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

[Silver Surfer]

I would gladly pay you double your money for either one of those Avengers pages!

 

Sadly both pages won't be available until AFTER my untimely death.

 

So we have a deal?

[malvin]

 

But now I'm remembering the three title pages M.V. got on eBay and i don't feel so good anymore

 

Ha ha, thanks for the mention Mike. Those were definitely good, and I've been fortunate enough to have many more like that, although those 3 are hard to top.

 

Malvin

 

 

[Bronty]

What were they? Preacher?

 

Malvin was kind enough to show some of his wonderful pieces in person last week

 

 

[malvin]

Yeah, they were Preacher. Hey Dan! And some of the pages you saw in person last week were similar good buys!

 

Malvin

[GotSuperPowers?]

Malvin is quite good when it comes to good buys!

[ciorac]

Thanks Bill. My collection is nothing special, but I enjoy it. I should have two more pages on the wall shortly

 

Looks plenty special to me

[delekkerste]

We've all made deals on pages. Looking back over your collection what was the best deal you ever made?

 

In 2010, I watched The Walking Dead TV show premiere, loved it, and raced to my computer to buy the wraparound cover to the second hardcover collection from 2008 which was listed for sale publicly at a pre-TV hype price (people still cannot believe that no one had snapped it up prior to the show's debut).

[Doc McCoy]

About 5 or so years ago, I walked into an antique store nearby to where I used to live I looked on the wall and saw a Snoopy drawing with an accompanying letter from Charles Schulz's secretary. I had assumed that it was a print sent to some fan who had wanted to get a drawing from Schulz. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a pasted on copyright notice from 1958 which seemed odd for a print.

 

I asked the shop owner about the history of the piece. She had just gotten it in - it was supposed to go to a school charity auction, but came in after the auction was over so she decided to put it up for sale. I asked her if she thought it was an original drawing - she thought it might be.

 

So then (bracing myself), I asked her the price...she replied $20??? My life passed in front of me... the day we all dream about had finally arrived!

 

 

Wow. . . just wow.

[dem1138]

We've all made deals on pages. Looking back over your collection what was the best deal you ever made?

 

In 2010, I watched The Walking Dead TV show premiere, loved it, and raced to my computer to buy the wraparound cover to the second hardcover collection from 2008 which was listed for sale publicly at a pre-TV hype price (people still cannot believe that no one had snapped it up prior to the show's debut).

 

And it had sat on the dealer's site for weeks!

[Silver Surfer]

I just received another page from a now classic arc from the late 80's. Its always a treat to flip over the OA page and check out the back because a lot of times they still have the original price tag written on the back. This page in particular had $25 written on it. I once owned a Bryne Cap page that also had $25 written on it. It's hard to fathom that these pages were basically throw aways 20-25 years ago.

[mtlevy]

Having been around a while, I have had a few smile inducing pickups – today the best feels like SDDC 2004 when was taking a casual stroll through Artist Alley and spotted Gene and Adrienne Colan.

 

They had a stack of pages and I believe it was later in the con so they may have been a bit picked over but I spotted three with Everett inks so picked them up happily - heck, I only had one Colan page in my collection at the time.

 

I remember Adrienne telling me they were a bargain and they would be worth a lot more over time (she was right of course).

 

This would be a nice pickup but what brings it to the top of the pile is what was on the back of a Cap 136 page which was $150 (no discount)

 

 

This hobby is pretty cool sometimes!

 

Mark

 

P.S. Oh...this became my CAF Avatar - thanks to Hart for editing out the cigarette and sending my way!

[zhamlau]

Had a few good deals, but dollar for dollar my Best was this year. Went to ebay looking for some brunner books and found a BIN for "Brunner Drawing" or some such wording. Took a look and it was what appeared to be brunner recreating in decent detail the cover to Doctor Strange issue 1 from 1974.

 

Took a look and it described the piece as "the preliminary to the cover", and it had a BIN price of $15.00 US.

 

bought the item, then in a manila paper envelope (no backing) it showed up. Spoke to frank and he confirmed it was his original pencil design he used to create the cover to the book...good purchase.

[Terry Doyle]

Having been around a while, I have had a few smile inducing pickups – today the best feels like SDDC 2004 when was taking a casual stroll through Artist Alley and spotted Gene and Adrienne Colan.

 

They had a stack of pages and I believe it was later in the con so they may have been a bit picked over but I spotted three with Everett inks so picked them up happily - heck, I only had one Colan page in my collection at the time.

 

I remember Adrienne telling me they were a bargain and they would be worth a lot more over time (she was right of course).

 

This would be a nice pickup but what brings it to the top of the pile is what was on the back of a Cap 136 page which was $150 (no discount)

 

 

This hobby is pretty cool sometimes!

 

Mark

 

P.S. Oh...this became my CAF Avatar - thanks to Hart for editing out the cigarette and sending my way!

 

Great bonus piece!

[Brian Peck]

I bought a Byrne Champions original art page at a Movie Memorabilia for $10. About 4 years later sold it for $600.

 

Back in 2003 I picked up an Uncanny X-Men page with for $1K plus a panel page from Hulk Annual #7. Sold it 4 months later for $5K so I could get a page from X-Men #8 (first x-men issue I read) and X-Men #16 page.

[stinkininkin]

I've collected art for 35 years and never once got a great deal. Always paid at least market price. Yes I bought Adams and Miller covers for less than $300 way back when, but that was market price. I'm clearly doing something wrong.

 

Scott

[alxjhnsn]

Hey, Scott, at least you started early, that was smart. Way smarter than I.

[Brian Peck]

I've collected art for 35 years and never once got a great deal. Always paid at least market price. Yes I bought Adams and Miller covers for less than $300 way back when, but that was market price. I'm clearly doing something wrong.

 

Scott

 

Scott,

Have you traded much of your artwork you created? What is the best piece you own which you traded for artwork you helped create?

[westform]

I have countless of those bought it for x way back when and sold it for x+++ later. I also have many stories of just plain good deals even accounting for time, but I don't care to share as the other side of the deal might not want to hear my thoughts post facto. But, I do have one that comes to mind that involved a dealer who I really can't imagine is on this board. A few years back I was doing some deep perusing (searching) for Bob Bolling Little Archie art. I cam across a tiny pic way down on my google search of the cover to LA #22. Took me to a dealers site in Florida. He had a very healthy price on the piece, but when I contacted him via email he did still have the cover. I thought it might have been the high price, but I made him an offer anyway. Several days later, maybe weeks, he gets back saying no. He quoted me a slightly lower price and said that was for cash. Ok. I've found that 'cash' means different things, so I pressed him and he actually meant cash. Like, come to my town, or send cash in the mail. No checks, no paypal, no credit cards... even though he is a comic dealer with a store. Well, we went back and forth at a snails pace on price. It could be a month before I got a reply; some emails got no reply. I finally gave up as we were too far apart anyway. Fast forward a year, and I happen to be glancing at the dealer list coming to a semi local Albuquerque comic con, and he's on it! So, I email him again, he gets back the next day and he says yes he can bring the cover and another cover besides I might be interested in. But, I must bring cash... This part I figured and am prepared for. I go to the Con a couple of weeks later and yes he brings the covers. He seems truly shocked and stunned that I am there and that I have cash. The covers have not been displayed at the show, says he always leaves them at home?! He proceeds to question me like a prosecutor, and the pieces of the puzzle come together. He is really paranoid about money. Has been through issues with collectors, gov't, etc. Not quite believing I'm not a gov't operative he decides to bend and finally brings out the art like it is drugs or something from behind the booth. I slap down a huge stack of cash and make my best offer (which is thousands less than he has been asking, but I am buying two). He is too tempted to pass it up and I ask if I can come behind the booth to finish the transaction. He kind of freaks at this and now is convinced I'm up to no good. He wants to forget the whole thing so I just happily start counting out $5000 in cash in front of his booth. His eyes dart to and fro and he quickly stops me and hustles me inside his booth. So, he finally relaxes and he turns over the Bob Bolling cover and a Walt Kelly Disney's comics and stories cover (both of which I still own). I am thrilled as both are rare as hen's teeth. He is ecstatic because I really don't think it would have been possible for him to actually sell these covers before this. The hoops were a bit frustrating but in the end I was pretty amused by the whole thing and he actually turned out to be a nice guy... at least from my limited and albeit quirky encounter with him.

[Bronty]

heheh good story

[christosgage-migration]

A couple of years ago I walk into my local comic shop on a Friday to get the week's books...I usually go on Wednesday, but I'd been out of town. In their display case there's what looks like original Walt Simonson art, but it can't be, because it's priced way too low and Simonson never sells his published art. I ask to see it, the guy behind the counter shows me, and from what I can see it is indeed the original cover art to Eternals #2 from 1985.

 

The retailer says it came in with a collection of comics he bought, and he's never dealt in art so he just priced it at what he'd like to get. I pay it, gladly, and take it home. Felt kind of bad, but hey...he's happy, I'm happy. I'm doing some research online and it hits me: Walter never sells his published art. Almost everything that's out there is from his inkers. But this piece was inked by Walter himself. Clearly, it's stolen. Now I really feel terrible.

 

I have Louise Simonson's email address from when we both worked on a Marvel miniseries called The Iron Age, so I email her, tell her what went down, and offer to give it back to them. She responds that, decades ago, Walter gave a handful of pieces to charities he wanted to support so they could auction them off. He no longer does that with published art, he now does custom new pieces for that purpose. But she says he's pretty sure this cover was one he gave away back then. So it sounds like someone bought it in the Eighties, kept it, and then sold it with his collection in 2013, and I just got lucky. I paid $80 for it. (Eighty dollars.)

 

http://comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1032260