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my take on the recent Comicconnect Centaur auction results...
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63 posts in this topic

over next few posts, I will give my overall impression of the auction...

the first Monday set the tone for what turned out to be good momentum...

I do believe auctioning every book of the publisher, helped in realized pricing, as anyone that entered this auction had a chance to take home any book they were willing to pay for (that seems trivial, but is often not the case when long runs or groups are posted, it almost always seems like some really good or really tough books would be omitted, or presold, etc)… Naturally I had a tremendous amount of help assembling, and many times on rare books, I always appreciate the "first right of refusal" when selling...

but to preserve the event, I had to make them all available, hold or presell nothing back, and I certainly believe that was of great importance

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So Centaur is very "A" heavy... between amazing man and amazing mystery funnies up through arrow, this part of the auction was the heaviest percentages of "great" books (they are all, of course, great)

One thing collectors of the publisher know, is that grade is often times less important, than actually finding a copy of the book... so a slightly restored, or even a slightly brittle page copy, I believe performs as well as a comparable universal of same grade.... that's how I approached when I would seek out issues...just try to "Find" a copy first, regardless of condition, and then worry about trying to find an upgrade later...

So, my "expectations" were to get my cost out of the run and take the 10% vig hit...I figured the intangible value of collecting and owning them would more than make up for this, and I knew I had low 6 figures of cost in the books, so that was my "hope" I also knew I was facing tremendous post hurricane expenses, so the decision to sell, while a difficult one, was the right one

...I also held the belief that by pulling me out of the bidding process, that one top end bidder was out (and in any past case of me needing a book, I "was" the winner), so that now prices would be between bidder 2 and 3, and that of course dictates lower realized pricing... on many lots I was correct, as realized prices were 10-100% less than I had paid (and this does account for grading fees, since 80% of my books were either bought raw or cracked out of slabs)...but the main event books, while 10-20% in number of the collection, made up 120% of the loss (resulting in a net positive of 20%, less 10% vig resulted in a net 10% gain...a 20% swing from my expectations)… this was obviously a result of new top end bidders taking my place...so THANK YOU to you all

the first 2 lots, Amazing adventure funnies, both sold for less than 50% of what I had paid for them...not the "start" one would want...

then we got to amazing man...the first few Everett covers are in high demand, but after the berk offering of high grade larsons and such just 2 years ago, I knew my lower grade and restored issues would likely not even fetch what I paid for them...and I was correct...every issue sold at or below (sometimes 100% below what I paid) with 3 exceptions

aman 20, aman 22 and aman 25....with the aman 22 eclipsing the 54K mark (I had hoped for 45K, which would be my post vig break even point)...so those 3 were nice surprises, but still left aman run at a net loss, price wise...

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So, the next run, amazing mystery funnies, was the "winner" of the auction for me...outside of some arrow funny pages, almost all first group loss was made up, and realized prices were strong...

The winners (for me) were (books that sold 50-100% over my cost)

Amf 1/1 (I had projected 4-5K, went 6300), amf 2/2 (I had projected 8-10K, went 13200) ,amf 2/4 (I had projected 2500, went 4400)  amf 2/5 (I had projected 13-15, went 19+) , and amf3/1 (I had projected 2K, went 5K+)

but many books, like amf 18 that I paid 1500 for , went for 700 (630 net)...while others , like the amf promo I had projected/wanted 4K from, went 4400...but on the whole, the majority of amf's got close to, or exceeded my cost by an avg of 10%, allowing me to come out of that run with a profit for the first nights group

all 3 arrows went slightly under my net auction cost, but were close...and that is actually a win, since I was willing to pay "whatever" to get books...of course, there really wasn't an established price what a 6.0 arrow 3 goes for...I think I paid 3100 and it auctioned at 3300...so right in "line"

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Day 2 offerings were a little more modest, and overall performed like the average day 1 books...

some books did exceedingly well...

the first 5 comic magazines ("funny pages" ), all sold for 25-50% more than I had paid and 100% more than I had projected (yes, I thought I would lose money on these)... that was a bit shocking, since I had auctioned this exact same set off moons ago when I first stopped pursuing centaurs, and I specifically recall how poorly they performed (I lost 50% that time)... so this was the first "big" surprise for me

cowboy comics 14 was a big disappointment...the last 6.0 range book had sold like 6K, my copy went 1600... but you win some big, and this was one of the big losers for me...

that was it for Tuesday

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I was surprised with the Man of War 2 getting way more for a 4.0 than the highgrade 1 so that was different.I see  the  health for Centaurs in general to be good as you know i loved them for sometime.When i part with my Cheslers you know the end is coming for me but for now Centaurs and Cheslers are my first loves :luhv:

Edited by comicjack
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AMF has always been a great run. My personal Favorite. I'm glad you still came out ahead in the long run ,Rick. I guess it all balances out in the end.

I wish I could have bid on some of those books myself ,  but prices are pretty crazy nowadays. I'm happy with the 40 or so Centaurs I do have in my collection that I bought years ago.  

 

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Day 3 (Wednesday night) was another big $ night...

it featured the arrow funny pages issues which, with only a couple of exceptions, all performed extremely well...this batch seemed to solidify the overall positive net of the auction for me

the non arrow "funny animal" issues, which are so very difficult to locate, seemed, overall to under perform  (for the most part, and by under perform, I mean the prices realized were less than I had paid)

Detective picture stories all went about what I expected, within a small range...

the big early surprise of detective eye 2...I figured that was a 1K book and it went 2900

there were some high and low surprises  the funny animal funny pages...some high, some low, but over all, under performed as expected... books like fp 10 went for 375 when I had paid 3x that and was ecstatic at that...but the fp7 sold 2250 when I had paid about half that...so they kind of averaged out, but the results were not "extraordinary" there... but overall, I think I took a hit on almost every non arrow funny page issue...c'est la vie

the results that were well above my expectations were the arrow covered issues... I think all went above to well above my expectations with maybe only a couple of under performers (fp 4/1 was a 20% net loss book...I had this one projected at 5K+ and it went 4300)

fp35 I had projected at 3K, went 5800

fp36 I had projected at 5K, went 7K

fp37 had projected at 5K, went 6700

fp38 I had projected at 6K, went slightly under at 5800

fp39 I had projected at 6K, went 7K

fp40 I had projected at 10-12K , went 16K

fp41 I had projected at 5K, went 5K

fp42 I had projected at 4K, went 3300

so overall exceeded my projections/expectations... though, if the other 20+ funny animal had of performed "better" by only a couple hundred each, would have been huge to the net...but still, I am very very happy with results comic connect got!

 

Funny picture story run was right in line with what I had expected...again, no real winners or losers, just a balance that worked out fine

 

 

Edited by G.A.tor
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Thursday night I wasn't sure what to expect...

while KDFs have long been a favorite (and difficult) run for me, but I wasn't sure how bidders would respond...

overall, I think it slightly exceeded my expectations , which means a little bit of profit came from this run too!

KDF 10 was the "worst" performer overall... it was a 1.0 brittle bc the folios were split...but its the toughest of all the KDF's to get, so I had hoped it would go for 3-4x more than it did, but alas not to be

KDF2/2 was a winner...I figured 1500 and it went almost 3K

KDF 20 another winner...I have had a 5.0 available at conventions (duplicate copy) for $1750 for a year...this copy went almost 3K (guess I have to raise price on inventory copy now lol )

some over expectations:

Keen Komics 1 I had projected at 3500, went 4300

Liberty guards...projected 2000, went 4300

Man of war 2...projected 1000, went 1800

Little Giant comics  4....I won this one in the berk auction 2 years ago for $7100...I was prepared to go 20K+ on it (luckily I didn't have to, but figured the second bidder dropped out then at 7K, without me, it would surely finish lower)….so I passively projected 5K, hoping not to lose to much... it ended at 11,900...still "cheap" to me, but was the #1 surprise of the entire auction for me!!!!

 

 

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38 minutes ago, G.A.tor said:

but the main event books, while 10-20% in number of the collection, made up 120% of the loss (resulting in a net positive of 20%, less 10% vig resulted in a net 10% gain...a 20% swing from my expectations)

???

I think this has something to do with how π is calculated.

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Friday's offerings "scared" me...

the reason is that most of the non superhero type books at all sold at under what I had paid for them (funny pages, funny picture stories, kdf's), so to have Star comics, star rangers and such, I figured this would be a tough night...and while I had no idea where I was at before Friday, had I of known I was in the plus post vig, I would have stressed the whole night (thankfully that reason I didn't want to know results daily, already enough post hurricane stress here to last me a lifetime...heck, it's probably shortened my lifetime!)

but, outside of the Star Comics 3, which I had projected at $6K and ended at 3200, that was really the only real disappointment for me Friday night!

most every star and star comics exceeded my projection by 10%-20%, so that was fantastic!

Star 11 was a winner, doubling my projection

The real winners of the night for me turned out to the be the Stars and Stripes run...

when I first sold my centaurs some 8-10 years ago, I kept the SS run...its the only original "set" I had...it was one of my personal favorites...that said, I had owned these books for 15 years? and hadn't paid much for any of them...only one I upgraded over time was issue 4 (to the 8.0)

so I projected each of the 5 issues at 1K....they averaged 3500...so that was a huge surprise and very welcomed...

the last thankful result was uncle joes...I knew the berk 7.0 had sold like 3800 so I projected my 8.0 at 5K...it went for that, but I worried that could have been a big loser..

 

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13 minutes ago, G.A.tor said:

The real winners of the night for me turned out to the be the Stars and Stripes run...

If I had the funds, that is what I would have wanted and would have gone after.

Didn't you speculate on what this series picked up the numbering from or was there no evidence of a #1?  I may be remembering something else.

Edited by telerites
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4 minutes ago, telerites said:

If I had the funds, that is what I would have wanted and would have gone after.

Didn't you speculate on what this series picked up the numbering from or was there no evidence of a #1?  I may be remembering something else.

I don't think it was ever figured out...was 1941, so late in the game...

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