Rick2you2

I should point out that a large early bid is suspicious to me for almost any pieces. It could be the seller or the seller’s friend trying to create a “hidden reserve”. It also has a tendency, from my experience, to extract higher bids later. The only exception I would make is to relatively uninteresting pieces where a bidder is trying to scare away the competition. And that can backfire by creating interest where there shouldn’t be any.

Those black costumes are just so alluring.

Why bother using a blank cover? Most artists don’t like the paper anyway. Give ‘em some Bristol Board to work on.

Why tip off the potential competition?

It’s already more than what she paid for it. Now she’s into recovery of lost interest. At this rate, she could become a dealer.

My bid was topped 2 days ago.

I, for my collecting purposes, don’t really pay much attention to comp’s because I don’t sell what I buy. As such, buying art is little different then spending money at the theatre, except, I get a really cool Playbill. Instead, I generally look at how much I like the piece, how much I care to spend at the time, does it fill a known gap in my collection, and only then, FMV. To me, a Bagley ASM page could be $100 or $10,000. It would have to move me exceptionally to consider a buy in either case (or, I’m really itchy about buying anything and that just showed up). Good artist, but none of his pieces hit me. In fact, I have no Marvel art at all. Would I spend more than FMV? Sure, and I have. And, I have seen art that I would buy, but feel like the seller is trying to take advantage so I don’t. Will I ever get rich this way? No. Do I care? Same answer. But, I do have really great memories. And pitchures, lots of pitchures

Since people are always looking for comp's, how would you know that this isn't a long version of what happened on eBay? Got 3 more like this? What was the price 6-12 months ago? Any sensible relationship (recognizing the market has gone up), and this is a much nicer page.

Tiffleberry should have gone on Sunday when “I do free sketches for kids.”

I honestly don’t know.

I’m not sure that’s a backing board, just a shipping board. I don’t think the bag’s are archival, either. I keep a fair number of pieces in basic Itoya’s and away from sunlight or heat.

But he said he would only do it for money. And that thing is inexcusable for a professional to give to a kid.

Has she considered joining Seal Team 6? That really is disgraceful.

I won something in December, but as I recall, it only took about 2-3 weeks to arrive.

I never knew of that alternative spelling for teats?

Fake identity. Nothing prevents a person from having 2. Many years ago, the actual bidder's screen name would show up. That let me look up a bidder's past bidding history. From that, I could sometimes discern if it was a collector or dealer, and maybe go to their other sales listings and figure out what they dealt in. That let me know if I would be in real fight or not. If I figured it was a dealer, I knew I would eventually win because the dealer wouldn't go past a point where there was no room for profit. If a collector, was the collector specialized or not, and if not, chances are I could win without a major fight--unless the other bidder was a screw-up who didn't know value. The greater the number of wins told me how likely my predictions would follow the pattern. Damn that was helpful.

Tape, cardboard and knife, Slicing tape, peeling cardboard, New art, free at last!

What are its comp’s? Anything less than 3-4 in some sort of orderly sense of increase would make me suspicious these days.

Exactly. Don’t forget, however, that this one was easy to spot. You don’t get the luxury of this detail on HA, Clink, etc.

This one looks like a rigged bidding to move the market price. Go to the first listing and look at the bid pattern. The price went from $1,500 to $6,400 based on the back and forth of two bidders who have never won anything before. That resulted in the set price of $6,400. You could find the $6,400 price, and the bump isn’t too high from it, but the secret is in the bidding pattern. I don’t know what Bagley’s art normally sells for, but depending upon comp’s, this may suggest not just piece-price rigging but market rigging (or unlikely, 2 involved, uneducated bidders who got way too heated in the bidding for their own good). I usually look at bid patterns. They can tell you a lot if you follow the bidders, and bidding times.

It’s also useful for posting a “tracking bid”. By bidding on Heritage, for example, I get notified when another bid is posted, and if I am still in the game.

I was trying to get him to part with a page or two from Future’s End, Phantom Stranger. Well, as they say in the comics: “sigh”.

I should mention that during live bidding, it is easy to blow a budget. Once the Adrenalin kicks in with the desire to win, the urge to throw in “one last bid” again, and again, can be brutal. Furthermore, shilling during live bidding is a real risk, too, probably as bad as house bidding, if not more so. Usually, I look at the piece and figure if I really, really want it or not. If not, I may stick with a proxy and let it ride. If it isn’t a hot piece, but still worth getting, you can do okay without blowing your funds allocation before the good stuff shows up again.

That’s a pretty healthy pile you picked up. Congrats.

Just out of curiosity, why was this page so much more than the others?