Michael Browning

That’s a great question! At one point, when everything was going so high, I thought about selling and then the Secret Wars 8 page hit $3M and I got a feeling that every auction thereafter was going to be a big letdown and I put those thoughts out of my head. Now, I’d like to hold off for another 10 years until I’m close to retirement before I sell.

I thought all of the Wally Wood art sold fairly high. But, the huge gap between prices of his Daredevil pages and his Thunder Agents art shows how he is an artist whose popularity is fading with the dying group that has loved his art for so long.

Kirby collectors are all old. New money don’t care about Kirby. 😉

I’m talking about the people who talked to me off the boards who were naysayers. I understand and respect your point of view on it, totally, so no offense was meant to you.

Compared to what all the naysayers were predicting, it sold pretty high.

Non-Miller Miller/Janson DD page sold high like I knew it would.

Adams art has been flat for awhile and selling quite low, considering it was priced as high 15 years ago on dealers’ sites. I got rid of all my Adams art a few years ago after he pulled that stunt with the Batman 251 cover art auction, saying it might be a recreation and he would only authenticate it for a portion of the final sale price.

This one really shocked me.

Yikes. Before the auction, I said NTT covers were going to slow down and I was right.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure Will gave me the same advice years ago. But, things have really changed in the last three years. I don’t think I could now pay what I think it will be worth in five years — ANYMORE. I used to do that. Heck, I’ve overpaid for quite a few pieces and have been pleasantly surprised at how fast they exceeded what I paid, but I just don’t see that happening anymore with auction results still so high. Do I think the Secret Wars 8 page that sold for $3M+ would sell for more than that in five years? No way. I think that about a lot of the art selling for $20,000+. There’s just no way to break even on most of the pieces I want and I’m satisfied with what I have, so I’m good to just sit on the sidelines nowadays. (Full disclosure: I am by no means priced out of the game. I’ve bought over 100 pieces so far this year, but none have been very expensive. I’m way below what I bought last year, pricewise, and I’m okay with that. I did buy around 220 pieces last year, so I’m on track to surpass that number by 2024.)

I’m sort of in that category, but it’s more of a feeling that if I buy a cover for $20,000 today, I might not live long enough to sell at break-even or see a profit years from now. I don’t primarily buy for resale purposes, but I don’t make/have a lot of extra cash like many collectors on this thread have and I make sure event penny counts - and that, if I need to sell, I could at least make my money back fairly quickly. I always have my eye on the resale, even if I plan to never sell. It comes from growing up poor and with Depression-era parents who raked and scraped and saved and taught me to keep my comics and Star Wars action figures in good condition in case I need to sell them one day. I have steered clear of a lot of great art auctions because the prices have just gone so high that I don’t have the confidence I once had that I could get my cash back if and when I need to sell. There are lots of pieces I’d love to own, but I have to rethink sometimes and say to myself “Do I want it and enough that if I’m in a pinch and need to sell, I could recoup 100% of what I spent?” That keeps me out of a lot of auctions these days.

The Ragman splash was actually by Broderick and Tanghal with breakdowns by Giffen and has almost no visible Giffen art at all. Breakdowns they may be, but that art is almost entirely by Broderick and Tanghal and anyone who knows anything about Giffen and Broderick art can see that.

Archie OA collectors are as notoriously cheap as Thor and Hulk and DC art collectors, so it didn't surprise me at the low results on some pieces that I thought would sell really high.

Careful. You'll bring out the "Stan Lee Didn't Create Spider-Man - Jack Kirby Did - So Stan Shouldn't Have Signed It" group.

That's what I've been saying this entire time.

15 days to go. The auction ain't over yet. That page may sell lower than a "pure" Miller page, but I just don't believe that that matters to most of the Miller DD collectors these days like it did five years ago.

$9500 this morning, $20,000 this afternoon - with 15 days to go. Someone wants that page with the same passion that the old guys want “pure” Miller DD pages.

I asked a question about some art many years ago and he flipped out on me and went on a rampage. I don’t even remember what it was that I asked. Maybe it was on one of his pages he put up for sale and I made an offer and he got really nasty about me asking for a cheaper price. And, I’m not sure he sells THAT much art. I’ve seen some of the artists he reps/repped selling their art through other people.

Kevin is autographing every piece of art. Even the Frank Miller DD page that he had nothing to do with. Won’t that make them just like the J. Scott Campbell covers autographed (marred) by Stan Lee? At least each piece comes with a COA. That and the autograph should really add value! 🤦‍♂️

Oh, there will be quite a few collecting doofuses who will want this service and there will also be those who won't buy unless it's a 9.8 page... of that I'm sure. True story. I was in a comic shop about a month ago and the shop owner asked me to sell him some key comics from my collection, so I had them there and the guy came over and was snooping to see what I had. He asked me if he could buy some -- but he wanted me to put them on hold for him while he made payments. I'm talking about $100-$300 keys, not AF 15s. I told him no, I would not do that. He then told the comic shop owner that he doesn't buy anything that's not CGC graded and slabbed because ordinary collectors aren't capable of giving correct grades on comics, only CGC was able to do that and he won't buy anything that's not graded, which surprised me since he was asking to buy my comics and none of them were graded. Doofuses. So many doofuses. I'm certain this will happen with comic art collectors when CGC starts grading and slabbing original art.

With results for these pages hitting high numbers, I don't think it matters much anymore whether Miller actually touched the paper or not. It used to be a thing, but nowadays, no so much, as evidenced by the super high prices pages from these issues have gotten.

After watching this, I feel like Chuck Bartowski and now I may have the intersect in my head and can now be a super spy.

I remember them all well.

Wow, that one is MUCH better and I'm so glad you have it. I was honestly worried when I saw someone else bought it.

Speaking of the Phantom Stranger, I saw the cover Anthony had up for a couple years finally sold recently. I hate that you didn't get that one.