Heritage Live Auction -- Black Swamp debacle

[calvindog]

Corey, my point is that an auction house which clearly is concerned with maximizing its sales numbers by bidding on its own lots and burying this information within a paragraph 21 of its rules is clearly one that is concerned with one thing, and one thing only: maximizing its sales numbers. Very few people on this board believes these practices are ethical.

To suggest then that the same auction house IS ethical due to its handling/marketing of the Black Swamp Find is, with all respect, a bit hard to swallow. Heritage marketed this find with one thing in mind in my opinion: to maximize its chances of getting more consignments in the future. All those TV shows, newspaper stories, etc. did not drive the price of the cards up -- it served instead to get more free publicity for Heritage. My criticism was simply that if this auction house is looking to drive up its numbers it should do so for the consigners first -- instead of for itself.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Corey, my point is that an auction house which clearly is concerned with maximizing its sales numbers by bidding on its own lots and burying this information within a paragraph 21 of its rules is clearly one that is concerned with one thing, and one thing only: maximizing its sales numbers. Very few people on this board believes these practices are ethical.

To suggest then that the same auction house IS ethical due to its handling/marketing of the Black Swamp Find is, with all respect, a bit hard to swallow. Heritage marketed this find with one thing in mind in my opinion: to maximize its chances of getting more consignments in the future. All those TV shows, newspaper stories, etc. did not drive the price of the cards up -- it served instead to get more free publicity for Heritage. My criticism was simply that if this auction house is looking to drive up its numbers it should do so for the consigners first -- instead of for itself.

Huh? Auction houses attract more consignments in the future by getting high numbers for their cards, not merely by what they have for sale. I don't follow your logic here. How was it in Heritage's interest not to maximize value?

[calvindog]

You'd have to ask them. But what I do know is what the point of appearing on television shows and giving dozens of newspapers interviews about the Find was -- to get more future consignments. And the publicity may have made up for inferior numbers from the sale of those cards.

[sycks22]

Confused how by getting national attention to a product it will diminish the price? Goodwin had national attention on his SGC 40 Wagner and it went for a record price.

[botn]

Incredible find with a remarkable and interesting story behind it. It deserved the coverage it got and showed a positive side of the hobby. Heritage may not have maximized on this find by disclosing and grading all the cards at once but they will certainly not lose business from having done it this way. Regardless of their motivation, and assuming this is their typical practice, collectors can feel a sense of relief knowing they were upfront. Are the auction houses supposed to favor their consignors over their customers or vice versa? Sometimes you cannot have it both ways.

The exposure they got from this find which will result in their getting more consignments from people who may not have found them otherwise. If it can in fact be concluded these 3 lots under performed, the next consignor of 800 ungraded high grade caramel cards (with 40 or more of each player) who simply wants to maximize every last penny out of their collection may not consider HA.

[calvindog]

Agreed.

[glynparson]

They only graded one at a time, just listed current pop numbers and made no reference to possible future population numbers. I do not see how that is fraudulent? This was done all the time in the late 1990's when modern got hot. Could a lawyer please explain? That said it was nice of the family to do it like they did but I have to agree with Jeff I can't see Heritage or any Auction house selling them this way if they owned the cards.