ComicLink Spring Auction

[Filter81]

I think I need to start a thread for talking about the comiclink auction stuff that isn't in the many thousands range. I think I might need to consider myself lucky that most of the stuff I really like isn't stuff you bigger spenders care about or notice!

 

I always find the talk interesting on the high dollar pieces. But I hope I can resist ever getting to the point of actually wanting said pieces. I picked up just one piece, at a price I can live with, that perfectly hits my nostalgia bubble.

 

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2Fauctions%2Fsearch%2Easp%3Fwhere%3Dsell%26title%3DBob%26ItemType%3DCA%26CGC%3D%23Item%5F1121805&id=1121805

 

Nice! That one has everything. Extinction Agenda, Cable, Wolvy, Phoenix... nice pick-up!

[Filter81]

 

Regarding the X-Men 211, whoever won it, I'd probably suggest restoring it.

 

 

 

Agreed! If I'd won, the first thing I would have done was have it restored. (And it did affect my bidding. I guessed it would cost $1k-$2k to have it restored so I lowered my max bid from $50k to $49k)

[Lucky Baru]

I have been buying Mike's Hulk pages under what I think they are worth for years.

I hear ya. Bought a Deodato Hulk splash cheap many, many years ago. Then sold it cheap many years ago. Been scratching my head ever since on that one. May need to look around and get another one, just to quiet the voices in my head! (That part at the end -for Chris )

 

Decided to pull the details out of the dustbin of history:

 

Incredible Hulk 447 page 01, title splash

paid $70 October-99

sold $100 March-03

 

What's FMV these days?

 

FMV is tough as prices seem to fluctuate a good bit. I just snagged a nice panel page for 150 in a recent auction. I would have to see the splash but I am sure it id $4/500+ if it is a real nice one (which opening pages from this era usually are).

 

 

Mike's pages run between 250.00 to 450.00+. He's starting to move. Not fast but then again Liefeld was moving at about the same increase in price 3 or 4 years ago. Pages now for his X-Books are starting to come into their own (I think Mike is more talented that Rob).

 

BTW, someone got a good deal on the McFarlane Infinity Inc page. While the page doesn't show any of what McFarlane would become it is a good deal at $ 429.00. I've always thought that Obsidian somehow stuck in McFarlane's mind and that's where Spawn grew from.

[James J]

Won this

 

 

 

 

 

 

To go with this

 

 

 

 

 

 

.................. .............

[malvin]

Whoops. Sorry if I rubbed it in Malvin. I had forgotten that was one of yours. Did you win anything this time around?

 

Ha ha, nah, don't worry about it, no offence at all.

 

unfortunately I had no self control and won something. To prevent jinxing I won't reveal it until it is in hand. The one item I won was a lot more than the 4 pieces I sold

 

and during the auction someone PM'ed me here to offer me something also equal in magnitude to what I bought.

 

I'll be cranking up the selling machine again soon....

 

Malvin

[NelsonAI]

 

Gene should follow DC's lead and come back Rebirthed Gene 0.0.

 

I would take the BWS at 32K over the JRJR x-men at 51K. Nostalgia be damned. I believe the BWS piece originally sold for 75K a few years back on comiclink. I'm sure the seller knew he was in for a loss and waived the transfer agreement hoping to get more bids. I may have bid more aggressively. No regrets though.

 

I thought the JH Williams cover looked amazing and sold at a fair price. The Perez covers went cheaper than I thought.

 

Cheers!

N.

 

Please hit new reply instead of quote. It's hard to slog through 30 pages of quotes when there is actually only about 2 pages of commentary. Thanks.

 

 

[Filter81]

 

1. If you're in it for the long haul, bide your time, don't add to the bidding frenzy and wait for that one time when you can get a piece you like for a reasonable price. The potential downside? You'll end up with nothing because you'll never recognize the right opportunity in real time.

 

2. If you're really able to be satisfied with one sample of a given artist/title, wait for the one piece you really, really like, and bid to win (which on HA is pretty easy, just click until it says you won; CL is more problematic in this regard), and then walk away from that particular market and let others deal with the fallout. The potential downside? If it turns out this wasn't *the* piece for you, and the right one pops up an auction or two down the road. Now you'll be stuck with a piece you're no longer really crazy about which you potentially overpaid for significantly.

 

3. Compromise; settle for what you can get instead of what you really want. For example, you if you can do with a nice but not great UXM JRJR cover for not such a great price, go and buy the one Burkey has on his website right now. It's good art but mediocre content (Chuck vs. Selene with, I believe, Rachel Summers lying on the ground), and for what it is priced a bit too much, but you won't have to fight for it. I won't be surprised if now that the auction is over and people will draw their conclusions (and reset their expectations), someone might actually bite.

 

 

This is some great advice, thanks! I've already tried #3 and found that one didn't work for me personally. (Unfortunately that has led to me buying way more art pieces than I should. A few have stood the test of time and I'm just as happy (if not happier) to own them today as the day I bought them, but a lot of them after the excitement of getting them wore off, are now just kind of "meh") For me, the JRJR on Mike's site is cool, but does not have the same affect as the UXM 211 cover or the Wolverine 48 cover in the last HA auction. For me, it doesn't have to be a JRJR cover (I like Jrjr, Silvestri, Lee, Kubert, Liefeld, & Portacio) But it has to be the right image/issue.

 

So after a few people smarter than me set me straight about buying quality vs just buying what's available, I tried something closer to your first option. But so far all that has happened is I've watched that section of the market get further and further away from me.

 

This time around I went more for the Option 2 approach but stopped a little short. The Wolverine 48 Silvestri cover was supposed to be my "keep clicking bid until I win" cover, but it reached a point where I couldn't justify it anymore, especially with the (in my opinion) better UXM 211 cover still sitting out there at the time.

 

Maybe the solution is I need to be more selective. Instead of targeting 5-6 (or however many) covers a year, wait however long it takes for a true "grail" to show up, and when that happens, pay whatever silly price it takes to win. (For me, UXM 211 and Wolverine 48 were both grail"ish" but I can think of 5-10 covers that I like better. Although without the stat I think UXM 211 would have possibly cracked the top 10 list for me)

 

 

[stinkininkin]

I think Ploogs Werewolf was considerably low. , A Double Page Splash Featuring Dracula engage in a fight with Werewolf for $4500 is a bargain IMO

 

Agree, as I take a second look. Cool double page spread (with a full page Dracula v Werewolf splash) by Ploog in peak form. That it was executed on a single board (turned horizontal) probably kept a lid on price IMO but otherwise a strong piece from an artist/content perspective. Congrats to the winner.

 

Valid points, but still a good deal.

 

I was pleased to get this lot so cheaply.

 

My biggest take from what i collect was.......When have we ever seen any auction where a peter parker character page by Romita going for more than a DITKO asm page with 6 panels of spiderman! I placed a late bid of 26k on the romita and i thoguht for sure i'd get it...here i got blown out of the water with "2" people....1 bidding 36k and the winner bidding far more than 37k.

 

Huge Ploog monster fan, but I generally need the art to be inked by Ploog himself. Nothing else looks quite right to me. The small size was a bit of a problem, but not so much that if it had been Ploog inks, I'd have crushed you on this one Mike!

 

Scott

[delekkerste]

There are certainly better covers. The 211 is like a deluxe commission sketch, a small head of Wolverine taking up about half of the cover. Not much to it. I'm scratching my head on the result of this one. Surprised it did not take a bigger hit due to condition as well. Seems like the final price was not affected by it much?

 

Condition seems to matter less these days, as we've all seen over the past several years how pieces can be nicely restored, and/or have overlays/stats/dressing added to make a piece more presentable.

 

Regarding the X211, I'm with you on the image - there are at least several covers from JRJR's 1st UXM run that I like better in terms of what's drawn on the board (none of which is likely to hit $51K). However, UXM #210-213 (the Mutant Massacre) was arguably the high point story-wise for the run, and so there is a lot of nostalgia and intangible love for those issues that goes beyond what's actually drawn on the board.

[RabidFerret]

This is some great advice, thanks! I've already tried #3 and found that one didn't work for me personally. (Unfortunately that has led to me buying way more art pieces than I should. A few have stood the test of time and I'm just as happy (if not happier) to own them today as the day I bought them, but a lot of them after the excitement of getting them wore off, are now just kind of "meh") For me, the JRJR on Mike's site is cool, but does not have the same affect as the UXM 211 cover or the Wolverine 48 cover in the last HA auction. For me, it doesn't have to be a JRJR cover (I like Jrjr, Silvestri, Lee, Kubert, Liefeld, & Portacio) But it has to be the right image/issue.

 

So after a few people smarter than me set me straight about buying quality vs just buying what's available, I tried something closer to your first option. But so far all that has happened is I've watched that section of the market get further and further away from me.

 

This time around I went more for the Option 2 approach but stopped a little short. The Wolverine 48 Silvestri cover was supposed to be my "keep clicking bid until I win" cover, but it reached a point where I couldn't justify it anymore, especially with the (in my opinion) better UXM 211 cover still sitting out there at the time.

 

Maybe the solution is I need to be more selective. Instead of targeting 5-6 (or however many) covers a year, wait however long it takes for a true "grail" to show up, and when that happens, pay whatever silly price it takes to win. (For me, UXM 211 and Wolverine 48 were both grail"ish" but I can think of 5-10 covers that I like better. Although without the stat I think UXM 211 would have possibly cracked the top 10 list for me)

 

Lots of what you're saying sounds a lot like the common entry into comic art for a lot of us:) There should almost be a term for it. It seems to break down like this:

 

Step 1) Discover comic art, be blown away, and buy a billion things from every artist and book you ever read and loved.

Step 2) Slowly realize where your true love and passion lies, often tied to buying a big purchase and realizing what you need to sell to offset it

Step 3) Slowly tighten your collection over a long period of time, using placeholders for key artists, biding your time for great pieces but also knowing when to break the bank and sell a kidney or two

 

I know I can look back at all the things that have moved through my collection over the years and what stuck and it all makes complete sense in retrospect:)

[delekkerste]

Huge Ploog monster fan, but I generally need the art to be inked by Ploog himself. Nothing else looks quite right to me. The small size was a bit of a problem, but not so much that if it had been Ploog inks, I'd have crushed you on this one Mike!

 

I was the 2nd underbidder on this lot. It was indeed the small size and the lack of Ploog inks that kept me from bidding higher.

 

It sounds like it would have been a bloodbath had it been inked by Ploog.

[rotembk]

This time around I went more for the Option 2 approach but stopped a little short. The Wolverine 48 Silvestri cover was supposed to be my "keep clicking bid until I win" cover, but it reached a point where I couldn't justify it anymore, especially with the (in my opinion) better UXM 211 cover still sitting out there at the time.

 

Well, I'll let Gene and the others reenact the great "price discovery" debate but assuming you were the pre-live auction underbidder, personally I think the lesson is, unless you're really willing to go all-in, never to go up to your limit before the live auction. Always assume someone else has a deeper pocket than you, but on the day of auction they may not be around or pay enough attention or perhaps they had to overspend on other lots that you may end up winning for less than your limit.

 

But yes, for strategy 2 to work you must win, otherwise you may royally screw yourself, because even if it were just you and another guy, it may take a while for the market to realize that or, worse, the market may decide that you two were actually right and the price will never come down.

[mister_not_so_nice]

Whoops. Sorry if I rubbed it in Malvin. I had forgotten that was one of yours. Did you win anything this time around?

 

Ha ha, nah, don't worry about it, no offence at all.

 

unfortunately I had no self control and won something. To prevent jinxing I won't reveal it until it is in hand. The one item I won was a lot more than the 4 pieces I sold

 

and during the auction someone PM'ed me here to offer me something also equal in magnitude to what I bought.

 

I'll be cranking up the selling machine again soon....

 

Malvin

 

[delekkerste]

All in all, I think I did ok. Not deals of the century, but not too bad either. I would love any questions/comments. Most of my collection is comprised of 90's stuff that I really loved when it came out. It does affect my buying, but I try to stay within where I think the market is going price wise. If it's any indication, I believe that prices for 90's-early 2000's have just started hitting the tip of the iceberg. I truly think that in 10 years I'll be looking back at these prices and thinking that I should have bought more.

 

I think you did very well. I suspect that our resident value buyer Vodou would be proud.

 

Given how lofty the market is these days, I wouldn't fault anyone for going for a handful of lower-priced nostalgic pieces vs. blowing one's wad on only one bigger piece. That doesn't mean going out and indiscriminately buying 7-8 random cheapo pieces instead of one nice piece, but, if you can find 7-8 lower priced pieces that you really like, sure, why not? There's something to be said for collecting with an eye to maximizing the nostalgia enjoyed per dollar spent.

[JadeGiant]

Lots of what you're saying sounds a lot like the common entry into comic art for a lot of us:) There should almost be a term for it. It seems to break down like this:

 

Step 1) Discover comic art, be blown away, and buy a billion things from every artist and book you ever read and loved.

Step 2) Slowly realize where your true love and passion lies, often tied to buying a big purchase and realizing what you need to sell to offset it

Step 3) Slowly tighten your collection over a long period of time, using placeholders for key artists, biding your time for great pieces but also knowing when to break the bank and sell a kidney or two

 

I know I can look back at all the things that have moved through my collection over the years and what stuck and it all makes complete sense in retrospect:)

 

This is certainly the model I have followed. Haven't reached the point of needing to sell artwork to fund more art but the very large statue collection I amassed has taken a hit and will continue to dwindle as I raise art funds. The comic collection would be the next logical thing to go.

 

Assuming that Step 4 would be the exit strategy which is hopefully nowhere in the near future. It feels like liquidating art would be easier than large collections of collectibles and comics.

[Real Elijah Snow]

Yessir. These pieces might not make headlines, but they make me happy. Thanks for the kind words!

All in all, I think I did ok. Not deals of the century, but not too bad either. I would love any questions/comments. Most of my collection is comprised of 90's stuff that I really loved when it came out. It does affect my buying, but I try to stay within where I think the market is going price wise. If it's any indication, I believe that prices for 90's-early 2000's have just started hitting the tip of the iceberg. I truly think that in 10 years I'll be looking back at these prices and thinking that I should have bought more.

 

I think you did very well. I suspect that our resident value buyer Vodou would be proud.

 

Given how lofty the market is these days, I wouldn't fault anyone for going for a handful of lower-priced nostalgic pieces vs. blowing one's wad on only one bigger piece. That doesn't mean going out and indiscriminately buying 7-8 random cheapo pieces instead of one nice piece, but, if you can find 7-8 lower priced pieces that you really like, sure, why not? There's something to be said for collecting with an eye to maximizing the nostalgia enjoyed per dollar spent.

[Silver Surfer]

Sold this last year but I'm glad I was able to reacquire it as I am leaning more towards OA these days. Doom's face in the bottom right makes this page for me.

[Bronty]

there really isn't a bad panel. congrats

[comix4fun]

Sold this last year but I'm glad I was able to reacquire it as I am leaning more towards OA these days. Doom's face in the bottom right makes this page for me.

 

 

Perfect Page!

 

 

I'm glad I didn't bid on that page and cost you more cash, as far as you know.

[Silver Surfer]

I'm glad you didn't either!