Huge Sales At GOLDIN AUCTIONS Have Comic Collectors Calling Shenanigans! Are These Legit?!

In this video I cover some recent sales that have occurred at Goldin auctions for comic books. They seem to regularly be getting 4x to 10x the price of a lot of common copper age books. Its very strange. Now its possible that this is just buyers not knowing the FMV and getting caught up in hype for movies or the netflix show king of collectables. But maybe this is shill bidding? Or dare I say it money laundering? Either way its very weird and so I wanted to put a bit of a spotlight on it and see what you guys think might be going on. Thank you to everyone in the community for sharing the sales.
Let me know.
Hope you guys enjoy the video!
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[@Swagglehaus]

Heard back from the Goldin Auctions team, they said that they can confirm that all the books discussed in this video have been paid for. This means that Wolverine 1 CGC 9.8 ($3050), Secret Wars 1 CGC 9.8 ($1586), Killing Joke 1 CGC 9.8 ($3,782) and Hulk 1 CGC 9.8 ($2,257) all set World Records in the last couple months shattering their previous sales due to Hype from the Netflix series.

[@J.O._comics]

I watched this video within the hour after you posted it and just came back to it, and I wasn't swung one way or the other hypothesis-wise. However I did notice they're under the eBay umbrella of companies now and when I saw that I doubted there was shill bidding or money laundering going on, the second factor that made me doubt was how closely together all the books were purchased, nobody who's doing fed-prison level money shenanigans would (you would think) not be so stupid and obvious. My final thought is I might feel bad if one of these books was bought by some Joe Shmoe who doesn't know FMV is even a thing, but seems unlikely two regular Joe's would jump into a bidding war on these many books, I mean with say 30 low dollar bids then 10 escalating bids it would take two to tango.

[@prlm34]

Ok So they did confirm to you that these books have been paid for. But that statement is fishy in itself. They could have "purchased" these books themselves to inflate the value. That's what I've been thinking 🤔 It's just odd all around.

[@StuntBikeJake]

@@prlm34 inflate value..... before dropping the 9.9s and 10.0s on the market... manipulate the normal to highly inflate the exceptional... or is that just me thinking that?

[@blgreene007]

Doesn't add up. I think you're on to something.

[@HomelessCanadaMike]

I know I am late to this but I saw the comment by sean.goodrich.comics "I know it's hard to believe. When I first saw it, I asked why. The answer is when you combine inexperienced new buyers with season 2 of the Netflix show and money you get crazy results. It happened last year when season 1 dropped." But these are record sales and they aren't being reported on Goldins pages just through the employees social media, leaving a level of disconnect from the sales and the reporting, Goldin just recently started reporting sales to gocollect and gpa and weren't doing it last year so that makes the claim it happen after season 1 less verifiable, but for the months after season 1 Goldin didn't advertise any record sales or even high sales on comics and Sean Goodrich doesn't have any instagram posts between 44 weeks ag and 77 weeks ago. Furthermore the first auction after season 1 had the Superman 1 that lost a million dollars and the Action Comics that lost 300,000, both of these were reported on by Swaggle and others. These are all very obtainable books with tens of thousands of copies maybe even hundreds of thousands available, why would people be in a bidding war over these books even if they have money to spare. It's not like they are rare books that don't come around often, they are all different titles and universes so it wasn't two fans of said property fighting over each other, it all stinks of market manipulation or getting had by two trolls bidding and not buying. If they are claiming it's legit sales that were paid for then it sounds like inside job to me, inflate your sales of these easily obtainable books that you own and that you are buying from yourself and waiving your own fees so that other people see, oh Goldin is the place to sell my comics now and start sending you there copies of all these easily obtainable books hoping to cash in. Even if Goldin actually bought the books and they were consigned by someone else it's such a small amount of money to them that can just come out of the advertising budget. Another thing is the timing of it, Ebay acquired Goldin but the deal wasn't expected to close until the end of Quarter 2 2024, the end of June. There are just way to many red flags for me to have any faith these are legit sales.

[@doghousecomics2596]

Here is an analogy to show how I see it. A few years ago I went back to my home town and visited my family. On the main road a new pool place had opened up. I thought it was cool since it is a rough end of town, and having things to do sometimes helps to keep people out of trouble, which is never a bad thing. I talked my brothers into walking over to this pool hall, which had apparently been open for six months or so, to have a few games. No one was inside (apparently no one is ever inside) aside from a guy behind the bar and a well dress man sitting at the bar reading the paper. We walked up and asked how much per hour to play pool and they both seemed confused. Eventually the guy behind the bar said "ummm, how does 10 bucks sound?" We said sure. And they he went through a bunch of drawers and stuff to find the balls so we could play. The tables were new and I think we may have been the first people to play on them. It was clear this pool hall was not really a pool hall. I dont know any of the behind the scenes stuff, and I could be wrong, but it sure sounds like Golden Auctions is the comic book version of that pool hall.

[@michaelblatherwick5324]

I’m on the east coast and have interacted with the Goldin crew at several shows over the past few years. I wouldn’t touch these guys with someone else’s books. Shady, creepy, rude guys who all think they’re “playas”. Can’t wait for the news to break when they are caught being shady. RICO feds don’t play.

[@davidsamuelson2089]

It’s an unregulated market. Can’t do anything to them legally. Comics are not nor have ever been investments.

[@TT-fq7pl]

@@davidsamuelson2089 I liked your comment for two reasons: it's accurate; no one wants that kind of accuracy. You're a voice crying in the wilderness.

[@SHCollector]

Was watching Goldin’s recent auctions with these books at these outrageous prices. Blatantly shilled.

[@DanSchawbel]

People are dumb...but not THAT dumb THAT consistently

[@WhiteArtsMagic]

@@DanSchawbel you give people too much credit

[@duecemane]

I’d like to believe there’s folks out there that are naive to the prices, but I doubt they are to this degree. Extremely fishy. Quite obvious that something is going on.

[@DanSchawbel]

People are dumb...but not THAT dumb THAT consistently

[@brute_nm]

You know what REALLY stinks about all those? Most are from the same CGC submission: 4429783020 SW1 $610 4429783019 SW1 $738 4429783018 SW1 $793 4429783017 SW1 $1586 4429783006 Wolvie Limited 1 $1729 4429783005 Wolvie Limited 1 $3050 😑😑😑

[@Swagglehaus]

The plot thickens!!

[@jasontong4914]

This true? Now to find out who the submitter is…👀

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Nice research, Derek!

[@joeymia]

So the books are all the same owner if it’s the same submissions. Someone is laundering money via auction sales. Weird since “art” is easier 😂

[@The9.9Newsstand]

Whoa.

[@RafaustComics]

I've won books on Goldin in the past for well under FMV, but I've also seen books go way over FMV that I just figured were uninformed buyers or 2 people caught up in a bidding war. But I didn't realize they were going for 4 to 10 times as much, that's crazy!

[@briandeiter5374]

Yes I agree I think it’s just hype from the show and they have the wealthiest customers who are literally billionaires and millionaires who probably don’t care about over spending. I just saved 250-$300 under the FMV on Goldin for 4 books!! I was definitely wanting to make a purchase on goldin after watching the show and I was not expecting the books to be so cheap so I don’t think it’s money laundering

[@ObsessedCollector]

Ken Goldin loves three things: HIMSELF MONEY and HIMSELF.

[@nas7815]

That dude in Dubai you did a video on a while back is probably buying up those comics.

[@TT-fq7pl]

Shill bidding is common in all collectibles markets, especially when those markets go into decline. Asset holders will do whatever is necessary to artificially inflate the values of said assets.

[@malus911]

They're trying to drum up business. Wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't all a scam. No comic collector would pay those prices. Sell your stuff with us and we'll get you "out of this world prices"...

[@comiccowboy]

I was the under bidder on the Thrilling Comics 38 and it sold right in line with the recent GPA prices.

[@RafaustComics]

Wow, I just checked this week's listings and there's already an ASM #161 9.8 over $1K and Deadpool #1 9.8 at $1.6K. That doesn't include the additional 30% taxes and fees on top of that. That is crazy!

[@joshuawyatt4381]

That ASM #161 is actually a 9.6 which makes it more insane!

[@oldhab7890]

The collectible market is speculative. It is based on "the greater fool theory". There is no real investing. As prices begin to weaken, the major players will devise ways to prop the market until they can get out.

[@2hugebros241]

Heritage is the worst when it comes to shill bidding a book.. Skum

[@jrucker4181]

Golden got sold. I eBay owns them now. I would totally believe shenanigans are going on.

[@splugereport]

The funny thing about shill bidding though is that the highest bidder needs to be competing at 3:00 or 4 or 10x the actual market value. So it still requires buyers who are clueless but have money

[@hobbes_8548]

My guess is that these books aren't actually being payed for. Just bidding to prop up the perceived price of the book and try to raise the market for future sales as well as attract sellers to Goldin.

[@visioneyeviewtv]

some people just DONT CARE about FMV and are willing to pay whatever for these books

[@briandeiter5374]

This is my take as well they have ridiculously wealthy buyers

[@kaliklak3530]

What people are missing is that it cannot be one uninformed buyer making these ridiculously high bids, because it's an auction it takes two uninformed buyers competing against each other. Otherwise the bidding would end immediately after it exceeded fair market value. So if you think it's just one uninformed person it actually has to be two to get these prices. Unless one of them is a shill....

[@poing333]

Great video but I doubt it was people getting tunnel vision in auction. No way that few people look up comps.

[@davidsamuelson2089]

Like any other blind bids on an unregulated market like comics expect it to be slanted, if not completely crooked.

[@christopherferguson7201]

Fishy why would anyone pay that for Wolverine 1 when we know the census shows there are several 9.9 and a 10.0 sitting out there waiting to be dropped at anytime.

[@jabezcreed]

No way there are 40 bids on those books when they can be readily found for cheaper on eBay.

[@bobicus]

There is always going on eBay but there are literally no regulations for it.....

[@kestonsoldschoolcomicbooks6842]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing, Mickey.

[@JDRamos213]

Agreed. Saw these prices and was like, "COme on now." Worse than the EBay shills

[@edowings2211]

they have a ASM 161 current price is 1050 and the auction hasn't ended crazy ok they have a Deadpool 1 going for over 1600 bucks something stinks man I keep editing but these prices don't include the buyer's premium unbelievable that Deadpool is over 2k with the premium insane!

[@MichaelDerousie-nx7yu]

Nerdy Girl was on the show too. Goldin Touch

[@generalzod530]

My wife was on goldin auctions last night. She showed me a box of un unopened baseball fleer cards was $120k. From the 86 87 season. I looked up the all stars from that set on eBay. Michael Jordan was around $1600 the rest of the all stars (magic, bird, Karl Malone …) were between $25 and $50. If I could by Jordan and all the all stars from that year for $2k why pay $120k for an unopened box?

[@FallenHeroEM1]

I've only ever bought from them once. About two years ago trying to get a deal on a book. I didn't overpay, even with the fees, but I still probably wouldn't go back. Book did come and is legit. I just don't care for the whole auction house experience.

[@Zzump]

Sounds like they are in bed with the grading companies. The same sort of things happened with heritage and graded video games. Trying to drive up prices.

[@jaremypyle6314]

I feel like I'm noticing a lot of higher, and out of recent range, fixed price sales on eBay lately on key books I"m browsing that seem to make no sense. I wonder if it is price manipulation to hold up the averages on books that are consistently falling.

[@JesseHardesty]

A Deadpool #1, just sold on there for almost $2,000. A 4 issue mini series that I could buy all CGC 9.8 copies of on ebay for $200

[@OzComiX]

lol look up Hulk #1 CGC 9.8, first red hulk, Goldin had up sold for $2257.00

[@adamlata3869]

Goldin makes my blood boil

[@2hugebros241]

He looooooves money more then life

[@cowbelltv4865]

Mr. Goldin just convinced eBay his business is worth a lot too. Hmmm?

[@Gumba213]

something smells very fishy.

[@berkfamily54]

Yup I did a video on Goldin a few weeks ago. Feels like the prices there are just way way way too high.

[@berkfamily54]

There’s something really weird happening man, these prices shouldn’t be that high.

[@MARAXUSOFVLADD]

PWCC: What? Shill bidding? What is that 😂🤣

[@Quasi_Terrible]

Okay okay let's calm down, viewers of Swagglehaus do you declare Shenanigans on Golden Auctions? YES! Okay Golden Auctions do you accept this decree of Shenanigans? ...... Well that settles it, everyone grab a broom, IT'S SHENANIGANS!!!🎉

[@paytonardoin688]

Super fishy…

[@Narynan1]

Hey look! You noticed! But....what is anyone going to do about it? Really. What CAN be done though?

[@mattjvictory]

Noting has to be done. If you're so gullible and think that these prices are legit, auction with them - happy selling!

[@binkysphinx]

They must be buying their own stuff, there's no other reasonable explanation. Even money launderers wouldn't be this brazen with the pricing.

[@usbekl7you]

has a strong money laundering look

[@scottabraham1234]

I'm always suspicious of Heritage sine I saw a clause that said they can bid on books themselves. When I see these stories of books coming back to market and someone taking a huge loss, I'm just thinking Heritage won it last time and they're just putting it back in Not sure if Goldin are doing similar. My only other guess is that Goldin sell to a country others don't

[@CHAMPDOGZ]

Whenever big money is involved, it gets controlled titians of every industry love control

[@davidsamuelson2089]

Be prepared to bid your high & walk away if it goes past. That’s a lesson for everything in your life. You’re welcome.

[@ronaldbourgeois1255]

For that price I could get Avengers #16 for $650.00 8.0 cgc .

[@popsequentialism7213]

The only explanation that makes sense is that someone at Disney was buying up 9.8 Wolverine#1s as cast gifts and had a deadline for amassing a high qty of them, which would mean that one person (or a group on behalf of one person) was actually the winning bidder in all of those auctions. Cost is anecdotal to getting the task done in such cases, but by aggregate even with the occasional high price, the low prices balance it all.

[@PatriciaMaroney]

I think maybe it's people who don't know the values or how to check for that. There's a problem with coin collecting that's a similar thing where some people are not aware that some companies' prices are higher than the same grade coin you can get at a local coin store. If this was a charity auction to benefit someone, I can see people paying over as a contribution. But otherwise you bring up some very good points.

[@keepitrealandtoasty]

Collections are sold at auction houses for 10 to 100x than Ebay

[@State-uw8pu]

Yeah just saw Deadpool #1 cgc 9.8 sell for 7290. Can you see the bid history name on Goldin? Ty Swags

[@kenny_numbers]

I don’t feel so bad now about when I’ve overpaid 10 or 20%.

[@justinviglianti334]

It would be interesting to see what marvel trading cards on goldin are going for compared to ebay. When i think of goldin i think of the pmg craze during the pandemic. Maybe youll see inflated number there too.

[@DanielRodriguez-bn6mg]

It could have been a charity auction. Sometimes books go for way more than fair market value at charity auctions.

[@abbc2105]

I think it’s just how auctions go; you get out-bid, you bid higher, etc. Edit: Also, part of could be Goldin’s reputation (more trustworthy than random online seller).

[@michaelstarr1285]

Comics are a suckers game as investments.

[@JDRamos213]

Whenever it comes to the topic of shill bidding, pay attention to those who dismiss it or defend it. They're almost ALWAYS a seller.

[@chadfontaine2717]

Just saw a 9.8 go for $900ish on Heritage. People are getting dumb. That or someone saw the Golden auction and thought they were getting a "deal" on Heritage 😆 Meanwhile on ebay two days ago... $399 😆

[@RobinDale50]

its called "money laundering" and it goes on all the time on all the auction sites.

[@DocReasonable]

It could be Saudi princes and Chinese billionaires bidding on these books - that's the kind of clientele Goldin has. It's not like those guys are going to cry about spending 20X the real value.

[@dhyde9780]

Market manipulation. This is so the FMV bumps and CGC can charge more for a 9.8. I mean it's odd the books are from the same submission. LOL.

[@ronaldbourgeois1255]

Swag Netflix had a series of eight episodes on the company and they had to get close to 30 million for their quota. Sometimes they wouldn’t take no for a answer.

[@jesseramirez1283]

Golden has to make them shelves look good after the big lost of action comic 1

[@ehametz]

Did you run the certs? Were they all the same submitter? Is it possible these can be sent back in as pedigree that were missed at the time of the origional submission? If this is not the case , then i would have to agree with you. It's massive shill bidding

[@jmourgos55]

maybe I should consign my books over there!

[@DanSchawbel]

that's exactly the reaction they want

[@LUMBEEPHENOM2012]

I’ll be doing that

[@thomashobbes8786]

See if they’ll buy your books and sell them themselves 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@thomashobbes8786]

Yeah, one going on for ASM #161 cgc 9.6 right now, has about two days left. At $1050 now, 49 bids, clearly bs. I bet the recent algorithm gocollect updated throws those out. 😂

[@milskillz123]

Side note maybe I need to sell more on Goldin

[@mattjvictory]

That's exactly why they are shill bidding their own comics up.

[@DanSchawbel]

@@mattjvictory bingo!

[@jeffstanley6013]

Were these specific books actually featured on the Netflix show? You might just have some folks chasing what they consider to be "famous" books (like the Nicolas Cage or Fantast collections) if that's the case. (I don't think that's likely, but you never know.)

[@Alma-B]

sports bros buying other categories is the funniest shit ever while u may have stuff going for 5x market u also have stuff going for 20% market 🤣🤣

[@davidsamuelson2089]

Goldin= King of A-holes.

[@Ciro912]

smells like money laundering

[@user-ti9hp4je9i]

Check out the Deadpool 1, The Circle Chase. It’s nuts

[@michaelstarr1285]

Sleazy business

[@raulmendieta9696]

Goldie is cooking the books = tax evasion. Market manipulation for sake of Netflix likes. 👍

[@WadeNslade]

If Goldwin could get these prices nobody would ever sell on eBay lol. We would consign everything

[@michaelsharkey4255]

Ken Goldin spends a lot of time looking at himself in the mirror and rolling around in $100 dollar bills.

[@markcowell9324]

That's with 22% buyers premium added......but still

[@thepewbroswreeo5126]

Could be Pokémon collectors not knowing better.

[@MikeT123]

Putting on my tin foil hat, but they are being acquired by Ebay, which is due to close later in 2024. It would be interesting if they were inflating their auction sales by bidding up items and making the numbers seem more robust to make the sale price more attractive?

[@tonytothe8544]

Super fishy!

[@jamesshiflette5629]

Guess I need to send my books to Goldin to sell! 😂

[@sirrickthe2nd583]

It's a ridiculously common book.

[@LUMBEEPHENOM2012]

Sounds like it’s time to sell on GOLDIN Auctions

[@DanSchawbel]

If it's too good to be true.......

[@skywalker271]

galactus color print error happens in this issue, probably explains this

[@ronaldbourgeois1255]

That’s enough to buy Avengers #1 or #4.

[@horvathsogranfume658]

where were these shill bidders when the AC1 sold for so cheap 😂

[@LUMBEEPHENOM2012]

I ask the same thing every time I sale lol

[@36amorgan]

I think it;s a cpllection of all the above

[@Tom-gp6oy]

There's no way those sales are legit. It could happen once, but that many is ridiculous. Also auctions typically go lower than BIN on eBay. That means not one but multiple totally ignorant bidders would have to be bidding on multiple 1,000-dollar-plus auctions of different books within a short period. It's just not feasible.

[@davemelanson3305]

Maybe someone just buys on Goldin. Probably someone out of country. Or fraud. Maybe the buyer bought it but didn’t pay for it with their own money

[@TheSameoldjoe]

Something amiss?

[@a3marketing991]

Goldin has a different group of buyers. These buyers may have just started investing in comics and didn't do proper research. Maybe I should list some of my comic collection for sale at Goldin? I don't think any Shenanigans is taking place.

[@JDRamos213]

Then I got a bridge to sell you.

[@saum02]

seems like shill bidding to me.

[@jfern2101]

Second you said logan paul they lost all credibility with most smart peoplw😅

[@wolverinearoundtheworld]

Shilling like PWCC and Probstein123

[@WadeNslade]

Straw buyers are not new

[@Mcdowells]

Auction houses are different across the board. People forget some of these auction house buyers tend to not shop the way most ardent comic buyers do.

[@jeremybell8732]

Money laundering?

[@rmrtnzstn]

Extremely strange.....but maybe I will try and sell some comics on golden and get $$$$$$$$$$

[@DanSchawbel]

Those sales are meant to manipulate you to sell with them.