What's the best deal you ever made on a page of OA?

[alxjhnsn]

What possessive?

 

I hope you get your page. There were some terrific stories there. The hardback is a prized book.

 

If you are getting a Supergirl page, I'm going to cry a little.

[Bird]

What possessive?

 

I hope you get your page. There were some terrific stories there. The hardback is a prized book.

 

If you are getting a Supergirl page, I'm going to cry a little.

 

well, I do not want to say what it is until I have it but you won't need any tissues.

 

I have the hardback and get sigs in it whenever I can. I have small head sketches from three of the artists as well but I won't say which ones as that would be a clue. This one has taken a lot of legwork to get me to this point.

 

I have some panels from Ben Caldwell's Wonder Woman already, something from 4 or 5 of the different pages. It is a shame he didn't draw it all on the same board though.

 

I have considered getting a Bullock page from Albert Moy but always get something else. Maybe someday. I once thought maybe I could get a page from each feature but since Caldwell did not have complete pages that quickly went out the window.

 

The one I am negotiating on now is supposedly quite large. I may get two!

 

Take care Alex! Go Astros! (And learn how to spell Wednesday. I swear, you are making this too easy!)

[batman_fan]

Going to my understanding of the original intent on this thread. As a young kid, I always wanted to be a comic book artist. I use to draw all the time. When we finished the walls of our back garage, I use to draw on them. Probably my favorite thing I drew was the Black Panther from Jungle Action 23. I loved the pose on the cover I especially loved the Black Panther. The drawing is still on the wall today! Flash forward many years and imagine my shock and excitement when I saw the original artwork on eBay. It was way more than I had ever spent on a piece of artwork. Fortunately it didn't sell on eBay and I was able to negotiate on the price and a payment plan. Now it is in my permanent collection ! It is by far my favorite page in my collection.

 

[Bird]

Going to my understanding of the original intent on this thread. As a young kid, I always wanted to be a comic book artist. I use to draw all the time. When we finished the walls of our back garage, I use to draw on them. Probably my favorite thing I drew was the Black Panther from Jungle Action 23. I loved the pose on the cover I especially loved the Black Panther. The drawing is still on the wall today! Flash forward many years and imagine my shock and excitement when I saw the original artwork on eBay. It was way more than I had ever spent on a piece of artwork. Fortunately it didn't sell on eBay and I was able to negotiate on the price and a payment plan. Now it is in my permanent collection ! It is by far my favorite page in my collection.

 

 

Good for you! That is great. Who done drew it?

[batman_fan]

Going to my understanding of the original intent on this thread. As a young kid, I always wanted to be a comic book artist. I use to draw all the time. When we finished the walls of our back garage, I use to draw on them. Probably my favorite thing I drew was the Black Panther from Jungle Action 23. I loved the pose on the cover I especially loved the Black Panther. The drawing is still on the wall today! Flash forward many years and imagine my shock and excitement when I saw the original artwork on eBay. It was way more than I had ever spent on a piece of artwork. Fortunately it didn't sell on eBay and I was able to negotiate on the price and a payment plan. Now it is in my permanent collection ! It is by far my favorite page in my collection.

 

 

Good for you! That is great. Who done drew it?

 

John Byrne

[alxjhnsn]

Re: Wednesday

What misspelling?

 

Re: Black Panther

Always liked that cover. Glad it has a good home.

 

[glendgold]

1994. I've been collecting artwork for two years. The only artist I'm interested in is Jack Kirby. I have roughly three pages of artwork. No one including me wants anything that's available and anything I want is locked away in impregnable collectoons. I keep having conversations with dealers like this: “No, I don't have any Fantastic Four art, but I have Kamandi art. What? No, there's no Kamandi on it.”

 

I love Kirby's Marvel art and as I start researching I realize that I'm missing a ton of the pre-hero stuff. So I get a complete collection, a mix of mostly reprints and a couple of original '60s books. For the hell of it, I lay out all the books with a stack of post-its, which I start inserting on the best pages. One page in particular catches my eye. If I could only have one panel page from a pre-hero story, it would be this one. I have no idea where it is.

 

There's this ancient archeological tool called the “telephone” and it used to be that you could use it to call other collectors or dealers to ask them not just what they had but what they knew about. What books were missing, who had stuff, what was coming up at auction. Conrad, Rich Donnelly, Albert, THR, the Mannarinos, Mitch, Scott and Will Gabri El all helped me understand the shape of the playing field. Conrad was particularly helpful, telling me where a few things were, and telling me what books he wanted to complete. Among many many books was Journey into Mystery 73, When the Spider Strikes. He was missing two pages. He had no idea where they were.

 

I said, if I found him a page, would he help me find the page I was looking for? Sure, he laughed. He'd been looking for those pages for over a decade and hadn't had any luck.

 

The next San Diego show I'm at, I am joined by a guy whose name I will not mention. Let us call him Kosmic Kid. He is not a collector, he's sort of an underground cartoonist, but mostly he just hangs out at the local comic shop and talks about how nothing good has happened since Wally Wood left EC. He is huge and has an Amish beard and a beret and he's trying very hard to make a persona but it isn't really working, so instead he tends to follow people who have plans. And I had a plan: go talk to every dealer in San Diego and find all the Jack Kirby art they're secretly holding onto.

 

I walk past Conrad's table and shake his hand, look through his stuff. Kosmic Kid is with me, looking over my shoulder, nodding, not saying much. I leave and Kosmic Kid leaves with me. The next booth is another dealer. The third booth is the Donnellys. Steve and Rich are both there. There's a big stack of unsorted artwork. I ask if they have any Kirby. Actually, sure, what am I looking for?

 

Oh, what the hell. “Pre-hero art.”

Rich says, “I only brought one page. It's not much of a page. It's got a giant spider on it but he's not doing anything.”

There are two giant spider stories. “Is this 'When the Spider Strikes?' or 'Rorgg?'”

Rich doesn't know. He can't find the page. I am standing there, heart starting to go nuts. He looks and looks. I leave. I come back. He's found it. He can't tell which story it's from. But I know: it's Journey 73. It's a page Conrad is looking for.

How much is it?

Rich named a price. I think it was $400 or so. Which was high at the time but not insane. I didn't have $400. And I didn't want to spend money I didn't have (I figured I was resourceful enough to figure something out) unless I knew for sure Conrad would trade his page to me.

So I thanked him, asked him to put the page on hold, then walked quickly back to Conrad's table.

“Conrad,” I said. “Are you still looking for pages to 'When the Spider Strikes?'”

“Am I? I'd do anything to get another page to that.”

“Wow, that's amazing -- the Donnellys have a page right there.”

I didn't say that. Kosmic Kid said it. He was pointing right at their booth. I was staring at him with - I don't think 'disbelief' covers it. If looks could pummel. If looks could maim. He saw my expression, looked confused, and then brought both hands over his mouth in one of those outsized expressions of “me and my big mouth.”

Didn't really have time to stick with him, however, because Conrad all but leaped over his booth to get to the Donnellys. A second later, he had the page in his hand, and cash in his other hand. I walked away. Kosmic Kid apologized but it didn't matter.

 

Then something weird happened. I walked by again 15 minutes later, and Conrad was still talking to Rich. 15 minutes after that, he was still talking, but this time to Rich and Steve. Then just Steve. Then Rich and Steve.

Let us cut to the chase: no one in that triad was willing to name a cash price. And because it was Conrad, the Donnellys knew he had all kinds of trade, but because it was Conrad, he was unwilling to give up whatever they were looking for.

Hours later, I walked by Conrad's table again, and I asked if he had the page. No. He couldn't work out a deal. I said Well, if I could get the page, would he get me the page I wanted? He couldn't remember what I was talking about, so I described it very specifically, panel by panel.

He brightened. Hey, HE had that page. It was to a story he was trying to complete, though, and he couldn't just give that up. But as he thought about it, he started naming other collectors who had pages to that story, guys who were impossible to deal with, and then he grudgingly came around to the conclusion that yes, yes, if I kicked in another two hundred dollars, he'd do the deal.

Good luck, he said.

 

I know people have nightmare stories. I don't. Pretty much every time I've done a deal with Rich, it's gone smoothly. This was no exception. I traded him a western page and something else I've forgotten and a little cash and within ten minutes, I was walking the Spider page over to Conrad's table.

His expression went from shock -- how had I done that? -- to excitement -- a new page! -- to gloomy and then to real sadness -- wait, I wouldn't just take cash for it? I really wanted that other page?

I did.

 

A week later, Conrad was back in New York and he called me to tell me he wasn't going to send me the monster page. He just couldn't do it. He would give me a lot of cash instead. More than I paid for the Spider page. I do not remember the specifics of my response, but the phone call happened at work, and after it was over, one of my coworkers came over to ask me who I'd been yelling obscenities at.

 

Apparently I forced him to back down. A few days later, the page I'd been after showed up, ready for framing.

 

And it has been framed and on my kitchen wall for 20 years now.

 

http://comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=48356

 

BTW, that was only the fourth-best deal. You couldn't handle 1-3.

 

 

[Bird]

great story Glen! Wait a few days for us to recover then hit us with another please! Count down backwards to #1!

 

BTW, I only saw Conrad at one show ever. He spent most of the time writhing in pain on the floor under his table. Very sad to see. I would love to look at his stuff again sometime but it seems it is not to be.

[alxjhnsn]

Glen, great story. Like Sean, I'll be ready for the next one in a day. Thanks for sharing.

[mister_not_so_nice]

Great tale.

 

But I need more backstory on this "telephone" thing you mentioned and how it played into OA collecting.

[vodou]

BTW, that was only the fourth-best deal. You couldn't handle 1-3.

A hero that struggles. A bumbling sidekick. A villain that's redeemed in the end. Several cliffhangers, then denouement. Great pacing throughout and even a teaser for future episodes. Never a boring moment. Excellent

 

Strip away your talent as a writer and what's left are the straight facts, really a rather common story in this hobby. We're all blessed you shared in your way. Thanks.

 

Conrad was a tough bargainer. The others worse. Got a lot of my best art and best prices from Conrad. Didn't realize it at the time though, too busy rushing around chasing phantoms.

[Terry Doyle]

I think all of the 1980s (after my entry point in 1982) saw me getting countless 'best' deals in OA (hundreds of pages of complete EC stories or covers for me.).

 

Getting a Neal Adams Superman cover for $75 (mid-1980s) was one of many highlights.

 

In the late 1980s I took an overnight train from Liverpool to London, wanting to visit an exhibition. Trip got off to a bad start when the train carriages got over-run by masses of drunken football fans who'd just seen their team get beat by one of the Merseyside football clubs. A nightmare journey as I had the wrong regional accent and went in risk of a severe beating if I'd opened my mouth (spent the entire journey pretending to be asleep, apart from the moment some one thrust a can of beer into my hand and I muttered an illegible, "thanks" . . . then back to pretend sleep mode once the alcohol was downed).

 

Got into London in one piece, at a ridiculously early time (4.00 am), so spent several hours walking the streets and stopping for the odd coffee at an overnight café, before everywhere opened up.

 

By chance, I came a across a place called 'Comic Showcase' on Neal Street - which looked interesting, so I called back when it opened later on in the morning.

 

At the back of the shop was a huge rack of OA pages, choc-full of Marvel and DC 1960s pages. Some amazing stuff, all at ridiculously low prices.

 

By the end of the day, I'd emptied my wallet and came away with the following:

 

DAREDEVIL # 3 - two pages by Orlando/Colletta - £70 each

 

DAREDEVIL # 4 - two pages by Orlando/Colletta - £70 each

 

FANTASTIC FOUR # 31 - Kirby/Stone page - £110

 

FANTASTIC FOUR # 34 - Kirby/Stone page - £110

 

AVENGERS # 15 - Heck/Ayers page - £15

 

DAREDEVIL # 18 - Romita page - £30

 

TALES TO ASTONISH # 61 (Hulk) - Ditko/Roussos page - £60

 

TALES TO ASTONISH # (Sub-mariner, early 70s #) - £12

 

SUB-MARINER # 55 (I think) - Everrett - £50

 

TALES OF SUSPENSE # 99 (Iron Man) - two pages by Gene Colan - £40 each

 

Might have been a few more things, but these are what I remembered. I even negotiated a discount for the bulk-purchase!

 

Happy days!

 

 

[vodou]

Even though those are probably typical prices for the period, perhaps a bit low yet?, what a great bumped into the place while stumbling home tale!

 

Nailing a bulk discount, all the better

[Solar]

Not anything crazy good, but I happened upon a huge stack of bronze horror and war pages in a forgotten comic shop. This place was housed in a church basement and open only on Saturdays. Priced at $5 a page, I took them all without really even looking closely. Unfortunately there were no a-list artists or key books involved, but I gradually sold off the stack for a $4-5K profit.

[Terry Doyle]

Only thing I didn't see amongst the vast selection was Ditko ASM pages. I asked the manager if he'd had any of those and he said, "Yeah, we had four pages but it took me a while to shift them."

[Terry Doyle]

Oh, I did manage to get a couple of Ditko ASM pages shortly afterwards. A page from # 27 that I traded from an American collector . . . and a page from # 37 that I bought from Conrad Eschenberg for $400.

[batman_fan]

I think all of the 1980s (after my entry point in 1982) saw me getting countless 'best' deals in OA (hundreds of pages of complete EC stories or covers for me.).

 

Getting a Neal Adams Superman cover for $75 (mid-1980s) was one of many highlights.

 

In the late 1980s I took an overnight train from Liverpool to London, wanting to visit an exhibition. Trip got off to a bad start when the train carriages got over-run by masses of drunken football fans who'd just seen their team get beat by one of the Merseyside football clubs. A nightmare journey as I had the wrong regional accent and went in risk of a severe beating if I'd opened my mouth (spent the entire journey pretending to be asleep, apart from the moment some one thrust a can of beer into my hand and I muttered an illegible, "thanks" . . . then back to pretend sleep mode once the alcohol was downed).

 

Got into London in one piece, at a ridiculously early time (4.00 am), so spent several hours walking the streets and stopping for the odd coffee at an overnight café, before everywhere opened up.

 

By chance, I came a across a place called 'Comic Showcase' on Neal Street - which looked interesting, so I called back when it opened later on in the morning.

 

At the back of the shop was a huge rack of OA pages, choc-full of Marvel and DC 1960s pages. Some amazing stuff, all at ridiculously low prices.

 

By the end of the day, I'd emptied my wallet and came away with the following:

 

DAREDEVIL # 3 - two pages by Orlando/Colletta - £70 each

 

DAREDEVIL # 4 - two pages by Orlando/Colletta - £70 each

 

FANTASTIC FOUR # 31 - Kirby/Stone page - £110

 

FANTASTIC FOUR # 34 - Kirby/Stone page - £110

 

AVENGERS # 15 - Heck/Ayers page - £15

 

DAREDEVIL # 18 - Romita page - £30

 

TALES TO ASTONISH # 61 (Hulk) - Ditko/Roussos page - £60

 

TALES TO ASTONISH # (Sub-mariner, early 70s #) - £12

 

SUB-MARINER # 55 (I think) - Everrett - £50

 

TALES OF SUSPENSE # 99 (Iron Man) - two pages by Gene Colan - £40 each

 

Might have been a few more things, but these are what I remembered. I even negotiated a discount for the bulk-purchase!

 

Happy days!

 

 

Getting that much artwork at one time had to be sensory overload What and incredible pick-up !

[Terry Doyle]

Thanks. I actually had a wad of cash on me as I was planning to buy some stuff at the exhibition I was visiting (the purpose of my trip). Once I discovered all the Silver Age art at Comics Showcase my funds got quickly diverted!

[DeadpoolJr.]

Thanks. I actually had a wad of cash on me as I was planning to buy some stuff at the exhibition I was visiting (the purpose of my trip). Once I discovered all the Silver Age art at Comics Showcase my funds got quickly diverted!

Amazing story, amazing what you can find just by coincidence. Was that the only time you went their, or did you go back afterwards?

[stinkininkin]

1994. I've been collecting artwork for two years. The only artist I'm interested in is Jack Kirby. I have roughly three pages of artwork. No one including me wants anything that's available and anything I want is locked away in impregnable collectoons. I keep having conversations with dealers like this: “No, I don't have any Fantastic Four art, but I have Kamandi art. What? No, there's no Kamandi on it.”

 

I love Kirby's Marvel art and as I start researching I realize that I'm missing a ton of the pre-hero stuff. So I get a complete collection, a mix of mostly reprints and a couple of original '60s books. For the hell of it, I lay out all the books with a stack of post-its, which I start inserting on the best pages. One page in particular catches my eye. If I could only have one panel page from a pre-hero story, it would be this one. I have no idea where it is.

 

There's this ancient archeological tool called the “telephone” and it used to be that you could use it to call other collectors or dealers to ask them not just what they had but what they knew about. What books were missing, who had stuff, what was coming up at auction. Conrad, Rich Donnelly, Albert, THR, the Mannarinos, Mitch, Scott and Will Gabri El all helped me understand the shape of the playing field. Conrad was particularly helpful, telling me where a few things were, and telling me what books he wanted to complete. Among many many books was Journey into Mystery 73, When the Spider Strikes. He was missing two pages. He had no idea where they were.

 

I said, if I found him a page, would he help me find the page I was looking for? Sure, he laughed. He'd been looking for those pages for over a decade and hadn't had any luck.

 

The next San Diego show I'm at, I am joined by a guy whose name I will not mention. Let us call him Kosmic Kid. He is not a collector, he's sort of an underground cartoonist, but mostly he just hangs out at the local comic shop and talks about how nothing good has happened since Wally Wood left EC. He is huge and has an Amish beard and a beret and he's trying very hard to make a persona but it isn't really working, so instead he tends to follow people who have plans. And I had a plan: go talk to every dealer in San Diego and find all the Jack Kirby art they're secretly holding onto.

 

I walk past Conrad's table and shake his hand, look through his stuff. Kosmic Kid is with me, looking over my shoulder, nodding, not saying much. I leave and Kosmic Kid leaves with me. The next booth is another dealer. The third booth is the Donnellys. Steve and Rich are both there. There's a big stack of unsorted artwork. I ask if they have any Kirby. Actually, sure, what am I looking for?

 

Oh, what the hell. “Pre-hero art.”

Rich says, “I only brought one page. It's not much of a page. It's got a giant spider on it but he's not doing anything.”

There are two giant spider stories. “Is this 'When the Spider Strikes?' or 'Rorgg?'”

Rich doesn't know. He can't find the page. I am standing there, heart starting to go nuts. He looks and looks. I leave. I come back. He's found it. He can't tell which story it's from. But I know: it's Journey 73. It's a page Conrad is looking for.

How much is it?

Rich named a price. I think it was $400 or so. Which was high at the time but not insane. I didn't have $400. And I didn't want to spend money I didn't have (I figured I was resourceful enough to figure something out) unless I knew for sure Conrad would trade his page to me.

So I thanked him, asked him to put the page on hold, then walked quickly back to Conrad's table.

“Conrad,” I said. “Are you still looking for pages to 'When the Spider Strikes?'”

“Am I? I'd do anything to get another page to that.”

“Wow, that's amazing -- the Donnellys have a page right there.”

I didn't say that. Kosmic Kid said it. He was pointing right at their booth. I was staring at him with - I don't think 'disbelief' covers it. If looks could pummel. If looks could maim. He saw my expression, looked confused, and then brought both hands over his mouth in one of those outsized expressions of “me and my big mouth.”

Didn't really have time to stick with him, however, because Conrad all but leaped over his booth to get to the Donnellys. A second later, he had the page in his hand, and cash in his other hand. I walked away. Kosmic Kid apologized but it didn't matter.

 

Then something weird happened. I walked by again 15 minutes later, and Conrad was still talking to Rich. 15 minutes after that, he was still talking, but this time to Rich and Steve. Then just Steve. Then Rich and Steve.

Let us cut to the chase: no one in that triad was willing to name a cash price. And because it was Conrad, the Donnellys knew he had all kinds of trade, but because it was Conrad, he was unwilling to give up whatever they were looking for.

Hours later, I walked by Conrad's table again, and I asked if he had the page. No. He couldn't work out a deal. I said Well, if I could get the page, would he get me the page I wanted? He couldn't remember what I was talking about, so I described it very specifically, panel by panel.

He brightened. Hey, HE had that page. It was to a story he was trying to complete, though, and he couldn't just give that up. But as he thought about it, he started naming other collectors who had pages to that story, guys who were impossible to deal with, and then he grudgingly came around to the conclusion that yes, yes, if I kicked in another two hundred dollars, he'd do the deal.

Good luck, he said.

 

I know people have nightmare stories. I don't. Pretty much every time I've done a deal with Rich, it's gone smoothly. This was no exception. I traded him a western page and something else I've forgotten and a little cash and within ten minutes, I was walking the Spider page over to Conrad's table.

His expression went from shock -- how had I done that? -- to excitement -- a new page! -- to gloomy and then to real sadness -- wait, I wouldn't just take cash for it? I really wanted that other page?

I did.

 

A week later, Conrad was back in New York and he called me to tell me he wasn't going to send me the monster page. He just couldn't do it. He would give me a lot of cash instead. More than I paid for the Spider page. I do not remember the specifics of my response, but the phone call happened at work, and after it was over, one of my coworkers came over to ask me who I'd been yelling obscenities at.

 

Apparently I forced him to back down. A few days later, the page I'd been after showed up, ready for framing.

 

And it has been framed and on my kitchen wall for 20 years now.

 

http://comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=48356

 

BTW, that was only the fourth-best deal. You couldn't handle 1-3.

 

 

Fantastic story! You win the internet today.

 

Scott