Rick2you2

I gave up and gave about 20 boxes or so to charity (checking them first, of course)

It has a different look. Some people equate different with good. I think it's okay, but that's all. Perhaps better suited for parody or a comedy strip. That's a general problem I have when evaluating art by different artists. The style should be evaluated against the "pitch" of the story. Kirby using his typical style on Peanuts wouldn't work.

I sent some stuff to my local shop. Not so happy with the paid amount— but I did clear out a lot of space.

I thought Robert was in Texas?

I’m wondering if these prices will hold up after people can spend money again on things like vacations.

Don’t know; don’t want to know. Truog’s work in the past, on those rare occasions it comes up, doesn’t carry a huge premium. I had figured this at no more than $1,500 or so, with a goodly margin of error due to limited examples for sale in the past. $2k, max. Once we can all get vaccinated and spend money on decent vacations again, I don’t see sales holding up at these prices. Logically, pricing should go backwards to last March or so.

I was the under bidder on that one, and frankly, I was shocked at how high it went. There is a lesser page from that book for sale, but only for a little over $500. Still, a very clever page, with the way the butterfly flitted in and out of the story panels, acting as a reminder to the reader that the story had broken the fourth wall. I like clever art like that. Oh well, that just frees up funds for the next item of interest.

At least a dollar more than what anyone would be willing to say before the auction is over.

Storage or display? For storage, most people like Mylar top loaders. People also store them in Itoya albums. For better protection and review, you can put them in top loaders, and then put the top loaders in Itoya’s (which is what I do with the better stuff)(the lesser material goes into Itoya’s). But, there are other approaches.

I’m over 65, and I’m basically keeping all of it. I can pretty much do everything I did when I was younger, more so at a mental level (you don’t have to learn many lessons twice) less so physically (no more weight lifting, oh, those joints). So the art represents my happy memories and current pleasures I can still enjoy while bonding with other collectors. My kids will do fine, not worried there. But bear in mind that I simply will not spend a ton of money on OA (well, maybe in the aggregate). So, no great loss.

Even Alfred E. Newman lost most of his job. More pointedly, if spending on our little obsession has seen a price spike due to the Pandemic, guess what’s likely to happen when everyone gets vaccinated?

Or, it could be reflective of the fact that currently, 70% of the wealth in this country is concentrated in the hands of 10% of the population— the highest level of stratification of wealth since the Guilded Age of the last 19th Century. Since the rich don’t spend much in proportion to their income, the velocity of money has consistently dropped over the decades. Then, add in the fact that with Covid, the leisure and services end of the economy went down the toilet, along with a lot of lower income jobs (with people who spend most of what they get and otherwise produces a high velocity of money), giving you those charts. But, for the lucky 20%, between the rich and poor, they have diverted their excess funds to products over services—until later this year when service sectors are expected to grow again—thereby likely resulting in a slump in pricing when experiences can be had without fear of death (except for the young who will insist on going on Spring break).

When pencils and inks are split, I have taken to buying inks lately even without the pencils. They usually look better, particularly when those pencils are incomplete, and are cheaper.

No artist is too big to entertain a business transaction and make money; some are just lousy at getting back to you. So, if you see a "big" artist you like, and can't find his representative, try them direct.

They can grow back after divorce.

I didn’t start it. I just respond because I don’t like being misunderstood or having people left with a false impression based on repeated statements by some boardies who are wrong. Finally, if you are going to engage in hyperbole as a form of ridicule, I suggest you more carefully read what I wrote. You might learn something. These days, I think the bigger market “threat” is a price bubble near the top end of the market. If dealers are bidding to add to their stock at high prices, and then raise their prices, how much new money at that end is available to buy or trade up? There still seems to be growth room since pieces keep selling at higher prices, but will things change as the Pandemic ends or we go into another recession? And perhaps it is time to stop treating this as a unified market on pricing. The bottom end in pricing seems to be doing well, with some things show growth and interest, others, not so much.

I write precis As I have said before, I write precisely. And when I write on matters touching on the law, it is based on specifics. There is nothing wrong with P’nutz bidding practices; I never suggested the contrary. In fact, I think that economically, it is good for the market. What can be illegal, but is not shilling, involves price fixing. It can take the form of people not bidding so a particular person can win, or dealers bidding to maintain a market price (among other things). You are now in the legal area of anti-trust law and state laws governing anti-competitive conduct, which: (a) do vary, by location; (b) are highly dependent on the facts; (c) vary on enforcement efforts; and (c) can be tough to prove. Also, was there collusion among persons to take concerted action (which can be separately actionable as conspiracy). So, an action in, say, Texas, may be legal while being illegal and enforced in New York, and might be illegal in Illinois, but only if certain facts can be shown to exist that are not required in New York. Then, you have a whole second level of criminal or civil liability, if any, and who is empowered to act (the State or private parties, or both). I couldn’t possibly deliver an address on this subject—it is highly specialized, obviously complicated, and not even my field. The point is that there is no one sentence answer to what is permissible, legally, or not.

I recognize prices are going up due to demand on a lot of collectibles these days. But shilling isn’t a laughable matter if you were the one who was duped into paying, say, 30% more than you would have without it. Of course, you have the right to be smug, because that could never, ever happen to you, right? As though you would even know.

Under US law, I’m not so sure such an agreement wouldn’t qualify as an illegal conspiracy to fix prices— in theory. Whether it is pragmatically actionable is a different question, and I would expect the answer is no. A few years ago, a book was written called “Three Felonies a Day” by a former prosecutor. That is the average number of crimes the average person commits every day, thanks to the complexity of our legal system. If that is true, then the number of civil violations should logically be exponentially higher.

No, Dollars and Euro’s.

That is definitely one reaction by some people. Others, however, just brace themselves up to go to a higher price point.

I see this as having a historical antecedent with posters or litho’s.. Yes, they will go up, but not like an oil.

Specificity isn’t needed. You get my point. Perspective matters.

Correct. It is called bid- rigging, and it is illegal, maybe criminal depending on the State and nature of the auction.

Not a shill, but obnoxious to deliberately cause harm for no gain.