PhilipB2k17

If anybody has any of those pages that would like to part with them because of fading marker, please let me know!

I think the sign that Comic collectors are starting to migrate into OA collecting is a focus on condition. When I first jumped into the hobby in Earnest a couple of years ago, I bought a page from an 80's book that I liked at a con. The word balloons were glued on, and the glue had started to become brittle. So, I passed on a piece from that same artists and book that I liked a bit more because it was missing word balloons, and bought one that I still liked but was more intact. If I had to do it all over again, I might have bought the other piece. I assumed, because I was a complete novice, that the missing word balloons really affected the value. Now, I know better. Those can be restored easily to a published piece, and so long as you disclose it, it doesn't really have any impact on the value. Moreover, unless the page is famous for the dialogue on the page, it is the art that matters more than the words on the page. In any case, condition is definitely something that comic collectors who make the transition focus on, because condition is the most important aspect of comic collecting. It takes a while to figure out that these are unique pieces, and that there are not going to be any "better" examples of that page in the market to compare it to. That's it. If you want that page, you have to pay the price the owner requires.

My only deal breakers are 1) I don’t like the art; 2) Price. If I like the art, every single other “flaw” mentioned can be overcome if the price is right. But, even f I don’t like the art, I might take it if you give it to me for free.

Will do.

It just times out. And, weirdly, it does ping the site.

I'm just stating my issues. I'm blocked from accessing all of the dealers who display at CAF on my home wifi network too. So, it's not just CAF, it's infecting everything else. Something CAF does is causing this problem. I e-mailed Bill about it, and he claims they are not blocking my MAC address, so it's not that either. In any case, unless that issue is fixed, there's no way I would pay for CAF.

It's not a DNS issue. It's not an ISP issue. It's not a firewall issue. It's not a spam filter issue. CAF is tied into all sorts of dealer sites that display in both locations. If you do a CAF search for art, stuff from dealer websites shows up in CAF galleries. I believe that makes the site rife with bugs, and possible malware issues.

Believe me, I’ve tried just about everything. I think the problem is that CAF also ties in with so many dealer sites.

I'm not a premium member, and frankly don't go there as much as I used to because I am concerned about the security of the site. It should be upgraded to Https, for one thing. That's just basic in this day and age. I can't even access the site from my home wifi network anymore, and I haven't figured out the reason why. There's something about the site that is buggy.

Seth Myers has Comic Book art on the wall of his office, per the New York Times.

You’re both wrong. This guy will dig pages out of their CGC OA cases (started in 2023) after finding them at the bottom of the ocean. He will trade them for gasoline & cigarettes.

It only takes a few.

I still buy comics at my LCS. It started mostly as a means to scout out modern OA to buy. But I got hooked on a few of the series. Vast majority are non Marvel or DC. You can’t replace the feel of reading a physical comic. I much prefer it to digital. I don’t buy vintage anymore, with one caveat. I always buy a copy of the original comic where my OA was published. If it’s a cheap book, I buy a few copies so I can put the published page and comic in a frame with the art if I choose to do so at some point

Assuming Gene’s numbers are correct, then it only takes a handful of collectors to perpetuate the high prices of higher end OA. Demographic and economic trends be damned.

Listen to Felix’s podcast. He interviews a few of them. But I think Seth Myers is one. He had Dave Mandel on his show and they talked about collecting comic art and Star Wars memorabilia. Abd Mark Hammill was a big comic colllector at one point. So it wouldn’t surprise me if he also collects OA. But, apparently it is verboten to identify people here for some reason.

Then there’s Mark, who dropped $160K on a BWS Conan story only to complain about the condition later.

It also depends on the Key. A Sticky-Mitt Stimson page from Action Comics #1 (if it hypothetically existed) is probably going to be more valuable than a Wayne Boring superman page from Action Comics #146, just because its from Action #1. But that would be an extreme example.

It's a hypothetical, but all else being equal, would you rather have an Aunt May page from ASM #300, or #ASM #303? I'd guess the former, 9 times out of 10.

But, because the variables that drive value in both markets have so much overlap, the price increase track should also be similar. The price of a comic doesn't necessarily drive the value of the art from it, but it should track somewhat (if it is a valuable, key book).

Can someone please PM me on who all these people are? LOL!

And you can buy Batman: White Knight for cover price right now. Yet, how much is the art selling for? Like I said, I don't disagree with you. But, does anyone disagree with the proposition that: All original art from valuable comic books is valuable?

One could also take this example and argue that Ditko spidey art (and some Romita covers) might be relatively undervalued, and believe there is a lot of room for price appreciation. Or, it is possible that AF #15 is overvalued, certainly. My point is that seeing this kind of disparity is one piece of information you can use. As for modern art, there is some degree of speculation going on, as people are trying to buy the next Preacher or Walking Dead, etc, pages "cheap" before the value explosion. Not everyone, of course, but, just enough to drive the prices up beyond where they might have been a couple years ago on some newer books.

Which is too neat a distinction, because those two things have a LOT of overlap.

I probably didn't articulate my point very well, so I apologize for that. I don't actually disagree with you on this most recent point. The (over?)simplification of my argument is thus: The OA from all valuable comics will be valuable, but not all valuable OA will come from valuable comics. And if you did a chart graph of the value of an important/key comic and the value of its OA over time, I suspect you will see a roughly parallel value track. Maybe even a spike for the OA, which would probably track closer to the value of a 9.8+ graded example of the comic its published in. This is because the value of the comic, and the value of the OA from it in the former example, are increasing for mostly the same reasons. That being said, I still believe that KLH is 3rd or 4th tier Spider-Man art, as compared to the literally most important TMNT art.