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vodou

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    (attempted) Flip of the Day!

    in Original Comic Art

    Posted

    On 12/16/2023 at 9:07 AM, KirbyCollector said:

    1200 + prob another 100 in taxes/shipping gets you to 1300, for a markup of 550 or 42%. It's a little sad that we are so conditioned to seeing 60-70% markups that we think 42% is "light" now... 

    A dealer markup of 50-100% is not new, in any corner of moving product from wholesale to retail. What is (relatively) new is the level of confidence that many dealers have to buy at the very top (from an open-to-all, well-advertised and very well attended auction) without even a pause in step to immediately relist at that notably higher "retail markup".

    Will any collector shed a tear for those that get caught wrong footed in the rising rate cashflow trap?

    Their argument would be that nobody sells at wholesale direct to them anymore, with the proliferation of venues and access to sell direct collector to collector. Well...that's how an efficient bull market works...can you still hear the cries of grey-haired "full service brokers" that miss the days of $200-$500 per transaction Street commissions and they would accept orders to buy and sell only in "round lots"?

    Change never benefits, nor causes pain, in just one direction. In our case, as collectors, dealers are now largely shameless in their business practices, particularly markups, because of the above paragraph...regardless of how their inventory was acquired (as the robbing of widows and orphans still occurs, not all inventory is acquired from the price efficient Heritage). We all tend to sell for more, but end up paying more too.

    And, of course, almost no dealers are full-time or even really dealers in the traditional sense. Certainly their overhead isn't nearly the same as art dealers of olde (pre-internet) that justified that 50-100% we all used to read about in the front matter of three decades of Over Street guides 😁

    I think it's all great, at least there really aren't any true monopoly scenarios choking we collectors out.

    Hakes Auction Results, thoughts?

    in Original Comic Art

    Posted

    The intersection of comic and fantasy art with the Mastro/Lifson machine, in the aftermath of Christie's and Sotheby's suddenly exiting handling such material will always be memorable (or infamous?) for those of us that were there, bidding, and winning. The known facts are very much merely the visible tip of the iceberg that lurked below.

    The incorporations change names, sometimes new friends (and their hoards or connections to hoards) are brought in but...the essential behaviors, generally narcissistic and sociopathologial persist and appear to have even thrived since remain.

    However, my understanding is this is how all of collectibles works, there's nothing special carving out just comic and fantasy art. So surely none of this is news to anybody lurking or posting on this Board 😉😘🥳

    Comic Link Fall Featured Auction Nov 17

    in Original Comic Art

    Posted

    On 12/7/2023 at 11:33 AM, delekkerste said:

    Although not expensive by mainstream superhero comic art standards at $7100 (probably close to $8,000 including tax and shipping in that frame), that's still a good chunk of change to spend on something that's...

    Some pretty hard fade going on too, all grays shifting to light brown?! If so, my hard cap on such is hundreds not thousands 😉

    Comic Link Fall Featured Auction Nov 17

    in Original Comic Art

    Posted

    On 12/7/2023 at 10:33 AM, Bronty said:

    There’s  going to be a pretty hard cap on the value of most comic art from artists that did very little comic art.

    It's also the painted art lag effect at play. That lag, in trajectory, has always been there and is even more apparent when any general market softness is present. I could make some guesses why this is, beginning with the sticker prices were always higher because the artists asked more to begin with and that cools demand, but really I don't get it now where everything is pricey. (No more $25 Buscema SSIC pages anymore!) Mostly the art is more attractive (to collectors and non-collectors alike) than pen/brush India inks only but...that's the market!