stinkininkin

On 4/7/2024 at 4:56 AM, delekkerste said:

Considering the reserve was $90K hammer on the DD #190 cover, I'm pretty sure the seller is very happy!

People may not remember, but, it was auctioned in 2011 at ComicLink and did not meet reserve, fetching only $31.5K before the bidding petered out. The consignor reached out to CLink after the auction and bought it; CLink later publicly reported the sale at $45K in the "Marketplace" section of its website. 

I remember the sale well - it seems so trivial now, but, back in 2011, there was a lot of trepidation about the cover being on two boards, something which almost nobody cares about these days as we all know that high-quality acetate overlays and such can be easily made (heck, you could even turn these into *two* covers, LOL).

IMO both the #174 page and the #190 cover achieved very full and fair values.  

Interesting. Gotta admit, if I had known the #190 cover was on two separate boards, I have since forgotten. And I never looked closely at the auction details that clearly point this out. It does complicate things a bit. Taking this into account, the final hammer seems pretty rock solid, and a win for the seller (and perhaps the buyer as well). Thanks for the background on it Gene!

On 4/5/2024 at 10:42 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

Barometer of the Hobby:

The Miller/Jason DD #190 cover with Elektra went for $252,000.

The Romita Jr./Janson DD #254 Cover featuring the 1st appearance of Typhoid Mary went for $102,000. 

Don't think anyone mentioned the Miller DD 174 page at $144k. Excellent page, and a pretty big number. With that in mind, makes me wonder if the seller is disappointed with DD 190 cover sale price, especially since it features both DD and Electra. Either way, I continue to be impressed with the strength of the Miller DD market!

On 4/5/2024 at 11:47 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

Megaton Man 1 full issue goes for $50,000.

Wow. 

I admit that I kind of entertained bidding on that until it went up so much. 

I don't really know this market, but wouldn't the seller have done even better if he had broken up the issue? 

On 4/5/2024 at 3:08 PM, The Voord said:

It does.  I've seen it in person on my first trip to Florida from the UK.  Ken Danker owned it at the time, and I'd made a side-trip to visit him along with my friend, Lloyd Braddy (who did the driving) . . . something like 20 years ago.  Impressive piece of art though I seem to remember there being some noticeable glue stains along some of the edges.

I think Bill (William) Woo was the last person I know for sure owned it. It was never a secret, and was or still is on his CAF gallery. It's a cool cover, but is somewhat odd in composition. I used to own a killer half splash from FF 55 (where the Thing punches Silver Surfer out of Alicia's house). Traded it away unfortunately.

On 4/5/2024 at 2:30 PM, BCarter27 said:

Not much love for Sienkiewicz Moon Knight? I thought this would have cracked $20k+, no? Thoughts?

Just speaking for myself and some of my like minded collector friends, those early Moon Knight stories aren't very good art wise. Poor Neal Adams riffs. It's not until you get into the later Moon Knight run before I would consider opening my wallet to add to my collection. YMMV.

On 3/6/2024 at 12:07 PM, Nexus said:

Actually, it was a terrible trade for me, lol! Both in terms of the actual art I got in return and their eventual respective values.

To be fair, the values aligned better at the time. I mostly did it, though, because I liked the other collector and he was pretty convincing that it was a grail-level piece for him. Back then, these sort of trades were common between collectors. Not so much anymore. I wouldn't make the same trade ever again, but I have no regrets. The piece was clearly important to that collector and again, to be fair, it's pretty obvious that it was more important to him than it was to me. I only hope he's selling it now because he wants to and not because he has to.

To put into further context, I considered this page a placeholder, as hard as that might be to believe now. It's an excellent page, no doubt. But there were other pages out there that I ranked higher.  The idea that I could possibly upgrade wasn't so ridiculous at the time.

So the lesson I learned (beyond not to make dumb trades) is that placeholders can become keepers. Because there might be no other opportunities and/or the market for that art goes beyond what I want to spend. There are pieces in my collection that might have started off as placeholders but are now firmly keepers. I'd rather have this WEAPON X page than none at all and that applies to everything important to me now.

Yeah, speaking just of value, the prices on these better BWS Weapon X pages have taken off only in the last 5 or 6 years. As for the art, there are indeed better individual pages from this series that are better than this one, but as a placeholder? Man, it's a hell of a placeholder!!! All that said, I used to do trades and there are definitely a few which in hindsight seemed both wise and fair at the time, but which eventually turned out to be neither. Oh well, that's the hobby!

On 3/3/2024 at 5:27 PM, glendgold said:

Every time I think I've excavated all that there is, turns out there's just a little tiny bit more hiding in plain sight.

https://comics.ha.com/itm/memorabilia/miscellaneous/mmms-spider-man-poster-production-materials-marvel-1966-total-2-items-/a/121619-12726.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

So this is the production art for the poster.  As per the listing, "This specific image was created from a 18" tall stat of the base art image that was then altered with original art shading, and white paint art corrections/alterations on his face." In B&W it looks like this, which I think gives more clues as to the poster's artist. I am reallly curious what was going on with those lips.

 

 

Wow, the artistry and the inking is so much better on this version than the printed poster one being shown. The printed one looks amateurish to my eyes (both the contours and the inking), while this one is so much more professional (although that mouth and nose looks kind of off brand, but still a legitimate choice).

On 2/23/2024 at 9:33 AM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Looks like we're in for a treat with this upcoming auction...so many pieces from diverse genres, artists, and budgets.  Now at nearly 900 OA lots, including this recently added beauty!

A great example of why BWS is one of the finest comic book artists to ever put pen to paper.

On 2/5/2024 at 1:23 PM, All-Star Squadman said:

Glad to see he made 7 figures by jumping in very very early into the NFT bubble! 

As for me I prefer physical Original Comic art.  My first WW Comic as little child was drawn by Delbo/Giordano, I was blessed to have acquired the Cover a long while back.

 

 

 

 

RIP to another artist from my collecting past. By the way, is it common knowledge regarding Delbo's NFT success? I was approached by the same promoter to market my work just like Jose, but being an old guy, I didn't understand any of it or why digital art could have any value, perceived or otherwise. I never responded to the multiple offers! LOL Glad Jose got to enjoy some monetary success before passing on.

On 2/5/2024 at 10:09 AM, KirbyCollector said:

He wants to sell it -- just not to you, apparently. Or he thinks he wants to sell it, but if someone accepted he knows deep down he really couldn't sell it. I had someone offer me a piece for 15K last year and I replied YES immediately. Two hours later I got an email saying Hey, I'm sorry, didn't really want to sell it. It happens.

That's only happened to me once in my 40 years of collecting (a collector offered me a Neal Adams Dracula page, gave me a price, I said yes, and then backed out). I was FURIOUS!!! You give me a price that I accept and then just say "never mind"??? Not cool. Not cool at all. 

Glad folks had a good time. Wasn't there, but looking at the various pics I've seen posted, it appears that the crowds seemed a little bit sparse. Perhaps that's a feature and not a bug for a show like this? Maybe attendees could comment on the crowd/attendance? 

On 1/15/2024 at 11:14 AM, Fischb1 said:

I bought the Perez IG page. I agree it was lowish. I figured it would sell for 12-14 and I would just watch. Especially with the better (more action filled) Perez IG Thanos pages recently selling in the 20s+. But when no one else bid, I did and won. Time will tell if I got a good deal or if the release of all the Thanos Quest pages has dampered the demand for early 90's Thanos. Even so, that being Lim and this being Perez makes this different imo. I'm happy to add it to my IG collection. 

If anyone else has Infinity Gauntlet pages from book 1 and is considering selling them, I'd love to have a conversation. 

Not a market I follow, but shouldn't Perez always be priced higher than Lim, all other things being equal? I mean, come on. Perez>Lim, right?

Hey Byrne Xmen experts! Might the Xmen 137 page have underperformed a bit? I don't know that market as well as some, but the 81k price seems a tad light? Also thinking about it next to the DD 181 page at 156k--nice pages from big time key issues--but about half the price for the Xmen page with all the main characters, and the DD page that's Bullseye only. I know, kinda apples and oranges in some regards, but the comparison interests me.

I would love to own this page too, as I have the 2 pages around it. Beautiful. Good luck with your search!

On 1/11/2024 at 10:49 AM, delekkerste said:

There were a few lots that outperformed (esp. that Perez Avengers cover, at least to me) but, overall, a friend aptly described it as "muted bidding". 

That said, I didn't think this was a particularly strong selection of art for the Platinum Session and we've seen other quiet Platinum Sessions over the past year or two only to see the buyers come out of the woodwork for the other sessions, so, I think the jury is still very much out. Could just be that there weren't any real showstoppers in this session. 

I think the real heat will be in comics today...the All-Star Comics #8 CGC 9.4 just sold for $1.5 million.  

I was surprised on the DD 181 page with no Daredevil. Beautiful page from key issue, but it's an all Bullseye page. Very strong IMO. It feels like Miller DD is the new Miller Dark Knight.

On 12/6/2023 at 8:44 PM, delekkerste said:

Still not strong. 

Seems like basic BWS Conan pages are flat price wise, and that's exactly what these are. Basic. Not terrible, but nothing that I, a hard core BWS Conan fan, would ever consider bidding on and buying. The true test will be if and when some exceptional pages get offered. 

On 11/16/2023 at 10:42 AM, delekkerste said:

Only $56,400 for the Barry Smith Conan #10 cover.  

But at least between a BWS no-action, no-Wolverine X-Men page fetching more than Conan pages at last week's Comic Art Live sale and this, just the latest in a lengthening string of disappointing BWS Conan cover results, maybe @tth2 will finally shut his pie hole now about not noticing that Barry Smith Conan is a long-term secular decline.  

Yeah, but there's BWS Conan art, and then there's BWS post Conan 19 Conan art. I have strong nostalgia for both, but post Conan 19 also has a massive leap in aesthetic appeal (with a few exceptions revolving around inks, full or partial BWS pencils and editorial content). That said, no question that pre Conan 19 art is languishing a bit.

Heading to New York for NYCC in less than two weeks and I will be bringing the cover art for my X-MEN #26 Exclusive with me. Based on the classic X-MEN #5 cover by Jim Lee and myself, this one has a decidedly different take, with Wolverine and Deadpool taking center stage. If this original interests you (or the X-MEN 26 issue itself) I'll be set up in Artist's Alley at E-03 if you want to swing by. Happy collecting!