Thinking of getting rid of my comics

[Pete Marino]

 

Even though I quoted your post my comments weren't really direct towards you. I just wanted to point out to the collectors that are lurking on this thread that needing a large nest egg to start collector is not always necessary. It depends on your goals/focus. When I read your post it wasn't clear to me that you were speaking about how you collect. It read more like "this is what you need to get started."

As for liquidity, I think the percentage of FMV you're willing to accept plays more of a factor than actual value of the piece.

I do plan on starting to look for a job soon. Not today, but soon

 

 

This is 100% true. it's the oldest addage i know. Price is what you pay, value is what it's worth.

 

It doesn't matter if it's $50 art, or $50,000 art. A good buy is a good buy, and a bad one is a bad one.

 

There is a huge market for low end art, the $100-$500 sales are the ones that happen every day.

 

As someone who came into this hobby w/o another set of collectables to sell off (or a huge income) the best advice I was given, is that you build your collection. Start off simple and small, and move from there, build a collection, you don't just start at the top end. I made some good buys and bad buys when I 1st started. It is all a learning experience. I am glad I wasn't dropping tons of money when I started, because I would have made a lot of mistakes, and had art that would have been difficult to sell... with a lot of $$ in them. It's much easier to eat a $300 mistake than a $2000 one.

 

Like "the NSN collection" I love what I've acquired in a few years. I have dreams of getting bigger and better pages as time goes on. and most of my friends make fun of my collection as well =)

[Kevin76]

I got my first OA page for $130. At the time the comic it was printed is was a $40 comic. For me the choice was simple. This was 15 years ago. It makes me scratch my head when I see collectors spending $100+ for a CGC book a few months old when they can find the pages from that same book for just about the same price.

 

I really have to disagree with the statement that "10K doesn't buy you much." It may not buy you much if you want a portfolio (or even one) McFarlane, Kirby, Adams or whatever other artist people are clamoring for. But it can't get you plenty if you know where to look and appreciate the 99.9% of the page that isn't the artists signature.

 

I also disagree that you need to spend 15-20k to get something nice you can sell down the road if you need to. Anything can be dumped later on if need be. Spending 15K on a single piece doesn't mean you'll get 15K when you try to sell it any more than spending $500 on something means you'll get $500 when you try to sell.

 

I'd say, on average, I'm probably on the lower end of the money earners on these boards(having no job since January almost guarantees that ) , so I have a problem when others state that someone needs a large sum to buy into this little hobby. I've never come anywhere near $5000 on a single piece and I quite like my collection (although my good friend says it's all )

 

If you disagree, that's fine, I was talking about my personal POV. I personally don't like 99.9 % of the artwork out there. I personally swing for the fences rather than hitting a base hit with a scribble at a convention. If i'm going to collect art, I want the Adams, Millers, Wrightson, ect.. of the art world. I look at art a bit differently since I can draw myself.

 

I don't like Adam Hughes or any the cheesecake art out there. These half naked pen and ink drawings of half naked women that these guys go crazy for just look really stupid IMO.

 

I've heard people having a much harder time trying to sell something down the line that they paid 2K for and come to find out, they were the only ones who wanted it.

 

I go to a conventions and flip through portfolios and just yawn at the pieces I'm seeing, so another man's trash is another man's treasure.Again, this is my personal POV on collecting art, I'm sure collectors on here are yelling at their computers at me for thinking this way but I only go for the best. I'd rather have nothing than to not have exactly what I want. Forget art though, focus on getting a job first and foremost.

 

 

Even though I quoted your post my comments weren't really direct towards you. I just wanted to point out to the collectors that are lurking on this thread that needing a large nest egg to start collector is not always necessary. It depends on your goals/focus. When I read your post it wasn't clear to me that you were speaking about how you collect. It read more like "this is what you need to get started."

As for liquidity, I think the percentage of FMV you're willing to accept plays more of a factor than actual value of the piece.

I do plan on starting to look for a job soon. Not today, but soon

 

Well Speed-D was looking for people's thoughts on the matter which is why I chimed in with my own opinion and he can make a decision based off of my experience and POV as to if he wants to sell all his comics for art or not since I did the same thing,

 

No, you don't "Need" 15-20K to buy anything but if you want cover and splashes or half splashes by great artists then you do. Most people on a budget who collect art mess around with panel pages and convention sketches, which is fine but it's not for me and I wouldn't recommend that to anyone willing to sell their 10K+ collection of comics to buy art.

[suspense39]

Just curious, why wouldn't you "recommend" it.

[Kevin76]

 

Even though I quoted your post my comments weren't really direct towards you. I just wanted to point out to the collectors that are lurking on this thread that needing a large nest egg to start collector is not always necessary. It depends on your goals/focus. When I read your post it wasn't clear to me that you were speaking about how you collect. It read more like "this is what you need to get started."

As for liquidity, I think the percentage of FMV you're willing to accept plays more of a factor than actual value of the piece.

I do plan on starting to look for a job soon. Not today, but soon

 

 

This is 100% true. it's the oldest addage i know. Price is what you pay, value is what it's worth.

 

It doesn't matter if it's $50 art, or $50,000 art. A good buy is a good buy, and a bad one is a bad one.

 

There is a huge market for low end art, the $100-$500 sales are the ones that happen every day.

 

As someone who came into this hobby w/o another set of collectables to sell off (or a huge income) the best advice I was given, is that you build your collection. Start off simple and small, and move from there, build a collection, you don't just start at the top end. I made some good buys and bad buys when I 1st started. It is all a learning experience. I am glad I wasn't dropping tons of money when I started, because I would have made a lot of mistakes, and had art that would have been difficult to sell... with a lot of $$ in them. It's much easier to eat a $300 mistake than a $2000 one.

 

Like "the NSN collection" I love what I've acquired in a few years. I have dreams of getting bigger and better pages as time goes on. and most of my friends make fun of my collection as well =)

 

My first piece of art was a Jim Lee wildcats panel pages for $250, then I bought a half splash Wetworks page for another $250, I wasn't happy with them after a while and traded them away. Bought a 2K mcfarlane spider-man vs venom page which I sold for $4500 (this was over 10 years ago) Went back to comics, never paid attention to art again for about 5 years then sold everything and bought another McSpidey splash, a Kirby Thor Splash and a Bolland WW cover all within 6 months of each other, as soon as I got the money from my comics, the money went right back out the door. My motto with art was alway this from the start. "Buy the what made the artist you like famous, and buy the best example of the character you can afford" Everyone is "buy what you like, start small blah blah" If you can afford it, swing for the fences.

[Pete Marino]

 

Even though I quoted your post my comments weren't really direct towards you. I just wanted to point out to the collectors that are lurking on this thread that needing a large nest egg to start collector is not always necessary. It depends on your goals/focus. When I read your post it wasn't clear to me that you were speaking about how you collect. It read more like "this is what you need to get started."

As for liquidity, I think the percentage of FMV you're willing to accept plays more of a factor than actual value of the piece.

I do plan on starting to look for a job soon. Not today, but soon

 

 

This is 100% true. it's the oldest addage i know. Price is what you pay, value is what it's worth.

 

It doesn't matter if it's $50 art, or $50,000 art. A good buy is a good buy, and a bad one is a bad one.

 

There is a huge market for low end art, the $100-$500 sales are the ones that happen every day.

 

As someone who came into this hobby w/o another set of collectables to sell off (or a huge income) the best advice I was given, is that you build your collection. Start off simple and small, and move from there, build a collection, you don't just start at the top end. I made some good buys and bad buys when I 1st started. It is all a learning experience. I am glad I wasn't dropping tons of money when I started, because I would have made a lot of mistakes, and had art that would have been difficult to sell... with a lot of $$ in them. It's much easier to eat a $300 mistake than a $2000 one.

 

Like "the NSN collection" I love what I've acquired in a few years. I have dreams of getting bigger and better pages as time goes on. and most of my friends make fun of my collection as well =)

 

My first piece of art was a Jim Lee wildcats panel pages for $250, then I bought a half splash Wetworks page for another $250, I wasn't happy with them after a while and traded them away. Bought a 2K mcfarlane spider-man vs venom page which I sold for $4500 (this was over 10 years ago) Went back to comics, never paid attention to art again for about 5 years then sold everything and bought another McSpidey splash, a Kirby Thor Splash and a Bolland WW cover all within 6 months of each other, as soon as I got the money from my comics, the money went right back out the door. My motto with art was alway this from the start. "Buy the what made the artist you like famous, and buy the best example of the character you can afford" Everyone is "buy what you like, start small blah blah" If you can afford it, swing for the fences.

 

So it's ok for you to give your experience, but disparage others when they give theirs?

 

dude, you're kind of an... well you figure out the adjective i'd use to describe you.

 

blah blah blah? I am amazed....

[suspense39]

Ok , now I see your point, yes I would definitely NOT "invest" in convention sketches.

[Kevin76]

Just curious, why wouldn't you "recommend" it.

 

Because if you sold all your comics and got 10K for them, then bought art and after a while you decide to go back into comics by selling your art, you'll have a tough time getting the money back if you didn't buy quality. Which is why I wouldn't recommend buying a bunch of smaller pieces by artists who aren't all that popular. Do you really want to turn around and say "I sold all my comics and got into art, decided I liked comics more and when I sold the art, no one really wanted it, I made a big mistake"

[Kevin76]

 

Even though I quoted your post my comments weren't really direct towards you. I just wanted to point out to the collectors that are lurking on this thread that needing a large nest egg to start collector is not always necessary. It depends on your goals/focus. When I read your post it wasn't clear to me that you were speaking about how you collect. It read more like "this is what you need to get started."

As for liquidity, I think the percentage of FMV you're willing to accept plays more of a factor than actual value of the piece.

I do plan on starting to look for a job soon. Not today, but soon

 

 

This is 100% true. it's the oldest addage i know. Price is what you pay, value is what it's worth.

 

It doesn't matter if it's $50 art, or $50,000 art. A good buy is a good buy, and a bad one is a bad one.

 

There is a huge market for low end art, the $100-$500 sales are the ones that happen every day.

 

As someone who came into this hobby w/o another set of collectables to sell off (or a huge income) the best advice I was given, is that you build your collection. Start off simple and small, and move from there, build a collection, you don't just start at the top end. I made some good buys and bad buys when I 1st started. It is all a learning experience. I am glad I wasn't dropping tons of money when I started, because I would have made a lot of mistakes, and had art that would have been difficult to sell... with a lot of $$ in them. It's much easier to eat a $300 mistake than a $2000 one.

 

Like "the NSN collection" I love what I've acquired in a few years. I have dreams of getting bigger and better pages as time goes on. and most of my friends make fun of my collection as well =)

 

My first piece of art was a Jim Lee wildcats panel pages for $250, then I bought a half splash Wetworks page for another $250, I wasn't happy with them after a while and traded them away. Bought a 2K mcfarlane spider-man vs venom page which I sold for $4500 (this was over 10 years ago) Went back to comics, never paid attention to art again for about 5 years then sold everything and bought another McSpidey splash, a Kirby Thor Splash and a Bolland WW cover all within 6 months of each other, as soon as I got the money from my comics, the money went right back out the door. My motto with art was alway this from the start. "Buy the what made the artist you like famous, and buy the best example of the character you can afford" Everyone is "buy what you like, start small blah blah" If you can afford it, swing for the fences.

 

So it's ok for you to give your experience, but disparage others when they give theirs?

 

dude, you're kind of an... well you figure out the adjective i'd use to describe you.

 

blah blah blah? I am amazed....

 

I never said you couldn't give your experience, I'm unlike yourself is trying to stay on topic of the original poster's question, I know that's pretty rare if not impossible on these boards.

 

I've never said "you've got to do it this way" I'm keeping people from making a huge finanicial mistake because if someone wants to sell their comics to buy art, then turn around and try and sell their art but is having a hard time doing so because they didn't buy quality. I know someone who's a Dale Keown Hulk fan (No, it's not Yorham I'm talking about) he paid 4K for this hulk piece it was a nice piece but wasn't all that great and it wasn't from his Hulk series. It took him months and months to sell it, no one wanted it, finally some guy from China bought it for what the seller paid for it. Do you really want to see someone struggle like that? This person I know basically made a 4K mistake, it worked out in the end but it was a close one. Mistakes like that happen all the time from new collectors, I'm just trying to get people see things another way so they don't make the mistakes. Want to call me a :::Blank:::: for it...go ahead.

[Pete Marino]

 

Even though I quoted your post my comments weren't really direct towards you. I just wanted to point out to the collectors that are lurking on this thread that needing a large nest egg to start collector is not always necessary. It depends on your goals/focus. When I read your post it wasn't clear to me that you were speaking about how you collect. It read more like "this is what you need to get started."

As for liquidity, I think the percentage of FMV you're willing to accept plays more of a factor than actual value of the piece.

I do plan on starting to look for a job soon. Not today, but soon

 

 

This is 100% true. it's the oldest addage i know. Price is what you pay, value is what it's worth.

 

It doesn't matter if it's $50 art, or $50,000 art. A good buy is a good buy, and a bad one is a bad one.

 

There is a huge market for low end art, the $100-$500 sales are the ones that happen every day.

 

As someone who came into this hobby w/o another set of collectables to sell off (or a huge income) the best advice I was given, is that you build your collection. Start off simple and small, and move from there, build a collection, you don't just start at the top end. I made some good buys and bad buys when I 1st started. It is all a learning experience. I am glad I wasn't dropping tons of money when I started, because I would have made a lot of mistakes, and had art that would have been difficult to sell... with a lot of $$ in them. It's much easier to eat a $300 mistake than a $2000 one.

 

Like "the NSN collection" I love what I've acquired in a few years. I have dreams of getting bigger and better pages as time goes on. and most of my friends make fun of my collection as well =)

 

My first piece of art was a Jim Lee wildcats panel pages for $250, then I bought a half splash Wetworks page for another $250, I wasn't happy with them after a while and traded them away. Bought a 2K mcfarlane spider-man vs venom page which I sold for $4500 (this was over 10 years ago) Went back to comics, never paid attention to art again for about 5 years then sold everything and bought another McSpidey splash, a Kirby Thor Splash and a Bolland WW cover all within 6 months of each other, as soon as I got the money from my comics, the money went right back out the door. My motto with art was alway this from the start. "Buy the what made the artist you like famous, and buy the best example of the character you can afford" Everyone is "buy what you like, start small blah blah" If you can afford it, swing for the fences.

 

So it's ok for you to give your experience, but disparage others when they give theirs?

 

dude, you're kind of an... well you figure out the adjective i'd use to describe you.

 

blah blah blah? I am amazed....

 

I never said you couldn't give your experience, I'm unlike yourself is trying to stay on topic of the original poster's question, I know that's pretty rare if not impossible on these boards.

 

I've never said "you've got to do it this way" I'm keeping people from making a huge finanicial mistake because if someone wants to sell their comics to buy art, then turn around and try and sell their art but is having a hard time doing so because they didn't buy quality. I know someone who's a Dale Keown Hulk fan (No, it's not Yorham I'm talking about) he paid 4K for this hulk piece it was a nice piece but wasn't all that great and it wasn't from his Hulk series. It took him months and months to sell it, no one wanted it, finally some guy from China bought it for what the seller paid for it. Do you really want to see someone struggle like that? This person I know basically made a 4K mistake, it worked out in the end but it was a close one. Mistakes like that happen all the time from new collectors, I'm just trying to get people see things another way so they don't make the mistakes. Want to call me a :::Blank:::: for it...go ahead.

 

I won't call you anything, except a poor reader.

 

You are agreeing with exactly what I said. Your friend paid too much. He didn't spend his money wisely. If he had purchased the same page for less, he wouldn't have been in that situation. if you spend too much, it doesn't matter the dollar amount of 4k, $40, or $40,000.

 

Do research, find out what a good price is for it, at times you'll make mistakes. If you bought your McSpidey ASM page for 9k instead of 3k, it would have been a bad purchase as well...

 

I don't see what the dollar amount has anything to do with it...

 

[mister_not_so_nice]

I never said you couldn't give your experience, I'm unlike yourself is trying to stay on topic of the original poster's question, I know that's pretty rare if not impossible on these boards.

 

I've never said "you've got to do it this way" I'm keeping people from making a huge finanicial mistake because if someone wants to sell their comics to buy art, then turn around and try and sell their art but is having a hard time doing so because they didn't buy quality. I know someone who's a Dale Keown Hulk fan (No, it's not Yorham I'm talking about) he paid 4K for this hulk piece it was a nice piece but wasn't all that great and it wasn't from his Hulk series. It took him months and months to sell it, no one wanted it, finally some guy from China bought it for what the seller paid for it. Do you really want to see someone struggle like that? This person I know basically made a 4K mistake, it worked out in the end but it was a close one. Mistakes like that happen all the time from new collectors, I'm just trying to get people see things another way so they don't make the mistakes. Want to call me a :::Blank:::: for it...go ahead.

 

I understand what you are saying. Most collectors want a McSpidey, but no one wants a McFarlane INFINITY WARS (or whatever that forgetful title is called) page. My takeaway from your example isn't that the collector didn't buy quality, but that he didn't buy a piece he wanted. And for the months and months he tried to sell it, was the asking price $4000? Or was he padding the price of purchase of a sub-par piece purposely (alliteration intentional ).

 

So, to Speedy-D and everyone else, sell those comics and buy the quality YOU like. And if you think the piece in question will be for sale in 6-12 months you may be better off "buying" prints of Big Head Benjamins that the gov't is putting out. (Let's not turn this into a HARD ASSETTS ARE PLUMMETTING thread )

 

Dropping 10K on convention sketches and commissions and thinking you can turn around and get your money back? Not likely. I know that of the commisisons I have paid for I might be lucky to get 25% of my money back out of them. Bad "investment" I know.

 

 

[alxjhnsn]

My motto with art was alway this from the start. "Buy the what made the artist you like famous, and buy the best example of the character you can afford"

I would add to that "buy what invokes emotion in you when you see it," i.e., buy what you love.

 

 

[Terry Doyle]

 

I don't like Adam Hughes or any the cheesecake art out there. These half naked pen and ink drawings of half naked women that these guys go crazy for just look really stupid IMO.

 

 

Agreed.

 

The massive t*tties and ultra-thin waist nudie drawings look particularly bad . . .

[Bronty]

The problem with what shuley is suggesting is that it takes quite a while to develop your eye. If you swing for the fences on day 1 you won't really understand what makes a piece 4k vs 3k vs 8k.

 

You don't plop a drafted baseball player into the big leagues. He'll flame out like shuley did. You develop him in the minors so that when he gets up to big leagues he'll k ow which pitch to swing on.

 

I ended up making money on all the first pages I bought when it came time to sell them, but I was cheap when buying, and let the deal come to me instead of the other way around. If you chase a checklist (*must have* Adams GL page !) then yeah especially as a rookie you'll get burned. If you keep your options open and only open the purse strings when it's a good deal, you can do fine whether its low, mid, or high end.

 

Bottom line is that there are a lot of lessons to learn, and it's better to learn them on cheaper pieces. Not the least of these is that as a collector you yourself, not just the object, have to change when collecting art. There is a very different rythymn to it. As a comic collector you are used to getting a regular fix. Three square a day. Art you buy nothing forever and then write a big check. It's not three squares its.... starve starve starve gorge til you puke. And that is actually a really significant psychological hill to climb. If you are used to three meals a day and you have a pocket full of cash from selling comics you can make a bunch of bad decisions real quick. You need much more patience than in comics so part of starting small is to give yourself a chance to adjust.

[Garf]

 

Even though I quoted your post my comments weren't really direct towards you. I just wanted to point out to the collectors that are lurking on this thread that needing a large nest egg to start collector is not always necessary. It depends on your goals/focus. When I read your post it wasn't clear to me that you were speaking about how you collect. It read more like "this is what you need to get started."

As for liquidity, I think the percentage of FMV you're willing to accept plays more of a factor than actual value of the piece.

I do plan on starting to look for a job soon. Not today, but soon

 

 

This is 100% true. it's the oldest addage i know. Price is what you pay, value is what it's worth.

 

It doesn't matter if it's $50 art, or $50,000 art. A good buy is a good buy, and a bad one is a bad one.

 

There is a huge market for low end art, the $100-$500 sales are the ones that happen every day.

 

As someone who came into this hobby w/o another set of collectables to sell off (or a huge income) the best advice I was given, is that you build your collection. Start off simple and small, and move from there, build a collection, you don't just start at the top end. I made some good buys and bad buys when I 1st started. It is all a learning experience. I am glad I wasn't dropping tons of money when I started, because I would have made a lot of mistakes, and had art that would have been difficult to sell... with a lot of $$ in them. It's much easier to eat a $300 mistake than a $2000 one.

 

Like "the NSN collection" I love what I've acquired in a few years. I have dreams of getting bigger and better pages as time goes on. and most of my friends make fun of my collection as well =)

 

My first piece of art was a Jim Lee wildcats panel pages for $250, then I bought a half splash Wetworks page for another $250, I wasn't happy with them after a while and traded them away. Bought a 2K mcfarlane spider-man vs venom page which I sold for $4500 (this was over 10 years ago) Went back to comics, never paid attention to art again for about 5 years then sold everything and bought another McSpidey splash, a Kirby Thor Splash and a Bolland WW cover all within 6 months of each other, as soon as I got the money from my comics, the money went right back out the door. My motto with art was alway this from the start. "Buy the what made the artist you like famous, and buy the best example of the character you can afford" Everyone is "buy what you like, start small blah blah" If you can afford it, swing for the fences.

 

So it's ok for you to give your experience, but disparage others when they give theirs?

 

dude, you're kind of an... well you figure out the adjective i'd use to describe you.

 

blah blah blah? I am amazed....

 

I never said you couldn't give your experience, I'm unlike yourself is trying to stay on topic of the original poster's question, I know that's pretty rare if not impossible on these boards.

 

I've never said "you've got to do it this way" I'm keeping people from making a huge finanicial mistake because if someone wants to sell their comics to buy art, then turn around and try and sell their art but is having a hard time doing so because they didn't buy quality. I know someone who's a Dale Keown Hulk fan (No, it's not Yorham I'm talking about) he paid 4K for this hulk piece it was a nice piece but wasn't all that great and it wasn't from his Hulk series. It took him months and months to sell it, no one wanted it, finally some guy from China bought it for what the seller paid for it. Do you really want to see someone struggle like that? This person I know basically made a 4K mistake, it worked out in the end but it was a close one. Mistakes like that happen all the time from new collectors, I'm just trying to get people see things another way so they don't make the mistakes. Want to call me a :::Blank:::: for it...go ahead.

 

I won't call you anything, except a poor reader.

 

You are agreeing with exactly what I said. Your friend paid too much. He didn't spend his money wisely. If he had purchased the same page for less, he wouldn't have been in that situation. if you spend too much, it doesn't matter the dollar amount of 4k, $40, or $40,000.

 

Do research, find out what a good price is for it, at times you'll make mistakes. If you bought your McSpidey ASM page for 9k instead of 3k, it would have been a bad purchase as well...

 

I don't see what the dollar amount has anything to do with it...

 

 

(thumbs u

 

Agree with your logic. Didn't think it would be long before the whole investment / buy the best / etc etc etc thing cropped up. It really ONLY boils down to what Pete said. Don't overpay for anything if money is a concern. I was perfectly happy to buy a couple of convention sketches recently for $35 and $14 that actually were a really good buy and I know they could sell well if I ever wanted to let them go. I would have been a fool to get them for $350 and $140 though. What you collect can sometimes be irrelevant, what you pay for it never is.

 

Some of the previous posts in this thread have sunk in a little more and the one point that has stuck with me is the timing of wanting to sell off your comics. Looking at the directions that both markets are headed is it really the best time to get rid of graded SA keys or is there more sense in holding them for another year or two to see where the markets go?

[Dr. Balls]

My motto with art was alway this from the start. "Buy the what made the artist you like famous, and buy the best example of the character you can afford"

I would add to that "buy what invokes emotion in you when you see it," i.e., buy what you love.

 

 

That notion gets thrown around a lot - and I am never in agreement with it. "Buying what you love" can lead you down a path of financial loss quite easily. Even if you're not buying to make major profit - I always thought protecting my purchase by making sound decisions in buying it was important.

 

When I got into OA, I probably made eight or nine purchases buying things I "loved" and took a horrendous loss on every one of them when I sold them off to refocus my OA goals - because in my excitement to buy art I loved, I overlooked a lot of things that made the art somewhat worthless.

 

For me, it's all about being educated, and buying good pieces that I'm drawn to, but I leave love and emotion out of it. The satisfaction comes when I can recognize what makes a piece desireable to the audience from a value standpoint.

[Dr. Balls]

Bottom line is that there are a lot of lessons to learn, and it's better to learn them on cheaper pieces. Not the least of these is that as a collector you yourself, not just the object, has to change when collecting art. There is a very different rythymn to it. As a comic collector you are used to getting a regular fix. Three square a day. Art you buy nothing forever and then write a big check. It's not three squares its.... starve starve starve gorge til you puke. And that is actually a really significant psychological hill to climb. If you are used to three meals a day and you have a pocket full of cash from selling comics you can make a bunch of bad decisions real quick. You need much more patience than in comics so part of starting small is to give yourself a chance to adjust.

 

Great advice. This is how I started out, and the patience thing is a killer.

[jbud73]

Ok,

 

I will play advocate here for a bit. On one hand I have sold comics and some of that money has made its way into OA, but then again I've sold comics to buy more and still put new money into comics as well. Another thing to consider is timing. I was talking to another Hybrid (my term for a collector who buys both OA and Comics on a regular basis) the other day about the comics verses OA phenomenon. The main caveat is that really cool comics and really cool OA both cost money. The other issue is that comics have been coming back down to earth, especially graded comics (actually I think the drop has plateaued) while OA has continued to rise.

 

So for a Hybrid there is a bit of a dilemma, do you sell your comics at potentially less than you paid for them to buy OA at the highest prices in recent memory? Of course some people will say that OA will continue to rise indefinitely (the sky is the limit) - others will say that OA at these prices is crazy (the sky is falling); the truth is probably somewhere in between in that OA will continue to have strong and weaker prices.

 

I would also and always caution against the, "there can be only one" notion that is over used in OA. True every piece is unique, but auction after auction we see Ditko Spidey's and Kirby FF, Thors, you name it. The truth is that there are far fewer A type examples and ONCE IN A WHILE you will have to pay up for a "there can be only one" piece, but not every piece falls into that category.

 

My advice as always, perhaps never more true than now, is buy what you like, but if you have Marvel keys you may want to consider what you are selling and what you intend to buy with it. While is is also true that almost every auction has multiple AF 15s and other Marvel keys, it may also be that those books continue to rise so the utility of replacing them is a factor in the statement, "they can always be re bought."

 

One of the best pieces of advice that I ever got from an OA collector who also had some comics was, to paraphrase, "buy what you like and sell what you don't, however put as much thought into the latter as you do in the former. OA like any collectible has a shiny new penny period to it. I know I have fallen into this mind set on occasion and most people will tell you they were far more astute than they actually were when entering into a new hobby or collecting focus.

 

My specific thoughts are that selling comics to fund OA is a good thing to do to avoid dumping new money into a purchase. However there are pieces of OA that I would sell before letting go of some of my ECs or Early Marvels go (try replacing Pedigree JIMs). The compulsion will be to sell your big books first, they will move faster and bring you more money. Unless there is a "TRULY ONE OF a KIND" Grail piece for you on the market, I'd avoid that temptation. I know a few comic collectors who sold their books and went looking for OA to buy because they had a wad of cash in their accounts. Though not totally a disaster, they ended up with some pieces that probably meant less to them than the comics they sold to buy them. To a lesser or greater degree should you sell of your comic collection you will have the "money burning a whole in your pocket coupled with shiny new OA penny syndrome."

 

Maybe you have had a epiphany style change in your collecting and will sell all you books and buy OA with the funds. Just remember the advice I got and now pass along, "put the same scrutiny into your selling decisions as you did into acquiring that which you now sell." That advice has served me well....

 

 

Excellent post. I think there are far more folks who are 100% art or 100% comics than there are hybrids (or should it be "mutts?" ). I enjoy both and can't imagine giving up either.

 

I love having art on the wall and in the portfolio but I also love comics, especially when they have the gloss/colors/appeal of when they were originally printed. I think it's a good idea to occasionally evaluate your collection to determine what aspects you most enjoy and to concentrate on that. If you do switch to an area that is unfamiliar to you, then it's a good idea to plan on a slow transition to allow time to learn about it and to spend your money in a way that brings the most satisfaction.

 

If I had your comics I would love them too (DC WMs )

 

Back to Speedy's original post, thoughts on making the Comics to OA transition, a few other things occurred to me.

 

The notion of selling it all as fast as possible is a cathartic one, but based on what I have read I would dabble. If you like Infantino and SA DCs (doesn't everyone) over SA Marvels, which you feel are more plentiful (true) and easier to obtain (true) and more meaningful, then I'd pull a Greggy - sell off the Marvels and buy some DC OA. See how that feels and then go from there. As I said earlier I've sold comics to buy art and art to but comics. In the end they are all collectibles so what you like is not defined by whether they are comics or art, but rather by what the collectible in question means to you.

 

People are always saying, "buy what you like." Now if you are in possession of infinite resources that may actually be your only consideration. However for me and the majority of us, buying something also comes with the synergistic reality that that purchase limits our ability to purchase other things. So prioritize some comics you feel you can live without, use the money obtained to buy some art, try that on and see how it feels and go from there.

[mister_not_so_nice]

 

Thinking about buying some original art for the first time?

 

This is how we all look at OA in the beginning.

"When you wake up you will buy art from me."

 

 

 

[Kevin76]

 

Even though I quoted your post my comments weren't really direct towards you. I just wanted to point out to the collectors that are lurking on this thread that needing a large nest egg to start collector is not always necessary. It depends on your goals/focus. When I read your post it wasn't clear to me that you were speaking about how you collect. It read more like "this is what you need to get started."

As for liquidity, I think the percentage of FMV you're willing to accept plays more of a factor than actual value of the piece.

I do plan on starting to look for a job soon. Not today, but soon

 

 

This is 100% true. it's the oldest addage i know. Price is what you pay, value is what it's worth.

 

It doesn't matter if it's $50 art, or $50,000 art. A good buy is a good buy, and a bad one is a bad one.

 

There is a huge market for low end art, the $100-$500 sales are the ones that happen every day.

 

As someone who came into this hobby w/o another set of collectables to sell off (or a huge income) the best advice I was given, is that you build your collection. Start off simple and small, and move from there, build a collection, you don't just start at the top end. I made some good buys and bad buys when I 1st started. It is all a learning experience. I am glad I wasn't dropping tons of money when I started, because I would have made a lot of mistakes, and had art that would have been difficult to sell... with a lot of $$ in them. It's much easier to eat a $300 mistake than a $2000 one.

 

Like "the NSN collection" I love what I've acquired in a few years. I have dreams of getting bigger and better pages as time goes on. and most of my friends make fun of my collection as well =)

 

My first piece of art was a Jim Lee wildcats panel pages for $250, then I bought a half splash Wetworks page for another $250, I wasn't happy with them after a while and traded them away. Bought a 2K mcfarlane spider-man vs venom page which I sold for $4500 (this was over 10 years ago) Went back to comics, never paid attention to art again for about 5 years then sold everything and bought another McSpidey splash, a Kirby Thor Splash and a Bolland WW cover all within 6 months of each other, as soon as I got the money from my comics, the money went right back out the door. My motto with art was alway this from the start. "Buy the what made the artist you like famous, and buy the best example of the character you can afford" Everyone is "buy what you like, start small blah blah" If you can afford it, swing for the fences.

 

So it's ok for you to give your experience, but disparage others when they give theirs?

 

dude, you're kind of an... well you figure out the adjective i'd use to describe you.

 

blah blah blah? I am amazed....

 

I never said you couldn't give your experience, I'm unlike yourself is trying to stay on topic of the original poster's question, I know that's pretty rare if not impossible on these boards.

 

I've never said "you've got to do it this way" I'm keeping people from making a huge finanicial mistake because if someone wants to sell their comics to buy art, then turn around and try and sell their art but is having a hard time doing so because they didn't buy quality. I know someone who's a Dale Keown Hulk fan (No, it's not Yorham I'm talking about) he paid 4K for this hulk piece it was a nice piece but wasn't all that great and it wasn't from his Hulk series. It took him months and months to sell it, no one wanted it, finally some guy from China bought it for what the seller paid for it. Do you really want to see someone struggle like that? This person I know basically made a 4K mistake, it worked out in the end but it was a close one. Mistakes like that happen all the time from new collectors, I'm just trying to get people see things another way so they don't make the mistakes. Want to call me a :::Blank:::: for it...go ahead.

 

I won't call you anything, except a poor reader.

 

You are agreeing with exactly what I said. Your friend paid too much. He didn't spend his money wisely. If he had purchased the same page for less, he wouldn't have been in that situation. if you spend too much, it doesn't matter the dollar amount of 4k, $40, or $40,000.

 

Do research, find out what a good price is for it, at times you'll make mistakes. If you bought your McSpidey ASM page for 9k instead of 3k, it would have been a bad purchase as well...

 

I don't see what the dollar amount has anything to do with it...

 

 

Looks like i'm not only one who's a bad reader.

 

My friend wanted the piece and the seller wanted no less than 4K for it. I'm using this as a learning experience to some of you that you should always go for quality because if you are going to spend the money on art. You'll need to spend it on something that is going to move quickly.

 

So If I paid say 9K for a McSpidey splash instead of 3K, that's a bad purchase? Care to explain where they sell 3K McSpidey splashes?

[Kevin76]

I never said you couldn't give your experience, I'm unlike yourself is trying to stay on topic of the original poster's question, I know that's pretty rare if not impossible on these boards.

 

I've never said "you've got to do it this way" I'm keeping people from making a huge finanicial mistake because if someone wants to sell their comics to buy art, then turn around and try and sell their art but is having a hard time doing so because they didn't buy quality. I know someone who's a Dale Keown Hulk fan (No, it's not Yorham I'm talking about) he paid 4K for this hulk piece it was a nice piece but wasn't all that great and it wasn't from his Hulk series. It took him months and months to sell it, no one wanted it, finally some guy from China bought it for what the seller paid for it. Do you really want to see someone struggle like that? This person I know basically made a 4K mistake, it worked out in the end but it was a close one. Mistakes like that happen all the time from new collectors, I'm just trying to get people see things another way so they don't make the mistakes. Want to call me a :::Blank:::: for it...go ahead.

 

I understand what you are saying. Most collectors want a McSpidey, but no one wants a McFarlane INFINITY WARS (or whatever that forgetful title is called) page. My takeaway from your example isn't that the collector didn't buy quality, but that he didn't buy a piece he wanted. And for the months and months he tried to sell it, was the asking price $4000? Or was he padding the price of purchase of a sub-par piece purposely (alliteration intentional ).

 

So, to Speedy-D and everyone else, sell those comics and buy the quality YOU like. And if you think the piece in question will be for sale in 6-12 months you may be better off "buying" prints of Big Head Benjamins that the gov't is putting out. (Let's not turn this into a HARD ASSETTS ARE PLUMMETTING thread )

 

Dropping 10K on convention sketches and commissions and thinking you can turn around and get your money back? Not likely. I know that of the commisisons I have paid for I might be lucky to get 25% of my money back out of them. Bad "investment" I know.

 

 

Finally someone gets it