BeholdersEye

That is correct, 'tho look at Thanos, he was in hibernation for a while. Since these are fictional characters, all it takes is an editorial decision for a push and the right writer and/or artist to elevate a character from obscurity to popularity. Unlike sports cards where athletes peak and phase out, comic books have good potential for future gains. I'd say Hobgoblin is a rather weak Green Goblin inspired character 'tho, and if you're speculating based on "movies" which I often find silly, buying into Villains who may appear in 1 or 2 films then get defeated by the hero and vanish, I'd bank on investing in Heroes who have more longevity in the movies. So, with that, I'd go with Big Barda in Mr Miracle #4 as the better investment.

I would agree that the implications of a true waitlist is to prioritize that list 1st one in, 1st one out in terms of if an order is canceled or returned or new inventory emerges, there's a waiting list line for those who came to she online store early but not early enough, and put their names on a "waitlist" hoping to get some sort of priority consideration over the masses behind them, and get the 1st opportunity to be contacted to accept or decline the opportunity to buy once it arises. I think tying a wait list to an email blast creates too much ill will. At the end of the day the $100 charged is the same $100 from the guy on the wait list VS the guy who hears about the re-solicitation and logs on to jump in and buy it, so as a company it's better to keep loyal customers happy and grab the $100 from the guy who was on the wait list, so he'll come back again as well as feel the system works.

Thank you for the update and info !!!

Cover A - unsigned / SIGNED ($15 / $20) THE GROOM's Set A, B & C (3 books) - unsigned / SIGNED ($90 / $110) THE BRIDE's Set A, D & E (3 books) - unsigned / SIGNED ($90 / $110) ULTRA Set A, B, C, D & E (5 books) - unsigned / SIGNED ($140 / $165) I know!!! I went in at 7pm pst, totally forgetting about trying to order when it debuted, and saw that the Ultra Set was sold out both signed and unsigned. I wanted the Ultra Set because it gave me 1 of every issue, but at least there was the option to order the Groom and the Bride sets, separately, 'tho that gives me an extra Cover A and costs a total of $110 x 2 = $220 as opposed to $165 + $20 or the extra Cover A, where the Ultra gave an awesome $45 discount in comparison to buying a la carte as I did... but at least I was able to get it vs going on the "wait list" figuring I didn't want to get shut-out and went for the guarantee. The Groom Sets, signed and unsigned were available as was only the Bride's sight set and the single Cover A signed... with both Signed and Unsigned Ultra Sets, The Bride's unsigned set and the Cover A unsigned single issue all being sold out for a wait list. At least I got 'em all autographed/signed, so that's nice and the premium was $20 per set (not per issue). These were really nice covers, so, very hard to pass up, as they weren't static pin-ups, but told a good story in the scene, so to speak.

My personal opinion on the Heritage Auction fees is that I'd love to see it shift to ComicLink's model of only the seller being charged a consignment commission and the buyer simply pay what he or she bid (plus applicable taxes and shipping of course). I guess it's like gambling where when you place a wager, if you lose, you owe what you wagered plus a % juice, making you feel like you lost, then got kicked in the nuts and forced to cough up more money. The overriding theory of ComicLink's model is that the bidder has a certain amount they're willing to spend, so if that's $10,000, then at ComicLink, that's $10,000 (and the seller gets $9,000 due to the 10% consignment fee) where at Heritage, in theory, a customer bids about $8,340 (adding in HA's 20% buyer's premium to create that buyer all-in total of $10,000), so the seller would then get less at Heritage than with Comic Link even if at 0% sellers consignment commission fees at a net $8,340 vs CL's $9k, and goes down from there depending on what the seller's fee actually is at HA for the seller. The x-factor is which auction house can generate the most interest, active bidders and ultimately the highest final price when the hammer hits. That's always the subjective opinion that's speculated back and forth on both sides. If HA feels they can command higher bids, and truly earn the sellers consignments, I'd love to see HA eliminate the buyer's fees and roll everything over the the seller and upping that to 20% or 25%, where a seller in theory would be very happy giving HA a piece of the action for their efforts to bring in the elite bidders and top dollars for their pieces that could otherwise not be realized via private sale, art dealer nor other auction house, including ComicLink, eBay and the rest. It's hard to prove or disprove performance since with original art it's all one-of-a-kind, and not like a CGC 9.8 Hulk #181 where there's many out there that then could be compared against each other when put to auction for sale.

You can also take this piece to a "kinkos" type copy place, have it copied in greyscale, than go to Aaron Brothers (they're going out of business, bankruptcy I hear) and pick up a nice cheap frame, and hang it up, then keep the original stored away safely.

The best way to handle this is to simply consign it to Heritage or ComicLink or put it up on eBay for an auction and let the strongest bidder prevail, not limited to those 4 interested parties but the entire landscape of aware collectors, ideally creating a bidding war, but truly is a level and fair playing field allowing everyone the opportunity to vie for the piece and purchase it. Any sour grapes from those hoping to get it for a cheaper than FMV price or feel they were entitled to it because of a previous inquiry (unless you made a specific promise) are S.O.L. and just bargain hunting. The relationship between buyer and seller is always conflicted, A seller wants the most revenue. A buyer wants to pay the least amount possible. So, the auction model allows the survival of the fittest to your benefit to maximize profit potential.

The most interesting thing we'd see if the "floor" and "ceiling" of their price ranges on the same exact item, since from what I hear, it's very subjective, not based on a timeframe of what they wanted 3 months or 3 years ago, but literally 3 minutes ago, where increased inquiries warrant their escalating price quotes as well as their feeling the temperature of the buyer's interest trying to price based on perceived desire. I'm not sure if they price to negotiate either like many eBay "buy it now or best offer" sellers who list things for double or more of what they're willing to take and accept, but hoping to get that sucker to buy impulsively at the asking price. I think a completed sales vs quotes prices element to this list will show their willingness to accept lower offers and that avg % counteroffer others can benefit from knowing about, if that exists. They do a lot of conventions, so I'm not sure if they've actually sold anything substantial or is it just a traveling art gallery just for show.

Sage Advice !!! Investing because you hear about someone else making money isn't a good idea, for every 10 people who are making a living selling comics for profits there's 90 people who've sunk money towards books they can't make their money back on, let alone at times a fractional amount of what they paid. Quality over quantity, and blue chip stocks (key books) as opposed to possible feast or famine sexy moderns like the variants, signature series, etc. The one thing about collectibles is you need to find your own buyer and inherently there is no material value (as precious metals and gems do) per se, and just because you see a book for sale at a certain price or listed in a price guide, does not mean you can get that same money, or instantly cash out like how easy it is to buy and sell stocks to get paid out quickly. Research is your best friend, do it yourself, and don't go 100% off of fishing via blogs. That's what will make it fun for you. Otherwise if you're looking for someone to tell you to buy a certain book you know nothing about, nor care about, you should find another investment. Comic investing is for fans. Buy what you like, then if it goes down, you're not upset.

Someone told me, knowing Byrne's temperamental attitude, an disdain for both public appearances, engagement with people who pretend to be fans only to profiteer, that somebody recommended to John Byrne that he charge $50 or more per signature to weed out the profiteering folks that irritates him and keep the line drama free for him. I think that's the fee that Neal Adams charges, so isn't that shocking. Personally, I think he should just do what Larry Hama does and personalize all autographs that are free, with a limit of signatures, and if someone want an unpersonalized signature it's a premium upcharge and if they want it submitted for grading there's another fee on top of that. I think gone are the days for most artists, signing stacks of books for free. Truth be told, to a degree, most fans should be satisfied with one personalized signature as a souvenir of their encounter and there's no need to get an entire run of books or multiples of the same comic signed. In sports, nobody realistically tries to get a Hall of Fame caliber athlete to sign every trading card they've appeared on, and for most, one signature is enough.

The "European" auction should have a focus on European art, not the location, it seems silly and counter-intuitive marketing, causing confusion and potential alienation. On first impression it reads as if it were stuff by Manara, etc., and free non-European artists. That's poor marketing by Heritage. Secondly, to me, the buyer's premium is already high and an increase is a poor customer relations move, very short term greedy. If there's increased overhead, that's their cost of doing business, and shouldn't be putting those costs to the buyers. I understand the taxes is something they may collect on behalf of the territory and don't profit off of, so that can't legally be circumvented. Even in the US, they have sales tax in certain areas as high as 10% (in California) they have to add to the buyer's invoice. That's in part, why many sellers and buyers like using ComicLink, so there's not that 20-30% increase to their bid price after paying buyer's premiums, taxes then shipping fees. I know Heritage has huge overhead with their catalog and live auction, but if they put their revenue model with the fees coming from the consignor than the buyer, instead of both ways, like ComicLink, they may find a seller who sells a piece for $100,000k is more than happy to pay them a commission of 15%, than a buyer who bids $100,000k now having to add $20k to their bill is often less than elated, so reduce or eliminating a buyer's premium may inspire more bidders and higher bids (removing the fear facotor of the premium).

TWD is not at all like Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin where the values skyrocketed quickly for now reason and became a roller coaster of peaks and valleys. I'd also say the values did increase due to the TV show and everyone knows that the lifespan of a TV show has an inevitable death (unless you're a cartoon like the Simpsons), be it Seinfeld, MASH, The Cosby Show, Cheers, etc. - - So, anyone buying it based on the TV show retaining popularity with longevity will probably be disappointed by that fact. The comic book series has been pretty awesome and well written story arcs for the most part. It seems to be able to sustain itself as an ongoing dramatic series with new characters and old ones dying to be replaced. If handled without any silly "shark jumping" publicity stunts, it can go on indefinitely under the helm of Robert Kirkman's writing. I'm sure another writer can refresh the creative, but another writer can also easily destroy the series too. As for artwork, Adlard's work has been great in setting the mood, much better than Tony Moore's cartoonish looking art. I'd say the best replacement for Adlard would be a more noir styled artist like Frank Miller, Tim Sale, Mike Mignola, Ryan Sook, Sean Phillips, John Cassaday, Klaus Janson, or Jae Lee. I think the print run has established the issue as being scarce relative to comic book print runs, 'tho not at all impossible to find in any condition if you're willing to throw money at it, so it's not one of those truly hard to find comics. I think the demand continues to outnumber the supply, so it's not going to dump anytime soon, it may dip and drop a bit, but won't become like what "The Elementals" and "The Fish Police" were in the 1980's, from hot to dollar bind fodder.

Easy! Just tell them to: 1) Go to eBay 2) Type in the title of the item them have 3) Click on "Sold Items" on the Show Only category on the left tool bar side 4) Sort by Lowest, or Highest or Most Recent to show the historical precedent of actual sales to get a good range and recency analysis 5) Then, unclick "Sold Items" to see who's selling the same item in question, if there's any bids or "buy it now" offers to see what the competitive landscape is for the item being sold now. There's no need to explain more or do any work for these people, even if you know info, it's speculative at best, and this is the best way for pedestrians to get actual valid information of actual transactions... since a comic shop can put up a comic book with a price tag of $50 all day long and if it sits on the shelves, it's probably not worth $50 or at least isn't a bargain, otherwise someone would have bought it, so he simple fact that it's available for purchase tells you the price might be too high. Same with eBay and all of the "Buy it Now or Best Offer" listings or those with a high minimum bid yet no bids that keeps getting relisted waiting for an impulsive sucker who doesn't comparison shop.

...and recently Romitaman Original Art announced this is his last show and he's one of the Top 3 Comic Art Dealers, arguably #1 for his pricing, broad inventory including both affordable for budget minded collectors and high end for prestige collectors or investors, and ability to continually obtain new pieces fresh to market regularly. SDCC is still a great show when you get there and settled in, but the hoops you have to jump through as an attendee often makes it less worthwhile. There's still enough traditional dealers in original comic art and vintage comic books (thank goodness it's not a flea market of just dollar bins!). The cosplay, corporate booths and celebrity three-ring circus atmosphere with the crowds is tough, but if you stick around the vintage comic area and artists alley section it's easy to navigate and remain with elbow room. I think eventually the traditional comic vendors may move out to an adjacent convention just for purists into comics, no frills. I'm sure it's semi-political with the City of San Diego if this were done in competition of SDCC and it would have to be either in the Los Angeles area or Oceanside and the surrounding SD area. I know there's a pre-preview night type show coming to LA this year for comics and art, but it's not exclusive or separate from SDCC, more of a "since I'm in the area" type of situation for dealers to showcase before SDCC.

I also think the illustration board used "soaks" up the ink too, so ideally the original art should be retained, then a blueline printed out on standard comic board paper, and then inked, so the original is intact (no restoration) and a new piece is created. Somehow I doubt if Starlin is motivated economically or creatively to go through the pains of reworking any of the pages, but I could be wrong. It would be interesting to get another inker to ink a blueline 'tho, to it turns into a different piece.

I think most collectors fear the "invisible ink" factor of how the artwork seems to get worst with age and may fade to obscurity. I know a few collectors who owned art from that issue who decided to sell to avoid the future problems.

That X-MEN #1 page for $75k was a good piece, not sure what it originally sold for over a decade ago when the book was split up and sold via Heritage Auction, but I'm sure it was less than $75k, since I think the pages went for between $15-50k if I'm not mistaken with most hovering in that $20k avg range. Since it's the 1st Appearance of The X-MEN, I would think those pages are nearly unobtainable for most, but that $75k price seems like a decent price if you have deep pockets, especially given what run of the mill Jim Lee covers for comic books you can find in the dollar bins (meaning the artwork has amazing rendering but the actual comics themselves are lackluster and not historically noteworthy as a key)

It sold for $43,000 as the high bid plus any fees, taxes, shipping, etc.... it's amazing how a bid price you place ends up a bigger number as a total after everything is added in.

In today's eBay, with sellers either gauging on shipping or offering "Free Shipping" but using poor packaging and slow boat freight options, it's not a shock nor surprise. I'd be upset if I paid a shipping fee of the $15 or more it costs to ship via Priority Mail, or even at $10 or so. If the shipping charge was $5 or under or Free, I'd come to expect something that poor, with Media Mail. But for something that costs $6k, many sellers are so dense, they don't realize how easy it is for a buyer to claim non-receipt, seller fraud, damaged good, etc for a scam or refund, that it's in the buyer's best interests to protect their interests even if it costs them a bit of their own out of pocket money. The seller should have sent it priority mail, well packaged with signature confirmation and insurance.

I'm surprised people are still into commissions to the degree what used to be a way to affordably get artwork as an option to published pieces and have a personal experience as well as a keepsake souvenir, how in recent years turned into a more cold business, with high rates, disappointing renderings, and often times artists who keep fans waiting months if not years (and counting!) after they've collected the money, cash in advance. Commissions seems at times like the worst investment, in terms of cash outlay, time it takes to go through the process, and resale value return on investment percentage (compared to published art). I do "get it" if you wanted specific renderings, customized for you, that doesn't exist as a published piece, you're buying something unique out of passion and fandom.

This is what makes art so fun to collect, different stroke for different folks. Many would rather have stuff by other artists, while others see this as overpriced, some see it as a grail they'd give an arm n' a leg to own.

Norm Rapmund is an honest straight shooter.

I discussed this topic with another artist and he said, inking is the final process and is what you end up seeing as what is published (sans color and text added digitially). He said most inkers (even if a penciler inks their own work), literally obliterates any traces of original pencils by going over the pencils with ink, adding more detail with ink over any rough pencil lines, then ultimately taking an eraser over the remnant pencils so that the final ink piece is what's left. Nobody can tell the difference. With that, does it truly really matter what's underneath the inks if the inks are the final process of a legitimately inked piece used in publication? I get it if it's a commission of a bunch of artists inking over blue-lines from another artist, like "try-outs", but when it comes to published work, I think in today's day and age, no matter how you slice it, whether it's pencils, bluelines or digital that's inked, the final version is still a "one of a kind" item and can not be replaced and is that proverbial "it is what it is" and should not be penalized or devalued ('tho we all know that there's collectors out there who are naysayers, much like there are some who disdain separate pencils and inks; no dialogue captions, boxes and bubbles; use of stats or paste-ups; colored artwork; etc.). For commissions, I think the same applies as part of the individual artists process. What I don't like, personally are the full digital pieces with that "1 of 1" print outs posing as if they are to have original art status, instead of being a proposed one of a kind print.

This is what makes collecting comic art and owning it so awesome 'tho, the "one of a kind" (you can't wait for another one to come around, unlike with high grade comic books) opportunities buyers can't let slip past their fingers, and aggressive bidding wars occur. In the same breath, you hear crickets chirping and minimal interest with pieces selling for losses, more often, the situation is filled with elated surprises for older (pre-1990's) mainstream (Marvel & DC Super-Heroes) published art. If I saw the piece, I'd have though maybe a few hundred dollars, and it's not necessarily a novice evaluation, more of a "what it's worth to me" collector's perspective more so than as an investor or reseller. Where others obviously saw it with a 10-15x higher valuation. The Heritage Signature Auctions ends this week, and it's fun, even as a bystander observing the live feed, not as a participant to watch piece go up for sale and all of the action.

The business of comic book publishing has become one of printing manufactured collectibles treasured for variant covers and #1 numbering, not to be read, but to be slabbed. Marvel needs to whittle down the releases, even if they charged $10 per issue, but made comics more meaningful, so only 1 comic book release per character, no more multiple titles for Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men, etc. and hire great writers, great artists and get rid of the variants as well as stop reprinting (going into a 2nd printing) comics, so the originals retain conductibility and only represent comics as collected editions. Stop trying to create universal epic event storylines, and bring it back to the Marvel Silver Age formula where writers need not crossover through other titles or run story arcs more than 4 issues, and let it be entertaining, which brings the kids back into reading the books.