cstojano

Always shocking how common it is for sellers to refuse to do this. I get it, Ebay's TOS, etc but man that company has done me wrong enough in the past that...

I thought it was already there actually. A few pieces seem to have slipped out, but these were the covers from the Donning TPBs and the a couple of Marvel re-run covers sold on Heritage many years ago. I'd like an original from this series.

Yup, why I went the route of AFA grading.

Also, its pretty clear we just need the big players to get involved to turn this into a market and there may not be enough product to front run to make it worthwhile. I mean, TPTB turned sealed VHS tapes into multi-k level collectibles.

I assume so. As I said in the other thread my issue is they won't leave them sealed.

They look great in AFA cases, cost for most boxed sets is around 150 all in, not the cheapest option. In the toy world AFA is the dominant grading service.

Yes, per my question about CGC grading modules in the other thread, I am shocked the market is so dull for this stuff. I honestly just like the look of the cases and the protection they provide for some flimsy cardboard in some cases. I consider it like framing a 50 dollar print though. Still it adds up when you have a bunch of modules to grade. Also not sure the AFA modules will look great given the thickness of the cases. Smaller boxes like though are amazing.

This is the second AFA 85 of this exact set they have sold. I won the first one they offered so glad to see they were about the same price in the end.

To clarify they already grade modules, just not sealed and I was told they would open a sealed module to check the contents.

Bit of a side quest(ion) here, but anyone know why CGC doesn't grade modules sealed? They grade sealed video games so not sure I see the difference.

I thought glassine was the standard for protecting painted surfaces??

Probably one of my best memories was pulling my first all-nighter playing Bard's Tale when it came out, the game blew me away at the time. What took so long? Hand mapping every dungeon with graph paper. It was awesome. Bard's Tale, Temple of Apshai and Hellfire Warrior were the games for me back then.

These originals are around. I used to own several of the Grenadier dragon lords artworks including the best two (red and blue).

I assume you are guaranteed a good grade for these metal variant covers??

Funny coincidence, Fire and Ice has its 40th in 2023 and they are doing a new series of comics. I don't collect comics but liked the movie enough as a kid to be interested. Just what is a metal variant comic cover anyway?

Gordon and I exchanged emails over a piece and then in the end told me he wasn't taking any more business. Maybe he didn't want to bother with my project, which is fair enough. It was for a painting.

A mid grade but sealed was on eBay a few weeks back for just under 20k, no takers as I recall. That seller has an endless supply of stuff it seems, reps old employees, etc.

Yeah I am one of the guys paying this because to me its still so cheap for sealed 80s product with out of this world cover art.

Thanks for the perspectives on Atari, very interesting to read. I remember Atari just being the THING when I was kid before the entire industry imploded. I was too old when Nintendo revived it and never played a game on that system.

A friend sent me the comiclink marketing email about their DnD sale and asked if I thought it was ready to take off. I don't think so. While the 40+ crowd may go gaga for prime 80s fantasy art I think its hitting the demographic turnover issue quite quickly and frankly some things just never took off and its unlikely they ever well. There's a pretty steep drop off too. I was amazed I was able to buy covers for old Grenadier dragons and some Ral Partha mini boxes for relatively cheaply. Just not much interest there. All now sold to the latest whale opening a fantasy museum ;) Its odd to me that Magic seems to have taken most of the steam in the fantasy genre and the older stuff got passed over a bit. They never had their day in the sun. The same seems to be the case for games (Bronty?). I would think Atari would be cream of the crop, the original art but also the sealed games. But it seems to be NES that holds that spot. Its like the 80s got passed over somewhat. The same may be the case with fantasy except for the absolute best of the best.

Yes, folks like me would be happy with just 1 from someone like Elmore. The list of of people like me is pretty long. The internet archive will pull up some of Caldwell's old pages from the early 2000s with some of his key art still listed for sale around the 2k range or so.

Ha.com also has some archived sales of grail pieces from the four main artists including the Magister for Easley and Death of Sturm by Elmore.

The art market is tied up as many know. The collectibles side, however, does seem oddly undervalued. Sealed boxes of mini sets with some great classic artwork sells for very little. Many hobbyists poopoo collecting sealed things like this, which certainly is depressing values. What else from the 80s, prime era geek stuff, can be bought mint and sealed for 50 bucks? You would think there's tons of product out there but high grade is actually pretty hard to find. Lead rot is an interesting wrinkle as way.

Quite a weird mix of stuff here. The loose random mini lots are interesting. There must be a ton of this stuff out there. I dipped my toes into the sealed market, and yes I understand people think its easy to fake, but the prices are quite reasonable for what seem like premier collectibles in that genre (basic and expert sets sealed boxes, for example). Jim Ward's Basic set sealed box barley sold for 600 dollars on ebay a few weeks back.

Yes, my thoughts as well. Where does it say they don't cover paintings? Now I need to read the whole document ;) That's basically what I have coverage for and I called and got a special shipping rider for a Hildebrandt painting I sold. No qualms about writing it.