John E.

I find it funny that a lot of reps and dealers emulate your sales strategy, but they don't emulate this (budget pieces). Tsk. Tsk.

My thoughts exactly. There is an oversaturation of online events right now. It's impossible to keep up. Not to mention that there seems to be a major auction ending once a month even. Or HA weekly that has seen some pretty good material as of lot. It's no surprise then that CAL can get drowned in all the noise I, for one, am looking forward to it. I think it encourages some collectors to bring out some nice art we wouldn't normally see. I'm hating on eBay more and more and CAL is a place I can trust to sell art without paying fees. I would rather sell on CAL before Facebook or any other forum. I'm also set up for Comic Art Live. I have published interiors, a published cover, sketches and commissions. I have them at prices that won't break the bank. I've also reduced the prices on any of my unsold inventory from last November.

Less buzz means less competition! Are you also doing a Sunday drop?

If you are looking to collect new art you just have to accept it for what it is. Artists are using whatever digital tools are at their disposal to get the job done on deadline. You can’t control if there’s three different processes of the same piece. Choose the one you like best. That said, it bothers me which is why I only focus on vintage art that has pencil and inks on the same board.

That is an awesome cover. I’m not a Vampirella fan either but I would make an exception for that cover. Again, not uncommon for artists to sell pencil prelim pieces separately, especially if they are tight. It may have been that the buyer of the pencils was in your situation; they like the work, but buying the final piece was a bit of a stretch, but the pencils were more affordable and scratches the itch.

Congratulations! It’s a good one!

I don’t find doing the pencils separately that unusual. Or an artist coloring their own cover. I mean you’re right we don’t have a lot of info, this could be Alex Ross he’s talking about who does a tight pencil prelim, then paints the cover. I see this done a lot with painted card art from the 90s. To me the pencils are the prelim even if they are tight—I guess given the info we do have. The inked and colored piece would be worth to me imho.

If the inked and hand-colored (?) piece is the published cover, then that’s the final cover. It’s very likely that the artist considers the pencil piece the prelim. The ink and colored is the more valuable piece. Personally, it’s not a deal breaker knowing the pencils are out there.

1. In general, Covid keeping people from spending their money on travel, nights out, and good old fashioned spectator events has cause all collectibles (stay-at-home hobbies) across the spectrum to skyrocket. 2. In my 8 years of collecting I had not known Albert to sell these types of headshots until Covid. True to his style, Albert pushes the limits on market price. And gets rewarded for it. 3. I wish I had paid more attention, but around Covid, or maybe even before it, these con-style headshots were shooting up 4x-5x fmv on eBay. Especially for CGC Yellow Label. 4. Bruce Timm is one of those artists susceptible to getting forged. There had been a lot of Timm counterfeits being brought to the marketplace. I have a feeling that with buying from Albert, collectors were willing to pay a premium for guaranteed authenticity. Add to that Albert’s sketch covers could be Yellow label certified for an extra cost.

Hawk is the first character that came to mind. Nice buy.

I’m glad you had a good time and that you walked away with something. You won’t regret it. That Wolverine/Venom by Sam Kieth is an eBay auction piece. Does anyone recall the seller?

No mames, güey

About the same, yes.

G.I. Joe, like comics in general, are going to popular within a certain generation and nothing after that. Unless, the moods and definition of patriotism change, it's hard to hock a toyline that is essentially pro-war. If anyone remembers my previous avatar, I'm a big Joe fan, so I'm not trying to bash here. As far as the new toyline, Buzzetta hit the nail on the head. I was fortunate enough to grab a 3.75" re-issue of Snake Eyes off the shelf at Wal-Mart only because it had flaws on the card and nobody wanted it. Then it was impossible to find the other and I wasn't going to pay $70 on the after market. I was also underwhelmed by the 6" line. It just wasn't the same magic that I remember. Early pages from G.I. Joe very hard to come by and you take what you can get. Artist on the book don't matter as much in general, but I'm not a fan of the Marshall Rogers stuff I've seen out there and anything that looks 90s. I was fortunate enough to snag this page from the same issue from the topic at hand from Bechara's art show in November of 2019 before everything went nutso. I thought I had paid the heavy Bechara premium on it back then, but it doesn't sound so stupid now. As an aside, an early Trimpe page sold at the last HA signature for about $4,000.

Great detective work! My research skills got nothing on yours!

This 👆 Get it while it’s cheap.

I wonder how much of the art sold this weekend was used to pay for the crazy prices in the last auction

I was at Target today and I saw something I’d never seen before. An employee stood in the middle of the main aisle with a shopping cart full of boxes of basketball cards and a long line of (mostly) men in their 20s-40s waiting for them. Each was allowed to take one box. They grabbed one and went back in line. The cart was depleted and they waited for another cart to show up. Target is the new Con I guess.

Yup, weren’t Moy and Burkey selling these for $9k-12k a year ago? It was the Wolverine covers that were reserved for $25k+ tier

I know Stuart has been a sought out artist at least since I’ve been collecting in 2013. Though I’m sure his prices weren’t at that level 8 years ago, he seems to have gotten much better over the years to drive up what he charges. Otherwise, not an artist in my wheelhouse as to the why.

I file this under: "Is it legal?" "Well, it's not illegal."

Just to be clear, you mean when two collectors "collude" for one to step aside, the intention isn't to harm the consignor, but for one to get the art for less than market price? Although the harm is not intentional, harm is still done--I just want to point that out. Maybe because I don't dive in the deep end of the pool where shilling may or may not be a problem (I think it's lesser a problem than what it is made out to be), the whole "please step aside for me" really, really irritates me more. I don't think it's a prevalent problem, but I hear about it often enough over the years, most recently on Comic Art Live livestreams. I think it screws the consignor out of a lot of money. I agree with you, Voord, that I would never step aside for anyone.

I was and am doing just fine without it.

Ah, I misunderstood your question. And, of course, by any stretch, I didn’t think you were looking to cash in on your cover. To your question: to me, when I think of Green Lantern I think of Hal Jordan. I was in high school when I read Emerald Twilight which is a lead in to the introduction of Kyle Raynor. I followed Kyle’s exploits for about 6 month and he has a sort of nostalgic soft spot to me. But is he still even around? Did DC do anything interesting with him? I’m also curious to know where others stand, too. I do like John Stewart but I have that Justice League animated show to thank for. Lastly, I know I shouldn’t bring up pricing again, but I want to renege my thoughts on the value of your John Stewart cover. I think it can fetch the $225k or close to it.

FWIW, if you put up that cover at auction I think you’d do well. But $225k well? It’s not where I would place my bet. This isn’t to denigrate John Stewart (who has a lot of media crossover btw/obviously), but he’s not Spider-Man...and anything Spider-Man has the 🔥 factor. Spidey fetches a premium as does Wolverine (see: X-23). Spidey and his off-shoots are going to get a lot of media saturation which is going to attract the attention of the deep-pockets.