Profiles in History is acquired by Heritage 0

[Lobstrosity]

Received an email tonight that Profiles had 'partnered' with Heritage - or more specifically, that head honcho Joe Maddalena had joined Heritage as an Executive Vice President.

Profiles has always had some fine auctions, particularly for film props & artwork, as well as animation. I hope this doesn't get lost in the transition - I don't see this as a particularly good thing for the marketplace.

What does everyone else think?

[cstojano]

Somewhat expected. PIH had no real bidding platform and no shipping service. They got nice consignments of props and art but seemed unable to handle the growing market. 28% BP vs 20% for HA is a win for collectors. Shipping hassles definitely a win for collectors. I mostly saw PiH in competition with Prop Store though much crossover began to happen in recent years with art sales appearing broadly across houses. This seems like a way for HA to expand into props. I think the loser here is Prop Store as HA just bought PiH's rolodex.  Another big win for collectors is the HA bidding approach, 1 dollar mins with few reserves. PiH and PS are both known as places that start bidding high, almost always have reserves and chandelier bid to -1 increment. Lots of unsold lots.

Edited February 2, 2021 by cstojano

[zhamlau]

20 minutes ago, cstojano said:

Somewhat expected. PIH had no real bidding platform and no shipping service. They got nice consignments of props and art but seemed unable to handle the growing market. 28% BP vs 20% for HA is a win for collectors. Shipping hassles definitely a win for collectors. I mostly saw PiH in competition with Prop Store though much crossover began to happen in recent years with art sales appearing broadly across houses. This seems like a way for HA to expand into props. I think the loser here is Prop Store as HA just bought PiH's rolodex.  Another big win for collectors is the HA bidding approach, 1 dollar mins with few reserves. PiH and PS are both known as places that start bidding high, almost always have reserves and chandelier bid to -1 increment. Lots of unsold lots.

I’m excited by this. I was gonna send some props to Profiles but this will be much easier.

[vodou]

2020 artificially created many small business losers and a few obvious big business winners.

Just more of the same here.

I'd expect the Mannarinos got a better buyout deal a few years ago when things were less 'obvious' than Maddalena did.

Oh well.

Meanwhile, any other Italian-Americans running collectibles businesses, that are still in business?

[Peter G]

1 hour ago, vodou said:

2020 artificially created many small business losers and a few obvious big business winners.

Just more of the same here.

I'd expect the Mannarinos got a better buyout deal a few years ago when things were less 'obvious' than Maddalena did.

Oh well.

Meanwhile, any other Italian-Americans running collectibles businesses, that are still in business?

We just need Comiclink & Metropolis to fall and then the FTC will be sure to bring an antitrust case to break up this monopoly. 🙄

[vodou]

1 hour ago, Peter G said:

We just need Comiclink & Metropolis to fall and then the FTC will be sure to bring an antitrust case to break up this monopoly. 🙄

Since nothing is illegal in Texas, I'm sure monopolies are not either. A Federal case would just hasten TEXit  

[cstojano]

Well the Cinefantastique Conan the Barbarian cover passed twice at a 2k opening at PiH just sold for 8750 at HA. Who knew that offering in house shipping could juice prices so much. 

[RBerman]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:22 AM, Taylor G said:

Well that's interesting.  The items in past PIH auctions now show up as results in Heritage auction searches, but with Heritage's buyer points added.

Just what we need, more price inflation.

And they even matched the buyers; my PiH purchase now shows as "You won this lot" on HA. Interesting indeed! But it doesn't show up on my "Auction Archives."

[cstojano]

On 7/29/2021 at 7:01 AM, RBerman said:

And they even matched the buyers; my PiH purchase now shows as "You won this lot" on HA. Interesting indeed! But it doesn't show up on my "Auction Archives."

I checked an item of mine and there is an interesting observation. This item sold twice at PiH. I was not the insane person that paid 18k for this. Instead I was the less insane person that paid about 8k for this when it was relisted. Note, only the higher sale listing shows up on Heritage. I put in a claim through their system. 

https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/entertainment-and-music/lord-of-the-rings-poster-art-by-mike-ploog/a/997042-2348.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

[vodou]

On 7/30/2021 at 5:35 PM, cstojano said:

Note, only the higher sale listing shows up on Heritage.

Of course. Feed the bull.

[MyNameIsLegion]

On 7/30/2021 at 4:35 PM, cstojano said:

I checked an item of mine and there is an interesting observation. This item sold twice at PiH. I was not the insane person that paid 18k for this. Instead I was the less insane person that paid about 8k for this when it was relisted. Note, only the higher sale listing shows up on Heritage. I put in a claim through their system. 

https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/entertainment-and-music/lord-of-the-rings-poster-art-by-mike-ploog/a/997042-2348.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

wait, so the most RECENT sale is not listed. That's indeed underhanded and deceptive.  

[cstojano]

Correct, HA shows the 18.6k closing in their sold listings for Ploog but not the relist that I won for 8320, unless I am missing it. Perhaps they haven't loaded all PiH closed sales data yet?? 

Edited August 1, 2021 by cstojano