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Adventures in selling my comic collection
phansford
Posts: 221
I am starting this tread to review my experiences in selling off my comic collection. I know a few members were interested in hearing about my experiences, so I will write about my 2 1/2 year adventure within this thread. Ask questions any time.
Background
I began buying comics seriously in 1975. I was freshman in high school and I was looking for something to break some of the tension I was feeling at the time. I thought I needed something that would be entertaining and relaxing. I remembered liking the old Spider-man cartoon from the 1960’s and I was a huge Batman fan (Adam West). I had comics before.... but this time it was different. My first book was ASM #151, which I purchased off a spinner rack at a local convenance store. I was hooked.
Jump ahead 34 years to 2009. With a few years out of the hobby here and there, I had amassed a collection of mostly Marvel Silver Age books to the present. I had somewhere between 40 and 50 short boxes. The prize of the collection was a full run of ASM, including a coverless copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. I had purchased AF #15 in high school for $25.
My dad was always supportive of my hobby and contributed to it more than once. The first time was a broken run of ASM from #40-#100, including #50 for Christmas 1975. In the Spring of 1976, he convinced my mom to let me take money out of my bank account to buy ASM #1 for $75. I had to redeposit $5 every 2 weeks or I’d have to sell the book. My only income was a paper route. I earned $5 a week.
I had quit buying new books in late 2008. Both of my boys had tired of reading comics and my pull list had dwindled to 4 titles. I thought I would just collect back issues. I would come to discover I was done. I couldn’t even pick up a comic book and read it. And I was done collecting.
I never thought I would sell the collection. I figured it would go to my sons or be donated to my alma mater. But 2009 was a tough year. I lost my father due to complications from heart by-pass surgery (a 5 month struggle). At the same time, my 94 year old father-in-law was on a slow slide. He would die a month before my dad. My father-in-law saved everything. Even the hospital receipt for my wife’s birth in 1959. She cost $76. :) We had to clean out my in-law’s house. It took months. I swore I wouldn’t leave that kind of mess to my kids.
With my father gone, my boys having no interest, my growing concern that the books sit in boxes in dark rooms and never get enjoyed, but are slowly eaten by the acid within their paper, I decided it was time to divest myself of my collection and invest the proceeds into my SEP IRA.
NEXT: I talk about choosing a market place. ebay, Craigslist, dealer? (It might be a week before I post the next section)
Background
I began buying comics seriously in 1975. I was freshman in high school and I was looking for something to break some of the tension I was feeling at the time. I thought I needed something that would be entertaining and relaxing. I remembered liking the old Spider-man cartoon from the 1960’s and I was a huge Batman fan (Adam West). I had comics before.... but this time it was different. My first book was ASM #151, which I purchased off a spinner rack at a local convenance store. I was hooked.
Jump ahead 34 years to 2009. With a few years out of the hobby here and there, I had amassed a collection of mostly Marvel Silver Age books to the present. I had somewhere between 40 and 50 short boxes. The prize of the collection was a full run of ASM, including a coverless copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. I had purchased AF #15 in high school for $25.
My dad was always supportive of my hobby and contributed to it more than once. The first time was a broken run of ASM from #40-#100, including #50 for Christmas 1975. In the Spring of 1976, he convinced my mom to let me take money out of my bank account to buy ASM #1 for $75. I had to redeposit $5 every 2 weeks or I’d have to sell the book. My only income was a paper route. I earned $5 a week.
I had quit buying new books in late 2008. Both of my boys had tired of reading comics and my pull list had dwindled to 4 titles. I thought I would just collect back issues. I would come to discover I was done. I couldn’t even pick up a comic book and read it. And I was done collecting.
I never thought I would sell the collection. I figured it would go to my sons or be donated to my alma mater. But 2009 was a tough year. I lost my father due to complications from heart by-pass surgery (a 5 month struggle). At the same time, my 94 year old father-in-law was on a slow slide. He would die a month before my dad. My father-in-law saved everything. Even the hospital receipt for my wife’s birth in 1959. She cost $76. :) We had to clean out my in-law’s house. It took months. I swore I wouldn’t leave that kind of mess to my kids.
With my father gone, my boys having no interest, my growing concern that the books sit in boxes in dark rooms and never get enjoyed, but are slowly eaten by the acid within their paper, I decided it was time to divest myself of my collection and invest the proceeds into my SEP IRA.
NEXT: I talk about choosing a market place. ebay, Craigslist, dealer? (It might be a week before I post the next section)
Comments
I also have a stock pile of short boxes (approximately 80+) sitting in my crawl space, that I constantly fret over. What if there is a fire, or a flood? What if they aren't bagged or stored properly? As much as I love my collection and my daughter has shown a keen interest in the Marvel universe, I could easily move out 2/3 of my collection and feel good about it. It just feels like a daunting task, so it gets put off and every couple of months another short box gets wedged into the pile. I am running out of room, so one day soon I will have to man up and do something about it. Hopefully I can benefit from your experience.
I only have about 3800 comics. Aside from my silver and bronze age Marvel and DC books, I could part with everything else which is about two-thirds. Everything else is mostly early to current modern age stuff that does not sell well. I have already figured that I will have to settle on donating the issues somewhere. I am already reducing what I'm getting monthly and focsing on my bronze age collection.
I picked up some of phansford's books, he had a very, very nice collection.
lol
Toby
taken advantage of himbenefitted from his house cleaning with an awesome run of SGT Fury comics (26-65).You had mentioned before you were going to parlay your collection into guitars. Did you still do that to some extent?
Several times in graduate school (mid-1980’s) I needed money. I would head into Dayton (Ohio) to sell a short box or two to a dealer. Every time I did it was always the same story......
“These are low grade books, so we can’t offer you a lot.”
“The market is down on comics right now, so we can’t offer you a lot.”
Many of the books were purchased or had originated from that particular dealer. The reality is those statements were absolute BS. This particular dealer.... as with many other dealers..... just out and out lie about the condition of your books and the market. I have seen dealers grade a book they are purchasing as Good then turn around and sell it as a Fine. After 35 years in the hobby, I can be a bit cynical. ;-)
Those early boxes included high grade copies (Fine and above) of Iron Man #1, Conan #1-100, Silver Surfer (#1-18), Capt. American #100-113. I’d walk out of the LCS with $100 in my pocket, but I’d have money to buy Christmas presents or pay for school books.
Back in the 70’s and 80’s, the only option to dealers was to set up at flea markets yourself. I did that a few times. I’d pay for a booth, sit around in the heat all day, and not sell a single book. :(
So my previous experiences guided a lot of my decisions. I wasn’t going to become a dealer. I already have a job. I have my own architectural firm. I wanted to sell directly to as many fellow collectors as I could. I didn’t need to squeeze every dime out of the collection.
I set a few “goals” or “guidelines” for myself.
a. I wanted to make more money than a dealer would give me, but
b. I wouldn’t be concerned about getting full guide. AND
c I wanted fellow collectors get a great deal.
d. I figured it would take me 3 to 5 years to sell the collection.
I had heard the horror stories of ebay..... even from seasoned comic dealers. One dealer told me how he sold an Uncanny X-Men #1. There were plenty of scans of the book. The buyer complained about the condition of the book to ebay and ebay blindly refunded the buyer the purchase price........ the buyer did NOT return the book!!!!! I have heard similar stories more than once. Then there is the issue with foreign buyers. You tell people the auction is open only to the lower 48, then someone overseas wins the auction. They, of course, back out because you won’t pay for shipping. :-S
I had started selling a few items on Craigslist the summer of 2009. (The whole cleaning out the house thing from my first post) I had decided to start selling off my old Johnny West figures and some of my 1960’s/70’s G.I. Joe stuff. These were my personal toys as a kid. This had been going very well. I had met a few local collectors of those items who were encouraging and helpful with their comments. I liked the face-to-face cash transaction.
I thought Craigslist seemed to be a great place to start selling the collection. I would start with my newest books (1990’s and newer). I grouped books by title and run and would photograph the short box with the key issues laying on top. I was selling Ultimate Spider-man (1-125), Batman (400 and up), All the rebooted Marvel titles (FF, Hulk, Capt. America, DD). I was looking to get around 50% of guide. I knew I had to include some top books in the boxes to sell everything. The books didn’t move very quickly.....
........then suddenly I got a call from someone who was interested all of the titles (about 6 short boxes). Shortly after dinner one night, a small tattooed dude shows up with an SUV at my house. We hit it of immediately. That fellow was none other than James Murphy of Fearless Readers and we would become good friends. And James would provide a lot of insight and advice over the next 32 months.
Next - Bulk Books verses Collectibles. Hanging with James.
Really enjoying the story by the way, can't wait for the next installment
My collection consisted of large continuous runs of books. I was a completist at heart. I also had runs of a particular character or artist in a series. I had the Jim Aparo’s Spectre run in Adventure Comics, Kirby’s The Losers in Our Fighting Forces, Iron Fist in Marvel Premiere, the Beast in Amazing Adventures (F to VF) and so on.
Basically, there are three ways to sell a comic collection. If you sell the entire thing as a single unit you are going to basically eliminate a lot of buyers and you’ll be looking at selling to dealers. Which is fine.... while I can be a bit cynical, there are dealers I like. :) If you sell to a dealer or as a large lot, you can expect to get less money per book. Dealers aren’t going to go through the entire collection and grade each book. They will look through the collection in general. Determine an overall average grade and look for Keys.... then offer you a price based on an aerial view of your collection.
This leaves two ways to sell off your collection. You can sell the Keys for as much money as possible, leaving the non-key books as fodder. Or bundle the Keys with the surrounding non-keys. For example, I sold most of my ASM run in 5 and 10 issue runs. I could have sold off ASM #50 by itself, then struggled to sell issues #51-59. I was willing to let #50 go for a little less, but get more money for the other non-keys.
So I decided that I would try to sell the collection in runs with the Keys. There were some keys, due to their value that had to be sold singularly. Such as AF #15, ASM #1 and #2, Avengers #1, and so on.
The tough part in creating bundles or runs was to know what the market would bear. How much was someone really willing to spend at one time for comics. $25, $50, $200? It actually varied upon the title. And this really comes down to the market.
Forget what the Overstreet Price Guide says about value. Basically, the guide has 40% of the books undervalued, 40% of the books overvalued, and 20% of them on target. It took time, but I got pretty good at reading how the market felt about certain books. And this is where James Murphy with Fearless Readers comes back into the story.
James was very gracious in his friendship and would provide straight honest advice to me. The first eye-opener with James.... slight eye-opener.... was that modern books (post 1980) are bulk books. The reality is 99% of the books printed since 1980 have very little value or everyone has them in their collections due to their availability. For example, I had a straight run of Batman from #400 to current. There are a lot of “pricey” books in that run. Year One, Death in the Family, Bane. My copies were F to NM (I don’t believe in Mint - 10.0 books. That’s a myth). I had Year One and Death in the Family bundled into 4 issue lots and couldn’t sell them for $20!!. Couldn’t sell them as a lot of 8 for $20. Eventually they went to Fearless in a short box (#400-525) for around $40 or $0.32 a book. Which is a very good price. Even a local collector who likes Batman and purchased my high grade Silver Batman and Detectives didn’t want them for his own ebay action.
So forget about Overstreet telling you that some mid-1990’s book is worth $5. If Overstreet only lists one price for a book and its for the book in VF/NM....... its a bulk book. If you don’t believe me, just look at the rows and rows of $1 bins at your LCS. Or take a stroll through the Fearless Readers website.
What I learned was that this is also the case with some bronze titles. Unless the books are high-high grade, most people are not interested in Amazing Adventures, Astonishing Tales, Kirby’s non-New Gods Fourth World, and similar titles. BTW - I loved these books. Great great reads. This also goes for indy books. I had beautiful copies of the original Rocketeer story, early Xenozoic Tales, Hero Bear and the Kid.... there was NO interest in those books. They ended up at Fearless and hopefully in your collection. ;)
So for me..... taking the time to catalog the entire collection, scan a large portion of the collection, and having a 3-5 year plan worked for me.
I got pretty good at reading the market demand for certain titles. The Internet helps immensely.
I would typically grade and scan my books. (yes..... I scanned hundreds upon hundreds of books). I would use Newkadia to price the books since they listed Overstreet Guide values. They also listed the books they had in stock and more importantly..... the weeks the book had been in stock. Hint Hint.... if a book was in stock for more than 16 weeks, it wasn’t a popular title or issue and I would price appropriately.
I would back check my pricing with other websites such as Mile High, Mid-town, Graham Crackers, and sometimes MyComicShop..... however there are issue with how the latter prices books. I think they have a macro that adjusts their prices based on their stock. I actually saw prices change while I was looking at them. Mile High has similar software. So if a book on Mile High is less than guide..... its a slow mover. And yeah..... Mile High really isn’t a good comparative. Chuck is always on the high side. However, Chuck does list what he will pay for books. More than once, I boxed up books that weren’t selling and made more money than I was asking locally for the bundles. Chuck took the majority of my War Books. Guess what.... everyone tells you DC war books are hot..... Ummmm ..... no they are not. :)) However, I got great money from Chuck. (So I am not a total hater on dealers). :)
ebay is not an indicator of value for anything. ebay is basically the wholesale market for used items. Buyers are looking to get things for the cheapest and it takes forever to get the rating you need to attract buyers willing to bid up your items. This goes for guitar amps also. :))
If its hot now..... sell it.
The best advice i can give people is if you have a new book that is hot and selling for big cash. SELL IT. SELL IT NOW. SELL IT AS FAST AS YOU CAN. :))
I know this from experience and my 35 years of seeing “hot” books turn into $1 bin fodder in a matter of weeks or months. I first saw this happen with Howard the Duck #1. This was a highly anticipated release. My buddies and I couldn’t wait..... and we never saw it hit the stands. I finally found a copy for $10 about 3 months later. You can buy that book today for less than $10. :))
So if you have a hot book....SELL IT NOW..... pocket the cash.... then buy a second copy in 6 months out of the $1 bin.
Also - be flexible. You can't have an emotional attachment. If some offers you less, either counter the offer or take their offer. For me it was about selling the books and getting cash to put into my SEP IRA.
Quick side note to this entry: I had set a goal of depositing at least $400 each month in my SEP-IRA. So my ultimate goal each month was to sell at least that amount of books each month. Sort of a mini business plan for myself.
Whether you sell through ebay or CL, you have to develop a good reputation as a seller to develop repeat buyers. Serious.... who wants to buy anything from an a-hole douche bag. :))
Eventually, I had about 20 people that bought books from me. All but maybe 3 or 4 were repeat buyers. More importantly, I took the time to know my buyers so that each subsequent transaction was a personal experience for both of us. I wanted to know what books they were collecting. What grade they were looking for..... and their price points. I wanted the transactions to be between two friends.
I am honestly interested in the people I meet (virtually or in person). You have to be if you are going to be a successful architect. I try to use my skill set in personal relations that I use daily as an architect in all aspects of my life. I know I can’t be friends with everyone or please everyone. But I don’t need to go through life as a jack as%. I had to work for and with those types when I was younger..... I don’t have to now. I highly recommend you read “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
This approach allowed me to eventually contact a buyer directly before I would post a bundle of books. Some people were interested in high grade books, other looking for lower grade things. Some buyers wanted only Batman, others were into Silver Age Marvels. I wanted to give the collectors I was working with the first right of refusal on books. AND - I would typically be willing to sell at a lower price knowing that 1) the books would be going to a good home and to a fellow collector and 2) I wouldn’t have to market the books on CL for weeks on end.
I still scanned all of the books and would post the scans on Photobucket. I would also email the scans. This allowed people to study the books, ask questions, and assess the book personally. If there was a question about grade, we could work it out.
As time went on, this approach allowed me to contact one of my “friends/buyers” and ask if I was pricing an item(s) fairly. One local buyer, another professional like myself, did ebay as a side business. Several times I would sell him a short box of books at a lower price knowing he would resell them on ebay, but he also would buy high grade runs of Batman and Detective at the same time. It was a win-win for both of us.
Another thing I would do for my repeat buyers would be to hold a run of books for them. This allowed them to buy a run over time without bankrupting their savings account, not get the evil eye from a spouse, and ensured me the sale of the books. I wasn’t in a rush... and again.... one of my goals was to sell the collection over 3 to 5 years and to sell to fellow collectors as much as possible.
Working with people, being considerate and being helpful meant building the relationships that I would need AND enjoy. With the exception of one person, I had great buyers. (more on that later- the foul side of our hobby - greed and deception). From my standpoint, I eventually was selling to friends.
So the morale for this chapter is be honest, be courteous, and be flexible.
Sorry - I have been extremely busy with my architecture practice. I have already exceeded the number of contracts I have from last year by 30%..... and the year is only half over.
Sucking in the 70‘s : Color Touch
I thought I would talk briefly about color touch and “restored” books. Its a hot topic these days..... in the 1970’s it was a non-issue. There was one person advertising restoration services in the Overstreet and it was for books like Action Comics #1, which at the time had a guide value of $10,000. BTW - They use to state that Action #1 was rare and only about 9 copies were know........ Phhhhtttt....... you’ll find 9 copies at any con now.
Anyway - I purchased ALL of the ASM books from #1 thru #151 when I was in high school. I graduated High School in 1979. I created a ledger in a school notebook at the time and entered the purchase price for each book. For example: I paid $20 for ASM #5, $6.00 for ASM #14, $2.00 for ASM #39, and $1 for ASM #40. That’s pretty much the average pricing for the books within those runs. Generally speaking, the books were VG to VF. My point being.... there was no need for a dealer or a collector to take a book they sold/bought for $6 and have it restored.
So let me state this as emphatically as I can..... I never had any of my books restored and to my knowledge none of the books I owned had been “restored”. I always stated this to potential buyers.
When I was selling the collection I sold ASM #2 (VG/Fine), ASM #5 (VG+) and ASM #7 (Good- it had tape on the spine) as a group for $750. I advertised #7 as having amateur tape repair. This sale funded the purchase of my holy grail guitar amp: a Fender Princeton Reverb.
The buyer was a referral from another buyer who had bought a lot of books from the collection and we had a pretty good relationship. The referred buyer took forever to look over these books..... I sent scans of the books. He came to the house several times and looked at them. FWIW - This same person had backed out of several other purchases..... so I was pretty hesitant about his motives. Anyway.... he pulls the trigger. I go off and buy the guitar amp.
A few weeks later, I get an email from the buyer claiming he had sent the books to get slabbed by CGC and they had been restored. Actually, as I found out later.... he had immediately sold #7 in a group lot. #2 came back with a grade of 5.0, and #5 had been graded as an apparent 4.5 w/ color touch. Note that those CGC grades are exactly as I had graded them. The seller is trying to tell me that all the books had come back as restored. However, his scam was exposed when I called the referring buyer who told me the books had actually graded, the grades, and the full story. Furthermore, I found out the buyer had posted the scans of #5 on a forum and people had commented that they thought it was color touched. He bought the book knowing this and did not inform me of this knowledge. (FWIW - Spidey was a nice dark blue on the cover - I suspect that was the color touch)
Now some of you are probably screaming at your computer screen right now calling me a scammer and a scum bag. But a history lesson is needed. (And remember.... I had no knowledge of the color touch as it had been sold to me as a straight book and I had never had it restored - hell - I was 16 years old when I bought the book)
I was honestly concerned.... so I made a few phone calls to dealers and fellow collectors that I respect. Here’s what I found out........
During the 1970’s, it was common for a dealer or a collector to touch up a book to make it look better..... not necessarily to increase the grade. Remember.... I paid $20 for ASM #5. It wasn’t uncommon for anyone to buy some watercolors and “paint” a book. It might have just been for the fun of it.
In fact, I was able to trace back that ASM #5 had come from a long time comic shop in Dayton. It was owned by two guys, one who thought he was an artist or at least aspired to be one. Just like Bonnett’s in Dayton had their big rubber stamp that they used on all of their books, Dragon’s Lair was painting books for giggles.
This type of “restoration” (as its called today) was common place and did not affect the value of the book. Tape was the most common. A book in Good with tape was a book in Good. And honestly, you typically never could tell some of the stuff.
I did start to look at those early ASM books. I found that ASM #14 had been “painted” The blue in the corner logo had been painted. You could see the bleed through on the interior. Again.... I paid $6 for that book. Who touches up a $6 book and who would do it just to darken the blue in a logo? But there it was. And seriously... there was no reason to color touch this book. Someone decided just to paint the logo. And clearly one day during the 1970‘s, someone decided to paint spidey on ASM #5 for no apparent reason.
So my point....... the hobby has changed over the years. Dramatically in some ways. What is considered taboo today was commonplace 30 years ago. You have to understand the hobby, where its been, where its at, and where its going. I’d say that is a reasonable statement to make about any hobby.
Secondly - there are buyers out there trying to scam you every day. Do your research. Hold firm on your conviction. The reality is the buyer in this case still got three early ASM books for $750 valued at $1,247.50 adjusted for the color touch. That’s 60% of guide.
Left to right. Top to Bottom
Row One
1956 Fender Harvard
1973 Fender Vibro Champ
Row Two
1954 12" Quam Speaker in wood enclosure (probably from an old PA system or used as an external speaker for a movie projector - bought this from Goodwill for $100)
1964 Gibson Discover Tremolo (Found this in the basement of a building a client was renovating.... it was a disaster. Paid $50 for it... put $75 into the repair)
Row Three
Modern Fender Champion 600..... this was given to my son... I just replaced this amp in the collection with a 1960 Gibson GA-5 Skylark.
1966 Fender Champ
1974 Fender Princeton Reverb
2010 Vintage47 1942 Oahu Suitcase (this is a boutique amp - hand built - based on the specs of a 1942 Oahu suitcase amp)
A recent post in the Selling Thread reminded me of something I wanted to share. When I started to post my comics on CL, I would get several types of phone calls. 1) Honest inquiries to purchase, 2) collector/dealer types calling to sniff around about what else I had and if I would consider a single offer, and 3) people posing as buyers but who were really agents for dealers and auction houses. I want to talk about one “agent” in particular.
Early on I got a call for a guy who was out-of-state. At first this was sorta funny strange to me as CL is supposed to be local. Let me assure you.... its not. I sold nearly all of my vintage (1960’s/early1970’s) G.I. Joe stuff to out of staters. And I got a ton of phone calls on the comics from across the country. None of the comic stuff seemed to ever pan out. But this first OS call on the comics was different.
On this first phone call, we talked about the collection. The current books I had listed and the general depth of the collection. He actually purchased a $12 Frank Frazetta art book from me. Then near the end of the call came the touch..... He said he worked for newkadia.com as an agent. He would refer people to them. He didn’t necessarily said he got a commission, but it was implied. I looked at it as a finder’s fee or a kick-back
First, let me tell you that in my professional, finder’s fees and kick-back are extremely unethical and you can lose your license. I also deal with a lot of local and state government agencies, both as clients and by just practicing architect (planning commissions, building regulation departments, economic development agencies). So these types of things - whether the private sector finds it acceptable - it pretty much frowned upon.
As an example.... how happy would you be if you found out your architect or builder got a kick-back on specifying a certain type of window for you house. That would be pretty self serving. Or in this case, how happy would you be if you sold your books to a dealer or an auction house only to find out that you could have gotten more, but there was this third party getting a cut of your money. So basically - I have no use for agents, finder’s fees, and the like.
This particular person called a number of times..... and then came the second touch.... he wanted to give my name to that big auction house that starts with an “H” and ends with an “e”. I said sure.... go ahead. Not less than a minute later the phone rang... and caller ID showed who it was. I let it go to voicemail. And I never called the auction house back. I think this finally gave the message to the “agent” - I never contacted Newkadia..... and I never emailed him when I had new books on the CL (that should have been a hint)...... and I wasn’t answering a phone call from the auction house.
Its simple. I sold the collection between 40- 70% of guide, depending on the books. And honestly, that’s probably what I would have gotten for them at an auction or ebay. And I didn’t have to pay 35% auction house fees or commissions to agents or sell far below guide to a dealer or pay ebay and paypal fees. I am quite happy with the outcome of selling the collection. The key was sticking to my goal of selling the books only after I had cataloged them and determined their market value. And keeping agents at bay.
Here's the thing.... We all know about the auction houses and the big dealers. None of us need a third person to help us make that connection. Let me assure you. Over 35 years..... I met a lot of big dealers and I know how to use email and I know how to dial a phone. Yep.... Agents.....they exist and want to prey on your collection.
I always wondered how these collections were unearthed by dealers.
With the auction houses you are paying them to bring the market to you. I'm not sure that's worth 30-35% like heritage unless it's really expensive stuff and you inherited it. There are other houses that charge considerably less and I've heard that those stock fees at heritage are not applicable for big deals (not that I would ever have one). I guess they can be negotiated down if you have something they really want.
I've had to hire auctioneers twice in my life. Once to liquidate my brother's estate (he passed away from throat cancer in 1998) and I was the executor of the estate. I sold everything, including his house in one day. Then 3 years ago, my wife and I assisted her parents in liquidating their personal property. (Can you say toys from the 1920's still in their boxes in near mint condition or how about hand guns in the same condition?) That was a crazy auction. Even the auctioneer was shocked about the fevered pitch of bidding.
If I get a referral for a private project, I might send a gift card to a local restaurant as a thank you. However, many of my referrals actually come from local government so there's not much we can do except say thank you. I have provided pro bono services to a non-profit within their community as a thank you for their support. ie: I have designed a veteran's memorial at a public park for a veteran's group. I recently helped a non-profit community services agency get funding to replace the front entry of their building with a new accessible door and operator. I did a quickie design/spec of the system and helped them apply for grants.