A Couple of Heritage Questions

[ATLfun]

  I picked up my first Heritage purchase last night, a VF/NM Alien poster.  I got it for about 25% under the price paid for the same condition in 2010. They seem do to a lot of things well, but why do they give themselves a three week window on shipping? And are the leftover $15 items their personal posters?

  Also, is there a snipe program for Heritage?  I use esnipe for ebay, but they do not offer their service for any other online auctions. And finally, what is their basic seller fee?  Their website is kind of cryptic, but if you just wanted to send in three or four posters, how much would they hit your for.  There seems to be a fair amount of $20-40 posters with the buyer fee added in, so the seller would only  get $5-$15 less commission.

  Thanks,

  Brian

 

[Dr Hackenbush]

Use this to snipe on HA.  As for shipping, sometimes it takes them a while to get packages shipped.  Not every time, but sometimes, so they give themselves a big window to work with. 

[ATLfun]

   Are the catalogs worth purchasing for $100 and how big are the pictures?  I went ahead and signed-up for the catalogs.  I figured worse case scenario they would be like a Sear's "Christmas Wish Book."  Certainly, I am not the only forum member who would circle toys in the wish book and give it back to their mom.


   Brian

[Harry Caul]

I was definitely a 'Wish Book' kid!

I never paid for the HA catalogs as you can basically get better close-up pictures with their online system. However, once I bought something from their one of their Signature auctions they started sending me catalogs for free. it was a pricey poster so I'm not sure if they do that for all purchases, but I definitely appreciate the gesture.

By the way, Grey Smith, the guy who handles the poster auctions a HA, recently joined the forum. You might want to figure out his handle and look through his past posts. I pretty sure he offered to mail out a catalog gratis to forum members.... I'm just not sure thread it was in.

Best of luck.

[brude]

Heritage catalog?
Here it is...
http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,2427.msg37931.html#msg37931

[ATLfun]

I was definitely a 'Wish Book' kid!

  I have often wondered if any of those old catalogs are collectible.  I know it would be cool to see the first couple of ones with the atari 2600 in them, which would also coincide  with the release of Kenner's Star Wars toys.


Brian

[ATLfun]

Heritage catalog?
Here it is...
http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,2427.msg37931.html#msg37931

  Great find on the free catalog post.....Unfortunately, I have already plunked down my $100, but that was before I found this forum and its wealth of information.  Maybe free catalogs next year.........

  Brian

[CSM]

I never paid for the HA catalogs as you can basically get better close-up pictures with their online system. Best of luck.

Exactly what I was thinking...

[ATLfun]

Exactly what I was thinking...

  I am with you guys for the purpose of inspecting the posters prior to purchase.  I just had this image of a nice little catalog with glossy pages of some of the nicest and rarest posters that would make a great table magazine/book.  I am still hoping that it will make a nice reference tool and I still love paper.  There is still nothing better than a good Sunday sports section.

  So are those post auction buys just Heritage items that did not sell?

  Brian

[CSM]

  So are those post auction buys just Heritage items that did not sell?

  Brian

Yep.  I believe you can make an offer to the consignor on those too...

[theartofmovieposters]

I just had this image of a nice little catalog with glossy pages of some of the nicest and rarest posters that would make a great table magazine/book.  I am still hoping that it will make a nice reference tool and I still love paper. 
  Brian

They are most definately that...well put together and nice thing to flick through every once in a while

[Simes]

I have made a recent purchase - am currently awaiting and have no doubts all will arrive safely.

I did however ask of them a question which by very nature of the resounding silence, causes me concern.

Bearing in mind Heritage manage all their own auctions, I asked them if they 'saw' and had access to the highest price one would pay.  I mentioned to them that I had seen an enquiry on the internet into Heritage shilling practices and wanted to know their thoughts.  I also said that Bruce had made a deal out of his changing the software on his auction site so that he Wouldn't have access to this information and that, as a result, his integrity remains resolutely intact.

Aside from an underling stating that yes, there are few that can access it, and that the few that do that have access to this sort of information all have integrity, and my response to that saying I would like to read this from one of those few, No comment whatsoever.

And as there weren't many bidders on my item and the last bid was just $10 under my maximum of ~$500, I remain concerned.

Any comments?

[Harry Caul]

My only comments are based on my experiences... I've placed quite a few max bids with them.  Some ended up close to my maximums, some ended up lower, and some downright bargains.  After reading some of the threads here, I decided to use sniping programs for their weekly auctions and live bidding for the signature auctions -- just as a precaution. 

However, in one of their recent sig auctions I wasn't able to bid live and had to leave my max bid a few days ahead of time.  I was quite nervous... but I was pleasantly surprised when I got it for considerably less than my max bid!  On paper I can see how their might be potential for abuse, but based on my experiences I'm not particularly concerned.

My $0.02. 

[CSM]

My only comments are based on my experiences... I've placed quite a few max bids with them.  Some ended up close to my maximums, some ended up lower, and some downright bargains.  After reading some of the threads here, I decided to use sniping programs for their weekly auctions and live bidding for the signature auctions -- just as a precaution. 

However, in one of their recent sig auctions I wasn't able to bid live and had to leave my max bid a few days ahead of time.  I was quite nervous... but I was pleasantly surprised when I got it for considerably less than my max bid!  On paper I can see how their might be potential for abuse, but based on my experiences I'm not particularly concerned.

My $0.02. 

This is good to know Matt.

[ddilts399]

You used to get your 100 you spent back if you made an auction purchase, not sure if that applies anymore.

[ddilts399]

nice snipe link thanks, I have used auction sentry forever, but since the original developer left, it is not what it used to be!

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

A few comments on Heritage:

(1) Heritage has the most opaque bidding system.  They don't reveal the bid amounts or the bidders.  I don't like it, but in my own bids - 100 or so in the last three years - I haven't seen any obvious shenanigans.  I never bid early on Heritage.  Absolutely no point or advantage to doing so unless you just cannot be there at the end.  There seems to be much less "action" at the end of the Heritage auctions than on Emovie.  

(2) Heritage does reveal the number of bidders and trackers, which does give you an indication of how popular the poster and how likely there will be a bidding war at the end.  None of the other auction services reveal the number of trackers, so that's in their favor.

(3) Shipping time has been pretty good in my experience.  If you pay by Echeck, you can add a couple of weeks, so never pay by Echeck, even though you get a 1% discount.  I always use Paypal.

(4) If you're a regular customer, they'll ship out the posters before you pay, which is odd IMHO.

(5) I've seen a lot of repeat sales of the same poster in a short time period. For example, the same rare Shaft's Big Score advance showed up twice recently. I'm assuming that it's being resold because the buyer did not pay.

[Harry Caul]

(1) Heritage has the most opaque bidding system.  They don't reveal the bid amounts or the bidders.  I don't like it, but in my own bids - 100 or so in the last three years - I haven't seen any obvious shenanigans.  I never bid early on Heritage.  Absolutely no point or advantage to doing so unless you just cannot be there at the end.  There seems to be much less "action" at the end of the Heritage auctions than on Emovie.

I think eMovie gets a lot of last minute action because they offer extended bidding.  HA, like eBay, does not... who ever has the highest bid gets it when the bell sounds (for weekly auctions anyway).  However, unlike eBay which has tons of snipping programs, HA only has one that I know of and I doubt many of their bidders know that it exists.  I think that is why you see more even bidding throughout the week on HA and less spikes at the end.  Their sig auctions are another story though...

(5) I've seen a lot of repeat sales of the same poster in a short time period. For example, the same rare Shaft's Big Score advance showed up twice recently. I'm assuming that it's being resold because the buyer did not pay.

Sometimes by looking at the close-up photos you can tell that it is the exact same poster being re-offered.  Could be due to a non-payment... or maybe a hidden reserve?  I know they do have reserves on some sig auction posters... not sure about weekly auctions.  However, sometimes I think they get a stack of the same poster and just do a poor job at spacing them out.  If you offer them too close together (week-to-week) it definitely affects the perception of how 'rare' it truly is.

[ATLfun]

  I sent Grey a private message about when the catalogs would be shipped.  He responded in about an hour with a very courteous reply stating that the catalogs are slated to be mailed out at the end of this week.  Looking forward to my first "poster wish catalog."

  Brian

[MoviePosterBid.com]

Sometimes by looking at the close-up photos you can tell that it is the exact same poster being re-offered.  Could be due to a non-payment

or a variety of other reasons Harry

1) of the 15,000+/- posters I auction every year from 20-50 or so never get paid for. Bidders in the night fouling up things on their way to some other asshole destination.

2) returns.. we take returns for any reason and 99.9% of the time it's "I really don't like it"
I don't remember the last time an item was returned and the buyer said "it was not as described", but I get very very few returns.. maybe 1-2-3 a year. Not even noticeable #

3) buyer trades or sells item back. sometimes they get bored, or replace it, or discover they had it already. So they send you a box of stuff to sell (happens to me all the time!)

and yes #4) did not meet reserve

[Bruce]

"1) of the 15,000+/- posters I auction every year from 20-50 or so never get paid for. Bidders in the night fouling up things on their way to some other asshole destination."

That is remarkable. We have steadily averaged 1% "no pays" per year (our returns are a fraction of that number, because of our honest descriptions).

On 100,000 items a year, that is unfortunately still around 1,000 items a year that are never paid for (and on $3,000,000 a year, it works out to around 1% by dollar as well, or around $30,000).

That number would be much higher except that we make gigantic efforts to never let deadbeats re-register (we have all sorts of ways to track them down when they re-register for a new ID). Once someone burns us, we want them gone forever. We surely have the most accurate "loser list" in movie poster collecting! I find it hard to believe that every other site (especially eBay) does not have a much higher rate than ours, except for Rich (because he said so above). According to what Rich wrote, his no-pay rate is at most one-third of ours (and perhaps less than one-seventh of ours!). I wonder what his secret is?

Bruce

[Simes]

My only comments are based on my experiences... I've placed quite a few max bids with them.  Some ended up close to my maximums, some ended up lower, and some downright bargains.  After reading some of the threads here, I decided to use sniping programs for their weekly auctions and live bidding for the signature auctions -- just as a precaution. 

However, in one of their recent sig auctions I wasn't able to bid live and had to leave my max bid a few days ahead of time.  I was quite nervous... but I was pleasantly surprised when I got it for considerably less than my max bid!  On paper I can see how their might be potential for abuse, but based on my experiences I'm not particularly concerned.

My $0.02. 

Ok.

Thank you sir.

[MoviePosterBid.com]

Bruce.. I  probably only get that low % of deadbeat sales because most deadbeats in my case only win 1 or 2 posters, although I did just ban someone who didn't pay for 12 posters

[eatbrie]

My biggest beef with Ha, and I think I've said it before, is the fact that they don't combine shipping when bidding over a few weeks.  I never have this problem with Bruce, or Rich, or anyone else for that matter.  Actually, let me rephrase that...  They do combine shipping, but they make you pay for each week of shipping, ed up sending your items together, and don't automatically reimburse you the difference.  A few months ago, I got 4 weeks of items sent together and the total shipping (added week after week) came up to $60.  It took 5 or 6 emails, including one to Grey, to get the $30 extra refunded to my account.  When it happened again a few weeks ago and I sent an email to Grey, I didn't even get a response.  Right now, I have 2 weeks worth of items, I'm going to have to pay for each week separately, they will send them together, and I will lose another $10-20, which I will never see again.

It's really annoying.

T

[Harry Caul]

My biggest beef with Ha, and I think I've said it before, is the fact that they don't combine shipping when bidding over a few weeks.  I never have this problem with Bruce, or Rich, or anyone else for that matter.  Actually, let me rephrase that...  They do combine shipping, but they make you pay for each week of shipping, ed up sending your items together, and don't automatically reimburse you the difference.  A few months ago, I got 4 weeks of items sent together and the total shipping (added week after week) came up to $60.  It took 5 or 6 emails, including one to Grey, to get the $30 extra refunded to my account.  When it happened again a few weeks ago and I sent an email to Grey, I didn't even get a response.  Right now, I have 2 weeks worth of items, I'm going to have to pay for each week separately, they will send them together, and I will lose another $10-20, which I will never see again.

It's really annoying.

T

I remember you writing that earlier... however, I thought you got 4 shipments for 4 weeks of orders.  I didn't realize they sent everything in one package!  Maybe now that Grey is here on the forum he can clear up their policy.  As inefficient and backwards as it would be to ship 4 weekly orders separately and charge you for all 4... it is at least understandable.  Combining everything and essentially pocketing the difference in postage is totally unacceptable!