OrangeCrush

Well, I have some great news. That painting I finished up that I posted on the last page wound up selling in less than 3 days once my art rep had pictures of the painting in hand to send to potential buyers and other reps. Here is the painting in case people missed it. Its the largest painting I have made to date as its 6' x 4'. And that is one of the reasons why having a quality art rep is so vital, especially if you want to sell limited edition prints or original artwork. Sure, you can try and sell the prints on places like eBay, or other sites dedicated to selling artwork, but so much stuff gets posted these days that it very likely a lot of visitors will never even see your work. You can start your own website, but it takes a lot of time to get word around that that the site even exists. Even tho its going to cost you some money, having a quality art rep is absolutely mandatory IMO as they know a LOT about the business and the know a LOT of the people in the art collecting community, including other reps and many of the big buyers, especially in your neck of the woods. Of course, you have to pay your rep a commission, but in my experience over the last 15 years, its absolutely worth every last penny. Everyone needs to make a living including art reps. Anyways, it wound up selling for $5500 so its now the 2nd most valuable piece of art I have sold to date. The #1 spot is still held by a 5 print portfolio I made of the World Trade Center that I put together just a few months after the towers came down. I made 5 portfolio's in total and each portfolio had 5 - 18x24 matted prints. I always planned on keeping one portfolio for myself so I really only had 4 portfolios I was putting up for sale. I was initially going to price them at $20,000, but my art rep convinced me to raise the price to $30,000 or basically $6,000 per print given everything that had happened Amazingly, it only took 3 months to sell all 4 portfolio's. I have to admit, part of me felt like I was taking advantage of that whole tragedy by trying to sell portfolio's of the towers so shortly after that event took place but as an artist, I was really motivated by those events to produce those prints and not for the sake of money. I have always been a HUGE fan of Minoru Yamasaki, the architect of the towers. Basically, there were a lot of high profile people, including architects, that really wanted to remember those building in all thier glory and as such, there were quite a few photographers who profited greatly from the pictures they had of the WTC in the weeks, months, and years following that collapse of the towers. Anyways, I am a very happy man today. Gonna hit up Sideshow and pre order a couple new statues, hit up Amazon and buy some art books I have had my eye on, and will likely hit up some online comic shops and make a few purchases.

Yeah, I have pulled out comics many times in Gerber's Mylites and have never had an issue. The key is to pull out the board with the comic on it as opposed to trying to grab the comic and pulling just the comics out. Given how smooth the surface of mylar is, one shouldn't have any problems at all unless they bagged and boarded a really thick comic using Mylites4's and even in those case as long as your gentle and pull out the board instead of grabbing onto the comic itself, one shouldn't have an issue. There is only one issue with Mylar that is inferior to Poly bags and that is the price. Mylar is definitely more expensive, but once you subtract the cost f what you would normally ppend on regular poly bags, its really not that big of a difference if you buy in bulk. Every other aspect of Mylar is VASTLY superior to poly-bags. I worked at the Detroit Institute of Arts for roughly 16 months during my junior and senior year at art school. I mostly worked in the archives/storage department, but they also let me work a couple months in the restoration deparment as that was a topic that really interested me. They used Mylar pretty much exclusively for anything paper or photography related. And that is the case with every other museum I am aware of as well, including the Library of Congress. In other words, Mylar is without question the highest quality material you can use to store various comics, autographs, historic papers, antqiue maps, etc.

Have read the series every couple years since i first read it when I was li 10-11. It =s about that time again!

The problem with frame shops is they dn't use archival framing methods unless asked and many don't even when you ask. They know your not going to tear it open and check so it remains one of th biggest problems with getting prints framed by professional framers. If the see a chance at making an extra $30-40, many will take it. Doing all my own mating and framing guarantee's that its archival methods with the best materials. I have seen more than my fair share of prints that were supposedly archivally framed and weren't.

A few more of the earlier Parrillo cover I received a couple days, my latest delivery from Midtown, and a few misc wins on eBay.

Cool deal. Thats 2 codes used in the last 2 days that saved me roughly $30. Gotta love that. Thats for the heads up!

Not to be argumentative, but I'm just not seeing it in any of the sentences you used in that post as one can be a serious comic collector without focusing on vintage comics. I know plenty of very serious collectors that mainly focus on modern comics and very expensive variants. We'll just chalk it up to a misunderstanding, but next time you might want to be more specific if your referring to just a specific period of comics.

In all due respect, not a single statement was made about vintage comics in the initial post, which was the post I was replying too. Here's the post right here: By all mean, you show me where it says anything referring to vintage comics in that post, because I for one am just not seeing it.

Just got done matting some new prints today so I had to pull out some of my matted print boxes to store them in. Since I had some of my matted print boxes out, I figured I would take some quick pics of some of my matted prints. I just did it quick and dirty, as opposed to setting up the proper conditions for doing copy work, which would have required me to dig out my lighting cases and set up 2 lights at 45 degree angles. Was jus too lazy today to go through all that work, especially since the lights I needed were on the very bottom of my cases which are all stacked on top on one another. Anyways, these pics should give you a general idea of the quality of the prints; Storm Chasing Storm Chasing Rome Rooftops Detroit Skyline (love the monotone quality of the colors in this image) Cine Moda Riflessioni - Florence Italy Billboard, Rome Italy Lith Print, Guardian Building Detroit Campo de' Fiori, Rome Italy Campo de' Fiori, Rome Italy These next two pictures had a really unique sky as there were major wildfires's burning for days, which made part of the sky an orangish color and the other part of the sky a more natural blue color that you would expect to see at that time of day. I have these 2 prints framed in my living room side by side. And since I didn't properly light these for copy work, some of them have various reflections from misc stuff that was in front of the prints while I was shooting them. Not much I could do about it shooing them the way I did. If I took the time to set up lights or used my large format copy stand, all of these prints would look much nicer than they do. Again, was just in to much of a lazy mood today to go through all of that work.

Things From Another World ships comics without bags and boards, unless your willing to pay the very high prices they charge to have them bagged and boarded (.25 cents per comic). I am unwilling to spend those prices especially when I am not getting the brand or size of bags and boards I prefer. For an order of 100 comics, it would cost you $25 to have them bagged and boarded. I just recieved a shipment fro them last week for roughly 100 comics and they were packaged up in 4 plastic bags that each had 25 comics per bag. They arrived in perfect condition so I have no complaints, but I definitely feel a lot safer ordering from companies that bag and board and do so without charging you to do so, let alone an arm and a leg to do so. At the cost the are charging for bags and boards, I could use Gerber's Mylites 2's with half back boards. And that is why I only order from TFAW when they have really good sales.

Wow, guess I really did get lucky. Maybe I got a customer service rep that didn't know what they were doing or maybe they looked at the ridiculous amount of stuff I buy on eBay and figured $17 bucks just wasn't a big issue in regards to making a long term customer that spends a lot of money happy.

Looks like the place to buy Parrillo covers is in comic stores and not online. Those are great prices, especially for Vampirella #19, which usually range between $50 and $100 now depending n condition. That being said, I just won a 5 copy lot for Parrillo's virgin Venom 161 comics. And best of all, eBay allowed me to use the 20% off coupon they had going that supposedly expired at 8AM this morning. Why a company would stop a promotion at 8AM on a particular day makes absolutely no sense to me. Thankfully, I had taken a screnshot of the promotion: And as you can clearly see, it says the promotion is good though March 26th, not good until 8Am on March 26th. So after sending eBay a copy of this screenshot and spending about 20 minutes on the phone, they wound up honoring the coupon, which gave me $17 off the total cost of the auction. So I got each copy for just under $14 piece. Not bad considering most are selling for $35-$50+.

I always jump back and forth between a couple of books at any given time. Its just always been the way I approach reading books. As for what I am currently reading, I started reading The Universe in a Nutshell again as kind of a tribute to Hawking passing away. I am also reading Universal: A Guide to the Cosmos, one of the best astronomy related books I have read in some time. I Highly recommend it for people that have an interest in such subject matter. Speaking of which, if your not a member of the Science Fiction Book Club, I HIGHLY recommend joining. They have a lot of great books, including many comic related books. Here are just a few examples of the comic books I have purchased from the SFBC over the years: The Art Of Red Sonja Volume Two The Warlord Of Mars Omnibus Vol.1 Warlord Of Mars: Dejah Thoris TPB Vol.1 Marvel Year By Year A Visual History Marvel's The Avengers Encyclopedia Star Wars Visual Encyclopedia DC Comics Justice League The Ultimate Guide DC Comics Encyclopedia All-New Edition The DC Comics Encyclopedia, Updated and Expanded Edition Red Sonja: Queen Of Plagues Marvel Encyclopedia Wonder Woman: Ambassador Of Truth Big John Buscema: Comics & Drawings Marvel Comics: 75 Years Of Covers Batman: A Visual History Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell: Dreamland Spider-Man: Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighborhood Hero, Updated Edition Red Sonja: Travels Volume 2 The Art of Star Wars: The Force Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Newspaper Strips Vol.1 And the best part about the SFBC is there are no obligations to purchase a number of titles like book clubs of years past used to have. You can literally cancel your membership right after placing your initial orders of 2 books for $9.99. How it works is you basically buy credits at the beginning of the month for $14.99 each (you can buy as many as you like or none at all and there are no time limits on when the credits can be used.). You can then purchase any book they have on the site by using a credit and no book requires more than one credit so basically you can buy any book on thier site for $14.99, even if the book has a MSRP for $50+. I usually buy most of my books at Amazon, but not even Amazon can compete with the pricing of most of the books on the SFBC. I have purchased at least 10-15 books for $14.99 that had prices on Amazon for at leas $35-$50+. To date I have probably saved at least $750+ on books purchased from the SFBC. My latest purchase was the Art of Red Sonja Vol.1 and Wonder Woman: Ambassador of Truth. Amazon currently has the Art of Red Sonja Vol.2 priced at $24.99 and Wonder Woman Ambassador of Truth is priced at $25. You could literally buy both of those books for $9.99 each if you used them as your enrollment books. And they have free shipping on any orders for 2 books of more so as long as you wait unil there are 2 boks you wany, you will get free shipping. And their latest upcoming comic related book is "Marvel Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Updated And Expanded" Amazon's current pre order price is $25.00. You can get it for $9.99 or $14.99 depending on wether you use it as an enrollment title or use a credit to buy it. And the SFBC has a lot of other great books, many of which are exclusive hardcover editions (99.9% of all the books sold on the SFBC are hard cover books). Anyways, the SFBC has been one of my go to places for buying books and I have saved a LOT of money from them over the years. Just figured I would pass along that info incase anyone is interested.

I have always wanted to collect many of Carl Banks prints, but they are not cheap by any measure. Have just always been a huge fan of DuckTales and Scrooge McDuck. Great print! I'm not sure how much you have read up on the topic of matting and framing, but its definitely not something that takes a lot of time. I am to the point where I can matte and frame a print in roughly 5 minutes. All you have to do is make a couple of measurments on the print, use a pencil and a long 24" ruler to mark the lines on the back of the matte and then make the cuts one at a time with the matte cutter. From there you just use a single piece of linen tape to attach the top and bottom of the matte board, center the print in the matte and either use large photo corners or make your own corners using various techniques to secure the print in place. Most people would be blown away just how easy it really is and just how much money you would save. Given the prices I have seen recently from various framing shops, your talking about saving at least $100-$150 depending on the size. And your stance on having no interest in collecting prints in portfolio's only make this topic that much more relevant as again one of the single best aspects of learning to matte and frame your own prints is the ability to switch out the prints in your frames. Having a limited amount of wall space to hang framed prints is a problem pretty much 99% of print collectors face after all, it doesn't take many framed prints to fill up the free space on your walls. Having the ability to switch out any print in any of the frames you have on your walls is really the best aspect of learnging how to matte and frame your own prints. It never ceases to amaze me how different a room looks when you switch out the artwork. This would give you the ability to collect more prints without having to use portfolio's to view them. You just matte the prints you wind up buying and store them in a print box like Light Impressions sells and when you feel like changing your prints up, you just pull them out and switch em up. While I can matte and frame a print in roughly 5 minutes, it only takes me a couple of minutes to take down a framed print and switch out the artwork for that frame. And unless your buying really large prints, you can buy all of the equipment needed to matte your own prints for roughy $100. ANd if you go the eBay route ad buy a used matte cutter, you can get it for even less than that. Anyways, something to think about if you ever decide you want to buy more prints without having to resort to using portfolio's to view that artwork.

Some collectors may have gotten sick of the SDCC, but to use that as a general statement is REALLY pushing it considering the SDCC has sold out the last 10 years in a row. Just a few figures from the SDCC: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/comic-con/sd-me-con-numbers-20170715-story.html 10: Consecutive years Comic-Con has sold out. 27: Years Comic-Con has been held in the San Diego Convention Center. 30: Years since the debut of the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, now conferred annually at Comic-Con . 48: Years Comic-Con has been held in San Diego. 56: Special guests honored at this year’s Con, from Sergio Aragones (MAD magazine cartoonist) to Liz Suburbia, writer/artist of “Sacred Heart,” a graphic novel for young adults. 300: Estimated attendance at the first Con. 559: Rate, in dollars, for a deluxe king room at the Omni San Diego Hotel for July 19, Preview Night. 10,000: New vinyl folding chairs recently installed in the Convention Center. 62,922: Hotel room nights 130,000-plus: Expected attendance at this year’s Con. 208,894: In dollars, salary of Comic-Con chief operating officer John Rogers in 2014 (the most recent reported year) 2,980,000: In dollars, annual tax revenues 19,800,838: In dollars, total revenues for 2014 (the most recent reported year) 82,800,000: In dollars, annual spending by attendees 140,000,000: In dollars, the current Comic-Con’s estimated economic impact. Based on those figures, it looks like the SDCC is doing just fine to me. There will always be people that cease going, just as there will always be new people that start attending the show. Based on the fact that the show has sold out the last 10 years running and the annual spending by attendees is equal to roughly $82,800,000....well, I just don't see what your seeing at all. If anything, the biggest changes we have seen with the SDCC is the fact that its become just as big of a show for a lot of other collectibles like statues, toys, figure's, etc, than comics. And I personally consider this a good thing as its turned the show into one massive show for pop culture collectibles in general as opposed to just comics. Considering I collect from many of those genre's of collectibles, I consider that a good thing. I have been to 3 of the last 5 SDCC"s and had an absolute blast at each one. For people who truly love comics and comic related merchandise, there is no other show llke the SDCC.

I like my purchases to be bagged and boarded for the extra protection, but I just wind up throwing them away when all is said and done as first off, I hate having a large sticker on the front f my bag with the comic's information on it. Don't understand why they can't put those stickers on the backs of the bags. Plus I prefer silver age sized bags and boards even for my modern comics and most places use modern sized. If companies like Midtown Comics actually gave an option on what size bag and board you can get with comics, even if it required adding an additional 5-10 cents a book, I would be more than happy to go that route. As is, the bags and boards that are sent to me with my orders just get tossed in my recycling bin so its really a waste of materials, tho they do protect the comics in route.

I'l make one last post to address this post. First and foremost, I appreciate the kind words and if you found some of the info useful, then it was worth my posting it up. As for my ceasing to post in this thread, it wasn't so much personal attacks as much as it was condescending posts and people pretending to know what their taking about when they have absolutely zero experience in the insurance industry. If there is one aspect of the internet that drives me crazy, its all the people running around pretending they are experts on everything because they read an article on wikipedia or other sites that can give a quick overview on various topics. And it's not that I don't have the tolerance for such posts as one couldn't be a member of any internet forum these days without being able to stomach such posts as they are pretty much everywhere these days. its just there was nothing more for me to add to this topic as I had already addressed all the issues I wanted to address. Sticking around at this point would simply to be argumentative and that's just not the kind of person I am in forums. I would much rather spend my time in threads I enjoy than have to listen to ridiculous posts like how fun I must be at parties, lol.

Especially when your looking at depictions of Sonja and Dejah Thoris by Lucio Parrillo. And you can add Vampirella to that list as well especially considering Vampirella #19, which IMO is the single best Vampirella iteration to date and the single sexiest comic cover in the history of comics. I just wish Dynamite would stop being so greedy and start paying thier cover artists more money. Considering how well Dynamite is doing, I guarantee then can easily afford to do so. Thier Sonja, Vampirella, and Dejah Thoris/Warlord of Mars runs have been nowhere near as good as those initial runs that included covers from Parrillo, Ross, Jusko, Campbell, etc.

This will be my final post on this topic because I am not going to go back and forth on this topic. I have already passed along all of the information I wanted to pass along and I have made my opinions on these matters 100% clear. And as I stated in my last post, the information I have provided in this thread was posted with the singular intent of trying to help people with the issue of getting proper insurance, making sure they have enough coverage for various categries of possessions, and being able to prove that they owned the items if they ever wind up having a loss. Wether people want to listen to that advice or just ignore it completely is entirely up to each individual on this forum. I am not some internet deviant or troll that is out to personally sabotage people's attempts to properly insure their contents and collectibles. Honestly, I wouldn't wish what happened to my wife and I in 2008 on my worst enemies and its because of that massive and devastating loss that I take the time to pass along information on insuring your contents/collectibles in threads like this. Again, wether people listen to that advice or ignore it altogether is entirely up to them. And I'm not just some miscellaneous collector pretending to know a lot about this topic, like a lot of people on the internet like to do these days. I have been a licensed insurance agent since 1992 and not only have I seen a massive number of claims during that time, mostly dealing with homeowner policies and renters insurance / content police, I have also had 3 significant losses of my own, all of which were paid in full. So I am I well aware of the things you need to prove ownership, the methods one can use to obtain values outside of using an appraiser, and the various loopholes insurance companies will try and use if they want to deny or fight a claim. Out of all of the claims I have ever seen, including my own, I have yet to see a single claim denied based on the fact that the person used legitimate sources outside of appraisers for gauging the value of the items insured. And if the insurance company does wind up disagreeing with the value of a particular item when you have a loss, they will still cover the item. They will just give you the value they deem appropriate and you do have the right to contest that decision by the insurance company. The bottom line is that people are entitled to their opinions, regardless of how right or wrong those opinions may be, so if people want to think that your going to get scr*wed on a claim if you don't use an appraiser then they are 100% entitled to that belief. Its really no different from the people that think the moon landings were faked or that Kennedy was killed by a single shooter. No matter how right or wrong an opinion is, people are entitled to their own opinions. So again, I am not going to go back and forth on these issues as I have already passed along all of the relevant information I wanted too regarding this topic. What people ultimately do with that info is entirely up to them. If people want to spend a couple thousand dollars on an appraiser then by all means have at it. Not to seem callous but its not my money so I honestly couldn't care less how people go about spending it. And just like my previous policies, 99% of the items I currently have insured were valued by myself using various respected sources, and I am not worried in the slightest abut having any issues if I wind up having another loss. And while I'm officially done with this thread, I am still more than happy to answer any qestions people have so if anyone has any legitimate questions concerning insuring your possessions, or any other questions concerning homeowners or renters insurance, feel free to send me a PM and I will be more than happy to help you out. The single best advice I can give is to ALWAYS get a replacement cost policy over an actual cash value policy, save and scan all of receipts, save all of the manuals that come with various merchandise, take pictures of all of your merchandise and most importantly, keep at least one duplicate set of those scans/pictures etc. off site. I recommend storing one of the hard drives that has all of that information in a safety deposit box. Having receipts, pictures, manuals etc. doesn't mean squat if they wind up getting destroyed. Hopefully nobody in here ever has to deal with anything like this, but this is definitely one of those cases where its better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Bottom line - I made posts in this thread to try and help people in regards to insurance because if there is one thing I have learned in my lifetime, its that most people are pretty much clueless when it comes to insurance. Most people don't even understand their own insurance policies and don't even have a clue in regards to the limits on those policies. I offered up the option to use riders on your homeowners policy as opposed to going with collector centric insurance because I have heard a lot of horror stories with collectors insurance, the last of which was the issue that started this thread. As for the topic of appraising your items, people are entitled to do whatever they see fit. All I am doing is offering my advice, nothing more and nothing less. If people want to spend a lot of money getting their collectible's professionally appraised then that is their choice and they are 100% entitled to that choice. Most appraisers will cost roughly $200-$400 an hour and if your dealing with unique items or really old or valuable antiques, you can expect the appraiser to be there for a considerable amount of time as pieces like those require that the appraiser go over the piece in extreme detail. Again, the choice to go that route is 100% up to each individual here. Myself, I would never go that route unless the insurance company requested it as I know first hand that insurance companies accept the stated value that price guides and various websites post for collectibles. Some people in this thread were claiming that insurance in general was a waste of money and that people should just take the money they were going to spend on insurance and just buy more comics with it. Just like with the appraisal topic, people are entitled to follow that line of thinking as well if they so choose. Each and every person in here is ultimately responsible for making those decisions themselves and they are entitled to follow any course they see fit. If you don't want insurance, don't get it. If you want to use an appraiser, use one. Again, its all up to the individual collectors on these forums. People can either listen to the advice I have given or ignore it completely. Not to seem harsh, but In the end it has absolutely no bearing on me whatsoever and regardless of what some people in here may think, I am not some deviant trying to screw people on thier insurance coverage. As much as I would hate to see someone in here suffer a loss like I did, there is nothing I can do about it one way or the other. All I can do is offer advice on how to best protect yourself from suffering a serious loss. Again, wether people actually listen to that advice is 100% up to them. As for myself, I will continue to approach insurance the same way I have been the last 20+ years. I have now had 3 major loses to date and have gotten every last dime I had coming to me in a timely manner with absolutely no resistance or fight whatsoever so I see absolutely no reason to change things up now. I know the insurance game all too well, which is exactly why I save all my receipts, take pictures of all of the items I'm insuring, update my policy on a regular basis, etc, And I keep multiple copies of those documents and pictures off site as there is no point in having receipts and pictures if they wind up being destroyed. As long as you play the insurance game right, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Yes, I am going the do it myself route each and every time, unless the insurance company tells me otherwise, which again, I made perfectly clear. And that is the stance I have been pushing this entire time. Value all of your items yourself unless your insurance company tells you to get an appraisal. As long as you get values from legitimate sources, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Your insurance company is not going to deny your claim because you got the value's of your contents from respected sources as opposed to getting them professionally appraised. If they want you to get a professional appraisal, they will tell you just that.

I don't know how you could come to that conclusion when I openly stated that I had to get my Ansel Adams print appraised at the insurance companies request. Here is the quote right here:

And that is your choice. If you want to bring in a professional appraiser for your items then that is 100% your choice. Myself, I'm a licensed insurance agent and have worked in the field on and off for roughly 8-9 years and have literally seen well over 400+ claims just in regards to contents alone and I never once saw a claim be denied because the insured used legitimate sources to gauge the value of the items they were insuring. On top of that, I had a complete loss when we had our house fire and 99.9% of the items that were insured were done so using values I obtained using various sources like websites and price guides and State Farm didn't deny a single piece of property with my claim. So you continue on as you have been and I will continue on as I have been. I will only use an appraiser if the insurance company requests that I do so.

First off, I never said to use your own direction for value. I said that its easy to gauge value off of many of the price guides and websites on the internet that track the value of various collectibles. So that value isn't coming from you, its coming from respected sources in the industry that focus on value. There is a MASSIVE difference between someone just coming up with a value and doing adequate research on the value of an item from respected sources. And it wouldn't put the policy holder in any risk at all because there is no subjective impartiality when your getting your values from respected price guides and respected sites that basically report the value for various collectibles.

In other words, you have absolutely nothing to add to the discusssion, lol. Thanks for playing!