User:COIDave/HeritageAuctions

Heritage Auctions is a US-based, privately-held art and antiques auction house and online marketplace. It hosts auctions in 33 categories, such as comics, rare coins, sports memorabilia and fossils. Heritage Auctions is the third largest vintage and collectibles auction house. It also conducts private treaty sales, provides management services for museums and acts as a broker of CGC-certified comic books sold by third-parties.

Heritage Auctions was started in 1982 by two young coin collectors that merged their numismatics companies. The auction house went online in 1995 and now has 85 percent of its auctions online. It has sold significant historical artifacts such as a sword owned by Ulysses S. Grant, the Olsen-Hawn specimen of the 1913 Liberty Nickel and the hat worn by Jack Ruby when he shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald. In 2012 Heritage got into a dispute with the government of Mongolia, when it tried to auction a Tarbosaurus bataar experts believed may have been illegally exported from Mongolia.

History
Heritage Auctions was founded in 1982 by merging England Rare Coin Galleries with Steve Ivy Rare Coin Co. The two companies had been founded by James Halperin in 1968 and Steve Ivy in 1969 respectively. The two cofounders had both been collecting and selling since they were kids and left college to create numismatics companies.

The auction house first started auctioning coins online in 1995. It expanded into comic books in 2001, sports memorabilia in 2003, and vintage wine and luxury accessories in 2010. Halperin had to convince Ivy to move into comic books by auctioning a portion of his own collection. Heritage Auctions also opened a corresponding showroom in Hollywood for luxury accessories and a gallery in New York City. In 2009 a former Heritage Auctions consultant initiated his third lawsuit against Heritage Auctions, alleging the auction house inflated prices by bidding on its own auctions. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice. In 2011 Heritage Auctions worked with ABC to film a pilot TV show “The Great Big American Auction,” based on auctions conducted by Heritage. Heritage acquired Greg Martin Auctions, an auctioneer of rare firearms, in 2011 and expanded into a total of 33 auction categories.

Auctions
Heritage Auctions is the third largest auction house after Sotheby’s and Christie’s. In comparison to other auction houses, more of its auctions (85 percent of them) are done online. HA.com gets three to thirteen times as much traffic as its two larger competitors. The auction house markets itself as an "All-American alternative" to foreign-based auction houses. Services like eBay are more consumer-oriented, while Heritage Auctions charges a larger commission (15-25%) for items that are properly vetted by experts.

After online auctions are completed, in-person events give bidders a chance to beat the online price. Heritage Auctions also acts as a broker of CGC-certified comic books that are not part of its official inventory and provides management services to museums and other collections. The auction house conducts private treaty sales, which are used to sell rare art at a flat fee, instead of an auction.

Heritage Auctions does photography, marketing, publishing and advertising for high-value auctions and holds the items at its 80,000 square-foot facility with vaults, cameras, safes and other precautions. The auction house has served celebrity clients like Nicolas Cage, Stan Lee, Buzz Aldrin and Christopher Forbes from the Forbes publishing house.

Notable auctions
Many items of substantial historical significance have been auctioned through Heritage. At the 2002 Dallas Comic-Con, Nicolas Cage sold 400 vintage comic books for $1.6 million. The creator of Spider-Man, Stan Lee, sold his personal comic book collection that same year for $1.1 million. In 2003 Heritage Auctions auctioned an 1804 silver dollar for $1.2 million. The microphone used by Johnny Carson in The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992 was auctioned two years later. The property of Buddy Holly was auctioned in 2006, including a white gold Omega wristwatch that was gifted from his wife and salvaged from the historic crash in Ohio.

In 2007 Heritage auctioned items from Buzz Aldrin that went with him on the Apollo 11 mission, including patches from his suit, moon dust, an American flag and a hand-written card with a bible verse thought to be used for the first religious ceremony from space. That same year a silver-, gold- and diamond-encrusted sword given to Ulysses S. Grant by the people of Kentucky in 1864 auctioned for $1.6 million. In 2009 Heritage auctioned a first edition volume of “The Federalist” and the fedora hat worn by Jack Ruby when he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. That same year after art-collector Charles Martignette passed away, 4,300 pieces from his 1910-1950s collection were auctioned by Heritage.

At the Florida United Numismatists (FUN) 2010 auction, the Olsen-Hawn specimen of the 1913 Liberty Nickel was bought for $3,737,500. The coin is one of five known to exist and was previously sold for $200,000 in 1978 and $1 million in 2003. In 2010 Heritage Auctions sold a copy of Detective Comics No. 27, in which Batman makes his first appearance, for $1,075,500. It was originally purchased for ten cents.

At a Dallas auction in 2011 "The Fighting Pair," an allosaurus and stegosaurus skeleton, believed to be fossilized locked in battle with one another, was auctioned for $2,748,500. The proceeds from the auction were used to raise money for research and finding new specimens. In October 2011, 700 items from John Wayne's possessions were auctioned for $5.4 million. The auction included his gun belt and holster from El Dorado and an eye patch from True Grit. The wig worn by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 film Cleopatra was auctioned through Heritage in 2011.

In August 2012 the first 37 cards of the "Black Swamp Find" were sold for $566,131. The cards were part of a set from 1910 called the E98 series found covered in soot in a basement. In August 2012 Heritage auctioned the baseball that rolled between the legs of first baseman Bill Buckner at the 1986 World Series, allowing the New York Mets to win in the 10th inning. At a 2012 auction, an illustration of Spider-Man that was on the cover of the 1990 comic book was auctioned for $657,000. A 1963 copy of X-Men No.1 was auctioned for $492,937.50. A first issue of Batman from 1940 was bought for $850,000. At the 2012 United Numismatists auction, a one-cent copper coin from 1793 sold for $1.38 million. William Adolphe Bouguereau's "Fishing for Frogs" was part of Heritage's May 2012 art event, setting the highest price Heritage has gotten at auction for a single painting at $1,762,500. The entire auction realized more than $5 million.

Heritage Auctions has also sold more Oscar awards at auction than any other auction house.

Records
Heritage Auctions routinely sets records for the highest grossing auctions. The auction house holds the Guinness World Record for the largest grossing comic auction and the highest auction price for a nickel. A 1793 one-cent copper coin bought for $1,380,000 set a record for the highest grossing copper coin. Original artwork for the cover of Amazing Spider-Man No. 328 was the highest price ever paid for a piece of American comic book art at $657,250. Heritage Auctions has also set records for the most expensive handbag, the most expensive firearm, and the most valuable action figure.

Philanthropy
In February 2010 the School Sisters of Notre Dame auctioned a 100-year-old T206 Honus Wagner baseball card for $220,000. When the buyer had his archbishop bless the card and donated it to a non-profit sports museum in New Jersey, Heritage waived their fees. Heritage Auctions held three charity auctions in 2011 for Superbowl packages, where proceeds supported the Big Brothers program, initiatives for the homeless and hungry, and the Patt & Emmith Smith charities. The auction house helped raise $400,000 for the National Numismatic Collection of rare coins housed by the Smithsonian by hosting a charitable auction at the Florida United Numismatist Convention in 2012. Heritage also waived its fees for the 2009 auction of the Federalist due to the seller's military service in Iraq. A portion of the proceeds from the $5.4 million auction in 2011 of items owned by John Wayne were donated to the John Wayne Cancer Foundation.

Controversy
In 2012 Heritage Auctions posted an auction for a 24-foot-long and eight-foot tall Tarbosaurus bataar skeleton that was 75 percent complete. The original owner in Florida and a partner in Britain spent 100,000 pounds and several years building the skeleton. Heritage's promotions said the fossil originated from the Gobi Desert and Mongolian officials alleged it had been exported from Mongolia, which prohibits taking fossils outside the country. Experts agreed it most likely came from Mongolia, though there was a chance it came from China, where similar but less complete fossils have been found.

Two days before the auction, the Mongolian Academy of Sciences asked Heritage Auctions to halt the auction until the skeleton's origins could be confirmed. Heritage Auctions refused saying they weren't aware of any laws forbidding its sale and the following day an emergency restraining order was issued from a judge in Texas. Heritage Auctions auctioned the fossil anyway on a contingent basis, where it would be held in storage until the legal matter was resolved. This led to an altercation at the auction with Mongolia's lawyer.

Afterwards Heritage Auctions and the President of Mongolia issued a joint statement saying they would work together to reach a resolution. The seller gave Heritage Auctions permission to provide the Mongolian government with documentation, such as provenance, chain of custody, shipping manifests and import/export paperwork. The US government said it was shipped under misleading documentation that said the skeleton was $15,000 in reptile bones that originated from Great Britain. The seller rebutted that at the time the bones were “mostly chunks of rocks and broken bones." The government became custodian of the skeleton in June, after a judge said the skeleton would most likely be returned to Mongolia.