while it is true that some portions of the market have diminished in the past few years, the concept of a Son of Kong one sheet, of which there are only a few of either style extant, selling for $7700 is a commentary on things other than the narrow idea that certain market conditions in one venue represent the market as a whole and the hierarchical structure of the business of the hobby in general.
There can be no doubt that where you sell has as much import as when you sell.
I doubt very much that the Son of Kong (and many other items in Bruce's auction) would not have done better at Heritage. The price on the poster is less than half of any other sale on that poster known since 2000 and only a third of what is known of some auction results. (private sales produced higher results) and for a poster of that level, from a desired title to sell that low just says it was the wrong venue and you can only balance that low result so much against the unnatural result of a Halloween 2 one sheet. Of course, if the SoK poster sold on my site at auction, I'm sure the result would be even lower, but that's why I send such items to Heritage. HA has never disappointed me selling any of my posters, as I would have to beat what I get after commissions over their result, which I estimate is 1 out of 10 items I send them.
There is a reason why Grey Smith has been an underbidder on such things as Dominique's Casablanca one sheet and the Scarlett Empress one sheet etc. - It's because he knows he can do better and if he's only an underbidder, it's not because he doesn't think he could sell it for more, but because the math decreases as a business decision, and clearly he has no problem otherwise filling the slot.
Would HA do better on 100% of what was sold Tuesday? To believe so would be foolishness, but I have no doubt that a number of the higher-ticketed items would have done better, which exemplifies the tiered-system we have in the business
there is also another side to this equation - the effect that publicly selling items for decreasing results actually have on collectors...
anybody here who has ever tried to sell something knows what happens in the market. People look at results from public sources. By and large, sellers (be they dealer, collector, or finder under the carpet) like to look at the highest price achieved, while buyers look at the lowest prices achieved. While some might think that the math becomes "Halloween 2 one sheets $60, $97, $126, $125, $88, $812... average result = $218.. there's my price" is how you arrive at a proper conclusion, that would be false. $812 doesn't belong in the equation. It's an outlier, so the true average is $60, $97, $126, $125, $88 ... average result =$99 and that is right where any of those fools could have bought the poster in his store, raw, if they had taken the time to look.
But even more, when someone contacts me, looking for the poster, most of the time the only result they see is the $60 and that's exactly what they see when any collector is now looking to sell his copy. So the Son of Kong poster (for instance) selling for $7700 has damaged the ability of any dealer, collector or finder of gold to get $15k-25k now.
It affects every person who owns a similar poster where a consignor sells their quality posters and knowledgeable buyers can get spooked by what the see as incongruous results - especially at the low end, lowering the ability to sell even further.
It can be a real dance, and one dancer being tripped up can make numerous people on the dancefloor fall down with them.
