DUDE!! (Chris!!) I am NOT joking, but I too nearly purchased this page back in early 1992! I may be getting the exact dates mixed up, but I was working at a comic book shop in Ottawa at the time and we were the ones who put on the big comic book shows at the time. I had JUST started collecting original art pages (I was one of the first to start doing so and bought and sold so many that when Wizard magazine published a price guide for original comic book art pages, many of my sales were used to compile the data).
I've actually told the story on stage more than a few times about how I almost purchased that page. The dealer was in fact asking $800 (Or thereabouts) and absolutely NO ONE thought it was worth that. Keep in mind, this was in Canadian dollars! The dealer was having a heck of a time reselling it (He bought it for a high price from Todd himself, apparently) and was looking to unload it. Long story short, I offered the guy half ($400) and he said he needed at least $500. We went back and forth all day as I was a dealer so I would go back every hour or so and see if he had changed his mind.
Long story short (too late!!), the guy came down to $450 and wouldn't budge. I REALLY wanted the page, but I would have had to borrow cash from my buddy and shop owner to get the extra $250 needed for the $450 (I only had $200 and my buddy was seriously choked that I wanted to borrow $200 from him, so I would have had to ask my boss for a $50 advance). I thought about it and felt that having the page wasn't as important as... drinking? Going out with the ladies? Buying more comic books?! And, that if I really wanted that page I could get it next time, since no one wanted it!!
Never saw the dealer again, never saw the page again. I know for a fact that back in 2007 when the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man 3 movie was about to come out, someone was offering $25,000 US for the page on eBay. That page has been aggressively sought after for at least 10 years now and is easily one of the greatest, "I coulda, shoulda, woulda!" stories of my life!!
