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Heritage vs Comic Link vs Comic Connect
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134 posts in this topic

After watching an X-Men 1 8.0 set a new high water mark on Heritage this weekend I got to thinking about which auction house offers the best return for sellers, specifically for higher dollar silver age books.  I tend to sell on ebay for lower valued slabs but in the event I ever sell the five figured books I'm wondering who regularly realizes the highest prices after commissions? 

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For Silver, I think Heritage, Clink and ComicConnect all pretty much get the same results, so then it depends on what kind of a deal you've negotiated to determine who provides the best net benefit.  

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1 hour ago, tth2 said:

For Silver, I think Heritage, Clink and ComicConnect all pretty much get the same results, so then it depends on what kind of a deal you've negotiated to determine who provides the best net benefit.  

Why negotiate with heritage when comicconnect and comiclink both only charge 10 percent?  Will they go below 10 percent on silver age keys.  I’ve received coupons for major keys but the net result is far from 10 percent 

Edited by Spiderturtle
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I’ve never sold on heritage but as I understand it, they keep the 20% buyers premium in addition to the 10% sellers fees, right?

 

For example, on a $10k book the total cost to the buyer is $12k. The seller keeps 9k, and heritage keeps 3K. 

CLINk sells the same book for 10k and the buyer gets 9k. 

Am I missing something?

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5 hours ago, Spiderturtle said:
6 hours ago, tth2 said:

For Silver, I think Heritage, Clink and ComicConnect all pretty much get the same results, so then it depends on what kind of a deal you've negotiated to determine who provides the best net benefit.  

Why negotiate with heritage when comicconnect and comiclink both only charge 10 percent?  Will they go below 10 percent on silver age keys.  I’ve received coupons for major keys but the net result is far from 10 percent 

"Net benefit" can mean more than just the commission/fees.  For me, customer service, access to senior decision-makers who can resolve issues quickly, etc., have value.  For example, with Heritage, I have a deal that for any book that I'm consigning, no other copy within 2 grades of mine can be in the same auction. 

An auction house that makes a consignor feel like a valued customer and provides personalized service can be worth a few percentage points compared to an auction house that acts like it's doing the consignor a favor by allowing him/her to consign books.  And if the consignor happen to get the exact same or better financial terms, then it's a no-brainer.   

Having said that, for Marvel SA, it's pretty much been commoditized and all the same players follow all 3 auction houses equally, so the gross result will probably be the same across the board. 

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1 hour ago, c_mkv said:

Am I missing something?

Do you pay full fare when you fly, or pay full rack rate when you stay at a hotel?  Probably not.

So why assume you have to do so if you consign to Heritage?

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41 minutes ago, tth2 said:

"Net benefit" can mean more than just the commission/fees.  For me, customer service, access to senior decision-makers who can resolve issues quickly, etc., have value.  For example, with Heritage, I have a deal that for any book that I'm consigning, no other copy within 2 grades of mine can be in the same auction. 

An auction house that makes a consignor feel like a valued customer and provides personalized service can be worth a few percentage points compared to an auction house that acts like it's doing the consignor a favor by allowing him/her to consign books.  And if the consignor happen to get the exact same or better financial terms, then it's a no-brainer.   

Having said that, for Marvel SA, it's pretty much been commoditized and all the same players follow all 3 auction houses equally, so the gross result will probably be the same across the board. 

I get the same customer service over at comiclink.  I talk to Josh and Douglas on a one on one basis.  They value my opinion and concerns.  We gameplan out how to maximize my return.   Why?  Because I've cosigned a bunch of high dollar books to them.  So when it comes to silver age keys, I turn to comiclink.

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11 hours ago, Darthbryan said:

After watching an X-Men 1 8.0 set a new high water mark on Heritage this weekend I got to thinking about which auction house offers the best return for sellers, specifically for higher dollar silver age books.  I tend to sell on ebay for lower valued slabs but in the event I ever sell the five figured books I'm wondering who regularly realizes the highest prices after commissions? 

Still another option is to consign your high value Silver Age books to a dealer.  That way, you can set the sale price yourself.  Since it may take some time for a book to sell, it doesn't raise funds as quickly as a must-sell auction, but you won't have any books underperform either.

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4 hours ago, Spiderturtle said:

I get the same customer service over at comiclink.  I talk to Josh and Douglas on a one on one basis.  They value my opinion and concerns.  We gameplan out how to maximize my return.   Why?  Because I've cosigned a bunch of high dollar books to them.  So when it comes to silver age keys, I turn to comiclink.

(thumbsu

 

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10 hours ago, c_mkv said:

I’ve never sold on heritage but as I understand it, they keep the 20% buyers premium in addition to the 10% sellers fees, right?

 

For example, on a $10k book the total cost to the buyer is $12k. The seller keeps 9k, and heritage keeps 3K. 

CLINk sells the same book for 10k and the buyer gets 9k. 

Am I missing something?

Yes. If a customer is willing to pay 12k to heritage they are willing to pay that to clink

so under your scenario the consignor gets 9k with heritage but 10,800 with clink 

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Ha has greater exposure and increased possibilities of a record price as well as a superior website, I would go to CC second as they have a really strong client base.HA, CL. and CC are open to some form of sliding scale on fees. the bottom line is just that....

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I've simply always used C-Link. Tried to do Comicconnect several times, but they cut the deadline for books pretty far in advance and I usually miss it when I plan to send stuff in lol. C-Link has been good to me though. Always gotten an advance when needed. Jason is my advisor and he usually gets back very quick, and talks a gameplan out with me when I have thoughts on when to submit. I've had some low sales now and then, but mainly solid or great sales. Selling on Heritage scares me because of that buyer's premium. I just worry what I'm missing out on when I know soo much goes to them.

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17 hours ago, tth2 said:

Do you pay full fare when you fly, or pay full rack rate when you stay at a hotel?  Probably not.

So why assume you have to do so if you consign to Heritage?

 This should apply to other dealers and auction houses.

Why start a sales conversation with someone charging 30% when the industry sells at 10% or less? Their sales aren’t outpacing FMV by 20%....at least not the books I’m buying and selling. 

Edited by c_mkv
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Heritage is not very intuitive to use, plus that Buyers Fee!!!! Ugh! :frustrated:

CLink, no watch option and bidding at the last few seconds is VERY glitchy I have found.

CC I have had numerous bad experiences but to their credit they fixed those issues in the long run.  And speaking of LONG, it takes way too long to get the slabs.  They say they do for QC however those bad experiences I mentioned all had to do with cracked cases and damage books!!! They are the only place I have had issues with of cracked cases and damaged books (43% of the time! And yes,I just did the math).

^^ === CLINK IMHO:acclaim:

Edited by Xenosmilus
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59 minutes ago, c_mkv said:

 This should apply to other dealers and auction houses.

Why start a sales conversation with someone charging 30% when the industry sells at 10% or less? Their sales aren’t outpacing FMV by 20%....at least not the books I’m buying and selling. 

If anything there’s bargains to be had on Heritage.  I know because before comiclink and comicconnect charged sales tax (I’m in California); I would win on heritage at 10 percent(accounting for sales taxes) or less of my max bid compared to comiclink or comicconnect.  A lot of times it was less than that 10 percent 

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21 hours ago, namisgr said:

Still another option is to consign your high value Silver Age books to a dealer.  That way, you can set the sale price yourself.  Since it may take some time for a book to sell, it doesn't raise funds as quickly as a must-sell auction, but you won't have any books underperform either.

The thing about selling to a dealer, even on consignment, is that it's essentially a fixed price listing/BIN.  While you eliminate the downside risk, you also forego the upside benefit from an auction.

For example, if I owned the CGC 9.4 Pacific Coast copy of Aquaman #11, I probably would've thought the most I could get for it would be $2500 or so, and maybe would've consigned it with a dealer at $3000 if there was no urgency to sell.  In no universe or parallel universe would I have ever thought that someone would be willing to pay $24,000.  So I would've left $21,000 on the table by not putting it up for auction.

We've seen the same thing happen with a 9.8 FF #52 and in the most recent Heritage Signature Auction, a 9.8 TMNT #1.   

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6 hours ago, tth2 said:

The thing about selling to a dealer, even on consignment, is that it's essentially a fixed price listing/BIN.  While you eliminate the downside risk, you also forego the upside benefit from an auction.

For example, if I owned the CGC 9.4 Pacific Coast copy of Aquaman #11, I probably would've thought the most I could get for it would be $2500 or so, and maybe would've consigned it with a dealer at $3000 if there was no urgency to sell.  In no universe or parallel universe would I have ever thought that someone would be willing to pay $24,000.  So I would've left $21,000 on the table by not putting it up for auction.

We've seen the same thing happen with a 9.8 FF #52 and in the most recent Heritage Signature Auction, a 9.8 TMNT #1.   

This logic works on unique super high grade examples of keys.  The auction houses are sometimes very good at setting a new market because as some believe they are bidding in a "free market bidding environment" where the bidder assumes there are " multiple buyers". 

The auction houses are also very good at setting some good low numbers to.  How did the Avengers #4 9.2 ($8100) do in the last auction?  Showcase #4 7.0 ($37.200)?  Set any new records on these where the seller left money on the table?    

Does the same logic apply to 9.2 copies,  I doubt it. 

Put down the pom pom's.  

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