vodou

Love it!

Love it! I've got Pollard's MS#12 cover from Burkey and can't see that we'll ever part.

Yeah that damned frame job cost $400, but it really works with the piece.

Totleben Swamp Thing 92

On the subject of true fraud- http://www.nypost.com/seven/03262009/news/regionalnews/famed_art_gallery_owner_indicted_161438.htm

I've never seen any of these offered and only one in a collection (FF236) - Avenger 213 cvr Captain America 263 cvr Fantastic Four 236 cvr Iron Man 152 cvr Uncanny X-Men 146, 151, 152 cvrs

Nice Zeck from 1981, you can easily tell Beatty wasn't inking Mike yet...

I've been looking for this cover for about 10 years...got it in on Thursday. Back in the 80s as a relatively new comic collector, and Cap as my favorite character, I knew he'd been around since WWII (thanks to the Overstreet listing) but that was about it. Imagine my excitement to pick up a comic that brought it all together in 32 ad-free pages! Sadly, the Cap of today is nothing like those favorite DeMatteis/Zeck issues from twenty-five years ago. Cripes - he's "dead" now right? Haven't bought a Cap in five years and never thought I'd say that... From Keith Pollard and Al Williamson -

a truly great cover!

It's a rare modern piece that grabs me - - this one does.

Still looking for some help with this... Any manga or Japanese-translating collectors here?

Just traded for this - - Don't know anything about it - artist? title? what's going on? Is there somebody out there that can translate Japanese to English?

Great WW cover Mike! About six or seven years ago, Conrad Eschenberg had it at a Boston show and it caught my eye, alas I was spent out. The next time I saw him, it was gone. Coulda, shoulda, woulda.

But you don't. And those that do just simply aren't Ditko ASM NUTs...at least not to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Recommended reading - The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley & Danko. It dispels a lot of the myth around the wealthy and how they got to be that way. And who they are. While about ten years old now the research is probably still on the mark. Biggest thing to come out of it was that less than 7% of all millionaires inherited it. You read that right - 90%+ are first generation self-made millionaires. For any of you that work for a living (all of us, right?) nobody knows better than you how hard it is to earn and keep a buck (after taxes). How much harder is it to put a million or more of those bucks next to each other and not spend them? If you did would you really let 20%+ of your net worth go in one fell swoop for a buncha ink on board? (keeping in mind that you don't intend to resell) Another interesting fact - the official US Gov't definition of upper middle class is $250k-$500k net worth. Above that is upper class territory. Not a lot of money actually is it? That's because there's a lot less SUPER rich folks ($10mil net or whatever) than the media, advertising people and politicians would lead you to believe. Don't forget we're talking "net" worth here...less of those than you may suspect. Look around everybody is leveraged to mortgage, vehicle and credit cards. The only non-depreciating part of that equation may be real estate. Instead of taking what's handed to you in popular myth/media, do a bit of research into reality. And I mean everybody, not just the dude I'm quoting above. Those of us in MA (oh so close to blessed NH) know that $300k doesn't even get you a nice house...how much more $$$ in the slush fund do you need beyond that amount to justify buying some nice Ditko as an afterthought? One final thought - a kitty of $10mil would kick off $400,000 alone in money market interest every year. Would you really want to mess with that??

I think it's all out there too. A few strays may have been lost to Fed-Ex, floods, etc. but the bulk is probably still sitting in one safe place...

And as a business, that's a business decision. Even if they only break even or even lose money on the eventual sale of the break up pieces, it can make sense from a marketing perspective. What's the advertising (particularly the "free" kind that comes with any big sale, all the papers report on it) value of buying/owning a key Ditko ASM book? That might just be worth $50k or more alone to Heritage (or any Company X). Not to mention if it doesn't sell in the auction, Heritage (or whomever) can step in and buy for a lot less behind the scenes. So what may be perceived by the man on the street (all of us) as a book that's "worth" $200k or $300k or whatever, a marketing arm could acquire for behind the scenes for something less than Mastro's opening bid (if it's too high to get a bite) and then leverage price against intangibles (advertising opportunities). Not only all of the above, but as a net cash business (my understanding is that Heritage is in a large net position, they don't owe) they can afford to sit on the book until the market catches up pricewise...even if it's years down the road. Or just dump it like they do lots of stuff they get tired of and throw a monkey wrench into the perceived value of Ditko ASM pages. And that would be a "correction"

Didn't mean "in general", meant specifically for any given "better" individual lot/piece in question "worth" $10k+. If you're holding the cover to Batman 15 and want to offer it privately, for real cash, no bs, your short list is tremendously short even though interest among all tiers of fanbase is very high. Just because you've got that cash free and clear to spend on comic art, w/o guilty feelings or other issues, doesn't mean you specifically want Batman 15. Also I'm not counting dealers here. For them it's a business decision. I mean, Hari, that complete Ditko book is nice, right? But will you be hitting the kitty or selling stuff to finance it? Or maybe it's not your cup of tea? Thus removing a fella that can -at the right time, for the right piece- find a way to spend $10k+ cash on art.

Not likely, but maybe I'll be wrong. Those with an "extra" $350k (and those guys are just all over the place) wouldn't likely put it somewhere where there's no return on profit. There's a real good chance those same folks have to SELL something to get liquid. After all that's what we're talking about here - sunk cash for something that won't (in that collector's lifetime) be converted back to cash. Highly unlikely. Even the Steve Geppi's of our hobby prefer to MAKE money on our hobby vs. SINKING it forever. A breakup is much more likely (see Mark McDermott entry in the encylopedia). Even with prices all out there and there never being any conservative forces or potential price retreats this book will top at $200k, probably less. Most folks don't have raw cash at that level and Mastro ain't taking credit cards or promises (not to mention CGC trade). Even fewer folks are willing to trick their bank into a a fresh mortgage just to pull out cash and speculate on the break value. If you've a house with $200k to pull out of it - would you? To buy some Spidey pages, nice as they are? More importantly, would you still be married the next day? All the real players at this level, that give a [embarrassing lack of self control] about funnybook art, are thinking these same thoughts and all but two will walk away. The two that remain will determine the auction price, but not more than $200k. I'm not looking to join the lousy naysayers group, but having myself offered some supposedly top stuff over the years (@ the 10k+ level) has taught me how much hot air there is in this hobby. Any of you that haven't played there would be amazed how few are standing after you mention a "real" cash (vs. cash/trade or all trade) on-the-spot price. The hobby pyramid narrows dramatically as to number of players once you cross the $2000/$2500 mark for immediate cash no time payments. Another tier is crossing $5k, where 50-75% of remaining players drop off, crossing $10k means talking to under 10 people. There's a long stretch from $10k to $200k (or whatever). As always "cash is king" because it offers unlimited opportunity, all other methods are "problematic" due to inherent limitations and so full of "apparent value" bs. Even time payments and credit lines bear hidden (for either the buyer or seller, or both) "time value of money" constraints to be factored in. No special math needed for straight cash on-the-spot. But I could be alllll wrong!

Just got this Ramon Torrents Warren page in: It's from Vampirella #36.