grapeape

I thought you'd go for the Snoopy Sunday. I almost did against all sanity. I just had no budget to work with. It was hard not to push the bid button and max out the credit cards.

Grapeape. I always quote BP but this time I was thinking more of what the seller might be thinking (happy or sad)However I did not articulate this so I caused a few people to "correct" me. It's fair and I'm sorry for the confusion.

Big winners!!!! Byrne Alpha Flight 24 complete story $144,000. Calvin and Hobbes Sunday $400,000 Calvin and Hobbes illustration $100,000

Two pieces on the low side I thought * ASM 88 Romita Splash $77,500 * GL 69 cover Kane $59,000

Took my brother to the SDCC in 2001. Darwynn did this one for him and a Batman for my youngest brother. When I found out he passed away I was so sad. He was very kind and so talented. The good die young it seems.

Nico I completed the survey. I use the Tracker everyday because I get daily notifications which leads me to look even if the art I'm specifically looking for didn't come up. Extremely useful site. Thank you. GrapeApe

Hey Malvin, I had comics up so I previewed the art just because I was looking at my stuff every day. 9 pages or so not compelling the overall selection. Many of my modern books went at swap meet prices a few for less than the grading fee. The art selection didn't seem to bring healthy prices either. Seriously starting to question giving C-Link respect even as a second option. I've overlooked a lot of goofy stuff but just as a "member" I won't be listing books or art with them until I see the necessary improvements. If anyone sold I hope you broke even or a little better. Buyers if you found anything you're probably happy with the price.

I know crazy prices on art can get us all fired up. But I feel there was a lot of over reaction to the listings from Dinesh. When I saw the prices I just chuckled and said, "well that's a clever way of saying I don't want to sell." Then I had to go back through some of the other listed prices on House 92 and ASM. I thought dang, maybe just maybe a few of these could get close to ask ha ha. These are crazy times. I never would've started with "Dinesh is a ____. I would've emailed him on anything that I was interested in. Otherwise I wouldn't have cared very much what he listed prices at he's a collector. I didn't think he was joking I just thought he didn't really want to sell unless he got a surprisingly strong offer Dinesh if you really didn't want to sell these you took a risk, even if most think you overpriced ha ha. Funny if someone called your bluff

Reminds me of the movie Up for some reason. 🎈 🎈 🏡

I'm with you my friend. But I don't have a problem with the Black Lotus evaluation. It's the most admired and sought MTG card and it's beautiful. We probably discussed DKR1 to death this summer. But my expectations for that were + four .five million. Maybe one day?

These are splendid treasures. The quality of work and the nostalgia for the time period knock me out. money is less than everything. if you don't need it keep these. A+

This is the plethora of quality DC silver age OA many have clamored for. It'll be a shame if the 💰 doesn't show up. Bill did you get a look at all the superb pieces with Spectre? Covers. Splashes. Specialties. These collectors had a good eye for the best stuff.

Saturation maybe.

+1 🍇 + 🦍

Some of "us" have done it on other items to compare notes. But you have to do it sparingly or they stop answering. They put a couple of months between each "inquiry." to avoid poking the bear, and the bears brother.

If you email them on a specific item, they will send you a price on that item. They will also send you prices on related items. All at very "reasonable" prices.

I mean, it has to right? Yea it's gotta be coming soon.

Absolutely right. I have 0 artistic talent as a painter. I spent 40 hours looking at a blank canvas and a tray of acrylic colors while browsing a book of master artists works. Than I put together my masterpiece. Why is it a masterpiece? Because I put 40 hours of study into it and lifted different images from real artists. The results speak for themselves. B E H O L D

Watchmen pages have reached a different tier level in collecting. Used to be you would have to pony up maybe four figures for a Watchmen. Many people put off buying them. I'll wait for the "right page" if I'm going to spend that kind of money they'd say. Then one day a dealer listed one page around $40k. He's crazy we screamed. Get the torches and pitchforks screamed others. As the mob began to gather some auction prices for Watchmen came in with new public record highs. Every auction pages selling higher and higher. I've heard "you paid how much?' for an interior page so many times but I'm numb to it because it's become a reality. Watchmen, Dark Knight, Killing Joke, that era of iconic work is all in the stratosphere tier now. It's look but don't touch for most of us.

I agree it's important to think about what you are buying. The fixation on "price today" is a real concern of many collectors. My purchase power is limited. Do I love what I'm buying? will always be my top motivator. Still, a reality exists as a collector that we may constantly think about getting our money back or making money as quickly as possible if love don't pay the bills. It's gross I know but it might be wise for collectors to think a bit like a dealer. If you're always only buying what you love but find yourself constantly re-selling those pieces it might be true that you haven't discovered a way to shield your collection from the harsh economic realities that could care less about your joy. There are many things I h8 (90's Image) or at least don't feel attracted to. Years of experience have opened my eyes. I now look for opportunities to buy art that I have no plans to keep. My reasons of course are to unload that art at peak times and reinvest in what I love. Dealers (hold my nose) have been doing this forever. Cast a wide net and buy, hold, sell, cherry pick pieces for personal collection-black hole, repeat. I don't have the bank roll but I do what I can. It would be nice to benefit from having bought some of those Image pieces I despised. Hid them in a safe place and never told my friends about them. Then unloading them anonymously through Heritage. I feel dirty now. Going to take a shower now.

Here's the main thing I think about a lot with the Price/Value explosions over the last two years. When you were dealing with auction lots where items came in under a few thousand dollars, you could justify buying in, holding, flipping, whatever. I think we've reached a point now where the on average final sale price of aggregate auctions is at least making the consumer think do I buy at $25,000 on up with the same confidence (as we near the end of 2022) that in the event I need to re-enter that purchased art back into the auction/resale market will I at least CYA or take a minimum loss? I'm not too sure. Some of my collection has reached a point where I'm hamstrung. If I sell some of my most valuable art, I would absolutely not reinvest in the pieces I'm seeing at auction today. In other words, if I sold a page and cleared $50k I would not buy another $50k piece or even two $25k pieces. I feel like the pages I'd be selling were significantly better values when I bought them, then what I could buy with my money today. I do believe the market is currently built to hold values. But buying up on current offered pieces that yes, may hold value, I ask myself, will they grow at 2,3, 5 times their purchased value? When? I'm in my mid-fifties and not sure I'll live long enough. What I would do, and what I think to some degree is happening, is I would risk taking my auction gains and buying 50x $1,000 pages, or 25x $2,000 pages, even if that means taking chances on new artists who have shown at least a consistent record of holding value while selling out their published work through reps (like Felix) or selling their own work. I would also buy more recent works, maybe going ten years back to current, on proven artists like Alan Davis and others like him who have a respected output over time. If their new stuff is real quality with little discernible loss of skill, I think my money is better spent here. Is Don Heck art going to be hot (for how long?) because we've seen three TOS 39 pages sell for fantastical prices? Sentimentally, I root for even the least revered artists to get their money recognition time in the sun. Especially while they are still living! Yet in my mind, I tell myself that they may "hold" their value but they are not the best places to spend my money or trade away my treasures. Some reasons those gains might not collapse is because of the sheer and stubborn will of dealers who want to hold prices at or above what people are willing to spend. Also, collectors who buy some of the artists that are out pacing their long term actual worth, will refuse to sell for less than they paid. But for how long. There will be corrections. But I am not a fortune teller so I'll stop here. My feeling is that these behaviors will cause more people to see it my way and start spreading their money around on less expensive pieces, that have a legit shot to have real growth. The liquidity on 50x $1,000 pages gives more options when you need cash. The counter argument is when you need big money it's better and quicker to sell one valuable piece vs multiple lesser valued pieces. That's true if mass non resistant liquidity buyers are waiting. But will they be there? Will they low ball you? I think buying the right pieces at $1-2k would allow me to see a time where with patience I (exp.) resell and double my investment $50k to $100,000. How quickly will I resell a $50,000 piece that I buy from the October HA auction? Maybe it holds it's value but what's the realistic chance of growing that into $100k or more? Some purchases would be the exception of course, but I feel once the higher end five figures and up items go through HA today, the ROI on relists over the next 5-10 years might not make the average collector happy. Speculative I know and this is just my opinion. I'm trying to be as real as I can about how I'm experiencing these last few years. Recap. Market is strong will hold up sky won't fall. However, a resistance to buying everything HA or the other auction houses (+dealers) have to offer at top dollar may cool off. Is there a new feeling in the air that makes us more selective? Maybe we seek answers to the question what's around the corner? Maybe a better piece of art for my money? or even a bit discounted as the market for OA adjusts to the economic realities of the world. The question some of us have to ask with our money and treasure on the sidelines is how do we proceed going forward? For me I'm almost 100% not buying auctioned art.It's not easy because a majority of private collectors are terrified of selling to me or you and then seeing the page flipped, or "like" art lots selling for more than they got. I'm looking to buy from other collectors who will be happy to consider their cost basis and leave some meat on the bone for me while making a handsome ROI. It takes patience but over the last two + years I've found opportunities with very reasonable people But many pieces are coming, and will continue to go to auction. The OA community is addicted to seeing art performing exceedingly well because of buyer FOMO. But ask yourself, are you really afraid today you're going to miss out? For every "special" piece I have watched slip away at auction, I'm soon slapped out of mourning by ten new pieces I've always hoped I'd see. Dare I say, in many ways I'm feeling meh. How are you all feeling?

Yes. The only "OA" I see is a Spider-Gwen 1 CBCS 9.2 sketch. 100% feedback a ton of transactions so..... Just reach out on ebay "Ask seller a question" specifically about an item or select other if you don't see option you want and you can send a message.

II have not been in that situation. If anyone knows about a bad experience with collectible insurance please share it here. I don't want to find out. My personal experience with "some" insurance companies in life not OA, I found the agency did not keep their side of the bargain. Any deals I've made are in person when it get's above $1,000 or I don't know the other person involved well enough. I also stopped oversees shipping because of problems. I'm not going to lie when I first started (ebay, etc.) I winged it a lot. I sent expensive art and comics without proper "full" insurance at first and closed my eyes and prayed things arrived. Same as a buyer. It's human nature byosti. Sadly we often don't read the fine print or do things the right way until we get burned. "We" is a generalization so please CGC not 1000 responses about "that's not me." Stories about being burned by "friends and family." "Empty packages sent or sent with prints and not original art." It's a nightmare that needs navigating to safe passage.

Many dealers have collectibles insurance to offset PayPal gaps. That under $10k threshold is a sweet spot for a good number of sales in our hobby. How many of us are selling art and expecting PayPal protection as a seller? Appreciate you pointing this out byosti.