No one is denying that this is the first appearance of Wolverine and that it is significant. However, it is not the famous, iconic image that the Hulk #181 cover is, which is why the #181 cover is more significant, even if it is the second appearance of the character.
There are people, like myself, who know the OA landscape, know who the usual suspects are for this piece, and what they are likely to pay and not pay, both for the #180 page and the #181 cover should it surface. I'm not saying that $750K-$1mm is impossible, but it would be a total guess/leap of faith and certainly not based on any facts, logic, comps, or any other kind of information that dialed-in collectors have at their disposal.
"If I had unlimited funds" guesses square away with reality about as often as transitive property arguments like "well, if the ASM #328 cover sold for $657K, then this better piece should sell for more". Fact is, we've seen many pieces better than the ASM #328 cover sell for much less since that particular sale, and comic collectors playing Fantasy OA are rarely clued in about what actual collectors might pay as opposed to their conception of relative importance and valuation.
And, before anyone suggests it, no, Hugh Jackman won't be buying the piece. It's always one of the usual suspects - people in the hobby forget that it takes a special kind of lifelong clinical psychosis to rationalize spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for a Herb Trimpe Wolverine page; having a lot of money is simply not enough to get outsiders to pull the trigger.
Quote:
" people in the hobby forget that it takes a special kind of lifelong clinical psychosis to rationalize spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for a Herb Trimpe Wolverine page"
If this is true I guess we should ponder the POS of aquiring a Boardie-Shrink ...