John E.

The "video" is working for me right now. I'm listening to it on my smart phone, straight up on the website, not the YouTube app. Maybe try a different device?

I listened to the Mandel episode without any problem. I believe you have to be logged into your YouTube account (or Google) to listen. Were you logged in? Felix, I really enjoyed this two-parter. I do like the mix of having a veteran collector, a mid-veteran, and a new collector at the round table. That mix brings in fresh perspectives and it shows that this is everyone's hobby. It's also cool to get the professional comic artists' perspective. Lastly, big thanks to Andy for being a good sport about telling his side of the story. I certainly understand his side (both sides actually). Like he said, in this hobby there's lot of good stories and one or two bad ones.

Wasn't this page being sold on CAF for $11K (or 15k) for the longest time? Maybe I'm thinking of another? It's no surprise it went under 10K if it couldn't find a buyer at 11k. This is a definitive image of Torch and it set the tone for MARVELS. I guess because it wasn't part of the MARVELS continuity it didn't break 5 figures. Maybe it would have on HA or CLink. It's definitely one of my grails and I seriously considered cashing in my collection for it when it was on CAF.

Thank you all for your responses and your very interesting home remedies Apples and oranges here, but earlier this year I bought an action figure off eBay and it arrived smelling like smoke too. After some quick Internet research, I found that giving your toy a baking soda bath and airing it out should do the trick. Well, I gave it more baking soda baths than I cared to do that resulted in partial success. I then stuck in my pantry that gets some outside ventilation and forgot about it for a while. The smoke scent eventually did dissipate. Well, baking soda baths is not an option for this OA, but many of you did suggest using it in pragmatic ways. I did have a Board member with experiential advice contact me privately whose conclusion was that the scent will eventually dissipate over time. I used his suggestion of placing it in front of a fan which is what I did last night for a few hours (see photo of my setup). I can only fan one page at a time and the one that got the treatment now smells less of smoke than the other. I've decided to keep the pages after all and just let the chemistry take care of itself.

Hey Friends, Just in time to coincide with that "Your first comics" thread, I recently won an auction for two pages from one of my early childhood comics. I was so stoked because I waited so long for something from this issue to turn up; although to be specific, 5 pages from 4 different sellers popped up at once, of course. I got what I felt to be the better of all the pages. But, alas, the pages arrived smelling like tobacco smoke. It turns out that these are the inker's share of the pages and the inker was a smoker. Nevertheless, I'm put off by the smell, or otherwise, the condition issue. I already started airing them out, only at night because I don't want to unnecessarily expose the pages to light. After about a week of doing that, the smell is still present. I've already contacted the seller and he said I can return them for a full refund, no problem. I did state that these pages are nostalgic so I'm torn about the whole thing and that I'll mull it over for a few more days. So I ask the Boards: do any of you have any experience getting rid of odor from your pages? Is the scent of smoke even an issue for you like visual conditions? Would you keep the pages or send them back?

It's Modern Art collectors' heaven right now. Or perhaps for Vintage, too. Anyway, if we were at all discipline, or, and I speak for myself only--smart--we would just save all our money until this time of the year and just swim in the discounted art.

The grade shouldn't matter. What should matter the most is the authentication, especially for heavy hitter artists like Frank Miller or a legend who rarely does the con sketch. I will say that a friend of mine hits the con circuit for paid sketches on blank covers and he tends to be obsessive about having them slabbed, with a hope that they turn out 9.8. Don't know why he cares. So I guess it does matter for some.

I forgot that Eric Roberts owns Batman 497 I wasn't aware KJ let go of the other covers--likely because it's so beyond my budget, I don't even bother to ponder it.

It's nice to read this. Yeah, it's obvious that this time period is not well liked by a lot of collectors and I certainly understand those arguments. My only rebuttal is that the 90s still had some talent doing interesting things, like K. Jones cover run on Knightfall. If I had the money, I certainly wouldn't have minded the "faults" on the faces. Having a Knightfall cover is good enough for me.

Regarding the Kelley Jones / Batman 496 / Knightfall, part 9 cover... My estimate for the hammer price was 25K with the juice, minimum. So in my mind, the cover "underperformed" (as if a cover from '93 that sold for 21K could be called an underperformer). I take it as common knowledge that Kelley Jones keeps all his artwork and those KJ panel pages you see floating around are the ones his inker John Beatty released into the world. If KJ is penciling and inking his stuff, which he has in his last two projects, you're not gonna have the chance to buy 'em; but I don't keep a GPS tracker on his art, so don't hold it to me. Nonetheless, considering the market rarity of an all-Kelley Jones cover and Knightfall to boot, I'm really surprised it didn't hit a quarter-K. The question I have is where did this cover come from? A collector or Jones himself? Man, if you bought this cover for 3K-4K back in '93... As far as the quality of the rendering, I agree with you. The faces on both Bats and Joker aren't attractive, and the quality of Robin's face is arguable too. Perhaps that's what kept the bidding at bay. Personally, this isn't my favorite cover between Knightfall parts 1 and 11. Two of those that lead up to Batman 497 are drawn by Sam Kieth. One of those Albert Moy sold a couple of years ago. I'm not sure when another Knightfall cover is going to pop. This one might not be the strongest rendered, but this is a delirious Batman beating Joker to a bloody pulp while the ghost of Jason Todd watches on. There aren't many of those covers in general either. When collectors realize this, and if this ever pops up again 5 from year from now, I think the current owner will get his money back and some.

Bidders don't pay for their items all the time, and it's not uncommon for sellers not to sell what they sold. If the OP wanted to, he could call up eBay and complain, eBay would then review eBay message exchanges, and from there they may decide to put a strike on the seller's account and suspend him *if he keeps doing it*. The problem is that if the OP happened to have violated eBay policy through the messaging, by say, offering to pay outside of eBay, then he would get a strike too. Either way, what frustrates a lot of users about eBay is that there are a lot of bad actors who operate with impunity.

I'm lucky enough to have most, if not all, of my first comics. I thank Mom for not tossing them away. As such, collecting art from my first comics is part of my focus and I'm lucky enough to have acquired a few pieces. In fact, I just won an auction for one yesterday. In another fact, suddenly there has been a deluge of offerings this week that I don't know what to do I have pre-school age children now and naturally I've given them many comics. They often end up torn to shreds and tossed out. This tells me that they will never remember their true first comic, and instead, their "first" comic might be something they get at age 6, like me. This leads me to believe that my "first" comic may not be that at all. Otherwise, if I focused solely on first comics art, I would've quit the hobby because they hardly pop up on the market (or when it rains, it pours). Also, since this is early copper age stuff, the prices are pretty hefty, and forget the prices for covers. For sure one cover from my childhood is in David Mandel's collection; another one is for sale for $11.5K. Coollines has a bunch covers and pages and even a complete book from my childhood...but at outrageous prices. It makes sense that they have so many because of their high prices, they don't move. This is to say that it doesn't surprise me if not many collectors go after these types of nostalgic pieces because they don't pop up often and they tend to be expensive.

That's a shame for the seller to back out like that. I remember seeing this piece pop up in my saved searches. His marketing wasn't all that poor, and he did the "right" thing by ending the auction on a Sunday evening. He even had 11 bidders. This is to say that it didn't really go under the radar and if your winning bid was $66, then that's what it's "worth." I'm not sure what he thought it was going to end at? $500? It's just another hard lesson (or, tuition) about the "real" value of art. Just as aside, this is another example of Eduardo Barretto being undervalued, as Brian Peck just stated in the "Underappreciated Art" thread.

Trade dress

I'd like to think that I collect cool pieces, that I have good tastes--well, the kind of tastes that my budget can afford--but I don't get a lot of comments. In fact, I'm very fortunate for those pieces of mine that get 2 or more comments. I've seen some cool pieces on CAF that have received no comments even though it's been posted for 8 years with like a thousand views. These pieces are often in the galleries of "quieter" collectors. Take a close look at who comments and it's the same collectors over and over. At my most cynical, the "silence" isn't "deafening," but rather it's because "you" aren't in The Circle, therefore it's not a reflection on one's tastes. At my most positive, there's a relatively small group of collectors who are active on CAF who take the time to participate in the hobby by leaving comments. I'm one of them. But as it has been established in this thread, there are collectors who don't pay for the Premium membership because all they want to do is post their art and want to do nothing else. By the way, for those you serial commentators--keep doing what you're doing! It's part of what makes CAF worthwhile!

Where is this Maxx piece you talk about? I want to make love to it on CAF if I haven't already

I get what you're saying. There was that thread a while back called "overrated art" and a couple of people named Skottie Young, whose art I like and own. That stuff doesn't hurt me. I like a lot of stuff that people don't like so my ego isn't attached to the art. You're the type of writer whose critique can be written with tact and (perhaps) sensitivity, but I don't trust the rest of the world to do that. I guess also that this hobby is a diversion for me, to escape from the stress of everyday life. If every comment I received was about how "poorly" the art is drawn, it wouldn't stop me from collecting but I would quit my public participation in the hobby. As such, the Boards have been pretty acerbic lately which has been off-putting and has been defeating the purpose of why I log in.

It's funny you mention Mark Badger because I admire his work very much. It's different and bold and a middle finger to the house style. He's an acquired taste and I don't fault anyone who doesn't dig him. Yes, he did an issue or two of Excalibur. I have several of his pieces on my CAF gallery. My most recent piece of his is a convention sketch of Wonder Woman. As I explain in my description, Mark forgot his brushes at home and drew me an all-pencil piece. I love the way it turned out, but the eyes are wonky--I'm not blind to that (no pun intended). It's not that Mark can't draw eyes, but it's likely because he uses thick pencils and filling in perfect placement of the eye balls is tough. It's also a con sketch so I'm willing to overlook it. I don't know where I'm going with this other the "love him or hate him" aspect of Badger.

I just don't see CAF as the place to do it. There's no point in critiquing someone else's nostalgia, and for reasons you stated. Actually, kinda going with your example, I've stated that my grandfather got me hooked on comics and the last comic he bought me was New Mutants #100. Yeah of all artists, Liefeld. I'm completely aware of the all the anatomical deficiencies, but I don't care; a page from that issue means much more to me than the art itself, though I've come to appreciate how fun those comics were. So why rain on my parade because Rob misproportioned the torso and *editorial* let him get away with it? I feel like this kind of commenting is akin to giving feedback on a piece like you would at art school, but instead you're giving it to a collector and not the artist. I guess that's where I scratch my head. But, yes, perhaps this your point and I'm missing it, some art misses the mark and it's best to be educated as not to spend huge wads of money on something poorly drawn. That I get, but to call it out publicly? I don't know if that's in good taste. If CAF was a place where that happened at its conception, I never would have joined.

This emoticon is severely underused

The dealer website being taken down after the auction (or your market report) makes me go

A Stan Lee signature.

That's what their emails look like when you "$Please inquire."A soon follows, then a .

The ocean?

Sure there's no action or costumes, but there's a talking gopher wearing nothing but a tie and that more than makes up for it. @Ducky13 You are also missing a back cover. They are more affordable than a front cover, but harder to find. Here's my example