Rick2you2

It may depend on what you want to sell, combined with the question of whether the “posted” or “list price” is being radically undercut with lower prices, but only on the q-t, so the “market” doesn’t reflect a drop. So long as there are Peanuts strips being reprinted, I wouldn’t worry about those. But, run-of-the-mill Silver Age? Yea.

But, they only retain their value if the interest in the collectibles passes to a new generation. And even then, different parts of a market will rise and fall based on familiarity. Collectors used to love old colonial furniture. While the best of it retains value, at least in theory, more collectible now is mid-century modern and real Art Deco. One of the comments I have made here on several occasions is whether “the market” should really be considered now as a group of submarkets moving at different rates, and maybe directions.

Which site was it?

Let’s not forget the insufficiently_thoughtful_persons who must have bid up the price from the original estimates of 25-35 euro’s. Or, was this one of the greatest examples of bid-rigging in modern history?

X

Ramones, Clash. Andy Gibb?

I guess the question people are wondering is whether that Secret Wars page represents a market reset, an outlier, or an evolutionary price increase reflected by earlier transactions. Are we headed now into tulip mania territory? And, then there is a question I have raised before. Does it really make sense to treat all sales and price increases as part of one market, as compared to submarkets for material at lower prices points—Morlock territory for example. That, incidentally, is where I come out.

Usually, Sampere’s work is more stylish, but it is, as with most artists, dependent on the subject matter. That looks like a dull discussion, making it hard to do much. But, no effort was made to give it a little style with, say different sized or shaped borders to emphasize the presumably more important dialog from other dialog.

You could say the same about Peanuts’ strips. Schultz reduced clutter to get to the essence of what he wanted to say/show. Rothko’s art gets to an almost intuitive gut—if you are willing to welcome it in. One is just more fun than the other. With that said, I still can’t understand the prices, but it’s out of my league anyway. Like Banksy and his self-destructive stunt piece.

And, if you take a DeVinci painting to the gas station, same response. But, I doubt that those prized pieces taken to Nebraska were in that category. The ultra high end of the market retains or grows in value. It’s everything else that hollows out, including generic Adamses. Persian rugs have gotten crushed in the last 25 years—except for truly rare specimen pieces which hold value. It’s been mentioned by other boardies that golden age pages (presumably the nothing-special type) have dropped in value. Our little world is a lot smaller than the generic market for fine art. Here, nostalgia rules the pricing roost. So, don’t bet the farm on them in 25 years. Ah, but a “cool” variant cover? Sure, it’s interesting and will attract attention. And it doesn’t matter if Cap’n No-name stars in it. I think we need to view pricing in more stratified ways for the future. Those prices aren’t moving in lockstep now, and it ought to be recognized more plainly.

Which ought to tell you something about the future of this hobby and the high prices for prized pieces. And, at least those were old comic book fans. Try the same experiment with non-fans, and aside from polite staring for the sake of an old friend/relative, you may see even less interest. That’s where fine art has an advantage: it doesn’t require knowledge of a backstory to evaluate (“When this book was issued with that character, it became the highest selling .…”). Just comp’s and do you like it.

Do you really want to get into a debate about what is art? What about Jackson Pollack and his drip paintings? Or Christo and his monumental wraps, like in Central Park, NY around 10 years ago? Or my personal favorite, Piet Mondrian and his lines creating boxes? Or, is your complaint that it isn’t worth 88 Mil? I wouldn’t pay it for a Rothko if I had it, but there is a lot of OA I wouldn’t buy for the price, either. If a piece is done for the purpose of moving the viewer, it qualifies, in my opinion. Except, maybe, for Sal’s work.

As with original comic art, price is often more aligned with the artist’s reputation. But, with comic art, the significance of the story and the characters also play huge parts. There are original comic artists who enjoy a greater reputation then some of their specific output, too.

You’re confusing price and quality.

And I have spoken to one old timer, in particular, who says he is just as fast, or faster, going traditional. I suspect that most of the difference has to do with experience and the learning curve as well as the nature of the work. Repetitive should be easier going digital. Creative uses of panel design would tip me to traditional (different artist conversation).

With BP to get to 264k.

I think that’s overstating the case. First, there is a serious economics question as to how great an impact the Fed tightening will have on anything, let alone collectibles. Second, cards have shot up way higher than OA, and fine art has a broader public appeal which probably gives it a bit of price protection over the long term. Will Fed tightening affect OA prices? A little, but the next recession will have a greater effect (unless you count the Fed’s credit tightening as a partial cause, which it will be). As to sports cards, and given their history of boom or bust pricing, no comment.

Different markets have different timelines, and situations affecting prices. Since I don’t know anything about that market, I can only hazard a guess that the prices went up higher, and disproportionately for an item where there were multiple copies. It probably attracted more pure speculators, too. Likewise, when the hot air comes out of the prices here, I expect it will be to less deep and slower because it is a smaller market where some real knowledge and artistic appreciation is important.

If I can take a crack at it, the greater the number of dollars (for example) in circulation which are available to purchase the same amount of goods results in a need to spend more dollars to acquire the goods because each dollar no longer has the same intrinsic value (the “backed up” part). A classic example is found with hyperinflation where a bank just keeps printing money, like pre-WW2 Germany, but no more goods are added to the mix. There are lots of problems with monetarist theory, including what qualifies as “dollars in circulation”. Does it just mean cash (M0), deposits in banks and demand deposits, credit cards, etc. (as I recall, the various versions of money run from M0 to M7, but it’s been a while for me). While it would be easy to point to our deficit spending as increasing the dollars in circulation, don’t forget that we have the World’s leading currency which soaks them up because our economy is so strong. A simpler explanation is that prices are always “sticky downward”. When a price hits a certain point, people consider it the real price and will no longer sell for less, unless they must or see the light. That leads to stagnant markets and “secret sales” which temporarily preserve the price. Right now, however, we are still seeing price rises because people can charge more and get away with it. To some extent, they are making up for lost pricing power over the prior 2 years. Even low cost labor markets are showing price increases. But, lower economic-scale people are now feeling the bite, and that will slow pricing pressure when demand slackens off—and that moves up the economic ladder. Bottom line: prices will stabilize or go lower in 12 to 18 months.

Since the limit on the Morlock thread is $500, shouldn’t this be adjusted downward?

I think we’re looking at $450k territory.

My guess would be the owner found something better to do with his money. Grandenetti was an excellent artist, too, as was his WW 2 art, in general. Shame it isn’t a popular subject anymore.

Very sweet.

Latest strikeout: artist doesn’t sell his work. Prior strikeout: bloody digital work only. Last commission ordered: MIA. Phantom Stranger images by artists I don’t have and is nicely done. Getting hard to find at FMV, or a little higher. I may start refocusing on Romance art. Not so much the art which interests me as the cheesy dialog and melodramatic expressions. I love a good laugh, and this stuff beats Humorama, etc. every time.