Heritage Auction Galleries
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Heritage Auction Galleries is the world's largest collectibles auctioneer and third largest auction house. Established in 1976 in Dallas, Texas by Steve Ivy and Jim Halperin, Heritage offers auctions in the fields of Americana and Political Memorabilia, Rare Books & Manuscripts, Fine and Decorative Art, American Indian Art, Illustration Art, Civil War Memorabilia, US and World Coins, Comics & Comic Art, Currency, Entertainment Memorabilia, Jewelry & Timepieces, Movie Posters, Natural History, Photography, Space Memorabilia, Sports Collectibles and more, with plans to add Stamps in 2008.
Heritage Auctions has broken price records in many collectibles categories, and the company holds several Guinness World Records, including the highest-grossing Comic Book and Popular Culture auction (over $5.2 million in October 2002 for the Nicolas Cage comic book collection and other properties), the highest grossing numismatic auction (over $65.1 million at the 2007 Florida United Numismatists auction), the highest grossing currency auction (over $14 million for the auction held at the Long Beach Coin and Collectibles Expo in September 2006), and the highest price for an action figure ($200,000 for Don Levine's original G.I. Joe prototype in July 2003).
Heritage has been a technological leader in the auction field, combining both proxy and live Internet bidding with the traditional floor auction. In both 1999 and 2001, www.HeritageCoin.com, the predecessor to www.HA.com, was chosen by Forbes Magazine as one of the 250 best sites on the Internet, and the site has won repeated Numismatic Literary Guild awards as Best Numismatic Website. Heritage hosts separate websites for each type of collectible they support, and each of these is among the most popular and well-trafficked sites in any collectibles field, with a combined total of over 350,000 registered members through all sites. All single-piece lots are imaged in color on the web, and can be enlarged for detailed viewing. In addition, each lot's web listing contains third-party pricing and rarity data as well as links to previous auction records, whenever available.
