alexgross.com

fedex will insure, but only up to certain limits. for comics, and original artwork, it's only $1,000. used to be $500 a few years ago so at least they've upped it a bit. as a professional artist, it's quite annoying when i need to ship artwork to a client. i have a great shipping guy at a box and ship about 30-40 minutes away from me, who ships professionally all the time, and uses third party insurance. so i can always use him, and it will go fedex with third party insurance. but i don't always want to drive 30-40 minutes each way just to send a package. and that only covers when i am sending, not when i am receiving. getting the PO box sounds like the best move for receiving.

what company do you use for insurance, as fedex won't insure your books over a grand?

i work at home!

just had to share this insane story-- i just did a major deal here on the boards (my first time) where i was shipped a 5 figure book registered mail. i live in los angeles, where the mail service is ridiculously bad. so, the mail carrier comes today with my registered mail package. she gives it to me and is about to drive off. i said, 'don't you need my signature?' she said, 'no, i've got this slip.' whereupon she shows me a registered mail form that i signed last year for a completely different package. she said, 'if you were not here, i could just use this, and leave your package.' bear in mind this package is worth around 40-45k. yeah. so, i tried to keep my cool, but explained to her that that's not how registered mail is supposed to freaking work and she better fill out a new form, and had better NEVER leave a registered mail package without my signature. WTF???? everyone on these boards ships registered mail right?? we are all under the impression it is the most secure PO option out there for high value items. and that the carrier has to personally be responsible for the package, right? apparently they don't give a darn anymore. at least not where i live. please don't suggest to call my post office and complain. no one there gives a *&$%. i have only had nightmares dealing with them in the past. had another carrier forge my sig on a registered mail form around 5 years ago and that package disappeared on me. i've had only nightmares with the post office in los angeles. the problem with fedex and ups is they won't insure. what to do??

did my first deal on the boards here with greg, to the tune of serious 5 figures. greg was great, we had great communication and he was super fast on shipping. i highly recommend him and hope to deal with him again!

buying a graded book should always be for future profit, since you can't enjoy reading it. raw books are the more complicated purchase, but in my view they are always books i want to read, re-read, or make a run with, and they shouldn't be terribly expensive.

probably i'm just paranoid. but it would be nice to have more transparency so everyone could see who's bidding against them. of course, eBay has been more transparent over the years, and yet does absolutely nothing about blatant shill bidding. so, i guess it's all the same...

the lack of transparency on CL and CC is disturbing. ever since my very first bid on CL i was sure that they were doing some shenanigans. every single auction i've bid on has ended one increment higher, in spite of it not showing up until the auction has ended. still i've gotten some good deals there.

last time i wrote something about unnamed dealers asking silly prices at cons, i got a bunch of replies mocking me for being "anti-dealer." but i love how you put it- "optimistic pricing." i recall 3 years ago getting an "optimistic" price from him on something there at NYCC and coming home to get the same book from someone less "optimistic" for fair market price. i'm not anti-dealer though! just anti-optimist i guess.

thanks for sharing so many photos! finally some good pics of the stuff on the walls at NYCC for those of us on the other coast.

yes whose booth is this? amazing!

i recommend a new scanner... the new epsons are dirt cheap and pretty good-

thanks for the nice words and the suggestion. legal protections for artwork that references copyrighted properties exist as long as the artwork is 'transformative'. warhol's campbell's soup cans are one famous example. as i said, i've published a whole book of these pieces, and the publisher was confident that my works qualify as transformative, and there have not been any issues. so, that's not really a realistic concern. i'll think about your suggestion and certainly let you know if i make prints. i personally had the most fun putting in the villains, as it really adds another level of interest to the piece for us comic fans. it's almost like doc ock and loki snuck in the back while the photographer was getting ready.

thanks mac-- as to your question, i sell the paintings, and sometimes make prints and sell those as well. i have a few collectors that own dozens of these paintings, believe it or not! i published a book of them several years ago, called "NOW AND THEN, the cabinet card paintings of Alex Gross." https://www.amazon.com/Now-Then-Cabinet-Paintings-Gross/dp/1584234873/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507401782&sr=8-1&keywords=now+and+then+cabinet+card+paintings

before and after--this one is acrylic and oils on top of an antique photo, again. it's called 'marvel heroes,' in spite of the fact that a couple of them are villains. i gotta do a DC one sometime, but i was never as passionate about DC as i was with marvel.

what are the commission rates for selling on CC and CL?

some interesting points in here, but this paragraph is just silly. people submit 1st appearances of characters at a much higher rate than other books, and as long as CGC has been operating, their label has stated that 181 is the 1st full appearance of wolvie. duh.

shocking comiclink auction results last night on TOS39 in a 4.0. $5,100!! a grand higher than GPA and not even close to the last 4.0 that ended 2 weeks prior. both this one and the one a few weeks ago looked really nice, so this is pretty stunning. so, if it LOOKS like a 5.0, people are willing to pay 5.0 prices??

i saw that and was wondering what the heck was going on. like many of their practices, seems a little dubious. on the other hand, lots of folks are saying they were unable to bid at the last minute, so i guess it does seem fair to have a do-over.

thats close to double what GPA has on this book in that grade. what gives? does CC also not report to gpa?? also makes no sense why the same or better book would sell a month later for 20k less.

this 35k price for a 7.0 is several thousand higher than the last recorded sales on GPA. perhaps the white pages made it more desirable. of course, this sale will never show up on gpa.

that does seem like a price only obtained on the WHITE PAGES copies i've seen this year. things are pointing up yet again for this book.

9.4 on comiclink, ends tomorrow

this is my kudos thread for anyone i do business with here. as i'm new, it may take awhile to get much info on it. thanks alex

awesome report! great to see all the photos-- really makes me want to go next year. looks like a whole different group of dealers than we get on the west coast. also, peter klaus is knute rockne.