morphy auction ...you will want to read this

Yep. Got mine last Friday. Worth the $50 to me as I find it easier to read and page thru than the online catalogs (though it looks like those will be up for a long time). But yeah, great reference as it has descriptions and spans so many genres.

edit: "so" many genres

 

Reminds me I still need to order one.

 

The hardcover is indeed amazing.

The pics are sometimes a little small, but it is an amazing reference book and a unique catalogue on his own considering the rarity of such an event.

 

The wife and I are still on the fence about going, it's my birthday week and that might just be my gift to myself.

 

I am just wondering what there is to do for me and my brother in PA
Haven't been in 15 years, I will be spending most of my time in Wilkes-Barre but I might head out to Phil or NYC

 

I got the book this afternoon and I'm only on page 50. I guess I'm spending all day tomorrow looking through it. Spotted one typo but it's not too bad. Tons of really cool stuff.

 

The book smells really good too.

 

That it does.

 

Nicely laid out catalog.... you would think however that from the massive list of consultants
(we know who you are) that there would be fewer errors in the listings.
and je-hee-suz why did I sell my Kendoras in '88 ?!!!!!!!

 

Mine smelled pretty bad!

 

i tried my best to ignore this thread, but i just followed the link and holy shit do i want to bid on a few things!

 

question...
i am unable to attend the auction in person, so i signed up through the morphy website. is there another step i need to take before i am able to place bids on items?
and if i am understanding correctly, there is an auction house charge we pay on top of the price of the figures?

 

a 17% buyer's premium

 

Believe it's more for online bidding... 20%?

 

just read thru it and got it all set up. i had to register with the 2 diff agencies running the auction.

it's 17% for this auction. 20% on auctions that morphy does thru ebay (at least that is what i got from what i read). when you place a bid it adds on the 17% so you can see where you are at with your finances.

also, there is a 6% tax on top of that. and also shipping on top of that. so i figure that tacking an extra 25% on top of the selling price is a good measure for me.

 

That sounds about right in terms of numbers...but I'd revise it to "20% plus shipping" because some of these items are going to go well into the thousand dollar range, so adding roughly 5% just for shipping wouldn't make sense.

And, yeah, now that I finally have my copy of the catalog in hand (I really haven't been watching the website much), I've found quite a few mistakes. Kinda distressing...but I'm not surprised as these items aren't really what Morphy's knows about. We gave them a MASSIVE amount of info...and in the process of compiling it all, mistakes were made. I mean, there were at least 5 or so drafts of the catalog, and even after that, I caught several mistakes...

What can ya do?

...

Well...I guess you can just go to the auction, check out each lot in person and bid on what you see!

Remember, this is an old-timey auction house! They're geared for folks showing up in person and waving paddles--that's why their online presence is *meh* at best.

 

Mistakes, huh? What kind of mistakes? Is bidding online going to be a risky venture?

 

Just scrutinize the hell outta the first image and use common sense.

Trust your eyes. I'm guessing that the descriptions and value estimates are correct, but I've seen type-o's and such. I'm pretty sure more than half the vinyl lots only have one image. What's in that first image is definitely what you're getting.

If there is a second image for the larger vinyl lots, check to see if the toys from the first pic are also in the second pic...if so, then you're getting ALL the toys in the second pic. If you see a completely different set of toys in the second pic, they fucked up. Just go by the first pic.

Think I'm lying? Check out lot #76. I ran across that gem the other day. The lot's supposed to be all Marmit, but the second pic is clearly all M1. Beats me what lot that second pic is supposed to go with...

So, I guess to summarize, the FIRST IMAGE in each vinyl lot is the only thing you can trust 100%.

 

Sanjeev, did you guys ever get additional pics of the lots that included more loot then was pictured online or in the catalog? I think you mentioned pics coming on the second page of this thread. If not, for those that win I guess it'll be "Surprise! Surprise! "

 

Good question...so, yeah, we finally got the second batch of pics a couple weeks ago. With those, I updated the descriptions and value estimates. Now, the problem is that the second batch of pics does NOT show up in the catalog...'cause it was printed before this whole mess. The second pics DO show up in the online auctions...but like I said above, there are errors here and there.

Incidentally, just found another. Lot 354 is for some Ultra popinica pieces, but the second pic shows the accessories to the popy ST Skyzel and Granzel (lot 251). Well, I guess that tells us that this problem isn't limited to just vinyl...

 

Thanks Sanjeev....all I can say is...OMFG!

 

Yeah as I mentioned earlier in this thread.... pretty amazing amount of booboos !

 

slowly working my way thru the online listings. 1200 down, only 350 more to go!

but i agree, i have spotted a few errors here and there. i dont have the book, so i can only go based on the online listings. to be honest, working my way thru the pictures of the vinyl lots was a pain in the ass. mainly due to things like "lot of 46 vinyl figures" then you look at the picture and you see 10. then below that you see a huge pile where you really can't discern much of anything other than a few figures.

also noticed, some of them are very descriptive in regards to size of figures and company and some of them are extremely scarce.

but overall, lots of goodies to be had if you are willing to dig.

 

oh and my favorite thing with some of the tin toys that makes me laugh every time (and yeah, i know the boxes say this too, so it isnt the auction's fault)... toy moves forward by mystery action. don't know why...but i laugh every damn time.

 

Waddya know !
I move forward with mystery action too !