Results of my Vecis auction

[Simply Sci-fi]

Hi everyone,

Reading one of the other threads I notice that someone had a source informing him of 30 Back Boba Fetts coming up for future auction at Vectis. In actuality an auctioneer should not have or allow "sources" to upcoming auction lots. Such information can kill off someone's auction and I can imagine that this is what shot down part two of my sale. I have seen in person all of what Vectis has coming up in Star Wars and although I will not reveal what that is under any circumstances, I will say that if I was a buyer with such knowledge, I would not have placed a bid on my items. At the very least Vectis breaking the news that they have a case of untouched Star Wars figures and Death Stars may have got some people's minds in whirl regarding what else might be in the pipeline and they held back from bidding on my items.

I'm not referring to Vecits in particular but the Vendor's (the person selling's) confidentiality should be the first priority of any auctioneer. An auctioneer's big customers should take the same chance as anyone else. If the items that they are bidding on end up being superseded by identical or even better examples in future auctions, that's tough. Auctioneering should not be a customer service orientated business. It should be a hard gamble that every bidder takes. An auction house should be a casino, not Argos.

I would like to stress that sharing information on upcoming lots can wreck the lives of people selling their much treasured items. Life changing amounts of money can be fritted away by people wanting to have a giggle by getting a bargain for themselves and for their mates. I am struggling to buy a house thanks, not doing something comparatively frivolous such as completing my MOC collection. I actually fear for the family selling the Palitoy stock, because I can imagine that half the collecting world is going to know what they have via "sources".

Although I am disappointed by the results of my auction, £20,000 plus for 15 Star Wars figures seems a lot to the man in the street and I'm grateful for the press coverage that the sale has generated. The stories could easily have been based around "what a disappointment."

Craig.

 

[mr_palitoy]

Hi everyone,

Reading one of the other threads I notice that someone had a source informing him of 30 Back Boba Fetts coming up for future auction at Vectis. In actuality an auctioneer should not have or allow "sources" to upcoming auction lots. Such information can kill off someone's auction and I can imagine that this is what shot down part two of my sale. I have seen in person all of what Vectis has coming up in Star Wars and although I will not reveal what that is under any circumstances, I will say that if I was a buyer with such knowledge, I would not have placed a bid on my items. At the very least Vectis breaking the news that they have a case of untouched Star Wars figures and Death Stars may have got some people's minds in whirl regarding what else might be in the pipeline and they held back from bidding on my items.

I'm not referring to Vecits in particular but the Vendor's (the person selling's) confidentiality should be the first priority of any auctioneer. An auctioneer's big customers should take the same chance as anyone else. If the items that they are bidding on end up being superseded by identical or even better examples in future auctions, that's tough. Auctioneering should not be a customer service orientated business. It should be a hard gamble that every bidder takes. An auction house should be a casino, not Argos.

I would like to stress that sharing information on upcoming lots can wreck the lives of people selling their much treasured items. Life changing amounts of money can be fritted away by people wanting to have a giggle by getting a bargain for themselves and for their mates. I am struggling to buy a house thanks, not doing something comparatively frivolous such as completing my MOC collection. I actually fear for the family selling the Palitoy stock, because I can imagine that half the collecting world is going to know what they have via "sources".

Although I am disappointed by the results of my auction, £20,000 plus for 15 Star Wars figures seems a lot to the man in the street and I'm grateful for the press coverage that the sale has generated. The stories could easily have been based around "what a disappointment."

Craig.

Kathy allowed me to post up the 2 pics of the 6 death star playsets and the shipping case with 48 MOCs inside.
Kathy has not shared any knowledge of the contents of that second box with me. I assumed it's a box of 12 backs,
but you seem to be confirming here that is also contains ESB cards, principally 30 backs that clashed with your own
auction. If it does contain 30 back Boba Fett's, your 1st auction has been very well timed!

cheers Jason

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

I'm not going to comment further in any way regarding the upcoming items at Vectis. I did not refer to 30 Backs and there is a lot more in the Star Wars collecting world than that for collectors to save their pennies for.

My first auction was very well timed because it happened before news broke (either publically or behind the scenes) of any other items in the pipeline at Vectis. The second one happened just as a new collection came in, which is the source of much speculation. It seems obvious that Vectis should have kept any word of this collection completely water tight.

If there is behind-the-curtain sharing of knowledge at any auction house, it is the sellers and collectors lower down the pecking order who lose out.

Craig.

 

[naughtyjedi]

Craig, sympathies if you didn't get what you expected from the auction, which has been a fascinating event to watch and cover on the podcast.

However the rumour from the poster curry monster could have come from anywhere.


Joined: Sat Feb 15, 2014 10:02 pm
Posts: 14
heard from a good source today that these lots
came from a palitoy rep and could contain
at least 3x 30 back fetts!


That doesn't necessarily mean vectis leaked anything. Somebody could easily have made this up, all the way to a friend of a friend who was selling the items. If a box like that got discovered, it may have made local news or within a local collecting community. I'd be surprised if somebody unearthed those finds, more than a couple of people would have known. If people find gold, there's usually a lot of prospectors not too far behind.

 

[Frunkstar]

Seems a case of sour grapes Craig though I can understand & appreciate why with you needing to maximize your profits for a new home for the family, I am not trying to be negative, but I did suggest in the first place that maybe letting one of the forum member like Iain or Bram broker the collection for you on the forums (here/tig/rs) which IMO would have benefited your final total & also given the guys that care about the hobby a better chance of getting something from your fine collection, information leaks/people talk when there are whispers, sadly its human nature.

If there are indeed other fett's the same as the one you just sold in this up & coming lot I would count your blessing TBH as if there are several in one of these mystery cases I can the the value on that one instantly plummeting by 5K

You really do run the gauntlet with auction house & auction sites, I know it may have taken a while to shift them on the forums, but what would it have cost you, maybe 1 MOC as a sweetener for the broker?, I'm certain Vectis took a much larger slice of your pie in the end as well as pissing a lot of folks off with their tardy service & poor packaging.

 

[spoons]

I'd missed this - has the second auction been? If so, nowhere near the same publicity as the first, which could explain poor sales. I normally get emailed by Vectis and the US auction website but received nothing this time round.

* edit - just seen the other thread. Another Han Hoth out of my price range

The prices looked pretty good to me - and surely £15k for the Fett made it all worthwhile?

 

[Andyclarke]

Hi everyone,

Reading one of the other threads I notice that someone had a source informing him of 30 Back Boba Fetts coming up for future auction at Vectis. In actuality an auctioneer should not have or allow "sources" to upcoming auction lots. Such information can kill off someone's auction and I can imagine that this is what shot down part two of my sale. I have seen in person all of what Vectis has coming up in Star Wars and although I will not reveal what that is under any circumstances, I will say that if I was a buyer with such knowledge, I would not have placed a bid on my items. At the very least Vectis breaking the news that they have a case of untouched Star Wars figures and Death Stars may have got some people's minds in whirl regarding what else might be in the pipeline and they held back from bidding on my items.

I'm not referring to Vecits in particular but the Vendor's (the person selling's) confidentiality should be the first priority of any auctioneer. An auctioneer's big customers should take the same chance as anyone else. If the items that they are bidding on end up being superseded by identical or even better examples in future auctions, that's tough. Auctioneering should not be a customer service orientated business. It should be a hard gamble that every bidder takes. An auction house should be a casino, not Argos.

I would like to stress that sharing information on upcoming lots can wreck the lives of people selling their much treasured items. Life changing amounts of money can be fritted away by people wanting to have a giggle by getting a bargain for themselves and for their mates. I am struggling to buy a house thanks, not doing something comparatively frivolous such as completing my MOC collection. I actually fear for the family selling the Palitoy stock, because I can imagine that half the collecting world is going to know what they have via "sources".

Although I am disappointed by the results of my auction, £20,000 plus for 15 Star Wars figures seems a lot to the man in the street and I'm grateful for the press coverage that the sale has generated. The stories could easily have been based around "what a disappointment."

Craig.

I'm sorry Craig but I think you're now coming across very badly and somewhat bitter. I think you believed your own and Vectis's hype a bit too much. If you don't think £40k-£50k plus for your collection is an excellent return you're completely deluded. Most people on these forums thought the estimates were way over the top and were proved correct. Lets look at the FX-7 for example. Vectis sold one not long ago a huge amount of money because two people got caught in a bidding war. Once you take away one of the two high bidders the next one is probably the true value so £2k+ is a very good price. As I've said before there are a couple of bidders who have skewed the market and once one of these has the pieces they need the market levels off again. Rich H has some excellent pieces on eBay (30 backs etc ) that are available at a fraction of the price you achieved yesterday.

Vectis land collections all the time and rely on hype and as Jason quite rightly said the items were all rumoured to be from the Star Wars line and not ESB. Let's face it it's a bit hypocritical blaming Vectis for dialogue with the forums (hyping up collections) when arguably you have benefitted from it.

 

[naughtyjedi]

Craig...

I agree that posting forthcoming auction information could be harmful. That's why I was surprised on dec 8th on swfuk you declared that you were selling on vectis part of your wonderful collection. I was surprised, as on dec16th vectis had a large amount of carded Star Wars figures up for auction. I wonder if your auction announcement affected theirs?

Just speculating....

 

[Andyclarke]

Craig...

I agree that posting forthcoming auction information could be harmful. That's why I was surprised on dec 8th on swfuk you declared that you were selling on vectis part of your wonderful collection. I was surprised, as on dec16th vectis had a large amount of carded Star Wars figures up for auction. I wonder if your auction announcement affected theirs?

Just speculating....

Well said

 

[pizzathehutt]

i think you made more money than you wouldve if there was no publicity from the 1st auction, as that bbc piece wouldve drawn other collectors in and i bet hardly any of those punters that were drawn in knew about that other auction you feel ruined yours.

sounds like sour grapes to me.

 

[Simply Sci-fi]

I don't believe that I posted information about selling my collection before Vecits made it public knowledge. I have been guided by them 100% of the way, especially where the forum are concerned. ***edit*** I feel terrible if my announcement affected the auction in December, because the sellers no doubt had high hopes for the result too. At the very least, I believe Vectis needs to learn to manage the information that appears before their auctions take place and if I inadvertently out my foot in it in December, it could be a very good example of that.

I don't want to come across as bitter but I hope that everyone can understand that I was hoping for the best result possible. The revelation that auctioneers probably don't have the morals of a saint and the security of the Pentagon is something that I'll have to take on the chin and come up smiling.

I can't complain about my recent publicity and I hope to be able to use that to the max.

Craig.

 

[jedisearcher]

So you're only just realising now that sometimes you don't get what you want at an auction? Oh dear. If you wanted a guaranteed price you should have sold them yourself, got them brokered etc.

Also, in the Fett auction you got way better prices on some of the other Trilogos than you would have done without the publicity that Vectis got for you. You seem to have forgotten that.

As to the Palitoy Rep auction messing up yours I don't see how it could have because whatever people think, there's ALWAYS another auction coming. These toys were mass-produced, they aren't one of a kind items. It wouldn't have bothered me knowing there was more stock coming. There's no inventory out there, just rumour.

There have been quite a lot of 30's out for sale recently, including loads from Andy @ Action Force Toys. That's just as likely to be the reason you didn't achieve what you wanted.

The general opinion was that the estimates were way too high so perhaps your expectations were just out of line with the reality, rather than anything more sinister.

 

[jedisearcher]

Rich H has some excellent pieces on eBay (30 backs etc ) that are available at a fraction of the price you achieved yesterday.

Eh? How do you work out that his £4k White Bespin Guard is a fraction of the nicer one that sold yesterday for £3.2k with fees included??

:lol:

 

[Andyclarke]

Rich H has some excellent pieces on eBay (30 backs etc ) that are available at a fraction of the price you achieved yesterday.

Eh? How do you work out that his £4k White Bespin Guard is a fraction of the nicer one that sold yesterday for £3.2k with fees included??

:lol:

Didn't see that one. I doubt it will stay at that price for long.

 

[sith-smith]

Personally I think you've done very well in terms of prices, but believe overall you would have got more money had you dealt with people directly, at least that would have been the case with quite a few of the pieces you were selling. However I totally respect your decision to go Vectis.

As a lot of people have said, there have been a lot of sales of 30 backs going on recently, both Publically and in private (a lot of those actually) That took a lot of people out of the running on your auctions. I do think some were over valued in particular the Luke and leia Bespin. The auction did show this to be the case.

Luke Bespin

 

[Grant]

Craig I don't have a horse in this race but since you've started this thread here's some feedback. As it's been pointed out your just coming off sounding bitter. I'm sure we all feel VERY sorry for you that you didn't quite scrape enough together to buy a house in London from your sales. I think Vectis did you a favour selling that Fett for near £20k after fees especially if there are more in the now pipeline.

Lastly as it's also been pointed out you could have also opted for just setting asking prices and directly helped a few collectors out instead of going the generic way of the auction. It may have taken a bit longer but you might have had better results without the outragoueos Auction fees.

Grant.

 

[indianawars]

The problem with collectors looking to sell up is they always think their collection is worth more than it really is. At the end of the day an item brought back in the 80's for a few pounds, now sells for a few thousand pounds isn't a bad day at the office if you ask me!

 

[walkie]

Moan to vectis! You opted to use them to sell your collection instead of using the forums. Seriously sounds like very sour grapes.

 

[edd_jedi]

So you're only just realising now that sometimes you don't get what you want at an auction? Oh dear. If you wanted a guaranteed price you should have sold them yourself, got them brokered etc.

I was going to say the same - you said yourself buying at an auction should be like playing at a casino, I'm afraid the same goes for selling. That's why I NEVER do 99p start auctions on eBay. Auctions by their nature are a complete gamble, you are relying on 2+ people wanting the item. With a fixed price only one person has to want it.

I agree with the others, you may not have got 15k for the Fett selling on the forums but you certainly would have got better (more stable) prices for some of your items. Also don't forget your trilogos nearly all went for well above market value, so as with any auction you win some and you lose some.

 

[Mr-shifter]

Hi Craig.

I think you have hit the nail on the head here. An auction is a gamble. It is a gamble for both the buyer and the seller though. You won big with the fett, especially if more surface. You may have lost a bit on the 30 backs, although a lot on here will argue the valuations were too high and this alleged palitoy find may or may not have had something to do with it. It is the route you chose to take. How does the saying go, when you dance with the devil, wait for the music to stop.

This highlights to me the fact we are still dealing with a massive unknown quantity. A one known example item can easily become one of 20 or 30 with a discovery. Look at this palitoy find, or the meccano case as an example. Not to mention unknown collections.

One final point. Vectis should respect their customers. They should deal with one auction at a time and should keep confidentiality with these auctions. So, why were they showing you, as previously stated in your post, all of the Star Wars they have coming up in the next few months. They are betraying their upcoming customers confidentiality to you. At the time did this not make you think if they are showing you, who else are they showing, or how they treated your items. How do they know how you will use this information? They are motivated by money, which they now have a packet of thanks to your sales.

This whole thing hopefully serves as a reminder as to what an auctioneer is and where it's role is in our hobby.

It sounds harsh, and I really hope you get to buy your house and achieve your goals with this sale, I really do. It must have been a huge wrench and if you get your house, then you will hopefully look back on this as all worthwhile. You got a lot of money for your collection and did well as you have had and enjoyed these for a long time. Good luck going forward with everything.