X-Men #137 Original Art: $48,000 + The Juice

[delekkerste]

Just got back from the Heritage auction here in NYC. Went with "Dam60" from the Boards. The 2-page Byrne/Austin splash from X-Men #137 sold for $48,000, plus the bidder's premium. Some Asian guy named Albert won it...I think he was art dealer Albert Moy (who reps Jim Lee, among others). The room burst into applause after the bidding ended. By the way, me & Dam60 had a private viewing of the piece before the auction...I have to say that it is gorgeous, but $50,000+ for 2 pieces of small, flimsy, yellowing Marvel artboard taped together, no matter what's drawn on it, still seems pretty extravagant to me.

 

Albert also won the 2nd most contested of the original art auctions, the Barry Smith splash page from Conan #14 which ended at $8,500 (versus the $3,500 pre-sale estimate). That was one of the very few pieces that meaningfully exceeded pre-sale estimates. Most pieces either did not meet reserve or were less than estimated. Both myself & Dam60 were shocked at how shallow the liquidity really is in the original art market. In fact, he learned that lesson the hard way this evening, winning a piece he didn't really want when bidding ended at just 1/5th of the pre-sale estimate.

 

As expected (at least by me, anyway), neither the Schomburg Human Torch cover nor the Frazetta Ghost Rider cover met reserve. The Frazetta "Savage World" painting did sell for $105,000 (plus the premium), though.

 

Gene

[Bonds25]

Were you able to see the Frazetta "Savage World" painting up close?? If so, was it as gorgeous as it appeared on the website?

 

Was there any other cool stuff you saw?

[delekkerste]

Forgot about "Savage World" and didn't request a viewing, unfortunately. Instead, we viewed the Byrne piece, the Schomburg Human Torch cover (once I saw it, I knew there was no way it was going to sell..it just doesn't make a big enough visual impact in person to justify a $175K price tag), a couple of covers that Dam60 found interesting ("Aliens" and GI Joe) and I requested a viewing of the Hildebrandt brothers' spectacular Vampirella painting (now there is a piece which looks 10x better in person than in the catalog - Ed Jaster was passing by while I was looking at it, did a double take, and came by to check it out.)

 

Gene

[aardvark88]

Albert Moy was probably bidding on someone's behalf (Jim Lee or Scott Williams). I'm sure he can avoid the NY sales tax with his NY reseller #. $24k per pg for the ultimate Byrne X-men splash from the biggest 1980s key issue. Shocking but this is the 1st time a vintage Byrne X-men splash or cover did not just trade within a small circle of elite orig. comic art collectors.

[blowout]

It's interesting to hear about the liquidity of original art. You'd think it would be easier to sell, since there is only one of each piece, but it seems the demand is not there. I guess the right collector has to be there at the right time for you to get the price you want.

The fact is there is only a handful of collectors out there willing to pay the $$$ for the high end stuff.

[aardvark88]

Keep in mind the comic bk orig. art mkt is still in its infancy compared to gold, silver & now bronze age mkts that are well developed due to 32 yrs of Ostreet Pr Guide valuations. There was never an orig. art pr guide until J Weist's a few yrs after the 1st Sotheby's auction (1991?) when he could track concrete cash prices realized rather than heresay & 1/2 cash, 1/2 trade deals.

[COI]

Demand is definetly there, but as you stated, the $$$ is the real question. Like most original art(fine art, paintings etc..) the work is finding the right buyer, or in the case of auctions, the right bidders.

[delekkerste]

Speaking of X-Men #137 splash pages, what the heck is this nonsense???

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2164071108&category=972

 

Gene

[blowout]

Gene

That is the same nut who has the auction for the fake Byrne X-Men cover who raves about Willy Wonka and his Oompa Loompa's

 

If you want crazy, check the thread I posted earlier.

[chrisco37]

You're right. This is Willy Wonka guy! What a weirdo. Why would he waste money listing this junk? (actually, his X-men 142 cover wasn't horrible). But BIN's of $2500? These have to be jokes?

 

But, if not, we could be seeing a genius in the making. I wonder if he does commissions? I'd want a Willy Wonka forcing the Oompa-Loompa's to make his evil candy!

 

Chris

[Bugaboo-migration]

Yo......somebody with a shill account should hit his BIN for $2500.......that way.....he'll have to mess with eBay on getting his final value fees back.

[clobberintime]

Well only having about 4 pieces of art, I am not any expert on this stuff but I know what I like and the reason I really like commissions is you get what you want by the artist you want and it usually looks a lot better than any of those panel pages that are affordable. I think a lot of splashes and covers can go $10,000 on up to infinity. I paid just over $1000 to get Steve Rude to do a silver age size Hulk vs. FF that is awesome - it looks better than the Kirby #25 FF. It is heavily inked and everything about it is great. I hardly ever see artwork that is just what i want, looks clean and is affordable - under $10k. A lot of original art I have seen is just not that impressive in person. The collectibility there must come from having the history and the real thing. I like artwork for the visual impact and i like the idea of getting a top favorite artist like perez, Rude or whoever putting together something for me at my direction. When I found a site with lots of top artists that do commissions i was very surprised but glad!

[FlyingDonut]

and this site is where??

[clobberintime]

I actually found it thru the doctor that has been posting here - it is called Nighthawks and has links to all sorts of stuff but lots of art related sites. There was a link to one particular site that had about 30 very well known artists from marvel and DC that do any kind of commision you want. I saw Perez and Buckler on there which I really liked - Buckler was doing FF when i bought my first FF and love his covers - like 147, 155, 167 etc.Perez had on display about 20 comms that were all great - some top notch FF and avengers team pics.

[greggy]

http://www.steverude.com/

[aardvark88]

U have to dig thru this site to look for commissions but lots of varied artist/inkers:

http://members.aol.com/originalart/artistlinks.htm

 

IMHO the only other new X-men interior art that may realize $55k is Dave Cockrum's pg 1 art to Gt Sz X-men #1. Has foreground of new X-men team running towards u & top headshots of 60s X-men including Cyclops.

[delekkerste]

I totally agree with you - I expressed nearly identical thoughts in the "Official Original Art Thread". Like you, I prefer to collect art for art's sake instead of for its collectibility. Would love to see scans of the commissions you have. I think that if more people saw what you can get for a reasonable price, that the popularity of commissions among fans would increase.

 

That said, I do appreciate published art when it has the "visual impact" you mentioned. There's no doubt that the X-Men #137 splash has that in spades. I'm just not sure it has more of a visual impact than a new Porsche Boxster with three brand new Rolex Submariner watches sitting on the front seat! At $55,200 for the XM 137 splash (including the BP), I don't think that's an unfair comparison. And I'll give you one guess which of the two options will get you more attention from the ladies!

 

"Uh huh huh huh huh...wanna come over to my place and look at some comic book artwork?"

 

"Get lost, you loser!"

 

or

 

"Hey babe, wanna go for a ride in my new Porsche? Oh, and I've got a little gift for you here..."

 

"OH, GENE!!! My hero!"

 

- Gene

 

 

Note to those lacking a sense of humor: The above was partly tongue-in-cheek and does not represent an endorsement to acquire status symbols to compensate for underlying insecurities nor use them to procure sexual favors from impressionable women. Thank you for your understanding.

 

 

[clobberintime]

Yeah - we had bike week in daytona for the last few weeks and I rarely have time to get out and look at all that but did so last Friday and there are some very expensive bikes now too. The average for a nice custom job was between $21 and $27,000 but saw many over $40,000 - for a motorcycle! I guess the guys shelling out money for stuff like that or $40k for a piece of comic art already have the benz or whatever - at least I hope. I hope it's not like a guy I knew when I was in school that had just about every comic you could think of but lived in a mobile home! On a side note, was devastated at the end of 24 last week yo hear no new episodes for 3 weeks! but in the bright side can watch Smallville for awhile again.

[dam60]

Heritage was great! Gene, I was actually able to not have to buy the lot that I didn't want - whew!

 

There were definitely a few surprises as Gene has mentioned and I think that Heritage needs to do some revamping of their estimates for original art.

 

Also, let me take this opportunity to tell you about the 3 pieces that I did get. One was a page from Batman 379 with a Mad Hatter pin up, another was a Star Wars page in color that depicts a scene from Return of the Jedi, and the third was a Conan drawing that Bart Sears had done for a t-shirt. (Lots: 6951, 7013, 6996). Believe it or not, the Batman page was not all that great. It didn't really do anything to me. The Star Wars page was really a great page. The vivid colors and the presence of Luke, Han, Chewy, Lea, Jabba the Hut, and Bobba Fet was really pretty cool, but the Sears work is simply breathtaking. I really, really like it! There is definitely something to be said for custom pictures.

 

DAM

[heartened]

Hi guys,

 

Looks like a few of you were there at Heritage on Saturday, but I didn't recognize you. I was the guy on the right side sitting with Will Gabri-El, right behind Albert (who bought the X-Men 137 dps). I wish there was some way to recognize you guys, as it's always nice to put a face to a name.

 

I don't think art prices are not liquid.....just like books, some art is easy to move and some isn't. I've never had to wait longer than a few days to sell a piece of art that I own....and I've ALWAYS made a profit. If you're in it for investment purposes, you have to know the market, understand what is rare and in-demand, and know "what sells." If you're in it for the nostalgia and the pure collecting of it, then who cares what's liquid and what isn't? I honestly would rather prices come down at this point, as everything I like has gone up tremendously over the past few years, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

 

With an impending war, however, and a sluggish economy, I do think the CGC and original art markets will see a little slow-down......but the prices, for the most part, will stay relatively high unless collectors are forced to sell their stuff.