comix4fun

That was a bit more of a singular, identifiable, example...the one page from that one issue that was indisputably the page that started it all for that character. Tends to lead to a more focused blood-sport bidding situation than one of many pages with the cover to the same issue also out there and available. So, it's not the best apples-to-apples....if we had some pages from 181 out there, that would feel more same end of the same pool at the same temperature kind of situation.

"Truth" , it is said, is an absolute defense to a charge of slander.

Yeah, that sticks in my head. I remember reading about it in an Overstreet update. That was how we got information back in those days children....it was written....ON PAPER and sent through the MAIL!

Yeah. Nuts right? "When's it gonna top off?" "It's gotta be soon" "It can't keep going, right?" "Why does all the stuff I like keep escalating?" I remember when a super high grade Amazing Fantasy 15 sold for *gasp* $40,000 in 1989. That was IT!! We have reached the PEAK! How could one ever sell for more?! The exasperation has only become more wracking as five figures, turned to six and now to seven.

To me, the big question...really the most important question is....why do the "fall through the cracks" , "below expectations", "soft results" and "bargains" NEVER ever ever coincide with the pieces on my watch/bid list? If I spot it, if it catches my eye, if it's a good to strong to great example it's still multiples what a soft result would be. It would be fun if my collecting nostalgia, just once, coincided with one of those passed over or not in vogue niches. A brother needs a "soft result" to recharge his batteries every now and then.

Love it Brian. Love seeing the artist work through their ideas for the final piece. This is a great piece of the creative process. If you can't have the finished piece I can see something really wanting this over a color guide or production art piece that John never touched. Really great.

This is a great idea. I'll price my best 80's X-men page at $500,000....I should have no problem selling my $10,000 pages for $50,000.....it's 90% off!!!!

Just a few days later and 4 more to go and ......we've almost doubled up that figure. $372,000

I think quite a few people wrote that one off as "Gonna go for $60-75k" and never looked back at it. Had the regular suspects been paying attention and not assumed the ending you'd likely have seen $50k+ as a floor. I even mentioned it a couple hours before the end on a text with a few friends that this is just the kind of lot in just the kind of auction that could fall through the cracks. Then I went and watched the football game and didn't see where it ended and one of them texted me when they looked back and saw the number with almost exactly what you posted here.

I wish there was a way to contact the consignors to let them know you were the underbidder on their piece(s) and that you guaranteed them an extra few thousand bucks....might be good for a bundt cake or a muffin basket in appreciation....just sayin'.

I think the people interested in this should be thrilled that the characters aren't covered in ants or we're looking at a cool million.

Look to the context of the thread you posted in. You'll see it wasn't you who got it wrong. And not you I was talking about. You'll see if was the person who proclaimed Tradd Moore art would flounder and fail at auction when it actually turned a one year 12.5% ROI instead, but couldn't bring himself to admit he wasn't right on that call, even when he promised he would. "Doing auction analysis for free".....as if that's what people are "hounding him" ( a bit of an overstatement, right?) for. No one cares about his Monday morning QB summary of finalized auctions, not enough to feel one way or the other about them. If people feel there's value to the revelation of post-auction predictions, then more power to them. People disagreeing with him has zero to do with that act public service. Maybe it was implying that a rep was bidding up his own artists to "protect their market" as the reason a piece sold for $8,000 last year and then $9,000 this year instead of just admitting that, yes, it did indeed sell for more even if that meant he'd have to *gasp* admit he was wrong about something. When given the choice admitting they got it wrong on a the market for a piece of art by an artist....and inventing a fiction that besmirches the reputation of a fair and honest representative and proclaiming knowledge of underlying auction terms agreed to by the seller that they did not possess, and then claim shenanigans, call into doubt that it could have been an arm's length sale, they chose the latter to, I guess, prevent the tragedy of all tragedies...admission of fallibility in knowledge of an artist and an area of art he's admitted he has no interest in and has not participated in first hand. It's great that you value those post auction reports so much. It's possible to value those reports and not agree with everything that person does in the hobby, especially when it's at the expense of others for no valid reason. People can do both.

Oh that's 100% right. A one year flip followed by another flip in short order would likely put the "dealer merry go round" stink on the piece. Aside from the more basic "subtract the original buyer and subsequent buyer from the bidding/buying pool" reason, pieces get tainted when they are "shopped" or change hands too many times in a short period of time. The first flip, just after a year hence from a high profile sale, selling for 12.5% more feels really strong to me. I've seen so many "fast" flips in the hobby tank when they go from artist, to collector, to auction/resale. Anything new I buy, especially from an artist direct, I expect to have it several years before I could even expect it to sell for more than I paid. That's why this one was a bit of a surprise and perhaps indicates a different set of rules emerging for a new collecting period.

Well, a few things might lead you to "doubt" or at least "give the proper weight and deference to" a market analysis, such as: 1) Is the person giving the opinion active in the specific market they are weighing in on? 2) Do they have knowledge and interest in the stories and publications of the market they are weighing in on? 3) Do they have a perspective on the specific market brought on by their approach to participation in the market that could give a skewed final analysis? That's before we get to "morning after" auction predictions, or creative math to try and make a clearly erroneous statement escapable without falling on the sword of admission of fault. Having a thoughtful market analysis is only as good as the thoughts and experience and engagement in that specific market. Subtract those things and it's just speculation and wild guesses. If you throw in aversion to admitting when those analyses miss the mark, then the reasons to "doubt" a market analysis exceed the reasons to trust it. Opinions are like orifices, everyone's got a few, some of them stink, and this thread has A LOT of them....opinions I mean. Trust your own Tim. At least you'll be able to admit to yourself if you got it wrong.

Well the discussion was about what the piece sold for, and people weren’t all using the actual $9,000 sale price. So, that was corrected and pointed out. Then there was a whole separate pivot and tangent about cost of sale. There’s a reason everyone trying to reasonably analyze art sales just goes sale price to sale price and not net to seller. That’s because only the seller knows his basis and it’s entirely irrelevant to the market value of the piece. The market value of the piece is what people are discussing in an auction post mortem. If it’s accuracy people are after, then the fewest number of assumptions get us there. We don’t know the seller’s terms with ha , his cost for the piece unless we assume it’s who bought it from Felix , we don’t even know if the person who bought the piece last year is the same person who consigned it to ha. We can assume, but every assumption layered onto the previous assumption moves us further from certainty. The Sellers’s choice of venue can drastically alter the net as well. So, that’s why the apples to apples, sale to sale, position was noted to arrive at market value as it pertains to public sales….before the pivots and tangents.