Heritage less beneficial to seller than CL/CC for Golden GGA Comics 1 1

[tpetty]

I've bought from Heritage, ebay , CL, and CC in the past.  Even when I already have a specific book (largely GGA) I still track similar issues though out the years, with a saved pic/price/date/auction site.

I was looking through this recently, and noticed that Heritage seems to fairly routinely be worse for the seller (at least for the Golden Age GGA genre).  It's hard to compare precisely at times, and I know that even within a specific grade there are cosmetic differences that can make one 6.0 present nicer (and so often sell for more) than a different 6.0.  That being said, I will post some examples below.

The key to this is to remember that the sales price that Heritage shows includes the 20% buyers fee, so the seller is getting about 30% less than the sales price, so only about 70% of the final sales price.  With CC/CL the seller is getting 90% of the hammer price. I haven't included much of the ebay comparables - because I know that some people don't trust ebay sellers.  (However, from my brief comparisons, it looks like ebay is pretty comparable to CC/CL for sales prices, and the commission is similar as well.)

I tried to find the same/similar grade of an issue, with sales within a given year.  I have only included examples from the last couple years. (although I have data back a lot further than that.)

[tpetty]

First issue sold on ebay for $655, 2nd on Heritage for $660.  That's $590 for the ebay seller vs $462 for the Heritage seller.

[tpetty]

First issue sold on CL for $521, 2nd on Heritage for $528.  Again, similar sales prices - but not similar take home for the seller

[tpetty]

First sold via ComicLink for $1026, 2nd on Heritage for $1560.  The Heritage issue is MUCH nicer, but look at the seller take home.

 

$900 vs. $1000.  Almost the same take home.  Heritage did not do that seller well.

[tpetty]

Once again, a nicer issue sold at Heritage.  But the first issue sold via CL brought $800 ($720 for the seller) and the nicer issue at Heritage brought $1015 ($705 for the seller.)  Again, the seller of the nicer comic does not do well.

[tpetty]

Here, the 7.0 sold on Heritage for $1920 ($1344 for seller), and the 7.5 on CL for $2265 ($2040).

I don't think that extra 0.5 was worth $700.

 

[tpetty]

These sold for almost the same price ($3000 vs $3100) but again, that's a big take home difference

[tpetty]

I won't keep posting examples (I've got a lot more.)  I am not trying to bash Heritage - I like buying there - but don't think I'm going to sell there.  Anyone else noticed this?

[Comcav]

You sure SEEM to be doing this for no other reason than to bash Heritage.  Guess what, things are a bit softer at the moment.  There are plenty of examples at ANY house where something does better somewhere else.  I buy everywhere, so I'd know. Anyway, just looks like you have a bone to pick about some soft result you got, but a smear campaign is a bad look.  Not accounting for time means this is not apples to apples, regardless.

[tpetty]

I have never sold there, so have no "bone to pick."  I am considering selling some this summer, so was trying to decide where to sell them.  That's why I started looking at past results of the type of books I have.  I do account for time, as much as is reasonable - all comparables are within a calendar year.  ( I am not stupid enough to compare auction results that are years apart.) It would be exceedingly rare for multiple auction houses to have an identical issue selling on the same day, so I don't know how you compare otherwise.

 

When I said I was only comparing results from the last couple years, I meant sales in 2018 vs 2018, 2019 vs 2019...

Edited March 14, 2020 by tpetty

[KCOComics]

I'm not a big seller, so I've never sold at any of the auctions (even eBay).  But I've always wondered the same thing. With the big buyers premium at heritage, how is the $ divided with the seller compared to the other sites? 

From a buyers perspective, I like CL the best right now. 

[Black Bat]

Thanks for the info- this is definitely an interesting perspective on the 20% buyers fee.  I factor that and sales tax into the bids I make on Heritage auctions, but never considered it from the seller's perspective. 

[tpetty]

It looks like buyers don't really care where the issue is sold - they pay similar prices at the different sites.  Now, this is probably not universally true - but seems to be true based on the issues that I follow - which is largely Fiction House and other GGA covers.  I thought that the nice glossy catalogs and polished website at Heritage would draw more bidders, and higher prices.  (That's what Heritage's ads all say, and previously I figured it made sense.)  However, when I actually start looking at all my old sales data, and the issues that seem to be fair comparisons, I don't see a Heritage sales premium that would be required to compensate the sellers for the large buyer's premium (which buyer's certainly seem to take into account.)

I would be interested if others have either noticed the same thing, or found that the opposite is true for a different genre.

[OdinsSecrets]

Well if you think about it, that money has to come from somewhere. If Heritage takes 20% and other auction houses take less than that, it makes sense that the difference comes out of the sellers take, why would the buyer pay more at HA then anywhere else. On the other hand HA might offer some things which make paying a higher fee worthwhile like more frequent auctions every weekend, nice printed catalogues for the big auctions, a very polished website and auction process. Also I have heard anecdotally that they can be negotiated with in terms of fees if you are bringing in a decent amount of high value books, so maybe some of these sellers are paying less than the 20% in fees. I'm sure there must be some examples of Heritage books doing much better than a competitor as well, data in GA auctions is often very sparse and its hard to make one to one comparisons, even for similar grades of a book in a year.

[tpetty]

Yeah, it's certainly an inexact science.  If anyone has a better proven way of comparing sales, I'd be interested.  (However, I'm looking at books that don't sell frequently, so it's not like comparing ASM 129 or something like that.)

[manofsteel]

Heritage add 20% to the bid price for the buyer, and takes 15% of the bid price from the seller. A $1000 "bid" costs the bidder $1200, while the seller nets $850. Heritage does pay for insured shipping for the consigner, while CL does not. 

I don't look at this as a "bashing" post for Heritage... I see it as an informative post for those that don't know, and are considering selling to the various houses. Just my 2 pennies. 

[JollyComics]

59 minutes ago, Black Bat said:

Thanks for the info- this is definitely an interesting perspective on the 20% buyers fee.  I factor that and sales tax into the bids I make on Heritage auctions, but never considered it from the seller's perspective. 

Don't forget to add the sales tax and shipping handle fee.  I use Wisconsin PO box to save me 4.5% sales tax. My hometown is 10%.  The shipping handle is about $15.

[atomised]

Let's talk about the elephant in the room.  Prices I expect to be soft for collectables across the board given what's happening in the world.  I'm being way more selective on purchases right now.

[jimbo_7071]

I've never sold any books through Heritage, CC, or CL auctions, but I bid on all three sites from time to time. As a buyer, my totally unscientific impression is that Heritage used to get much stronger prices on GA material but that CC and CL have mostly closed the gap. I still think that books sell for more on Heritage but probably not by a wide enough margin to cover the higher commissions. 

As for eBay, my experience has been that auction results are all over the map. I've picked up books for well below my max, but I've seen other books sell for several times what I would have been willing to pay. I've also seen plenty of eBay auctions cancelled because the seller didn't like how they were going.

[JollyComics]

24 minutes ago, jimbo_7071 said:

I've never sold any books through Heritage, CC, or CL auctions, but I bid on all three sites from time to time. As a buyer, my totally unscientific impression is that Heritage used to get much stronger prices on GA material but that CC and CL have mostly closed the gap. I still think that books sell for more on Heritage but probably not by a wide enough margin to cover the higher commissions. 

As for eBay, my experience has been that auction results are all over the map. I've picked up books for well below my max, but I've seen other books sell for several times what I would have been willing to pay. I've also seen plenty of eBay auctions cancelled because the seller didn't like how they were going.

The eBay sellers will pay 10% fee if they cancel the auctions early.