Heritage or PWCC?

[raulus]

Since we're discussing specific businesses here, my name is Nicolo Renato Pinoli, and I approve this message.

I think the biggest question is whether there is any reason to believe that you might net more from one auction house than from another. Certainly fees are part of the calculus. At the same time, if one auction house charges 5% more, but the sales price is 20% higher than the other site, then you come out ahead.

So it strikes me that it's largely a question of whether there is likely to be any difference in the audiences reached by any given auction house, and if so, whether those differences are significant enough to result in a higher sales price for your item.

As you've already identified, there is also a timing difference that comes into play here, since PWCC seems like they will likely be able to get your item into their auction sooner. If you're looking to get paid sooner, and/or worried that the market might drop significantly in the interim, then this can certainly be a factor.

While I've certainly purchased from just about every major and minor auction house in the past, I've only ever used PWCC to consign items, mostly because they are geographically close to me here in Portland, and I have historically been able to physically drop items off, rather than having to ship them.

I will also observe that PWCC has changed their business model. They used to sell over eBay, and have now switched to selling entirely on their own site, including also sending out a smallish glossy auction catalogette of sorts every month for their monthly premier auction. Obviously, eBay has a built-in audience of buyers. I couldn't begin to really attempt to evaluate the size of PWCC's audience on its site, although my sense is that it's probably pretty good. My sense is that it might be smaller than what you see at Heritage, although there's always a question of how much smaller. Ultimately, all it takes is 2 more people deciding to go nuts on your item to drive up the price.

You might want to try to do some research to the extent that it's possible, looking at similar items over the last 6-12 months that were sold on each platform to see whether there are price differences. It could be difficult, maybe even impossible to match them up perfectly between the item, the grade, and the timing, all of which could definitely impact the price. But you might be able to find a handful of items that are close enough to attempt to evaluate whether there's really a statistically meaningful difference in results.

Without doing this research myself, and just based on what I see happening with items that I bid on and track at both of these sites, my sense is that you might get a little bit more at Heritage, potentially because their audience is slightly larger. But I wouldn't be willing to suggest anything more definitive, without attempting to really dig into the data and do some really exciting analysis.

Any way you slice it, my guess is that with your item and in today's market, you're looking at several tens of thousands of dollars. It's just a question of whether you might be able to squeeze a few extra grand out of it by using one site instead of another.