Dumur

I wish there were just one. Ugh. Thinking on these hurts. The good news is, just missing or passing on some caused me to absolutely pull the trigger on others that could have easily gone the other way. As I have said several times, I only regret the one's I didn't buy and have never regretted anything I've sold. But a small list of one's that "got away"... A Black Line Fever Elektra Assassin splash ($3500), A Green Arrow Long Bow Hunters cover ($2500), Battle Chasers #1 cover (second printing) (I think $800... maybe LESS), Jeff Lemire's Tales From The Farm cover (I believe $200), A couple Joe Quesada Daredevil pieces... I am sure there are more I am not thinking of right now, but obviously these one's really hurt since they are coming to mind. I am sure more will pop up and I'll scramble back to type those one's out.

I'd rather have an "equally" priced panel page from the original series.

I've got to the point in collecting where what I want is very specific, so if I saw a piece I wanted, condition would not play a part, because if I want the piece, I want the piece. Likely not going to be an "equal" piece out there that could substitute.

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=270011

Well, on CAF, Robert Baker has 9 of the 10 pages on CAF. I have the other one.

See for me, it's a bit of a hybrid. It's My "personal" Mt. Rushmore. In that, it's not who I acknowledge to be comics founding fathers (Where I would certainly have Kirby and Ditko, but don't have them on my list), nor is My Mt. Rushmore necessarily my 4 favourite all time artists. In fact it isn't. McKean, Billy Sink, Maguire, Alex Ross, Nate Powell and Paul Pope would That would be an entirely different list. Rather it's a list of the four artists who most influenced me in my earliest days of comic book collecting and reading. The artists who grabbed my attention off the rack and would keep me coming back. Same for the writers. My favourite all time comic writer is Jeff Lemire. Hands down, but he is not on my Mt. Rushmore, because he wasn't one of the original writers who formed my initial bedrock of comic book reading. Others faves not on Rushmore, Kindt, Tomine, Seth, Bendis... Actually, I just realized Gaiman should probably be on Rushmore.

Well this is a fun topic. A reminder this is MY personal Mt. Rushmore and not a recognition of the obvious influences of the past.. I feel like I have to qualify that seeing as how Kirby had ZERO effect on me as a comic reader when I started collecting and therefore OA collector, but completely understand he influenced people on my personal list. Also love the idea of adding strip and writers. COMIC ARTISTS 1. Miller 2. Mignola 3. McFarlane (Yeah, I said it) 4. Perez (PS - was a tough battle for the fourth spot between Perez and Alex Ross. I give the edge to Perez just because he came first and so is a more "founding father" type. Also thought about Maguire, but didn't have the body of work) STRIP 1. Breathed 2. Davis 3. Shultz 4. Watterson COMIC WRITERS 1. Miller 2. Moore 3. Starlin 4. Sim

Yeah, I am in the "did it to build my collection" group, but don't specifically do it anymore. I used to scour ebay for cheap BIN's or multi page lots that I knew I could make money on if I sold them individually, but as people have stated here, the increasing knowledge of OA in general has made those deals not only more rare, but the "profit" gleaned from them isn't really worth my time I used to invest in doing so. That being said, as many others have posted, if I see a great deal it's hard for me to avoid, particularly on the "like don't love" category, I buy it. Though that is also happening less and less, but does require me to have a little bit of will power. And so I occasionally do find myself pulling the trigger on something I don;t love and selling it less than a year later. I usually break even or lose a bit of money on those while on the rare occasion (recent Joe Mad Gargoyles cover on CLink) I make a bit of money. It all kind of balances out these days.

My goodness those Lone Wolf and Cub covers he did are ridiculous.

Chuck, your commissions were definitely part of it. Part of what they did do, was direct me to his site where I was reminded of his background brilliance. So incredible. His art belongs in museums. And I am glad you mentioned seeing the piece on his blog. Since his descriptions of his process goes a little more in depth AND his scans are so much better than mine, not to mention that great scan that goes back and forth between original pencils and inks, here is a link to that blog. While you are there, take a look at his other works and as Chuck says... GET ON THAT LIST!! http://gerhardart.com/gotham-nights/

Ok, I normally don't post about my art acquisitions. I mean I post them on CAF, but I don't normally say anything here. Tonight, I am making an exception. Not because it's rare or particularly valuable, but because it is a rare commission experience for me (I'm a bit of a published art snob). I hear a lot about bad commission experiences (recent Joe Jusko post by member not withstanding), but I recently had one that was absolutely spectacular and I think it deserves notice, as does the person who did the commission... GERHARD, who went absolutely nuts on this piece and is also incredibly nice and accommodating. I don't want to overload the guy or anything, but if you are considering a commission, I strongly recommend him. Rather than taking up a lot of space and copying and pasting my CAF description, here is simply a link to the piece. http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1371892 Duane

Interested in Prophet piece and was excited to see it on ebay, but no shipping to Canada

Yeah, you kind of need to get in on the first day or two and place low minimum bids in order to be able to "track". Very unlikely those minimum bids will lock you into buying the piece... and if it does, it's likely you are getting a great deal.

I find myself in the same position as Gene, but likely with a much tighter budget and different interests. Like Gene, I want focus and restraint/will power. For me this means not excitedly pulling the trigger every time there is what I consider a "deal" to be had, on a piece or pieces I don't really want anyway. I just end up with a bunch of stuff that clutters the collection that I don't really care about and I end up putting up for auction a year or less later. So this mainly means staying away from Malvin's for sale gallery (but man, some of Malvin's deals are hard to resist as we have very similar taste) Then, it means taking stock of my current collection and really zero in on why I own the piece and decide whether I really want it or not. Over the years I have bought sold and traded 100's and 100's of pieces and I am not sure I ever truly regretted selling off a piece (okay, well maybe one or two) outside of the fact that I could have possibly gotten significantly more than what I sold them for if I held onto them longer, which to me is a different kind of regret than the kind you experience by no longer having a piece in your collection you truly loved. Any piece I did let go of that may have had a twinge of that, I replaced with an "equal or better" version of the piece (except maybe a Mignola Cosmic Odyssey page). Some of this, is because, like Gene, I am fairly happy with my collection. I perhaps have a couple specific "want list" pieces here and there and then there is always room for a couple pieces I don't realize I want badly until I see them and then a couple pieces you thought would never become available and then they do, but overall, I'm good. And like Gene, I want to start putting that money towards other things. Not necessarily "smarter" or more responsible things or investments (though a house purchase is on the horizon and at least some of that money will go towards that), but I have a few personal creative projects I have always wanted to do and I really should be putting the money towards those. SO basically, I need to take each piece from my collection and if there isn't a personal story attached to it outside of, "I saw it and I liked it", I want to let it go. So that's the "I need to slow down" section. In the "who am I kidding, I love this stuff and will never be completely out of buying no matter how satisfied I am with my collection" section. For this year: Well, I got on Gerhard's commission list last year and just reached the top at the beginning of this year. I am not a commission collector at all, but have a pencil piece I always wanted inked and realized he's be perfect since it mostly detailed architecture. And in other commission news (I said I wasn't a commission guy, right?), I am somewhere in reaching distance on Raphael Grampa's commission list I think (though maybe not), so I need to have money aside if that comes up, because I will not just let that one slide. Been waiting a couple years now. Other than that, nothing specific that I am hunting down. A couple specific want list pieces that I have never seen before and a couple lower priced items should they surface. A piece or two in other collections I am waiting for them to let go of and I will likely get a couple modern pieces this year from artists I have a personal relationship with (Though question... How many pieces from a single artist is too many? Not including complete issues.) There. Well that was a long, convoluted typing session about this simple question, but I think it helped. Thanks for the couch session. Duane

Interesting. I am actually finding myself in a position where I want to significantly reduce my collection. I just can;t seem to do it. But due to this current way I am feeling and "removing" the FMV attachment since I don't really know the "value" of two of the pieces I want, I would trade my collection for either of DKR #1 cover, Watchmen #1 cover or Killing Joke #1 cover. Don;t get me wring, I love my collection, but all of the pieces I own have "reasonable replacements" I could likely find that, though may not be EXACTLY the piece I already own, they come close in terms of memory, nostalgia etc. The above three pieces don't have anything close. In fact, if I had to pick one, it would be the DKR #1 cover... even though it is actually more design than "art". That cover is everything to me.

Also PM'd

I thought he had sold a couple of the covers. Aren't there 3 or four of them on CAF? (Pencils and inks) I own the #1 Lemire cover and wanted very much an Ormston piece to accompany it.

I will. Just need to dig them out of their boxes (not even on a shelf... BLASPHEMY!!!) and snap some photo's... but I will.

Interesting. I don;t collect them per se, but I do have a couple. Couple Sandman first printing hard covers. Couple of Absolute's and then the Chapter House anthologies (Project Superior etc.) with multiple mini sketches from creators.

I mean, my collection would never be mistaken for Dave Mandel's or Joe Le's or anything, but there are a couple pieces I have I wouldn't even trade straight up for that cover.

So basically, I'd have to sell my entire collection to get the cover to #50. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Paul Pope's Batman was incredible. After Miller, he is my number 2.

Oh for God's sake.

SO yeah, though not obvious, there are actually quite a few factors that could drive up that price.