ComicLink Auction: Thoughts?

[comix4fun]

So if a good JRJR cover is worth that, whats a quality page from that issue/run worth?

 

I may have to do with of those GeneParkian Insurance Recalculations.

[delekkerste]

So if a good JRJR cover is worth that, whats a quality page from that issue/run worth?

 

I don't think the cover craziness extrapolates directly to the interiors. Yeah, a good #191 page sold for almost $3K (I thought that was an outlier too - more Avengers crossover appeal), but the two average #191 pages offered in this CLink sale sold for $1,202 and $701, respectively. I suspect most interiors from the run are still mid-hundreds to low $1Ks (I picked some pages in this range recently), though really good action/appearance pages can fetch $2-3K. I'd say those are the exceptions, though, not the norm.

 

I can believe that people are turning to these as a cheaper alternative to Byrne and 1st run Cockrum, but I think the #191 cover result, with the Avengers/Vision premium plus the dozens of headshots, greatly exaggerates how much the range has actually moved. Same with that #191 interior that sold. A #193 page recently sold for $2.2K, but had the 1st appearance of Firestar, so, again, extenuating circumstances. All the rest of the pages that have sold on CLink have been for much less (granted, these are mostly average/typical pages) and more representative, IMO. I can believe that there's maybe some pent-up demand for the better examples, though.

[Mephisto]

I am surprised by the hammer for X-MEN UNLIMITED #6 COVER of $8k

KERRY GAMMILL, DAN PANOSIAN

 

The price on this cover, the Kane X-Men cover and the JRJR X-Men cover are all baffling to me. I mean, it's not like I would kick any of them out of bed, but they all finished about double what I would have guessed.

 

And, no, the JRJR X191 cover wasn't me - I wasn't going for anything in this auction.

 

Yeah, and here's the funny part, Gene. The Gammill X-Men Unlimited cover sold at Heritage for $900 in May, 2014.

 

I may be mistaken but I thought the Donnelly brothers had the X-Men Unlimited cover last.

[RabidFerret]

Damn, Liefeld is on fire! New Mutants 89 page 25 sold for $3600 today. Same page sold(along with page 24) in CL in May 2014 for $1200 - ie, $600/page. 6x increase in 16 months? Insanity...

 

Yeah $1.6k for NM #88 p4 is very strong too. Any idea what's with the Liefeld love

 

Yeah, $1600 for that Blob page was pretty unexpected!

 

I think the increase is twofold -

1) Deadpool movie and the spotlight being on Liefeld is reminding people that there was some good stuff early in his career(and not very much of it if you count it; 20 total issues?)

2) The Liefeld market was pretty far below McFarlane and Lee, the two early 90s contemporaries he's associated with as the top 3 guys of that era. Anyone coming into the hobby now with nostalgia on their mind can get a swell Liefeld page for a lot less than a comparable Lee or McFarlane.

 

[Ironmandrd]

I agree. At this time, it would seem best to treat the UXM #191 more like an outlier than the new norm across the board. A single data point shouldn't suddenly completely skew all JRJR X-Men covers and better interior pages.

[DJRome]

I thought it was a really good auction last night. There were enough strong results to encourage the speculators, but enough reasonably priced material to let everyone else play a bit, too. I walked away feeling good about the state of the hobby without feeling totally priced out it.

 

I miss the days when these events would inspire auction reports, so I figured I would slap one together. As always, this is just my opinion.

 

 

Stuff that went very strongly:

 

She Hulk #37: @12.5k, it was the shock of the night for me. I like to think I know the Byrne market, but that was 2.5x what I would have expected. Congrats to the seller on that one!

 

Supe/Bats #4: EDEX covers usually struggle to break 2k, so 4.1k looked strong. I'm an EDEX fan, so it's nice to see their work get some love.

 

Cap #228 splash: A nice piece by Sal, but wasn't this available for much less recently?

 

X-Men Unlimited #6: Same story as the Cap #228

 

Bambi's X-Men covers: Both the #79 & #191 are great covers and it really showed in the premium they demanded. I wasn't terribly shocked by the #79 result, but I really hadn't pegged the #191 breaking 30k.

 

The Romita & Ditko ASM pages: Collectors expect sky high prices whenever these things come up, so last night's results probably didn't wow anyone. But come on, 26 & 32k? That's damn respectable!

 

McNiven's Civil War art: How much of this is move hype and how much is genuine collecting interest? Only time will tell.

Stuff that went quite reasonably:

 

Snake Eyes pinup by Trimpe: I know that some collectors thought it went high, but I'm not one of them. After the splash to Joe #1 sold for 16k at HA, I was expecting this to go between 6 to 8. There are more early Joe collectors now and every one of them loves Snake Eyes.

 

All of the Perez art except for the Avengers cover. I'll chalk it up to his enormous body of work, but damn if those pages didn't go cheaply.

 

There were several Punisher covers up for grabs. I won't say that they were all well bought, but a couple definitely were. Especially the Janson one.

 

Preacher TPB: Every Preacher cover is in a single black hole collection (except for 2 of 'em). Even if you don't care about the tv series, a good Saint of Killers cover demands a premium. I think this one went under the radar of many collectors.

 

Kamandi #29 fight page: Even more so than Perez, Kirby's giant body of work will yield a wide range of values. While most of the FF pages hit their numbers, this little gem was cheap. It should have broken 2 or 3k. No great characters, but what a great fight page!

Things I'm still trying to figure out:

 

WD #5 page: You don't see a lot of big time WD art sell publicly, so I was impressed with the number. But a couple of collectors assured me that it would go for more. Was it a bad result?

 

Frazetta sketch: Not my bag, but I thought it was a strong number. I suppose we'll get more price discovery at the upcoming Profiles in History auction.

 

Star Wars: I was in the camp that believed someone would take the plunge at 25k. And I was wrong.

 

TTA #101 splash: There are things about this title splash that I really like and other things that I don't like about it. In the end, I don't know if 14k was expensive or cheap for this one.

 

That's my two cents. Congratulations to all of the consignors and buyers!

 

 

 

 

[comix4fun]

So if a good JRJR cover is worth that, whats a quality page from that issue/run worth?

 

I don't think the cover craziness extrapolates directly to the interiors. Yeah, a good #191 page sold for almost $3K (I thought that was an outlier too - more Avengers crossover appeal), but the two average #191 pages offered in this CLink sale sold for $1,202 and $701, respectively. I suspect most interiors from the run are still mid-hundreds to low $1Ks (I picked some pages in this range recently), though really good action/appearance pages can fetch $2-3K. I'd say those are the exceptions, though, not the norm.

 

I can believe that people are turning to these as a cheaper alternative to Byrne and 1st run Cockrum, but I think the #191 cover result, with the Avengers/Vision premium plus the dozens of headshots, greatly exaggerates how much the range has actually moved. Same with that #191 interior that sold. A #193 page recently sold for $2.2K, but had the 1st appearance of Firestar, so, again, extenuating circumstances. All the rest of the pages that have sold on CLink have been for much less (granted, these are mostly average/typical pages) and more representative, IMO. I can believe that there's maybe some pent-up demand for the better examples, though.

 

 

Pretty spot on in points as to what I've experienced as it pertains to the better pages.

Having owned well over 100 pages from this run over the course of the last 15-20 years I would put the two interiors that sold from that issue in the "below average" range.

 

I mostly agree with the rest of the evaluation but I wouldn't call these two pages average. No wolverine, no real action, no normal costumes, etc. etc. Given the competition for anything resembling the X-men from this run, I haven't been able to touch anything under $1k for a few years.

 

It seems $1k-$1400 will get you a good page, maybe missing some team members, maybe a talky page and not an action page. You won't see many (any) wolverine in costume pages from this run in that range, unless the seller's not paying attention to demand.

 

I agree that the good action pages probably start at $2k and probably run to the mid 3's. You just don't see them offered very often. The splashes from the run look to be starting somewhere around $5k and can go as high as the content of the page (action, etc) will take them. I know I was offering $5k for certain splashes as long as 7-8 years ago and was not able to pry them loose for that amount. One splash I had offered $4k for about 7-8 years ago sold recently for $8k.

[comix4fun]

I agree. At this time, it would seem best to treat the UXM #191 more like an outlier than the new norm across the board. A single data point shouldn't suddenly completely skew all JRJR X-Men covers and better interior pages.

 

 

For the sake of my continued participation and success in collecting selfsame, I agree.

[delekkerste]

One splash I had offered $4k for about 7-8 years ago sold recently for $8k.

 

Was that the #177 splash that sold for $7.8K? That was a really nice one - think the big Wolverine and Mystique images and John Romita Sr. inks are what carried the day with that example (I was the underbidder in that sale).

[comix4fun]

One splash I had offered $4k for about 7-8 years ago sold recently for $8k.

 

Was that the #177 splash that sold for $7.8K? That was a really nice one - think the big Wolverine and Mystique images and John Romita Sr. inks are what carried the day with that example (I was the underbidder in that sale).

 

 

And it didn't look anything like the rest of JRJR's run. He was still in PMS mode.

[Bronty]

I had a girlfriend like that once

[Doc Joe]

 

 

One of my wins

[fsumavila]

this thread has been fascinating & informative -- especially in regards to JRJR X-Men art. I was floored by the final price but I'm not familiar with that particular market at all. I do think there were definitely some bargains to be had, but I was really surprised by the prices of some pieces... like the BWS Firestar #4 cover -- $10.2K!!

I had my eye on the cover years ago and couldve had it for what looks to be dirt cheap compared to this price -- my bad!!

Was also pleasantly surprised to see the Dazzler market keeps gaining steam ...the Sienkiewicz #16 nearly hit $6K ...and the Dazzler #4 coming in over $5K

(full disclosure: that DAZZ #4 was mine and was pleasantly surprised to see it hammer at that price)

 

Any pages/covers you guys felt were outright steals at the final prices?

 

[Darth Corgi]

I missed out on a Graham Ingels page...fell asleep putting the kids to bed.

 

I'm in the market for one, if anyone has one they were considering selling, please PM me or point me in the right direction.

 

Thanks

Christian

[t3quila]

Back from work now, so my 2p worth.

 

For me the Romita 191 X-Men cover was really nice, and as I've said before was nostalgic to several others as well as myself.

However in the great scheme of things, the price of good X-Men Romita covers are higher than the 10-20k stated here.

 

For those that disagree about the price, all I really have to say it now costs $12.5K for a lower level Byrne She-Hulk cover, I wan't a fan of this cover as I thought Byrne's pencils were looser than I liked and before anyone says this was an outlier the Byrne Avengers 305 cover sold for 9.5K earlier this year (yes I know an Avenger bump does exist).

Makes me feel that the She-Hulk FF cover I bought a real bargain.

 

For those with a sceptical eye I can easily comment on the state of play of Byrne Superman covers as an example. Good Byrne Superman covers are now $10-15K. Yes I know Hans has sold a cover for $6300 last month on his website but that sold within an hour of being posted and the new owner rejected 2 offers of much higher (up to 9.5K) within a couple of days of the sale.

 

The problem is that the best pieces aren't being released and makes those who chase after good examples are now willing to pay much more.

[comix4fun]

I've always gotten myself into trouble comparing across art markets, across artists, and across eras.

 

I guess it's like the value of Ditko ASM doesn't help me if I am shopping for Kirby FF. And really Kirby FF doesn't help me if I am buying Kirby Thor. Hell, when you get right down to it McFarlane "Spider-Man" prices don't really help me if I want something from "Amazing Spider-Man."

 

Each artist tends to have his own market. In those markets there's usually a pretty clear sub-market (specific story, or inker, or time frame) that seen as superior to the rest.

 

I think the picture gets blurrier and not clearer the further macro you go.

[Dick O.]

I thought it was a really good auction last night. There were enough strong results to encourage the speculators, but enough reasonably priced material to let everyone else play a bit, too. I walked away feeling good about the state of the hobby without feeling totally priced out it.

 

I miss the days when these events would inspire auction reports, so I figured I would slap one together. As always, this is just my opinion.

 

 

Stuff that went very strongly:

 

She Hulk #37: @12.5k, it was the shock of the night for me. I like to think I know the Byrne market, but that was 2.5x what I would have expected. Congrats to the seller on that one!

 

Supe/Bats #4: EDEX covers usually struggle to break 2k, so 4.1k looked strong. I'm an EDEX fan, so it's nice to see their work get some love.

 

Cap #228 splash: A nice piece by Sal, but wasn't this available for much less recently?

 

X-Men Unlimited #6: Same story as the Cap #228

 

Bambi's X-Men covers: Both the #79 & #191 are great covers and it really showed in the premium they demanded. I wasn't terribly shocked by the #79 result, but I really hadn't pegged the #191 breaking 30k.

 

The Romita & Ditko ASM pages: Collectors expect sky high prices whenever these things come up, so last night's results probably didn't wow anyone. But come on, 26 & 32k? That's damn respectable!

 

McNiven's Civil War art: How much of this is move hype and how much is genuine collecting interest? Only time will tell.

Stuff that went quite reasonably:

 

Snake Eyes pinup by Trimpe: I know that some collectors thought it went high, but I'm not one of them. After the splash to Joe #1 sold for 16k at HA, I was expecting this to go between 6 to 8. There are more early Joe collectors now and every one of them loves Snake Eyes.

 

All of the Perez art except for the Avengers cover. I'll chalk it up to his enormous body of work, but damn if those pages didn't go cheaply.

 

There were several Punisher covers up for grabs. I won't say that they were all well bought, but a couple definitely were. Especially the Janson one.

 

Preacher TPB: Every Preacher cover is in a single black hole collection (except for 2 of 'em). Even if you don't care about the tv series, a good Saint of Killers cover demands a premium. I think this one went under the radar of many collectors.

 

Kamandi #29 fight page: Even more so than Perez, Kirby's giant body of work will yield a wide range of values. While most of the FF pages hit their numbers, this little gem was cheap. It should have broken 2 or 3k. No great characters, but what a great fight page!

Things I'm still trying to figure out:

 

WD #5 page: You don't see a lot of big time WD art sell publicly, so I was impressed with the number. But a couple of collectors assured me that it would go for more. Was it a bad result?

 

Frazetta sketch: Not my bag, but I thought it was a strong number. I suppose we'll get more price discovery at the upcoming Profiles in History auction.

 

Star Wars: I was in the camp that believed someone would take the plunge at 25k. And I was wrong.

 

TTA #101 splash: There are things about this title splash that I really like and other things that I don't like about it. In the end, I don't know if 14k was expensive or cheap for this one.

 

That's my two cents. Congratulations to all of the consignors and buyers!

 

 

 

 

Great report!

 

The Perez Infinity Gauntlet #3 page fetched a good price though, and think you're right about the Preacher SoK cover (I was seriously eyeing it too).

[t3quila]

I've always gotten myself into trouble comparing across art markets, across artists, and across eras.

 

I guess it's like the value of Ditko ASM doesn't help me if I am shopping for Kirby FF. And really Kirby FF doesn't help me if I am buying Kirby Thor. Hell, when you get right down to it McFarlane "Spider-Man" prices don't really help me if I want something from "Amazing Spider-Man."

 

Each artist tends to have his own market. In those markets there's usually a pretty clear sub-market (specific story, or inker, or time frame) that seen as superior to the rest.

 

I think the picture gets blurrier and not clearer the further macro you go.

 

I agree with you but I was really trying to get the point that certain covers are on the move, and that Romita is one of them, if anyone does want to sell me a good Romita X-Men cover for 10-20 K just PM me i'll take a couple.

[delekkerste]

Back from work now, so my 2p worth.

 

For me the Romita 191 X-Men cover was really nice, and as I've said before was nostalgic to several others as well as myself.

However in the great scheme of things, the price of good X-Men Romita covers are higher than the 10-20k stated here.

 

For those that disagree about the price, all I really have to say it now costs $12.5K for a lower level Byrne She-Hulk cover, I wan't a fan of this cover as I thought Byrne's pencils were looser than I liked and before anyone says this was an outlier the Byrne Avengers 305 cover sold for 9.5K earlier this year (yes I know an Avenger bump does exist).

Makes me feel that the She-Hulk FF cover I bought a real bargain.

 

For those with a sceptical eye I can easily comment on the state of play of Byrne Superman covers as an example. Good Byrne Superman covers are now $10-15K. Yes I know Hans has sold a cover for $6300 last month on his website but that sold within an hour of being posted and the new owner rejected 2 offers of much higher (up to 9.5K) within a couple of days of the sale.

 

The problem is that the best pieces aren't being released and makes those who chase after good examples are now willing to pay much more.

 

Jeez, why didn't anyone tell me that this She-Hulk cover has Byrne doing huge images of the Punisher, Wolverine and Spidey in action?? $12.5K for that one looks like the deal of the decade compared to $38.1K for the JRJR X191 cover.

 

Do you think that, say, the JRJR X197 cover (a good example with Doctor Doom and the full team) that sold for $13K three years ago is worth more than $20K now? If you do, then I guess I know who sent me that anonymous offer for my X176 cover through the Heritage system.

 

What qualifies as in your mind as a "good", >$20K cover anyway? Personally, I love covers like #179, 180, 185, etc. even though they don't have Wolverine or much of the team on them, but I wouldn't value any of them anywhere near $20K.

[t3quila]

Back from work now, so my 2p worth.

 

For me the Romita 191 X-Men cover was really nice, and as I've said before was nostalgic to several others as well as myself.

However in the great scheme of things, the price of good X-Men Romita covers are higher than the 10-20k stated here.

 

For those that disagree about the price, all I really have to say it now costs $12.5K for a lower level Byrne She-Hulk cover, I wan't a fan of this cover as I thought Byrne's pencils were looser than I liked and before anyone says this was an outlier the Byrne Avengers 305 cover sold for 9.5K earlier this year (yes I know an Avenger bump does exist).

Makes me feel that the She-Hulk FF cover I bought a real bargain.

 

For those with a sceptical eye I can easily comment on the state of play of Byrne Superman covers as an example. Good Byrne Superman covers are now $10-15K. Yes I know Hans has sold a cover for $6300 last month on his website but that sold within an hour of being posted and the new owner rejected 2 offers of much higher (up to 9.5K) within a couple of days of the sale.

 

The problem is that the best pieces aren't being released and makes those who chase after good examples are now willing to pay much more.

 

Jeez, why didn't anyone tell me that this She-Hulk cover has Byrne doing huge images of the Punisher, Wolverine and Spidey in action?? $12.5K for that one looks like the deal of the decade compared to $38.1K for the JRJR X191 cover.

 

Do you think that, say, the JRJR X197 cover (a good example with Doctor Doom and the full team) that sold for $13K three years ago is worth more than $20K now? If you do, then I guess I know who sent me that anonymous offer for my X176 cover through the Heritage system.

 

Actually yes I do think it's worth more than 20K now and no I didn't send the offer

 

As for the images of Wolverine, Punisher and Spidey, this is still a She-Hulk cover from Byrne past his prime period, She-Hulk covers average 2K to 5K before this.

Why can't a Romita cover from his prime period (Spider-man and X-men periods are his prime periods to me reach 20-30K)