or in the outside chance I end up With a piece that “fell between the cracks” that day. Still lining the 3rd party’s pockets and ending up losing out.

 

When It comes time for me to sell a piece, I look through all the inquiries I’ve had about it over the years, and I try to contact those people in the order in which they were received, and let them know I’m putting the piece up for sale, with a price. 

The less I want to sell a piece, the harder it gets to make myself put one on it. But price it, I must. Or it’s off to the auctions.  But I tend to just price at or very near “market” as I can in these scenarios. Well above market is for folks prying pieces away, not for “I want the money” sales. And every once in a while if it’s for a collector I know and I’d really like to place the piece with them, I’ve gone below market, leaving as much as 4 figures on the table, taken personal losses, or offered multi year time payments to try and help put the piece there. 

 

I do do these things because, community. Some collectors have done me some real solids over the years, and I do try to pay that forward whenever I am able. I feel like this is the fuel that ties us together as much as the mutual love and desire of comics and art. If it was just about the money, or the money and the almost unnatural need for the stuff, we would be a bunch of backstabbing bristolboard fiending crackheads. 

And if there were multiple friends asking for the piece, I’d go back to those inquiry emails. First come, first offered. And if the next guys asks why him? I’d produce the dated IM inquiries. More often then not, the messages are months or even years apart.

 

But as I tell everyone that offers against my NFS pieces, I keep the list when I save the inquiries, and I go back and contact those purpose in the order they’ve contacted me. So it couldn’t be more clear. And if they say “but I’d pay more” (and this has happened), I say pretty much what I’ve said here. To me not everything is about maximizing the money. Maybe that makes me the anti-Coollines or whatever. But there it is.

 

 

[Rick2you2]

18 minutes ago, ESeffinga said:

I do do these things because, community. Some collectors have done me some real solids over the years, and I do try to pay that forward whenever I am able.

I just wanted to say that I consider this to be a kind and generous attitude.

My collecting ties me into the pleasures of my youth with the appreciation of subtlety gained through adulthood. So many modern books are hard to enjoy; the plots are too complex or dark, the science is too muddled, the legal landscape ignored. Viewing my collection--my past reminiscences through the eyes of an adult--it erases the hardness. 

So, thank you for the sentiment.

[jjonahjameson11]

11 hours ago, BeholdersEye said:

The best way to handle this is to simply consign it to Heritage or ComicLink or put it up on eBay for an auction and let the strongest bidder prevail, not limited to those 4 interested parties but the entire landscape of aware collectors, ideally creating a bidding war, but truly is a level and fair playing field allowing everyone the opportunity to vie for the piece and purchase it.  Any sour grapes from those hoping to get it for a cheaper than FMV price or feel they were entitled to it because of a previous inquiry (unless you made a specific promise) are S.O.L. and just bargain hunting.

The relationship between buyer and seller is always conflicted,  A seller wants the most revenue.  A buyer wants to pay the least amount possible.  So, the auction model allows the survival of the fittest to your benefit to maximize profit potential. 

I have contacted a few folks on CAF over the years, indicating my interest in pieces they own and to contact me should they decide to sell.

i am very grateful they remembered me and contacted me with a firm price, which I readily paid, and I am quite confident I paid more than what the sellers would have received if they chose to go the auction route.

So to all the CAFers who remembered my request for their art, I thank you once again for a great collector-to-collector experience and in helping me expand my collection with treasured artwork. ?

[John S.]

22 hours ago, Doc Joe said:

Have numerous pieces over the years where I have received CAF mails asking to sell something; what do you do in that situation when you are finally interested in selling? 

At the moment I have messaged the 4 people who did show interest in a piece and said feel free to make an offer. 

I know I hate the old 'there are several collectors interested' but there really are!!!!

Or do you just stick it in an auction and see what happens when you open it to hundreds of collectors?

Joe

 

 

Just sell it to me and save yourself all the trouble  

[Doc Joe]

18 hours ago, comix4fun said:

Joe's Milkshake brings all the boys to his CAF...... 

 

My CAF has very little listed on it these days...

[Doc Joe]

3 hours ago, John S. said:

 

Just sell it to me and save yourself all the trouble  

 

[Doc Joe]

Have heard back from three people, one was a no, the other offered trade (i.e. no), gave another an aggressive price and will see what happens

 

[delekkerste]

2 hours ago, Doc Joe said:

Have heard back from three people, one was a no, the other offered trade (i.e. no), gave another an aggressive price and will see what happens

 

Sounds about right.  

[AnkurJ]

There was a piece I was interested in and inquired a few times over the course of a few years. Answer was always NFS. That was ok.

But when I saw it had been consigned to auction, I honestly didn’t feel too interested in bidding. And it went for less than I would have been willing to pay. Auctions can be great but can be duds too. If you have an interested party with a solid offer, why not take it?

[Doc Joe]

2 hours ago, AnkurJ said:

There was a piece I was interested in and inquired a few times over the course of a few years. Answer was always NFS. That was ok.

But when I saw it had been consigned to auction, I honestly didn’t feel too interested in bidding. And it went for less than I would have been willing to pay. Auctions can be great but can be duds too. If you have an interested party with a solid offer, why not take it?

I never really imagined it would exist but I found someone who refuses to bid on auction, even if its a thing they want. No idea why but the won't do auctions

 

 

[Flambit]

5 hours ago, AnkurJ said:

There was a piece I was interested in and inquired a few times over the course of a few years. Answer was always NFS. That was ok.

But when I saw it had been consigned to auction, I honestly didn’t feel too interested in bidding. And it went for less than I would have been willing to pay. Auctions can be great but can be duds too. If you have an interested party with a solid offer, why not take it?

Similar thing happened to me.  I inquired and was shot down - albeit in a very nice/polite way.  

It went to Clink and I got it for so much less than what I had been prepared to offer to the gentleman.  

Moral of the story: you may be holding on to someone's grail and don't even know it.  Always at least be willing to hear offers!

[Rick2you2]

9 hours ago, Doc Joe said:

I never really imagined it would exist but I found someone who refuses to bid on auction, even if its a thing they want. No idea why but the won't do auctions

 

 

There have been a few times I have not bid at auction when I would have previously bought it at private sale. Generally, it's been because I had since found something I liked even more, I have spent my discretionary funds for the moment, or the "heat" of interest just isn't there anymore.