Comiclink Summer Featured Auction

[Brian Peck]

This year there have been two splashes from the Judgement Day GN with Silver Surfer on clink that have gone for $7K and $8400. Seems like a real spike for pages from the GN, less than two years ago I got a splash from the same GN for $2300 off HA.

[Lago32]

As in my previous post, I think my Batman Neal Adams page went for a steal. I also feel I got a decent bargain with the What If 5 splash. I also saw a 3-page Adams and another Adams page - both from the 1960's - go for less than $1,000. His Phantom Stranger cover also did not hit the reserve. Not sure why the stock on Adams in falling.

 

Adams stock is not falling. Like most widely-collected artists in this hobby, there is a wide delta in values between A-level material and everything else. These pieces simply were not A-level Adams material and the prices reflected that. As a buyer of some A-level Adams pieces over the past year or two, I can tell you they go for anything but a steal. The problem is that so little of this stuff comes up for public sale as it seems to be held tightly in private collections. Try finding a nice Adams X-men page....they just aren't out there for sale. I have heard rumors that a small group of Adams collectors in Europe have quite a bit of his art. Neal himself told me at the Toronto Con 2 weeks ago that he heard that a lot of his vintage art is in Japan. Who knows. It is amazing though when you consider how many covers Adams did from 1968-1973 (in 1969/1970 he seemingly was doing every DC cover!) and how little of it has surfaced in the past 15 years. I will say that if a primo Adams Batman cover were to ever go up for public sale, get ready to watch the fireworks fly as there are more than a few heavy-hitter collectors who have been patiently waiting with very baited breath.

 

 

[DocR]

This year there have been two splashes from the Judgement Day GN with Silver Surfer on clink that have gone for $7K and $8400. Seems like a real spike for pages from the GN, less than two years ago I got a splash from the same GN for $2300 off HA.

 

Part of it is Big John prices going up overall. I think that has been evident the last few auctions especially.

[brandolsn]

Im still at with Tim Sale Long Halloween selling at 16K

 

 

 

Confirming what I had long feared but suspected that prices for the two main Tim Sale Batman books are getting the respect they've deserved for years. A few years back a wonderful 2 page spread went for over $5k, which caused nothing but trouble for fans of the books trying to buy more pieces from them. This is a gorgeous rock star stand alone piece from LH. I can understand the demand and the battle for it.

 

Absolutely. Long Halloween pages have been cheeeap in recent years considering the story consistently comes up on best Batman stories of all time lists right after Year One, DKR and Killing Joke.

[J.Sid]

wow I see that went for 50 grand. Its beautiful and I know prices are up, but jeez, seems strong.

 

The beauty of Sienkiewicz, IMO, is that he has so many truly amazing pieces that you could never say one is THE BEST, but I think this one is probably in the conversation. So you got the amazing creator doing a near-definitive piece (yeah the poster too, maybe GN images) of a character he is most well known for drawing and there you go, top of the heap material.

 

And this is an Elektra piece you can display anywhere and have it appreciated, which is something in and of itself! No hiss or beheadings to explain!

 

Yep. Elektra's his signature character, and it's from his peak pyramid during a collaboration with Frank Miller.

 

I wondered if this one might "go crazy" during the final minutes. Sienkiewicz is one of the most influential artists of the generation, and if this one had squeaked into the "$100k club" I wouldn't have been that surprised.

 

$50k a bargain? Let's just say I've seen that kind of money spent on less prime items.

[batman_fan]

This year there have been two splashes from the Judgement Day GN with Silver Surfer on clink that have gone for $7K and $8400. Seems like a real spike for pages from the GN, less than two years ago I got a splash from the same GN for $2300 off HA.

 

I wonder who the lucky person that snagged it was. Personally I think of the three that have sold, the one for $2300 on HA was the best. Great action splash with a huge Surfer image.

[fsumavila]

That was a great pickup! Stellar work by Romita on it.

 

I own one of the Marvel Fireside covers ( and bought/sold a couple others in the past) & spent a lot of time tracking the other covers.

The Sons & 1st one, "Origins", are the only covers I've never seen ...

 

 

[fsumavila]

 

The Kirby Eternals cover went for $12K??? That seems like a good buy for the winner ...a nice cover from Kirby's final Marvel creation....

 

or am I overestimating the value of Eternals cover art?

 

 

[drdroom]

The Kirby Eternals cover went for $12K??? That seems like a good buy for the winner ...a nice cover from Kirby's final Marvel creation....

 

or am I overestimating the value of Eternals cover art?

 

 

I was thinking that, too. Not Kirby's best run of covers, but this one was fairly strong. I was thinking more like 16K.

 

[Speedy-D]

Wow, my pages arrived already! That's some quick shipping CL.

[jbud73]

Im still at with Tim Sale Long Halloween selling at 16K

 

Wow, I totally missed seeing that one. Beautiful cover.

 

Not surprised at all, for context the LH Covers are not really that dynamic or detailed, seems Sale saved that for the interiors and maybe on purpose went Milleresque with the Covers.

 

So this is probably the Best Cover Quality published Tim Sale LH piece out there and in that context 16K is well within the realm of feasible. Had I been in a position I would have had no problem forking that over.

 

[jbud73]

Im still at with Tim Sale Long Halloween selling at 16K

 

 

 

Confirming what I had long feared but suspected that prices for the two main Tim Sale Batman books are getting the respect they've deserved for years. A few years back a wonderful 2 page spread went for over $5k, which caused nothing but trouble for fans of the books trying to buy more pieces from them. This is a gorgeous rock star stand alone piece from LH. I can understand the demand and the battle for it.

 

Ya Chris I remember that sale at Heritage, its the DPS where Batman is perched on the gargoyle; I also felt dread that my 4K bid got obliterated and knew that things were going to get tougher in the TS-LH market.

[jbud73]

I was selling a Neal Adams Batman piece, and lost a lot on this. I guess the market for Adams' modern work is not good. $800 for an Adams published (twice) Batman splash is a good deal in my book:

 

BATMAN ILLUSTRATED #3 PAGE 226 PIN-UP ($800)

NEAL ADAMS

2006

 

But not all was lost. I also sold a George Perez Infinite Crisis #7 cover that totally exceeded my expectations on the sale price, ay $6,769.

 

INFINITE CRISIS #7 COVER ($6,769)

GEORGE PEREZ

2006, Battle with DOZENS of Heroes & Villains!

 

Here is something I won. It's a George Tuska page with touch-ups attributed to John Romita Sr. from What If #5. I got this because it's my birthdate October 1977. I think it went for a bargain at $1,212 considering it went for $1,063 in Heritage in 2009. It didn't double like most other art and this is pretty good for a page with Cap, Bucky, and Watcher that is more than 3 decades old:

 

WHAT IF? #5 PAGE 1 TITLE SPLASH ($1,212)

GEORGE TUSKA

1977, Captain America and Bucky Survived WWII?

 

On the Perez piece, I was surprised it cracked 5K (what I would have offered) but not too surprised as it is one of his best Modern Covers and a Jam piece, something he is known for.

 

On the Perez Panel, believe the consignor to be very happy with that sale considering it eclipsed the Heritage sale, that in the opinion of the Perez guys (because we talked about it after Heritage) was really aggressive. Its Perez inks which adds to the appeal but someone is more nostalgic about this piece for sure.

 

Ah Joe, looks like you nabbed your Perez Cover and can exit stage left the market (thumbs u Having seen it in person this is a great piece, very early in the run (1981 end of first year) and George put some attention to detail on this one even for him. The $$$ to consignor are a tad more than what I was thinking about privately but not too much more so congrats to the new owner and consignor who are both really good guys. (thumbs u

[Lago32]

On the Perez Panel, believe the consignor to be very happy with that sale considering it eclipsed the Heritage sale, that in the opinion of the Perez guys (because we talked about it after Heritage) was really aggressive. Its Perez inks which adds to the appeal but someone is more nostalgic about this piece for sure.(/quote]

 

Jason - which panel page are you referring to? I was the consignor for both the NTT39 and NTT4 pages in the most recent Clink. I'm not sure which Heritage sale either eclipsed if you are referring to my consignments - the NTT39 had never been in Heritage although the NTT4 had and basically ended at the same price as Clink.

[J.Sid]

I was surprised the 1983 Perez JLA / Avengers page didn't meet reserve.

 

The last one on Heritage sold for $4,500 in February and wasn't even a "crossover" page (no DC characters on it)

 

This one was a bit more, but for your money you'd get an action page with a big shot of Batman battling Captain America.

[Ironmandrd]

I was not surprised that the Perez JLA/Avengers unpublished page did not meet the reserve of $6,500.

[J.Sid]

Not surprised? I was. That page was a big step up in quality from the previous unpublished pages which had sold in Heritage.

 

Batman + Captain America > Hawkeye + She-Hulk

 

[J.Sid]

ultimately I think the reserves (on a lot of auctions) discouraged people from getting involved in bidding

[Speedy-D]

ultimately I think the reserves (on a lot of auctions) discouraged people from getting involved in bidding

Agreed. Reserves can be a real turn off.

[AKA Rick]

ultimately I think the reserves (on a lot of auctions) discouraged people from getting involved in bidding

Agreed. Reserves can be a real turn off.

 

I think reserves are good for sellers and bad in that it guarantees the item won't sell for less than what they value it at, but at the same time there's a lot of buyers / bidders who don't like reserves for some reason and speculate either higher prices (a la coollines) with a "why bother?" attitude, or feel some sort of strategy that if they don't bid and the reserve isn't met, the seller will be forced to reduce the price maybe without a reserve as well and the piece will inherently be semi-valued, so bidding wars may cease at certain levels potentially.

 

My take on reserves as a buyer is to bid on 'em as much as the piece is worth to me regardless of the reserve being met or not, and that's my "best efforts bid", unless the piece is out of my price range from the get go and it's just a tease, I leave it alone (i.e. I'd never have bid on the Incredible Hulk #180 end page because I know I'd not be able to afford it under almost any reasonable condition or situation)

 

I do think the "no reserve" also from an engagement level gets everyone involved from the ground floor and in theory, sans deadbeats, it's guaranteed to sell, so most buyers will approach it with more vigor than an auction whose reserve hasn't been met yet.