as there will be many new faces to buy the items.. and as for who will survive,, thats simple.
the ones that serve the customers best, and thats why even the smaller dealers will do well.
think of rodeo drive.. the boutiques probably do quadruple per square foot as a Bog Box walmarts
however its simple math. So all sectors will be served... as in Movie posters are High end,, actions galleries,, and then College sales - volume and low price,, and then even internet, which seems to be mass market,, and all the above..
Hershenson serves abit of all..so does Rudy and so does Heritage..The diversity makes the Hobby Flourish. and rembere ther are many specialists that may specialize in Europeon posters or certain sizes like Lobbys or stills.. or ocascianally someone who is nuts and trys to do it all...
I wouldnt know about that though... So in closeing Movie memoribilia is one of the few areas in collecting that wasnt tottally overmerchandised.. because so many ofthe areas lacked large audiances unlike sports and Comics that had targeted demographics..
thats whats fun about Movies is the crossover and industries involved are many.. besides advertising the technical aspects are astounding. ad the costumes , makeup, Music, effects, and all the various writers and personel and you have a society in itself.
so even though I gasp at some of the prices purported to be paid.. I am glad when someone does this as I have plenty left to sell.. and it makes me think maybe I will get to see a beach in my lifetime yet!
Live long and prosper!
best, Tom
.
"Smith, Grey - 367" wrote:
Thank you, Bruce, and to all who have emailed me about this posting.I, too, would like to take this opportunity to set the records straight. As far as whether we at Heritage knew anything about Rudy Franchi's posting prior to its submission, the answer is, as Bruce suspected: Certainly not!
While I have tremendous respect and admiration for Rudy, and continue to enjoy his and Barbara's expertise and friendship, I must disagree with Rudy's apparent opinion that there isn't enough business for two movie poster auction firms.
I also have no feud with Bruce -- quite the contrary -- and while I cannot speak for Bruce I believe the feeling is mutual. We speak cordially from time to time of topics of interest to both, and have both sent each other business over the past few years. Heritage and I have nothing but respect for Bruce's sales and expertise.
I believe if one is to compare the prices fetched in sales side by side one will see some lesser items going for less than Bruce's in Heritage auctions, and some higher valued items fetching more, and I am sure vise versa, from sale to sale. Yes, many buyers deal with both of us, and why would they not? Would you walk away from choice posters because your loyalty is so great to one seller, and would you feel that buying from one reputable auction house does damage to another?
I will also say that with eBay, Bruce offers a tried and true method of bidding which allows only those participating with eBay to bid, and very little chance for missed bids, confusion or hard feelings. We, on the other hand, feel that we are offering several ways for an audience to participate as well as in keeping the live sale aspect to it. In so doing, as Bruce mentions concerning his previous live auction in one of his previous posts, some difficulties with combining new technologies will occur, sometimes something as simple as a phone bidder not getting a call back or Internet latency preventing a live online bid from being registered in time (both rare occurrences -- well over 99.9% of the bids we receive are executed perfectly -- but annoying when they do occur). On the other hand, we believe our method is getting better prices overall than we could otherwise obtain, and also attracting new, long-term buyers to the marketplace. Heritage has roughly 200,000 collectors on its mailing list, and I dare say the movie posters appeal to a broad range of collectors in other categories, many of whom regularly "cross over" to our field. Some of these collectors, no doubt, become serious collectors and thus more likely to soon discover Bruce's auctions as well.
For the record, Heritage only reports true sales of items, and if an item is returned or not paid for or terms arranged by settlement date, that item is reflected as "Not Sold" in the final auction archives. As Heritage has done for the last twenty-five years, every consignor has been paid on time, every time, thus the reason for so many repeat consignors, often spanning multiple fields of collecting. Heritage has gained the outstanding reputation it has with coin buyers -- some of the most demanding buyers in the world of collecting -- by providing honest and reliable sales and service to its tens of thousands of customers and consignors, year in and year out.
I feel sure that most any of our consignors would tell you that they feel they received a far greater percentage of their sales in dealing with Heritage as our rate is one low 15% seller's fees which includes everything. Even with the Buyer's Premium included at full value (and many buyers simply ignore the Buyer's Premium, believe it or not!), our total commission is roughly 26.1% of the final price, not 30% as Bruce seems to think. For example, if a poster sells for $8700 hammer, the buyer pays $10,005, and the seller receives $7,395. With Heritage, there are no photo fees, there is no insurance fee, etc, etc. We offer the highest quality full color catalogs and advertising that includes not only the trades of our hobby but ads and publicity in many, many national periodicals and publications.
And there is an altruistic aspect to consigning to Heritage that appeals to many consignors: i.e. inclusion of every lot in our Permanent Auction Archive, a free service we offer to the entire poster collecting community. Of course, Bruce, too, has contributed by publishing numerous excellent books and articles, and I'm also sure Bruce has many consignors who prefer his commission structure to ours.
All in all, there will be different buyers and consignors for each of our sales and each of Bruce's, and many of the same people participating in both. But isn't that diversity the beauty of the hobby? The management of Heritage, and I, both feel that Bruce is good for the market and that anything that benefits him is likely to benefit us, and vice versa, and we hope he feels the same about us.
Grey Smith
Director Vintage Movie Poster Auctions
Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers
3500 Maple Avenue, 17th Floor
Dallas, Texas 75219-3941
Phone: 214-252-4367 Office
214-668-6928 Cellular
Direct Fax 214-443-8416
mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Join www.HeritageCoins.com (over 100,000 members) and www.HeritageComics.com,, www.HeritageMoviePosters.com today. To qualify for free auction catalogs, please take our survey at www.HeritageGalleries.com-----Original Message-----
From: MoPo List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Bruce Hershenson
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 12:26 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [MOPO] POSTER NEWS BULLETIN NOVEMBER 27 2004 - setting the record straight
I read with interest the "POSTER NEWS BULLETIN NOVEMBER 27 2004", and while it is the author's right to give his opinions, I want to take a few minutes to somewhat set the record straight.First off, this "bulletin" needs a bit of fact checking. Heritage has already held at least two monthly auctions. It might say something about their reach that the author of the bulletin never heard of them.
Before I begin to offer a differing set of opinions from that printed in this "bulletin", let me say that there are a lot of differences between my major auctions and Heritage's, like buyer's premiums, reserves, credit terms, etc. Each one has its pluses and minuses. Some people prefer to consign to me, some to Heritage, and some consign to both. Ditto for buyers. I would think over time most collectors and dealers would eventually consign to and buy from both Heritage and myself, and each person will make a decision as to which auction better meets their needs.
But I very much disagree with the editorial opinion in the "bulletin" that "there’s really not enough supply to keep two major auction forces fed". My major auctions have continued unstopped for 15 years while many other players have come and gone (some returning for several tries). "Bruce is diversifying into real estate" because he see's it as a good opportunity, not because of the "bulletin's" leap of illogic that I am scared of Heritage.
As to the "river of merch is now flowing to the heart of Texas", a good chunk of what is in that river is outright purchased by Heritage and placed in their auctions as their own consignments (some auctions reveal when the auction house is the owner of any item, but to the best of my knowledge, Heritage never does this). I have sold more than Heritage in dollar terms every year by a wide margin, and of course I have sold many times what they have sold in terms of quantity of items sold. If a river is flowing to Texas, an ocean is flowing to Missouri.
As to "Heritage dominates the live movie poster auction scene", anyone is entitled to express their viewpoint. Several months ago (right after my last major auction in 2004 which was less than 7 days away from Heritage's) collector Sean Linkenback (certainly an impartial reporter, as he has bought from both auctions for years, but has spent far more with Heritage, as far as I know) posted the following to Movie Poster Talk (I print it in its entirety so no one can say I took anything out of context):
Sean posted: "Since it is rare that you get two major auctions happening within the space of 7 days, I did a little side-by-side comparison of items that were contained in both auctions just for fun:
Sales Comparisons:
Item Bruce Result Heritage Result
Attack 50ft Woman Insert $6099.99 $4600.00
Forbidden Planet (2 LCs) 663.00 977.50
Mole People Insert 1137.27 805.00
Blob 1-sheet 510.00 1092.50
Psycho Insert 565.00 575.00
Breakfast at Tiffanys 1-sheet 6400.00 3450.00
Dr. No 1-sheet 1225.00 891.25
Goldfinger 1-sheet 620.00 690.00
One Million Years BC 285.00 pass (asking $287.50)
Batman 1966 1-sheet 455.00 299.00
Fistful of Dollars 1-sheet 370.99 pass (asking $575.00)
Bullit 1-sheet 1-sheet 380.00 356.50
Midnight Cowboy 1-sheet 376.53 149.50
Dirty Harry 1-sheet 1009.00 322.00
Jaw 1-sheet 270.00 172.50
Grease Advance 1-sheet 210.50 184.00
Grease 1-sheet 202.20 149.50 (also included lobby set)
1941 Advance 1-sheet 610.00 149.50
I did not note condition on any of these pieces, so that of course can affect final sales results, but it looks like while we know the record prices Heritage gets for many high tickets items, they can also be a place to bargain shop for lower dollar titles, while Bruce pulls in extremely strong results on lower - to high mid dollar items."As Sean makes clear as day above, it should be clear even to the most biased reporter that, when comparing "apples to apples" and "oranges to oranges", I received far higher prices overall than Heritage. I also know for 100% certain that the prices listed for my auctions above were paid, and were paid in cash, within 30 days of the auction. I can't say the same for Heritage, as (again the best of my knowledge) they never reveal if sales fall through, if items are returned, or if prices are re-negotiated, so the margins of difference reported by Sean above could be even greater than they appear. Incidentally, I am very sorry to draw Sean into this, but what he wrote IS in the public record (I copied it from the Movie Poster Talk archives) and I much prefer to set the record straight with impartial facts, rather than wildly distorted opinions.
It is also surely true that my consignors received far more money if they sold an item with me than if they sold an item for EXACTLY the same dollars with Heritage, because my overall commissions are FAR lower than Heritage's (of course the "bulletin" makes no mention of this or any bit of information at all favorable to me). I also can't speak to the customer satisfaction ratio of the Heritage auctions, since I don't know anything about them, but I do know that I have extremely loyal buyers, and many of my buyers have bought from me non-stop for 15 years. My eBay feedback record speaks for itself.
Of course the author of the bulletin (in his portrayal of "domination" of the "live movie poster scene") neglects to mention that I do NOT hold live auctions (I am therefore not clear if he truly believes that Heritage "dominates" ME. or if he put the "live" into his statement, as an escape clause in case someone disputed him) and he also overlooks that Heritage has just concluded an auction (which included many non-poster items) and that I have not held a major auction for five months, which would help account for their "domination". In just a few weeks I will hold two of my very finest auctions, and of course if I get great results this "reporter" will likely not even mention my results (as he has ignored such results in the past), but if he can find anything negative to report, it will surely be reported.
Incidentally I have no animus towards Heritage, and know little about their auctions beyond what I have reported above. I never participate in their auctions as buyer or seller for fear someone would accuse me of somehow doing something wrong. Similarly I never report on their auctions in my e-mail club, for fear people will accuse me of "knocking them". BUT I can tell you that when they held their first two movie poster auctions, I did something I have never done before and I sent their catalogs free to my 100 best buyers. I am always happy when I see auction houses enter the movie poster field, for each one is sure to bring new collectors into the hobby. If an auction does a good job selling posters and treat buyers and sellers honestly they will succeed and last. If they don't do a good job, they will join the long list of auction houses that gave it a try. Either way, I will keep on running my auctions, until the day I tire of it.
I certainly don't want any feud of any kind with Heritage, and wonder if this online report (written, I am sure, without Heritage's knowledge or permission) might not have been written as an attempt to create a feud where none exists. I hope that this rebuttal on my part can put a close to this sad affair.
But in closing, I should note, that the writer of the "bulletin" is a would-be major auction consultant, who may well have an ax to grind. Perhaps the best answer as to what that "ax" might be can be found in the fine print separate from the bulletin, wherein it states, "Currently we are working with Heritage Galleries of Dallas putting together a series of vintage poster (war, travel, advertising, etc.) auctions, the first of which will take place in March of 2005." Hmmmm. I wonder if the author's new employers are pleased by his blatant butt-kissing? Next time instead of a "bulletin", why not simply run this sort of tripe as a paid ad?
Bruce Hershenson
eMoviePoster.com
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