John E.

On 2/12/2018 at 4:30 AM, chrisco37 said:

WRT Peanuts, I understand where the poster is coming from (about "not getting it").   I was never really a fan.  I thought the animated specials were rather lame growing up and the strips weren't on my "read first" list (that was The Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes, Mother Goose & Grimm).   This would be the 80's/90's.   

However, my tune has changed a bit since I had my kid.  She's a fan and loves the animated specials, so I've watched them again (after a long hiatus) over the past few years.  There is something charming about them (that I missed in my younger days).   As an Xmas present this year, I picked her up that first volume of the daily strips.   They are pretty good and, again, there's a certain charm about them that most other strips don't have.

I certainly appreciate the impact and importance of the strip and the characters.   They are iconic.  It's still not my favorite, but I've grown to appreciate it a little more since I've had my kid.

Speaking of Peanuts, the recent movie was on TV last night.   We hadn't seen it and my daughter wanted to watch it.   Just dreadful, IMO.   It just missed the mark on nearly everything that makes the Peanuts what they are.      

Yeah that Peanuts movie was dreadful. 

Sandman page down to 7K. 

8 minutes ago, Panelfan1 said:

The mistake here - is one I have made too and think is common.  We use the price before live bidding (or just before closing on a fixed time auction) as a level against which we make our final bids.  The mistake is not figuring out actual value and using that. The before price doesn't mean anything.  But we give it meaning irrationally. 

Preach it. I've fallen for the same trap.

Regarding this past HA auction on Feb 4, otherwise Super Bowl Sunday: All my guesses were under. One was actually on the spot with the final hammer price, but with the BP, I'm off by 19.50%. I'm convinced that artwork doesn't (no longer?) go under the radar during holidays or major sporting events.

On 2/1/2018 at 6:23 PM, Lee B. said:

Hi all!  I just posted my most recent predictions for this week's Heritage auction, as well as a recap of my bids from last week.  I went out on a limb this time around to try to predict a value on the Neal Adams Phantom Stranger page, as well as a John Byrne cover making its third appearance on Heritage in less than three years:

http://www.comicartads.com/content/heritage-weekly-auction-ending-2418

Best regards, Lee

Very nice set of pages to guess on. I'm curious to know how the Super Bowl will affect bidding?

5 hours ago, lobrac said:

HOWARD THE DUCK #5 PAGE 25 sold on Heritage this past Sunday (Jan. 28) for $501.90

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/gene-colan-and-dave-simons-howard-the-duck-5-story-page-25-original-art-marvel-comics-1980-/a/121804-14021.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Now for sale (maybe) on CAF for $850. (Seller should pay a royalty to HA for lifting their description.)

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1450314&GSub=171439

Thank you to Erik Essington who’s making comic book art collecting great again.

Geez, if only I received royalties every time my descriptions were lifted, I’d funnel that money directly into comic art and never spend a dime out of pocket 

That’s awesome. It makes me see the piece in a whole new light. 

56 minutes ago, Panelfan1 said:

for sure its a sweet page. left a comment on CAF. in your story - you never say where the obsession came from? or what it is about it that got you interested in this piece. would love to hear more if you feel like it.  I am lucky to have a couple such items (elflord cover and xmen master of kung fu cover)- also not worth much but which I wanted for a long time and couldn't believe it when I got them.

Ditto! I’m interested in what makes it so special to you!

1 hour ago, Madman1138 said:

I think it might be Steve Skroce.

Good eye. Here's Steve's signature 15 years later. Not an exact match, but the "SK" is pretty close.

1 hour ago, SquareChaos said:

I don't believe he takes commissions any longer, but I think he's on Cadence so you could always reach out and ask.

Do you know why he doesn’t take commissions? Busy schedule? Just wondering if by this you mean temporarily or permanently?

I certainly have the inner desire to know what a piece sold for on a dealer's site, but isn't leaving the price up intrusive to the buyer's privacy (long after the fact). I just find it interesting that we all talk about how much other people's pieces went for but we never disclose how much we paid for ours.

I just put in my guesses. It doesn't seem anyone has so I just might place first by default 

1 hour ago, mister_not_so_nice said:

Gary Amaro Pin Up (Don't think it was published)

That is a very cool Gary Amaro piece 

8 minutes ago, glendgold said:

I love this board.  Drop in on page ten of a discussion about the ASM 100 cover and here's a spirited argument (already settled 20 years ago on a fictive submarine, no less) about which artist does the best Silver Surfer.  Thread Drift isn't enough -- we have disappeared into a...

 

 

Is that a reference to Crimson Tide, a movie I haven’t seen? Didn’t Tarantino write that dialogue?

Well, I'm intrigued. My closest guess is this Kelley Jones Sandman page for $5000 or best offer. Sandman is not in my wheelhouse but I am under the impression that pages by Jones go for a lot more than this. If that's true, 5K may be under market, but it's still too much for an average collector to snatch it up. 5K is also a lot of money to toy around with if you're going to risk the flip or hold mid-term for trade bait. I also thought this was going to get snatched up within 48 hours, but it's been up for a while. A reason why it's still sitting unsold, other than the price tag, might because there's no Morpheus on it. Maybe this is a $3500 piece?

18 minutes ago, Brian Peck said:

We discourage having prices on pieces in the Lowry. While I did look at all pieces when I voted I didnt look at the descriptions. It should NOT have prices if entered in best of.

@eewwnukand I are probably looking at the same piece. When you brought up the issue I went back to look at the piece and saw that there’s a “For Sale” status option. Perhaps that should be disabled?

Congratulations to all those who ranked first place. Man, that "Splash/Pinup" category was a tight race. And thanks to everyone who voted for my pieces, especially the Vader's Little Princess art. I received a whopping 14 votes! I am honored and Jeffrey Brown would be too. I don't think I can ever out-do that next year! 

8 hours ago, Lee B. said:

One out of two ain't bad Jay!  I don't think I've made a prediction as correct as your Curt Swan Superman Movie prediction, which finished at $310.70, including BP.  The "Dusty" illustration prediction, on the other hand, was a bit off, but I have no idea about G.I. Joe art and am in no position to judge.  Keep up the good work!  Best, Lee

The Swan-Superman III prediction was a once in a lifetime hole-in-one. The Joe art on the other hand, is more in tune with how bad I miss my marks. This is kind of like gambling or the stockmarket--all you need is one winner to make you 

Yeah, I'm still learning the G.I. Joe market, trying to get a handle on it when the right page pops up for me. But despite how well I know the market, it will always come down to how much I'm willing to spend.

This week there are more Curt Swan-Superman pages I'll guess on. The weird one I'll take a shot at is that wacky Marvel jam piece.

Looking forward to your next segment.

34 minutes ago, Nexus said:

1. L-R: Ben Seto, Nick Dragotta, Steve Purcell, Jonathan Wayshak, Mark Badger.

2. That's the catalog! Very impressive job putting it together by John Butler and Ryan Graff (pictured holding it). As a bonus, for anyone who made the signing, there were six full-size prints (one for each attending artist) that were included with the purchase of the catalog that evening. A fantastic deal for $25.

Ugh! I had to plan to go but bailed at the last minute. I just couldn't leave my overstressed wife behind with two wild toddlers. And as Brian said, it's just not an easy trek coming from the South Bay.

1 hour ago, wormboy said:

This is great Felix, thanks for posting the pics!

I didn’t even realize they had a new location until someone mentioned it to me at our Berkeley show yesterday.

And Raina is the main exhibit - that’s awesome! I can bring my 8 year old daughter, who has everything Raina has ever published (“Dad, they’re not comics, they’re graphic novels” ).

A couple of questions if you don’t mind:

1. Can you tell us ‘who’s who’ in the first photo?

2. Is that a print or the catalog in the second pic?

Thanks!

The guy in the orange pullover is Nick Dragotta and the guy in the far right with the rolled up sleeves is Mark Badger. They are the only ones I recognize.

1 minute ago, lobrac said:

The HA listing on the Firestorm cover says: "Logotype appears on a transparent overlay."

But it's still unclear if they are original (I usually assume not in this case) or replacement.

Based on my own observation and nothing else, the practice of adding trade dress was gone by 1988. Covers from this era, particularly from DC, have overlays. I guess the lesson I take from this is don’t assume the overlay is original, esp. the overlays don’t have other types of art patches. 

4 hours ago, Kwan Chang said:

@Jay Olie Espy of course it made a difference.   when steve b. bought it from heritage.  im sure he thought they were original stats as there was nothing stating that they were replacements or not "original stats"

So let me get this straight. Adding $100 replacement stats adds a 5-fold value to a piece. HA isn't able to catch the replacement stat, or is fooled by them, or doesn't care at all.

And yet, no one is doing this?:

Or going out and adding stats to their current "virgin" pieces?

Funny how the standards vary from piece to piece.

This week the Curt Swan Superman Movie Special (Superman III) #1 p. 31 is of interest to me. This page is up there among the group as far as price is concerned. A similar page sold for $310 in last year so I say this one sells for that much too.

The other piece of interest is the G.I. Joe: A.R.A.H. "Dusty" illustration. These are interesting because they tend to be single figure pin-up with no background. Not too long ago, on of Herb Trimpe's heirs (nephew) was selling a Buzzsaw illstration from one of GI Joe's "handbooks." The piece had no background or signature. The minimum bid was $400 and it had no bidders. This HA piece has no background, but it is signed and is drawn on Marvel board. The signature and the board gives me piece of mind regarding provenance. My guess is that this ends at $325.

I'm a little late here and I'm cheating by guessing the morning before, but these prices can go any which way.

6 hours ago, NicoV said:

I forgot to do it this week, I was quite busy with my 4yo daughter being sick!

But even if I don't "officially" launch a new session, feel free to do it yourself: just add "/guess" at the end of the auction address. For instance http://comicarttracker.com/en/heritage-auctions/2018-02-02 becomes http://comicarttracker.com/en/heritage-auctions/2018-02-02/guess

 

Let it be the next official pre-auction guesses session 

http://comicarttracker.com/en/heritage-auctions/2018-02-02/guess

Thank you for this, Nico! The only reason that I brought it up is because you wondered if this was really an interest to others. I agree with @BCarter27 in that this was voting week for CAF's Best of 2017 so it may not have been the best week to put in guesses. And of course, sorry to hear about your daughter. I hope she feels better soon. I have two little ones younger than yours, so I feel your pain. There's also a bad flu going around stateside. Well, until next week.

2 hours ago, Kwan Chang said:

then you should have bought it from my site for 200 or 300 bucks.  :-)

  but this was before the "Stats" were added.  it was pure art when i sold it a couple years back.

That’s interesting. I wonder if the added stats contributed to such a high hammer price. It does take two to tango.