Michael Browning

On 11/27/2023 at 1:40 PM, J.Sid said:

Success rate goes up greatly if you target pieces that have been on the dealer's website for a while (1+years).

That is 100% true. If they can't sell it and think they can sell your pieces easier, it makes the trade easier.

On 11/27/2023 at 12:36 PM, Rick2you2 said:

Good thing you said “almost”, since you already know my views. And, as you know, I have acted accordingly. If I had a large pile of stuff that wasn’t near and dear to my heart, then I could sell it or trade it. But money won’t change my life, or my tastes.

My father had a collection of Persian rugs he loved, but he would never sell them. They reminded him of his trips abroad, as well as times with my mother and his family. During the last few years of his life, he liked to make kimchi, gazpacho, and count the pelicans while sitting on his deck. Money didn’t matter. What did were his memories. 

And I guess I pretty much feel the same. My purchases embody my personal sense of nostalgia, and the pleasure of meeting artists and other collectors, or even scoring at an auction. It isn’t the art. It’s the memories.

My purchases embody my personal sense of nostalgia, too, so I totally understand that, but I also live on a government worker's salary and have a mortgage and a car payment, so I have to be very aware of how I spend every dollar I make. I have been very blessed to have bought earlier than most people, so I don't have a ton of money in some of the great art I've got. But, I've said this probably a hundred times: I'm very realistic and know that I am 51 years old and, as much as I would love to keep this stuff for the rest of this life and into the next, it just isn't possible -- and who wants to die with all this stuff when you've got no family to leave it to? My wife hates all of it until I sell a piece here or there and pay something off or put some cash into our account. I'm certainly not rich enough to just sit around and enjoy it every day, though I think it's great that you and your dad are/were able to do that. I've often said that the one thing rich folks have that us average people don't is the luxury of time. 

On 11/27/2023 at 10:08 AM, fastballspecial said:

I dont buy any either even the Wolverine issues I will only buy for nothing. I do however buy the phone books as I have probably sold 20 of them in the last couple of years that are in good shape.

 

Man, I can remember when those Wolveroach issues fetched a pretty penny and were highly sought after. I have several of the phone books that I've gotten for cheap that I need to put up for sale. They seem to be harder to find in the wild these days when it used to be that every comic shop had at least the first three books in stock at all times.

On 11/26/2023 at 11:31 PM, MAR1979 said:

Sounds about right. Unlike what some members on this forum think, Cerebus is not akin to TMNT.  The latter are known to most of general population, the former ain't even known to many Comic Collectors born after 1984. 

I warned him that he would lose money on the Cerebus. He made a profit on the whole collection that the Cerebus came in, but the Cerebus were just sitting there for months. A couple weeks ago, I walk into his shop and saw he had $100 written on the box and he asked if I still wanted them. I said I did, but not even at $100 because they are almost unsellable, so he came down to my price. I looked them up and even mycomicshop doesn’t buy that many of them and those they do buy, they only pay pennies for those very few issues.

On 11/26/2023 at 4:55 PM, fastballspecial said:

I'm not surprised Cerebus has all but disappeared in current collectors mind. I sell the phone books 
still pretty easily, but I pay nothing for them. 

 

The owner wanted $1600 for them. A dealer bought his whole collection of comics and got them with it. The dealer wanted $1200 for the Cerebus. I offered $300 and he turned me down. After four months of not selling a single issue, he sold them to me for $50. 🤷🏼‍♂️

On 11/26/2023 at 2:49 PM, JC25427N said:

  

Also CGC does not slab original artwork, the best they do is slab sketches/commissions of certain sizes that qualify for a Signature Series Submission (they've witnessed it being drawn, or it's submitted by the artist themselves or their authorized rep). 

Newsflash: That IS original art.

On 11/26/2023 at 11:40 AM, steve9999 said:

Not sure one has anything to do with the other....Original art is not being "graded" by the CGC, it's just one of the few places to discuss this hobby.
I would like to think that a good portion of the work acquired is not primarily for "the return." 

The CGC company and its business is all about grading your collectibles in order for you to get a higher return on investment. Plain and simple. No doubt about it. It’s why they charge higher for key books because that’s what CGC is all about - a better return on investment and you pay for that. They offer pressing and cleaning services. That’s exactly for a return on investment. They do slab artwork. This is an art chat board on the CGC site, so, yes, this entire chat board is about returns.

On 11/25/2023 at 2:38 PM, MAR1979 said:

RIP Man

I just read the news. So sad.

On 11/25/2023 at 4:24 PM, OtherEric said:

Found at half price books today.  It's no longer crazy hard to find like it was back in the day, but I had to grab it for old times sake... I remember when it was hard to find since it hadn't been reprinted.

True story: I bought a VF/NM collection of Cerebus #8-#300 two weeks ago for $50.

On 11/24/2023 at 4:34 PM, steve9999 said:

No. Just an acknowledgement that they'll most likely come my way, because that's
whatat least half the of the comments seem to be about as opposed to appreciation of an 
artist's work or lauding a specific page. It's mostly porkbelly talk, which is disappointing
if you're like me and buy the work because you're a fan of the artist or title of the book
and not what your "return" is going to be. To each, his own.

I mean, these are the CGC boards, after all, so all the talk should be about returns, right? 

On 11/23/2023 at 9:50 AM, Aahz said:

Honestly, I wonder how to enjoy a collection of that size.  No criticism of those that may have a collection of several thousand.  I just wonder how you can get your arms around a collection like that and appreciate each piece.

I love all the art that I have. I don't have much framed and hanging on the walls. I have a Frazetta oil and two Frazetta drawings, a Tom Yeates Saga of the Swamp Thing cover, the Mike Okamoto Lost in Space 1 cover painting, a Teri S. Wood Swamp Thing painting, another Okamoto cover painting, a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Magazine comic page and, my favorite piece in my collection, the Bob Larkin Crystar #1 cover painting. The rest all stay in portfolios that I look through quite often. I like to take time to look through them, enjoying each and every piece from time to time.

On 11/23/2023 at 2:58 PM, gumbydarnit said:

On pieces like this where it seems like a good price and good art, but I have no interest in the subject, I almost always let it go, even tho Im tempted. I’d rather pass on the bargain and save that money for a piece that fits more my collecting focus.
 

Ryan is a good artist, but he’s not one of my favorites. If one of my guys produced a similar piece, at that price, it would be a different story. I would have taken it down.

I will usually buy any cover at this price, but, it's not a good cover designwise, and then tiny Punisher in the background and, the third strike is that it's a modern cover that's bad and has a tiny Punisher.

Steranko probably still has the cover to #1.

On 11/22/2023 at 12:35 PM, Unstoppablejayd said:

You haven’t???? 

🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Oh yeah, I have made a trade this year! My apologies! We made a great trade that was good for both of us and I am so appreciative of you doing that! (Man, my memory is terrible.)

I haven’t made a trade with a dealer this year, though. 😉

On 11/22/2023 at 10:19 AM, Dr. Balls said:

Very true. I imagine it also depends a lot on what you are trading for with the dealers. I appreciate everyone's input! I've got a small pile of pages I'll probably be looking at parting with next year, nothing monumental, but collectively they are sellable pieces - just stuff that doesn't fit my collecting focus in hopes to trade for one piece that does fit my focus, and I have never done a art-for-art dealer trade. I've dealt with Mike and Anthony frequently with great results, they'd probably be my first approach.

Keep this in mind: Dealers say it's easier to sell one big piece than it is to sell several lower-priced pieces. That's been told to me several times over the 25 years I've been collecting and, although art I've tried to trade up for has sat for many years on some dealers' sites while my smaller pages sold almost immediately upon me putting them up for sale, that's generally the rule they go by.

Here's another tip: Dealers don't often like to trade one, big piece of Marvel art for a bunch of DC art. I know there are those who don't believe Marvel art sells better and higher than DC art, but it sure does.

When making a trade with a dealer, you also have to give a little extra, because, unless your piece is a Todd McFarlane ASM cover and you're offering to trade it for a Murphy Anderson Mystery in Space cover of equal value (is that even possible? Nah, I'm just saying, is all) a straight-up trade rarely works. They're not in this to trade piece for piece and dollar for dollar. So, think about what the incentive to trade with you would be for a dealer and go at it from that angle.

Nowadays, dealers aren't easy to trade with. Back in the good old days of the late-1990s and early-2000s, dealers were a lot more fun to deal with and they were often open to trades. Now, not so much.

Trades can be a lot of fun. I get the itch once or twice a year to try to make a trade, and have made many trades in the past, but I don't think I've made one at all this year.

On 11/22/2023 at 8:02 AM, jjonahjameson11 said:

1.  As much as I tried, I simply couldn’t find a decent cover at a price I was willing to pay.  I should clarify by stating that I was offered several nice covers, but I wasn’t willing to mortgage my house in order to purchase one.  A seller can ask whatever they want for their artwork, but I see a lot of them now as fisherman rather than sellers

2.  So I was offered a McSpidey cover this year.  It was a solid B+ cover from the adjectiveless run but the seller valued it far beyond rationality.  I understand these covers are rarely available and I was just happy to have the seller reach out and offer it to me.

3. EPIC. FAIL!  While I have been selling stuff throughout the year, I’ve actually accumulated 6 full portfolios of OA through purchase and trade.

4. Changed the format: small gatherings of 2-4 local collectors at restaurants, sharing artwork pickups/for sale stuff.  Worked out much better than larger gatherings where you can’t really have a good chat with everyone 

I filled six portfolios last year, but only four this year. I bought my wife a car in late September and it took a chunk out of my war chest. But, I wasn’t buying like I had in the past few years. In 2022, I filled six portfolios and found some decent deals; this year, the deals were all dried up.

I didn’t buy too many major pieces this year because I’ve mostly got what I wanted and collectors who paid way too much in 2021 and 2022 for art were looking to make a profit and it was at prices I just couldn’t afford. Even when I had the cash for a piece like the Ghost Rider #70 cover by Budiansky, I didn’t want to pay $21,000+ to get it back (I owned it 20 years ago). It’s a great cover and I’m the biggest Budiansky fan, but, if I needed to sell it, getting my cash back would have been nigh impossible and I don’t take selling at a loss lightly. (I dropped a quarter in the checkout line at a Books-A-Million back in 2006 and was talking with a guy in the line and forgot to pick it up and I still have nightmares about that lost quarter…)

I never set any goals for the upcoming year. I just buy what I like and what I can afford. There are still deals out there and I hope to buy my 2,000th piece of art in 2024, but, I still don’t have any goals to meet.

BTW, I love the idea of smaller meetups. It’s more personal and you can talk and enjoy the time with other art collectors and wheel and deal a little. I would love to do that with some of my Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia friends.

On 11/21/2023 at 10:35 PM, tth2 said:

HD&L Junior Woodchucks #48 cover.  Bought this in 2007 and it was up on my daughter's bedroom wall for many years.

That’s a really cool cover because the artist snuck Woody Woodpecker into a Disney Ducks cover. Could this be the first-ever crossover of the characters? 😉

On 11/21/2023 at 10:21 PM, tth2 said:

Without knowing how realistic the estimates were, it's hard to judge whether your friends should really be disappointed or not.  Did they make a decent return on their original purchase price?

They have the right to be disappointed, no matter what they paid for the art. The estimates given were realistic, but the market is in a bit of a downturn, and I told them both that. I watch all the auctions and I see the trends. I won’t sell right now, unless I’d absolutely have to.

Collectors seem to be holding onto their cash. I do think that a lot of buyers paid way too much for art in the last couple years and are getting scared (rightfully so) that they won’t be able to get their money back. I’m pretty sure some of them saw certain artists’ pages and covers selling very high and paid higher prices as an investment who are now not able to get even close to break-even on those pages.

I’ve got several friends who have lost money on art they’ve consigned to Heritage and C-Link that should have done better, but didn’t.

You can point to pieces selling higher than you thought they would, but that happens in every auction. It doesn’t mean the market is still as hot as 2021.

For every piece you point to that sold high, I can show you 10 other pieces that sold much lower than they should have, if the market was still on the rise. I don’t think there’s a “Great Crash” happening like some of the grouchy old doomsday prophets who regularly post on these boards. But there is a bit of a cooling off or a plateauing of prices.

On 11/21/2023 at 10:27 PM, bellrules said:

Gotta love dollar bin Dave Stevens and early Blossom appearances 

Nice finds. A couple years ago, I found nearly an entire run of Cheryl’s appearances - including Betty and Veronica 320, her first appearance - at a shop for a dollar each. I couldn’t hardly get the cash out of my wallet fast enough. All of those early CB appearances are tough to find and usually expensive when they do pop up.

On 11/21/2023 at 5:25 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Just to add my two cents into the mix…

1.  The GL 195 is not a good comp for the Guy Gardner #1 cover.  It is a significant issue whereby Guy Gardner is chosen as the Green Lantern of sector 2814 (Earth) by the Guardians, and it’s a role that Guy maintains for many issues.  Additionally, 195 is a Crisis crossover, which may not mean much to you personally, but it was one of the major mini-series/storylines of the 1980’s and still means something for some collectors.  

2.  If you look at other Staton GL results on HA, they are not strong at all and further to point #1 above, the 195 result is an outlier

3.  When I think of Joe Staton’s career, the first thing that comes to mind is his lengthy work on Scooby Doo, followed by his whimsically wonderful work on E-Man, and then his work on Green Lantern, Huntress, and finally his work on Guy Gardner

of course, your mileage may vary

While I am a fan of his E-Man, Huntress and Green Lantern, I never could get into his Moe Howard-crossed-with-triangle-head-Sub-Mariner-looking Guy Gardner. It looked very silly and cartoony and I hated the cowboy boots DC had Guy wear in his new costume.

I did love the Beau Smith run. First and foremost, it was a lot of fun and the art is great. Then, it doesn’t hurt that Beau is a native West Virginian and lives not too far from me (I run into him frequently).

On 11/21/2023 at 2:50 PM, Will_K said:

It's not my money to spend but my rationale for Guy Gardner 1 cover finishing lower than the Green Lantern 195 cover is:

* it isn't from the main Green Lantern series

* even it it is a #1 cover, the series only ran 16 issues

* the cover doesn't play up the fact that Guy Gardner is a Green Lantern. If fact, if you look up the cover the only green you actually see is the DC logo and the "first issue" blurb.

https://www.comics.org/issue/51871/

* weird hairstyle

Actually, the series ran 44 issues, a Zero issue and two annuals and has a strong cult following for the Beau Smith-written #0, 17-44 and two annuals half of the run. 

I think that, despite the Liefeld Cap art selling so high, we are definitely not in the same market as we were in 2021. A friend had more than 60 pieces in the auction and he told me the end results were $50,000 lower than the HA estimates. Another friend was given a $6,000 estimate on a really early strip he consigned to HA and it only got $3,600 and he was very disappointed. He has three more coming up in the next Wednesday auction and he’s worried they’re not going to do well at all. I asked him last night if we plans to consign more to them and he was unsure. He has several more strips to auction, but he fears the low results of the big piece in this auction and the low bids on the ones in Wednesday’s auction means the other strips will sell even lower.