KirbyCollector

Thank you

I'll take the email, if you'd like to message it to me. My former job discouraged social media use so I never got on FB.... now I avoid it for my own sanity

Sold, thanks for all who looked

I have wonderful, insanely detailed piece which Chris did in 2021 for someone else and wanted to ask him a question or two about the creation. If anyone knows how to contact him, or could pass along my contact info to him, I would appreciate the help.

Funny how times change. In 1990 if you wanted to buy a piece of art for $250,000, you got into a suit and tie and traveled to an auction being held in a mansion located in NY, London or Paris where you were served champagne and treated with class. Now you bid online dressed in a t-shirt and shorts while toggling back and forth between cat videos and PornHub while drinking a Mountain Dew you bought at the Shop Rite. We've lost something as a society, I think.

Changing of the guard = OA owned by an average guy who bought a page for $25 decades ago now being transferred to a guy with an average net worth of $5M

You are an extremely lucky man to work the way you can at that level Managing 100 people does go a long way in explaining your Peanuts habit

Unfortunately in my old line of work, once you moved to management you stopped doing any real work. The absence of the ability to create at that level was a deal breaker for me.

This is why I declined a management path. I just couldn't envision being at the peak of my skills, tools and knowledge and then parking it all to sit behind a desk and sign operational orders and run career boards.

It is ironic that the company in question (which has representatives on this board, and uses this board to sell its services) chose not to comment all this time. I shall be more responsible in the future and use such phrases as "falls woefully short of customer expectations" or "refuses to upgrade technology for a more pleasurable client experience." That is corporate speak anyone can digest, I am sure. Well, except for poor George Orwell in his grave.

I retired at 52. Once money is no longer an object, time is the most valuable asset.

Life's too short brother 😆

Just had the perfect example of why HA does it better. Cleaning up after dinner, finishing up some wine, talking to my wife, basically paying attention to real life, when I get the text from HA that an auction is ending. Stop for 2 secs, sign in, auction rolls around, I bid it up and bang -- got the page and moved the needle by 20% for the seller. Defend CL as much as you like -- and I once sold 100+ pages through them a decade ago, so I hate to bash them -- but they just can't replicate that level of immediacy with their outdated practices. I wish they would, though.

The point of my post was CL's policy against watchlisting notifications led to some of my fellow collectors receiving less money. Frankly, I hate that. Perhaps a $1000 or $1500 shortfall on a page is nothing to you, but to some poor collector trying to meet the bills when the cost of everything is running higher, that extra "Grey Poupon" on a sale sure tastes great.

I'm guessing you are that guy still presenting a paper ticket at the airport

If "shrewdness" means "losing market share," then I'd say Josh is killing it

Some great information provided about negotiating HA's commission, something I hope benefits many going forward. I sometimes think we hide too much information from ourselves b/c we believe we are gaining some edge, when in reality we are all playing against the house in the same casino. Sharing tips helps all of us win.

The inside track comes from years of posts here, conversations at cons and shows-- and CL itself, whose personnel I have spoken with in person. They know their site is old, they know what Heritage does, and they know how much it would cost to upgrade it all. They know collectors are gravitating to Heritage but they chose not to make improvements on their own product because, to paraphrase Doug, "We don't want to, CL works fine as it is."

You cannot tell me you enjoy their site on your phone. It's 2024, for them (and CAF) not to have a site optimized for mobile is atrocious.

We are going to see the first Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in under two years. Humans will interact with it, make friends with it and even fall in love with it. If an AGI serving as your "companion" (see the film Her) writes you something nice, say a poem or even a short story, who is the author? What happens when your AGI writes a script which wins an Oscar? I predict copyright laws will change accordingly. Much like the fantasy conversation about nature/nurture with Superman (i.e., what if Superman's rocket had landed in Russia and he grew up there), I just hope the first AGI is created here. We aren't perfect, but at least we aren't Russia or China.

That is a hell of a euphemism for "stretch it all out so the buyer gets less for his money per comic"

More nostalgic for early 90s indie... hope to find some Leo Duranona art from this series someday... would give an arm for the cover to #1

Customers with a high spend rate also get favorable selling rates. I don't know the internal # they use, but I'm guessing 25K/yr might be close.

Add backpacks and you pretty much have your average art con attendees

Years ago... dead Friday at an old NY Armory show... didn't know who he was, met him for the first time and just asked. It wasn't an artist he liked, perhaps that was why he cut me a break... It's funny, the bad opinions of some here about him are very well known, but I don't think he is a bad guy. He knows a lot about comics history and will talk with you about art even if you aren't buying, unlike a few other dealers who go cold fast when they realize the wallet isn't opening.