Ironmandrd

Given that we don't know what's around the corner at the next auction, when none, a few or a lot of pierces you may be interested may come to auction, I try to not have specified goals (other than the broad goal to continue to collect higher end, nostalgic Iron Man and Avengers pieces). Usually my one continuing long term goal relates to continue working on the many-years effort of trying to pry a particular Iron Man or Avengers cover or splash from a completely locked vault or black hole collector. But this past year I finally secured the last two I had been working on that were at all possible (longest--6 years) and secured one that just fell into my lap but required a month of hard back and forth. There is another locked vault that has a few pieces I'm interested in but it's been over 7 years and it's just seems he won't ever sell so I'm taking a break from pursuing. So for the first year since 2009, I'm not going to be continuing any years-long negotiations with an unwilling seller. This past year I also branched out a bit and picked up several 70s and 80s non-IM/Avengers pieces by artists such as Byrne and John Buscema so depending on what comes to light, I likely will continue that as well.

From a bidder perspective, there's also the pro and con of bidding with less than 10 seconds. One con (that I've regretted a few times) that it doesn't allow you enough time to quickly get in another bid when you've been outbid with only seconds to spare, including when you thought you had it locked but were surprised by another over FMV bid). Of course more time also allows another bidder to squeeze in their (extra) bid too after reacting to the other last last second bidders as well. [Not counting weighing all the other individual criteria of course (how much you want the piece (by itself or versus other pieces in auction), personal budget, how close to or over FMV you are willing to pay, how art by same artist in same auction is selling, etc.)]

Yup, see prior pages in this thread.

What auction house was this?

So what did folks think about Saturday's offerings? What were some of the "well bought"? Or some of the "maybe/definitely overpaid"?

CLOSED

Of the 25 items I am tracking, 22 are ridiculously under FMV (some as much as 10X+ less than reasonable FMV). The other 3 are about 1/5 to 1/3 FMV. I also see 97 items at bids at $55 or less, including over 20 items at $0 or $1. While everything will align much closer in live bidding, I don't recall prices this low at this stage of the bidding.

Not sure the criteria here but when I think of a valuable unpublished story I think of the original 70s JLA/Avengers cross-over partial story by George Perez. The pages are scattered now.

Hard to believe this auction is coming up soon but with so little discussion.

I've seen a number of pages (and own a few ) where Sal Buscema has signed within the art. Ugh.

What were the images on the two Art Adams covers? Thanks

Far be it for me to confirm or deny the existence of the illusive (or imaginary) Cabal. I was using the reference to stress test the definitional black hole hypothesis - even a supposed Old World sect of Illuminati collectors couldn’t possible know most/all of the black hole collections out there, many of which collections are by virtual definition unconnected to other collectors.

Sorry if I misconstrued your prior sentence "More recently it seems that people are talking about collectors that buy and never sell as being a black hole. I would (to this point) qualify for this category." to mean you thought you might be a black hole. I didn't view you as a black hole for the reason I stated (and your reasons above).

As I recall there was a thread (last year?) that had a substantial discussion about the black hole definition and connotations (with varying views). I view the term to generally describe two prototypical types of collectors (YMMV and exceptions/variations of course exist): 1. There are truly off-the-grid collectors that the auction houses may know of because of their recent or historical purchases but they are otherwise completely or mostly disconnected from the community (other than sometimes knowing a single person or very small number of collectors who are connected). The fact that they are disconnected also means they do not generally go to conventions or shows and usually don't interact with the dealers much if at all (although they might know a dealer from back in the day---I'm sure that Bechara knows several collectors who are now disconnected from the community). Even the Cabal does not know many of them (although each Cabal member may confidentially know one or several). While these collectors generally don't trade (as they'd have to be connected to the community to do so), we don't know the extent to which they currently buy or sell through the auction houses (or consign or sell to someone like Bechara). 2. A collector who is somewhat connected to the community (eg, they may go a local show/convention once a year and/or email privately with a small number of other collectors) but chooses to keep most if not all of their collection private (eg, someone who is not on CAF or who used to post a lot on CAF but then took down their collection years ago) and who rarely (if ever) sells or trades anything from their collection. I know/have known about 10 collectors like this and I view them as black holes because they are very private and do not share the majority of what they own (unless you recall from years ago or have your old emails with them when they were more transparent) and it is virtually impossible to obtain a quality piece even if you knew of it (the proverbial "I'm going to die with my art") (and some of these collectors have basically migrated to category 1 or gotten out of the hobby). Maybe some people think there's is a third category of someone who just doesn't sell anything (Dave @JadeGiant believes he may be one) but I don't view not selling as the sole criteria. Part of being a black hole is that one cannot see inside it, not just that things don't escape from it. Edit: Oh thinking about it, the inverse is true as well. I know of several collectors whose collections are kept very secret and even the Cabal does not know everything they own but they do regularly or semi-regularly sell and/or trade or make their new acquisitions known to a select few -- I do not view them as black holes either.

I think it is general knowledge that both HA and ComicLink discourage reserves but may accept reserves (ComicLink is more flexible in accepting them--hence more reserves on ComicLink than HA). But in each case the reserve has to make sense/be reasonable to the auction house (and of course the consignor). So there is a dialogue that occurs until both parties are satisfied. I know the views of one of the Reps is that the reserve should be enough under FMV to allow it to be hit before the end of of the auction in order to free up/encourage more bidding in the last days/hours.

To some extent, yes. see http://www.comiclink.com/service_text.asp?2 which has the below: Recent Auction Results: Most Recent Featured Auction: 2018 Spring (May-June) Featured Auction: Comic Book Session; Original Artwork Session Other prior ComicLink Featured Auction results: 2-3/2018 (comics) / 2-3/2018 (art) / 11/2017 (comics) / 11/2017 (art) 8-9/2017 (comics); 8-9/2017 (art) / 5-6/2017 (comics); 5-6/2017 (art) / 2-3/2017 (comics); 2-3/2017 (art) / 11/2016 (comics); 11/2016 (art) / 8-9/2016 / 5/2016 / 2/2016 / 11/2015 / 8-9/2015 / 5/2015 / 2/2015 / 11/2014 / 8/2014 / 2/2014 /11-12/2013 / 8/2013 / 5/2013 / 2/2013 / 11/2012 / 8/2012 / 5/2012 / 2-3/2012 / 11/2011 / 08/2011 / 05/2011 / 02/2011 / 11/2010 / 8/2010 / 5/2010 / 11/2009 / 8/2009 / 5/2009 / 3/2009 / 1/2009 / 11/2008 / 8/2008 / 5/2008 / 2/2008 / 10/2007

If I took out time period and other contextual factors, I'd still opt for Sal IMO: 1. I don't like Jones' version of the Skull (eg, lacking somewhat the horizontal eye brow bones). 2. I like the main panel and the panel of Cap getting kicked in the face but overall the Jones page is a bit busy for my taste (and looks a lot like Paul Ryan to me) and while I have no issues with the Skull's dialogue (even tho its very predictable), Cap's dialogue is oftputting to me ("how about "mud"? " . . . if you spent more time working out") 3. Probably just me, but the last panel of the Jones bothers me a bit as it doesn't follow well from the prior panel --Skull is already in midair and so Cap would have had to have spun back and then hit Skull -- I know Cap is quick but I think it could have been set up better. 4. Sal page is more dramatic (from Fury baking to Cap on his knees to Cap gritting his teeth to more dramatic dialogue overall) and not just another run of the mill fight scene (which is more the feel of the Jones page) 5. I prefer pages from the regular run vs an Annual (unless the main artist from the run did the Annual)

Hard to tell from the pics but which junkie was the price haggler?* * I understand that in NYC (up through @1987) any group of two or more junkies had a designated haggler to haggle $ or trade in any transaction

Isn’t there a pencil version or prelim on eBay too for this issue? I recall seeing the listing but didn’t open it.

For someone who didn’t know her, two things always seemed to stand out - she seemed to be a super nice person and she had a variety of skills that made a big contribution over many years, both apparent and being the scenes. One of the main reasons I bought the complete story to Iron Man #83 was her superlative inking of Herb Trimpe.

Disagree. Content being similar, I cannot see a time when Perez doesn’t have a reasonable premium over Lim.

The courts aren't even consistent on recovery of Nazi caused lost/stolen art and which tests to apply. See https://www.hhrartlaw.com/category/statute-of-limitations/ in which two courts came to opposite conclusions based on very similar facts involving the same family trying to recover alleged Nazi looted art from present day owners.

So is there an endgame or objective to be met by all of this discourse and speculation about the immutable past?

I don't have any knowledge of the inking but per the earlier postings, it wasn't for sale and had no asking price.

I've got the picture to prove it as they were hanging out right in front when I was getting dropped off, with their friend on the next corner. They didn't stay long though as apparently everyone only had eyes for the art. And they did have some mileage on them.