Rick2you2

There is someone whose words I trust. His prices don’t go down for sure.

That’s because you said one of the items you bought last year cost you your left nut. Maybe she’s afraid what the next one will cost you.

The market has a long way to go before that happens. Nostalgia continues to control pricing, and pricing is substantially a function of the wealth of the age group feeling nostalgic.

Those sound like real “artist’s proofs”—something useful for the artist. What I think we see are simply digital 1 of alleged 1 prints (or perhaps more like 1 of 10?) with the seller slapping on that label to pretend it is something special besides a print. That’s why there is so little interest here.

Not necessarily. At the Comic Art show, I saw some panel pages that were reasonably priced. Admittedly, not high demand pieces, but duly noted.

I suspect that prices will also be in line with prior auctions, but holding off on bids until the live phase may—might—reduce the likelihood of increases to a higher market price level (except for high priced/valued things which have a mind of their own).

I think people got smarter. Unless a bidder is placing a knockout high price proxy, incremental bidding just raises the floor and risks an increase in the final sales price beyond what it might be as other potential bidders adjust what they will pay. I have pretty much stopped doing it as counterproductive. Not sure about that 40-60% jump. To me, they seemed all over the map, with some prices quadrupling at the lower end of the price spectrum, and some barely moving. Even Sal’s art.

I don’t dislike the guy. I disliked the fact that he said he never raises prices on inventory, which, virtually everyone here has said is BS. It means I will take whatever he says with an “extra grain of salt”. The rest of this discussion sped off on its own. I also think there is a difference between OA which sells for (somewhat arbitrary number here) less than $1,500 and some of the other things you folks discuss. Lower priced pieces have got to be considerable replaceable, dealers list them all the time. Shaving a few bucks from a price won’t cost the dealer much, particularly since this is the stuff they buy in bulk from artists and other dealers cleaning out old stock. How many times have we all walked past pages and pages of old House of Mystery pages, having virtually no interest in it, and knowing very few people will?

The simple reason that he won’t take $2,700 is that comic art is, to a fair extent, an impulse purchase by people who have the money to spend on impulse purchases. Why give away $300 when a dealer knows most people will throw in the extra 10% or 5% or whatever? For higher priced pieces, some dealers will throw it in, regardless, figuring it promotes good will, some won’t. But, that logic may not work for a low cost piece where demand is likely to be low. Unsurprisingly, Anthony’s will deal.

He was a perfectly respectable artist with a long career. Looking at some of his work on-line, he seemed particularly well suited to “real people” like you have, war stories, and those pin-ups and their Eisner-like waists.

No, it was bought at an NJ art con, not public auction. If anything, I think a higher price for these pieces would be justified by the market

No, it was bought at a New Jersey art con from a real live dealer. Not sure why you think everything being bid up is due to shilling. I don’t.

There is nothing to improve. I have no plans to sell, and to my eyes, the piece was a bargain whether the market agrees or not. When I posted it in April, 2021, it got 8 likes. So, I guess the market is bigger than 4 people for the right Sparling stuff. 🙂

Correction: it was closer to $700.

On August 29, 2015, Heritage Auctions sold 4 different ones in the same series for $717.00 and a 5th one for $836.50. As I recall I had seen another one at a private sale for $800-900 (I don’t recall the details).

You confused me there for a few minutes. I spent $600 on one of his “Pin-up Pete” bits of cheesecake from the Korean War era, and I would happily do it again (there have been others for sale). But, it wasn’t from ComicLink. So yes, I do own one, but not what I was looking for.

You’ll be happy to hear, then, that I don’t own any Jack Sparling pieces, and never did. But, if I saw a published Phantom Stranger piece by him for $300, I might skip it, even though I might give it a shot for $150. Would many of you consider that money wasted? Perhaps, but it wouldn’t be any worse than some of those commissions people buy. To me, it is about having fun—like fake Sugar & Spike covers. I don’t buy for investment, I don’t spend much money on pieces, and would not be broken-hearted if the market crashed—not out of any sense of malice, by the way. When 2032 comes around, I hope you make a fortune, and that’s true for everyone here, except if someone won’t sell me what I want at a price in my comfort zone.

But isn’t this assuming that all OA should be treated as a single market? You yourself found that some things shot up and some didn’t, including some where the quality of work as a function of price was inexplicable. If the market price of some pieces barely moves up, because the public isn’t buying, lowering the price makes sense. Will there ever be a growing market for Bomba, the Jungle Boy (even though I like Jack Sparling)? I don’t see that as churning, just pruning.

It isn’t so much high carrying costs as recycling the funds to more profitable uses. If you paid $25 for a page, was that increase for 20 years linear, accelerating, deaccelerating or flat? What about mediocre Silver or Bronze Age pages? Assuming we are not dealing with a hot collectible, does it make sense to hold on if the new hot part of the market is 1990’s art?

Then I probably should have picked a better example. But, the point remains.

He made a smart business decision. I never said he was dumb.

Not at all. I’ve been watching 3 pieces get slowly moldy since the beginning of the year when they were first offered at what looked like only 40% over market. Maybe after the new year. That’s my version of a punishment bid.

Consider this a comment generally to all three of you. I recognize your points, particularly as to hot artists, “classics” or subjects, but the truth is that a lot of OA is not and never will be hot even if technically a “luxury good”. It sits, lonely and forlorn, in Itoyas waiting patiently for the day that a 1 in 10,000 customer steps forward and thinks “Gee, I gotta have that John Byrne Next Men page” or the cartoon from a 1950’s humor magazine making a joke about sexual assault. I can see marking up a good set of lug nuts first. Are these Lamborghini’s? No. What about Coach Bags? Surprise, surprise, they will go on sale (probably not 50%) because dealers still have to move inventory. It’s clogging the arteries of commerce. And I have to tell you, Mr. Mustache (I love that) has some stale pieces, too. But hey, Bronty is right of course, he can always ask, and ask, and ask…

Ran out of shrooms.

Price escalation is one thing. Price escalation of existing inventory is what is so surprising to me. But my focus is very narrow; when something is old, or new, I am usually taking note of it and reacting then and there.