Recently sold Watchmen art on eBay

[chromium]

 

Any comments on the final hammer price of the Wathcmen page that was sold on eBay this week ?

I didn't think it would reach the 4K mark as it's a pretty nondescript page. I do like it, nice details and lots of atmosphere...but none of the major characters.

 

Watchmen issue# p #26

 

Wonder if the price would have gone even higher if the page had been for sale at Heritage or Clink ?

 

Makes the (similar) issue #11 page that's been for sale for quite some time on CAF seem reasonably priced at $4,750.00.

 

 

[Eric Seffinga]

I was more interested to see the color guide hit over $600.

 

-e.

[chromium]

I was more interested to see the color guide hit over $600.

 

-e.

 

Same buyer as the page if I recall correctly...and to think the color guides were given free with the pages to the first buyers

[Nexus]

The movie hype has really ramped this market up. There have been several private high dollar sales in the last couple of months. But those all featured multiple characters.

 

In general, I understand people overpaying for art they TRULY want. I've done it often enough. It's the people who overpay just to have an example who end up screwing themselves. Who knows? Maybe this person really did like this page. But if a page he likes better pops up later, and he's already blown his wad on this one, then he'll regret it.

 

I think that will be the case for many of the collectors currently paying "A" prices for "B" pieces (or even "C" pieces). There's a perceived shortage of WM art on the market. However, I'm sure more will surface as the movie release nears. Don't forget, there were 12 issues to this series and all the art was sold. So it is out there. More crazy sales like this one will tease more out.

 

They'll never be "cheap" again, but I do think there will be better selection (and better values with more supply) in a few months' time. That's my prediction, anyhow.

[chromium]

Good point..I'm also wondering if the prices realized for "lesser" pieces will bring more "A" pages to the market. I know a lot of collectors really would like to own a page of this book and a lot of them are counting on movie hype to bring the pages out as possibly one of the last chances to be able to pick and choose

[Nexus]

For what it's worth, I know of two people who own "A" pages who plan on selling when the movie is released. When, theoretically, the demand will be greatest.

 

What I'm observing is that most collectors, in general, are impatient. Thus, they're overpaying for WM art NOW...they're not waiting. So by the time the movie rolls around, many people will have already overpaid for their example and most won't be able to afford another. The demand may not be as great as it is now, regardless of the quality of the page.

 

I was talking to a friend about this and telling him that I believed that now was the best time to sell his "B/C" page to get a maximum return, not wait for the movie to come out. By then, he'd be competing with other pages, including better "A" ones. Indeed, he just sold his page for an "A" price. I don't think he would have done as well if he had waited.

 

 

[Cimm]

see... I would consider that an "A" page, due to the Black Freighter top panels...

[Nexus]

Of course, to each his own (and one reason I put A, B, C in quotes). Just speaking in terms of market generalities.

[Jesusjon]

Well, count me as someone who's looking to pay "A" prices for an "A" page. I've been patient so far, which is always difficult for me, but I'm trying to hold out for this so called wave of available pages around the time the film comes out. We shall see!!

 

 

[Eric Seffinga]

Happens every time there's renewed interest in a title. I remember when V pages were practically a dime a dozen. Release a movie and a whole new audience is attracted to a book. New faces means new money. More demand + same supply = prices go up.

 

Then there's the trickle down effect. Can't get a Hellboy piece? How about Rocket Racoon! I mean seriously? Rocket Racoon splashes in the thousands? It's freakin' Rocket Racoon for Pete's sake.

 

There's the example mentioned in another thread about the various schools of thought to collecting. When many of these collecting philosophies converge on having a top tier example of the cornerstones of the modern comic art market (i.e. Miller's Dark Knight, Alan's books, etc.) and the secondary media forms bring in fresh blood, all focused on a few doxen pages, all bets are off. Also the stability of this market becomes unpredictable. People have this discussion about many things, including collectibles of all sorts. Ever priced a Les Paul sunburst? The real deal, only manufactured between '58 and '60. Street price ballpark? About $250Gs give or take. 10 years ago or so they were selling for what, 1/5th of that? When they hit $100K people said no way they'd keep going up. Yet those prices do finally seem to have stalled, and a lot more vintage guitars have been hitting eBay on a regular basis the last 2 years.

 

The turbulence in the economy has shaken a lot of interesting stuff loose without movie hype behind it. Couple those two things together and the primo Watchmen pages in the hands of folks who bought them when they were cheap and seeing them sell in the thousands, well it could get very interesting to watch.

 

-e.

 

 

 

 

[J.Sid]

Question: What makes an 'A' page or a 'B' page for Watchmen?

 

There are a lot of very good pages in that story with characters in costume appearing on them. For me though, it's the difference between being "a page" or "the page."

 

In my book, "a page with Laurie and Dr. Manhattan" is totally different from "THE page with Laurie and Dr. Manhattan and another Dr. Manhattan in a three-way."

 

In this scoring system, there are dozens of "C" and "D" graded pages which are actually pretty friggin' sweet. They are, after all, competing against other Watchmen pages.

 

 

 

Side note: did anyone hear what the 'sex' page (the 'ED' page) that was bouncing around finally traded/sold for?

 

 

 

-Jeff