grapeape

Like Brian and Malvin I use my real name put together as one word. Shame on those who don’t. Sincerely, Grape Ape 🍇. 🦍

Radiohead is the best band in the world.

Glue + scissors + Inquire

Making progress hopefully.

Try a little .....

Stan Lee presents: His signature on pair of white athletic socks if handed to him. Or so the legend goes. R I P

Nostrvodouamas has spoken!!!

.......grapeape dreams of going back in time.

ASM 37 page 8 won on the floor bid at $75,000. That price does not include 20% so the buyer gets an extra $15,000 tacked on. Then if the buyer pays and takes away the art in person they pay 9.5% based on the auction house location. The other 5 ASM pages with no Spidey (one half face and a final Panel figure face) stayed within the 20-30 K estimates.

A lot relies on what the Ditko family reveals in the coming years. I think most anyone at Marvel privy to what was going on as Steve was about to move on has passed away. What kind of info did Ditko share with his family? Would this have even come up? John Romita certainly has to have insight into this no? So maybe Mike Burkey by association might know about issue 38?

+ 1

Gary Frank —- yeah you came prepared to win. Can’t believe bidders crying when they didn’t give it their all. We’ve all been disappointed losing an auction. Just have to move on. Congratulations to you and get a nice frame for this one!!!

Ok this floored me. The first image is from the C-Link auction that just went down: This is from the C-Link auction description: Note: The original paste-ups were missing and the word balloons are replacement stats. SOLD $4,000 December 2019 The second image describes the last date of sale (August 2017) at Heritage with the description:Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito Spectacular Spider-Man #5 Story Page 16 Original Art (Marvel, 1977). The board is very toned, and almost all of the paste-up text is missing, leaving discolored glue residue in their wake. Only the first balloon on the page is still there. Overall in Good condition. Sold $717 August 2017 2 years pass, bust out the Crest toothpaste to make the board (page) minty fresh white. Xerox some word balloons and affix to board. Presto $717 investment + arts and crafts = $4,000 sale. The work is very well done. I can think of a couple of talented conservationists that may have touched this.Kudos to HA in the first auction describing the page as very toned. I imagine you could describe the condition of your boxers after a trip to Casa Bonita all you can eat buffet as very toned also.

TOS 39 is out there so.......is 57 a complete book in someone’s collection?

Exceptionally Adequate Chic. Sal Presuming most collectors, as I do find Chic Stone exceptional and sadly Sal is seen as merely adequate (not my opinion)....the ABC’s of dissing are guided by the ABDS ( Always Be Dissing Sal) quotient rule or: Exceptionally is to Chic Stone as Adequate is to Sal Buscema or ECS > ASB Now commence for 2 minutes of H8 H8 H8 H8 H8 H8 H8

Good grief!!!!

Yeah I would too. I guess raising the price the longer it sits is a Punishment Tax also known as the Donnely’s Tax.

Maybe he meant $1420 and accidentally added a few zeros?

Wow I saw the image but not the $14,200 price. Even the most loyal Hex fan with the dough would have trouble pulling the trigger I would think.

Also described by the ABC’s of dissing : Amazingly mediocre Beautifully underwhelming Chicstoneshly Salbuscemaish

It was hard (near impossible) to beat Mike on anything ASM related back then. Kudos to you. Yes today tons of data to support why you should or shouldn’t buy this or that for X amount of dollars. Back then...honestly from 1995-2005 it was the Wild Wild West. Very little to go on so you had to have courage to pony up thousands of dollars. Today I smile every time FMV and data research comes in to a conversation. It’s valid fodder don’t get me wrong. Back then (nineties especially) you had to 1) trust your art dealer 2) trust your eyes (Mitch) catalogs were great) but many catalogs were xerox copies and shrunk down to postage stamp size or no pic at all only a description. You’d have to find the comic to see how accurate it was. 3) trust your gut.....this really should be ranked #1. Nothing that I bought back then would I regret later for the amount spent. That goes for my art selections artistically also. I never got tired of a page. It was always finances, or another piece of art that led to me selling art. 4) money should never stop you from making a purchase! Unless....fill in the blank here. Almost every lament I hear is “could’ve had it for X now it’s going for.......not “I bought it for X and took a bath when I resold it.” Now we certainly will see an increase in the latter when overly ambitious flippers test the market. Too many tools to track what something sold for last time out today.

I was told at one point that someone visiting him saw at least one page of Spider-Man art (don’t know what page.) It was laying around hopefully not a TV dinner placemat.

Yep I remember that. I was broke. We were still trying to figure out what to pay for things. I know it will sound funny to some but 5 K in 2000 was a lot of money. I am married too so I had to clear it with Mrs. Grape Ape too. Im pretty sure I saw a couple of of Romita Spider-Man covers in the CGC? monthly rag late nineties. I was going to buy those Mitch Catalogs that Lee was selling on eBay but they are full of things I didn’t buy for nineties prices.

Tony Dezuniga!!!! i once owned the page where you see Jonah’s scarred face for the first time. Bought it off eBay very early 2000’s.I bought it from Tony before he passed away. I paid $1200 and actually sold it for less $900 (bad week on eBay) I remember Hari N contacted me after the sale, he wanted the page but I was bound to honor the eBay sale. Again a great character but investment wise? This one is for a Jonah Hex fan so I’ll be interested to see what it goes for.

Of like unsound mine be we!!!