Mr. Machismo

Yeah, I’m watching closely re: public offering. It’ll be interesting at the very least. And yes, it’s absurd and impossible to call it a classic at this point, I’m just saying I strongly believe in the direction it’s going, and the art is ridiculously good.

Ah. Well, if you want to base the floor on ~13 pieces sold, yes. That library page was not 8k. Out of respect for the buyer I won’t disclose price, but it was not cheap. That said, it was his favourite page and he was happy to pay what he did. Sean actually didn’t want to post that for sale, but his rep convinced him and priced it accordingly, and it surprisingly sold. Not sure why he wouldn’t just hold it back like the other half of the pages. It was posted to CAF today. Agreed, WK prices are tremendously high, especially since sales started two days after release. Trust me, I’m not arguing the absurdity of the prices. I’m personally fine paying what I did because I am completely floored by the art — it’s tremendous. I loved the first issue and read it multiple times in a short period, which I’ve never done, and have plenty of faith in the rest of the story. It’s hitting all the right notes [for ME], and barring a horrible ending, I believe this will cement itself as a classic in due time. Those Bat/Supes Hush pages would go for quite a bit more now, IMO. Hasn’t been long, but based on some other recent sales I’ve seen, I’m confident of that. I own the Freeze splash but don’t like to publicly disclose purchase prices of anything I own. Of course I’m biased, but I have yet to see a Freeze page as good as this. It’s oozing with emotion and is a tremendous representation of Freeze, harkening Heart of Ice upon viewing. Freeze is often under utilized, so I’m pleased to hear Sean mention how important a role he plays in WK. Anyhow, good discussion and all valid points. Though I see we’ve derailed the thread a bit ?

As someone purchasing both Hush and White Knight artwork, they are absolutely not on par. Hush is still a multiple of what White Knight costs, rightfully so. As Bob said, the Batman factor justifies even an 8-10x multiple vs Indy comics. Just the way it is. And Bob, I know you gots stuffs! I’m waiting to see it! Me thinks a certain Joker cover, perhaps?

Yeah, impossible to say for sure, but definitely interesting nonetheless. I'm pleased because the structure allowed me to purchase all the pages I wanted, whether I overpaid for them or not.

It was brilliant, yes. This is my understanding, and of course speculative. I'll preface this by saying I had a proxy go for me, and while I learned a lot, did not physically attend. They contacted an existing pool of SGM buyers, inviting them to a "VIP", "exclusive" event. The purpose: test the market, see just how far they can push prices while sustaining sales. About 18 guests showed up, half buyers and half observers/+1s. There were only 14 pieces – 5 buy it now and 9 to silent auction. This resulted in a highly-biased buying pool (existing SGM collectors) pitted against one another for a limited number of pages from the first issue. The BIN prices ranged from $2400-$5000 for panel pages. Two sold – the $5000 one and a $3200 one. With the exception of the $3200 page, the rest were essentially talking-head pages (no costumes, heavy dialogue.) The remaining auction pages went up, 9 in all, closing one-at-a-time in 5 minute increments. The lowest starting bid was two pages at $1800, the highest starting bid was two variant covers at $10,000. Everything sold above starting bids. Average panel page price exceeded $3K. No splashes available that night. The pricing was bullish. If it was so high that no one bought – and that was a very real possibility – that would look pretty darn bad for sales. But, since there was only a small handful of buyers there, they could adjust before presenting to the wider market with no skin off their back. They tested in a highly-biased, fast-paced "you vs. me" environment with limited supply and high demand. Had they offered it publicly, people could've seen the prices, gasped, walked away, and that would set the tone. Instead, they can now boast they've sold out of most all pages, and at steep prices, pricing future pages accordingly. All that said, I'm not sure that was an accurate test. Existing SGM collectors only have so much budget, a number of whom were possibly the most interested (highly speculative) may now have a page or two, and there's ~70-80 more pages to come (Sean is keeping half of each issue, 8 issues total.) I'm not sure the kind of pricing they've settled on can be sustained, so it'll be very interesting to watch. Pages can either sit, they can begin to process why this happened, given their highly-biased testing pool, and mark down accordingly...or the initial hype of the first page sell-out could drive sales, and thus prices, up. They've pretty much pulled off Capullo pricing with the attached sales, and while even Capullo's sold out of all his good [Court] splashes at absurd pricing, there's still a number of panel pages available. Sean is even selling the B and C-rated panel pages at 2-3K+. AND he's doing it AS the issues release, with a possibility it could all fall apart, where as Capullo at least had the backing of his work being a modern classic. Sucks as a buyer, but I respect Sean and his rep's strategic and marketing abilities.

LOL! What they did was smart. Gather a small, focused pool of existing SGM buyers and offer a limited amount of pieces to test the “market.” I picked up a number of pieces and may expand on it at a later time. Fun experience and yes, a bit over the top Re: additional pages. They decided last minute to cancel issue 2 pages so not to upset DC, with the exception of the Freeze splash, which I picked up. I’ll post to CAF when I have scans this week.

I have 14 pics, yes. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to share them, however, as they were first offered at a private auction with some vague talk of confidentiality.

Thanks for the pics.

I feel like there's a stigma around commenting on your own pieces, which is annoying when you want to reply or answer a question. Would be great if your own comments didn't count towards total.

Greg has tweeted at them expressing this in the past.

Really great tool. Thanks for your tremendous efforts on this, it is appreciated.

Yup, a good team for sure

They should really do whatever they can to fix that, given it's not the first time. That said, kudos to them for shipping out my piece already – that was quick!

Do the consigners have any recourse with such a technical issue? Like, requesting a relisting or requesting the piece back? Sure, the chance of consigning again is reduced, but that doesn't help the situation at hand. 24 hours seems the most reasonable to me. Anything less and what Felix outlined might happen, which isn't great...

Finally won something, at my max bid, no less. Fabok's first Detective cover, and the first appearance of someone I've never heard of Was just edged out as the underbidder on his Batman Annual Freeze cover that went up recently, so a nice consolidation.

I see literally no similarities

Is anything [totally] original any more? And I agree, I don't think any comic is going to hit the same significance as DKR, especially when DKR is still bringing in new readers as it's often the #1 Batman story on "Top 10", etc. lists. It's silly to make DKR comparisons as a creator or a collector.

A buddy of mine believes his entire motive in creating the story is for original art sales. I mean, it's looking like 3x SGM covers per issue. At DKR prices, he'll be earning about 1.5M x 8 issues = 12 million on covers alone. Bravo!

I particularly lol'd when he tweeted "I have high end buyers looking to drive the prices up to Miller DK type of money." But hey, gotta respect the guy's business acumen. If he's been honest, his page rate with DC is tremendous and he'll make a load off original sales, whether they're worth asking price or not!

Museum glass at that size isn't an issue, at all. If you were in California, then I'd recommend plexi for the same reason he mentioned. But since it's not an issue, go museum glass.

Few things: To those saying it doesn't devalue art, that's completely subjective. While it may not devalue it to you, the moment it negatively impacts just ONE potential buyer's opinion of that art, it has been devalued. I would not purchase a piece of art if it had a list of collectors' names written on the back. So, objectively, any art I'd be inclined to buy which has these inscriptions would thus be devalued. Writing your name on the art implies you intend on letting the piece go, even if it means holding on to it until death. So, why not respect the next owner's potential dislike for such a practice? At the very least, disclose this. You are altering the original state or the artwork, by the hand of someone not involved in the artwork. Forgoing disclosure is essentially vandilism of the future owner's piece. To me, this is disrespectful of the art, the artist(s), and the future owner(s). There's so many non-altering alternatives to justify doing it. People will absolutely use incorrect pens when marking, leading to bleeding, yellowing, etc. I'm particular about the condition of my artwork. It stuns me that some people whip art out of their portfolio, toss it around and handle it without paying any mind. That makes me cringe, and the amount of art I've received packaged in nothing but thin cardboard, loose in a box, whatever, and most all of these from "experienced" dealers and reps, is again disrespectful to the art, IMO. With all this talk of comic art being considered fine art, I think there's an onus on us as caretakers of the art to treat it as such, and that means respecting the original condition both while in our possession and in transit. My two cents. To each his own, and if you want to write all over your art, go for it, but I for one ain't buying it (unless it's Nic Cage, obviously.)

Please no.

It's amazing. Quality without crazy line and great artist lineup (Capullo, Jim Lee, Adam Hughes, etc.) I've met Americans who've flown in and prefer it to US cons. I'd recommend going Friday, but Lee/Capullo will only be there Sat/Sun, of which I'd recommend the hectic Sat.

What days will you be there?

I dunno, those canvases of solid colour at MoMA are pretty great.