With an asking price of $118 million, that Martha’s Vineyard seaside estate is certainly making waves, but there’s not a chance the owners will get their asking price.

In fact, if the history of such highly touted Vineyard and Nantucket listings is any indication, the 314-acre West Tisbury spread won’t even come close to fetching that kind of money, even with the 10,000 bottle wine cellar and tastefully restrained four-bedroom “main house.”

And if the owners aren’t aware of that, certainly their brokers are, but whether they care is another matter. After all, it’s no mystery who benefits from the priceless free publicity that comes from having The Wall Street Journal proclaim the Vineyard estate “one of the most expensive listings in the country.”

No, this is just the latest in a long series of stories – whoppers really – about Vineyard and Nantucket mega mansions being listed for sale at astronomical prices.

The listings generate lots of hype and free press for the brokers before quietly fading away, the estates broken up for sale to housing developers or billionaire neighbors.

So far, the only real sale price record being broken on the Vineyard or Nantucket is how many times the business press and media outlets across the state will fall for the same old publicity stunt.

 This Is Not Beverly Hills 

One reason stories like the $118 million Vineyard listing get such easy and really unwarranted publicity is that celebrities and other big shots truly are selling their mansions and penthouses for such mind-bending numbers.

But of course, those sales are happening out in Los Angeles and down in Manhattan, not on Martha’s Vineyard.

In fact, the most paid for a Vineyard mansion was $25.17 million back in 2006, when a 4.7 acre harborfront spread in Edgartown changed hands, the local weekly reported at the time.

Mind you, the most ever paid for a piece of property in Vineyard history was a bit higher: the $64 million shelled out for Herring Creek Farm back in 2001.

But the buyers weren’t some Vineyard obsessed billionaire looking to spend silly amounts securing a personal island retreat, but an assortment of conservation groups and private investors looking to save a piece of the island’s agricultural past from housing developers.

So what about Nantucket? Certainly that buttoned-down island, that tasteful and conservative retreat for the Wall Street elite, must have seen a few record-shattering sales, not just record-shattering listing prices.

But the same pattern holds true, with lots of silly stories about big estates hitting the market for astronomical sums, only to get sold piecemeal later, or not at all.

Entrepreneur and former Alamo car mogul Michael Egan generated reams of silly stories about his magnificent Nantucket resort when he put it up for sale for $54 million back in 2001.

There was lots of gushing about Egan’s estate, about how the main house was built by the Vanderbilts in 1912, not to mention the 28 breathtaking acres, the Little League field, a stage ready to accommodate a Broadway production and a movie screen as well.

I plead guilty to writing my share of this crap on this and other supposed blockbuster mansion sales back when I was a business reporter at the Boston Herald.

It always made a nice story for the Saturday paper – a little light and fluffy, with lots of gushing about the price and the incredible amenities.

Of course, Egan never got $54 million or anything like it, having finally to break up the property and sell it off one housing lot at a time.

Undaunted or more likely emboldened, Jon Winkelried, a co-president of Goldman Sachs, pulled a page out of the same mansion marketing book in 2008, when he put his Nantucket estate and its craft room, maid’s quarters and various other items up for sale.

No matter it was only assessed for $25.4 million, the Globe duly reported in a story that lovingly described the various features, from separate his and her dressing rooms to top-of-the-line appliances.

“We’ve never seen a sale or a listing of this magnitude in terms of price,” gasped one island broker with a very short – or simply very selective – memory.

Of course, the record for the island was set back in 2007 at $26.5 million – nowhere near $50 million let alone $54 million – and has remain untouched since.

Honesty Needed? 

Of course, the superrich owners of these island mega mansions and their brokers will continue to tout their fantasy listings. 

It is called marketing for a reason and the alternative, straight-up honesty, while noble, is unlikely to look very appealing.

After all, you can just imagine the horror on the Vineyard or Nantucket should the next mogul with a mansion put it on the market seeking bids from housing developers.

Billionaire conservationists and environmentalists would rage about the impending rape of the island, decrying the rapacious housing developers eager to sell McMansions to mere millionaires.

Throw in a lawsuit or two and you’d have the makings of a really good story, not a puff piece.

So for all this and more, fantasy stories like the $118 million Vineyard estate aren’t likely to go away anytime soon.

Read on, but file under fiction. 

Scott Van Voorhis can be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.