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What happens in Pennsylvania, stays in Pennsylvania - the Morphys Auction Saga Part 1

Comments

18 comments posted
Damn Josh! I really wish I

Damn Josh! I really wish I attended, why couldn't have this auction gone down 2 years ago when I had loot! I would have really wanted those valk re-issues as well as the Super O and Elintseeker. Any idea of what those went for? Last question, did everything actually sell?

-Dan
CollectionDX LLC
Vice President/Co-Owner

Shogundan's picture
Posted by Shogundan on 16 November, 2009 - 15:52
Morphy's results

Well, after day 1, there were 5 lots that did not sell, but they were quickly snapped up (at a massive discount, 75% off the opening bid, I think) the next day. I'm not sure if anything didn't sell on day 2.

You can see the auction results here.

"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High

NekroDave's picture
Posted by NekroDave on 16 November, 2009 - 19:54
Mark Solodnz

How 'bout a little more info on who and what the Mark Solodnz Collection is for us not in the know please. Thanks

Grandzinga....

Grandzinga's picture
Posted by Grandzinga on 16 November, 2009 - 15:53
More info

More info tomorrow...

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CollectionDX Admin

JoshB's picture
Posted by JoshB on 16 November, 2009 - 16:12
Looks like it was a

Looks like it was a fantastic event to attend, what with seeing the toys and all the other fans.

As someone who won a few smaller auctions, its a bit disheartening to see the comments about how inaccurate the descriptions were in some cases. I assumed there would be some glitches in an auction of this size but stuff like you described ("missing" antenna actually there but fist broken) seems a bit extreme. I'm hoping there are no nasty surprises when I receive my shipment.

It was also shocking to see the fees. Just one of our items has a shipping fee that is 340% of the winning bid! Holy &$@#!

japester's picture
Posted by japester on 16 November, 2009 - 16:36
Hey, that's where my mom and dad live!

My parents live in Valley Forge, right next door to KoP. How about that...

RobotBastard's picture
Posted by RobotBastard on 16 November, 2009 - 17:09
MARK SOLONDZ

I support Grandzinga petition, I´ve been folowing the coverage of the Morphys auction for the past few days, but I´m curious about who this Mark Solodnz guy is??? Can some one please enlighten us... And how the hell he end up whit this huge collection, and last but not least, WHY did he sell it???
Great trip BTW...

Greetings form Venezuela.

leonydas's picture
Posted by leonydas on 16 November, 2009 - 20:55
Josh "hugging" TRON arcade

Awesome coverage, Josh! I'm glad you guys were getting footage, because I failed to photograph anything.

Machinesoldier was a great host, and I'm sure all will go over to the "Summit" gallerys for a photo years ago, of JoshB giving the TRON arcade game at the very same party house a little special lovin', WAH-Haha! I know I'm gonna pay for this.

joshb arcade

And Dan, hit me or mcfitch about some airplanes.

repairtechjon's picture
Posted by repairtechjon on 16 November, 2009 - 22:24
"Hugging"... or humping?

"Hugging"... or humping? O.o;

Can ya blame him either way?
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CollectionDX Staff

EVA_Unit_4A's picture
Posted by EVA_Unit_4A on 17 November, 2009 - 00:20
Dear God.......

Someone please put me out of my misery for missing this momentous event:(
The SOC's went for CHEAP!!
Great coverage :)

Lorddremen's picture
Posted by Lorddremen on 16 November, 2009 - 22:31
I wish I could have gone to

I wish I could have gone to this one man. I was so disapointed to see that the auction fell on those dates :(

The Big R's picture
Posted by The Big R on 17 November, 2009 - 01:03
Nekrodave distracted?

Ok- I really hate to be the first to ask. Will we ever find out what the hell Dave is babbling about that "just came up" to distract him from bringing his "yearbook" and which prevented him from bidding??? Sounds like Sanjeev is not so optimistic that you'll ever hear back about whatever it is. I truly cannot grasp going in person to an auction of this size and not bidding on items?!
We must know

Grandzinga....

Grandzinga's picture
Posted by Grandzinga on 17 November, 2009 - 09:29
It's really not that hard to

It's really not that hard to guess, if you know what I collect. :) Besides, there wasn't too much at Morphy's that really had me drooling anyway. The only jumbo there that I needed (Reideen) actually was missing the blade from the shield hand and the stickers were a bit discolored. So I would not have bid on it regardless of any thing else. Other than that, I wanted the Supersol Kanegon and actually did bid on it, but it was a low bid that I knew would lose. I just wanted to raise my hand at least once! LOL. And I would have loved to get the Ninja Arashi set, but Sanjeev was already bidding on (and won) it. Scoring some of the modern vinyl lots would have been nice, but most of that stuff isn't hard to get so it wasn't hard to let it go. All in all, I went for the fun, not the loot.

"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High

NekroDave's picture
Posted by NekroDave on 17 November, 2009 - 09:58
Remorse

Well, just in case you didn't guess before, I was bidding on a couple of Jumbo Machinder villain boxes, a Green Ghost C3 one in particular. But it sold for roughly $3,350 and I lost. :( So, now I'm really, really regretting not bidding more at Morphy's. The timing of everything was just so bad and I ended up with nothing all around. :(

"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High

NekroDave's picture
Posted by NekroDave on 20 November, 2009 - 16:12
Tired of waiting:

Mark Solondz, a New Jersey-based collector who “flew under the radar for years and made very smart buying choices,” according to Dan Morphy Auctions’ owner and CEO Dan Morphy.

“Although both Mark and his collection later became very well known, he formed the core of his fantastic collection quietly, and made many trips to Japan to purchase superhero toys that were not available to buy in the United States,” said Morphy. “We believe it is the largest single-owner robot, space toy and superhero collection of its type ever to come to auction. It stands apart from any collection we at Morphy’s have ever seen before because it contains so many of the great die-cast pieces made by Bandai offshoot “Popy,” in boxes with Japanese writing that are so desirable to collectors.”

The comprehensive sci-fi toy collection of nearly 1,500 lots was consigned by Mark

Why did he sell??? I don't have that answer!

Grandzinga....

Grandzinga's picture
Posted by Grandzinga on 17 November, 2009 - 15:37
Liquidating for a divorce,

Liquidating for a divorce, unfortunately. But he promises to put an even greater collection together down the road.

japester's picture
Posted by japester on 17 November, 2009 - 15:56
WE WANT PRE-NUP! Yeaah...

OUCH!!!! I just read some posts that sum up the reason for Mark to sell.... Lawyers and Divorce! Damn that sucks beyond belief!

Grandzinga....

Grandzinga's picture
Posted by Grandzinga on 17 November, 2009 - 16:06
Yup...divorce sucks...but a

Yup...divorce sucks...but a vindictive ex is even worse. Well, that said, Mark is an amazingly up-beat guy. He not only knows his toys, but he isn't even remotely thinking of quitting collecting. Now, that's a positive attitude!

Anyway, despite making out like a bandit, I also went for the chance to hang out with TBDX/CDX/skullbrain luminaries. It was really great to see a bunch of folks I've only met once or twice. And, of course, brand new faces were great to see: Mark K from skullbrain and diceone of TBDX also attended the machinesoldier afterparty.

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 18 November, 2009 - 14:57