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Ron Lim art art is $33,000 now?!? WTF
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Started by Guest Race,

61 posts in this topic

Guest Race

Guest Race

Posted
Posted (edited)

I was out of the market for a while so I'm still adjusting to pricing, but I have to call this out: NO Ron Lim art should be worth anywhere near $33,000, period. This came up because Will set this price on an Infinity Gauntlet page recently... a page which is poorly executed, has three horribly static panels, and dialogue worthy of a six year-old. I can think of many, many panels from a typical 60s Buscema Avengers issue which are more dynamic, beautiful and powerful than this ENTIRE page! Hell, I remember glancing through this when it came out and putting it back in the rack because it looked (and read) like trash.

As the only conclusion to draw is the price is based solely on the connection to the movie, I gotta ask: Are people nuts? Does anyone really believe this will hold any value in 10 years? Is anyone deluded enough to place Ron in the same category as Kirby... Adams... Romita... Buscema? Because that is what $33,000 is telling me... which means some buyers out there have lost their minds.

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chrisco37

chrisco37

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To answer a part of your question, no doubt there is a “significance premium” associated with that title.  As always, the content is important as well.  What’s the actual page? 
For many of us “copper kids”, Lim is one of the premier Surfer/Cosmic artists.  
That said, I won’t/wouldn’t be dropping that kind of coin on anything he did.

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Varanis

Varanis

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The comp being used here has to be the pre-snap Perez page which sold on ComicLink a few months back for 31k. As far as I'm aware, that is a record for a IG page public sale. Perez + page before the snap make the ComicLink page worlds more desirable than this page. Likely just an attempt to leverage the sales of better pages and the movies to try and move the goal posts for the market again. This one is so out of line though that I sincerely doubt it will succeed.

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Timely

Timely

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Posted

A key page for the series, but not a key page for the movie tie-in.

I had a chance to buy the Infinity Gauntlet #1 page that sold in Heritage for 22k a few months back right before it was submitted to HA for WAY, WAY less than its sale price. I didn’t buy it because several people I talked to said it was worth in the 6-9k range.
 

I also passed because it was not a key moment in the movie. It is the page where Thanos kills Death’s mouthpiece minion. Great page!… but had nothing to do with the movies.

Its hard to determine value on this title as pages and prices are all over the map!

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Rick2you2

Rick2you2

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On 7/24/2021 at 7:43 AM, Race said:

I was out of the market for a while so I'm still adjusting to pricing, but I have to call this out: NO Ron Lim art should be worth anywhere near $33,000, period. This came up because Will set this price on an Infinity Gauntlet page recently... a page which is poorly executed, has three horribly static panels, and dialogue worthy of a six year-old. I can think of many, many panels from a typical 60s Buscema Avengers issue which are more dynamic, beautiful and powerful than this ENTIRE page! Hell, I remember glancing through this when it came out and putting it back in the rack because it looked (and read) like trash.

As the only conclusion to draw is the price is based solely on the connection to the movie, I gotta ask: Are people nuts? Does anyone really believe this will hold any value in 10 years? Is anyone deluded enough to place Ron in the same category as Kirby... Adams... Romita... Buscema? Because that is what $33,000 is telling me... which means some buyers out there have lost their minds.

It may not be about the ultimate cost of the piece. It gives the seller extra bargaining room to lower his price-- by a lot.

Perhaps you've seen this listing on eBay (gotta love the shipping charge):

JLI 18 ORIGINAL ART PAGE 22 GUY GARDNER SPLASH BY KEVIN MAGUIRE SIGNED GRAIL

$50,000.00
Top Rated Plus
Was: Previous Price $100,000.00  50% off
or Best Offer
+$5.00 shipping

JLI 18 ORIGINAL ART PAGE 22 GUY GARDNER SPLASH BY KEVIN MAGUIRE SIGNED GRAIL

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Guest Race

Guest Race

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Posted

Insert Jack Kirby FF... Byrne X-men... Adams Batman... there are a lot of examples, Buscema's 60s work just struck me first. Whatever Lim is, he's nowhere near the best.

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Bronty

Bronty

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On 7/24/2021 at 7:43 AM, Race said:

I was out of the market for a while so I'm still adjusting to pricing, but I have to call this out: NO Ron Lim art should be worth anywhere near $33,000, period. This came up because Will set this price on an Infinity Gauntlet page recently... a page which is poorly executed, has three horribly static panels, and dialogue worthy of a six year-old. I can think of many, many panels from a typical 60s Buscema Avengers issue which are more dynamic, beautiful and powerful than this ENTIRE page! Hell, I remember glancing through this when it came out and putting it back in the rack because it looked (and read) like trash.

As the only conclusion to draw is the price is based solely on the connection to the movie, I gotta ask: Are people nuts? Does anyone really believe this will hold any value in 10 years? Is anyone deluded enough to place Ron in the same category as Kirby... Adams... Romita... Buscema? Because that is what $33,000 is telling me... which means some buyers out there have lost their minds.

A Herb Trimpe page sold for around 700k remember …

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Twanj

Twanj

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Posted
On 7/24/2021 at 7:43 AM, Race said:

I was out of the market for a while so I'm still adjusting to pricing, but I have to call this out: NO Ron Lim art should be worth anywhere near $33,000, period. This came up because Will set this price on an Infinity Gauntlet page recently... a page which is poorly executed, has three horribly static panels, and dialogue worthy of a six year-old. I can think of many, many panels from a typical 60s Buscema Avengers issue which are more dynamic, beautiful and powerful than this ENTIRE page! Hell, I remember glancing through this when it came out and putting it back in the rack because it looked (and read) like trash.

As the only conclusion to draw is the price is based solely on the connection to the movie, I gotta ask: Are people nuts? Does anyone really believe this will hold any value in 10 years? Is anyone deluded enough to place Ron in the same category as Kirby... Adams... Romita... Buscema? Because that is what $33,000 is telling me... which means some buyers out there have lost their minds.

If it makes you feel any better/worse, the worse artwork cover for Infinity Crusade #1 is up for $40k with Moy: http://www.albertmoy.com/gallerypiece.asp?Piece=17378

I personally love Ron Lim, he's my fav artist. I have pages by Kirby & Buscema that I love but my Lim pages are right up there.

Even I agree that price is crazy!

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Gatsby77

Gatsby77

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Posted

As others have noted, it's the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, not Lim's art per se, that juiced this price.

And with Silver Surfer and Thanos in a critical part of the battle, I get the appeal.

Side note: even 12 year-old me wished Infinity Gauntlet # 4 had been drawn by Perez. That book was amazing, but Lim's (comparatively weaker) art turned me off such that I didn't even buy # 5 or 6 off the stands.

Decades later, I appreciate Lim's art far more - especially his work in Silver Surfer 34-55.

Crazy that he did the bulk of his Silver Surfer work - and the Infinity Gauntlet minis before he was 28 years old.

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grapeape

grapeape

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Posted

Race you’re not crazy. Art is subjective and toss in speculation shake well with fair market value reduced common sense dressing and you get today’s mixed salad art market.

Saying Buscema is better then Lim is like saying Muhammad Ali would clobber Rocky. Obvious. The art market is far more complicated then that. Money goes where collectors hearts go. Or where an investor believes their return will bloom.

Will Albert Bechara Mike B Glen are market influencers.They are business men and it’s their job to make a living pushing the market to find the highest bearable sale point. Heritage and Comic Link are “Fair Market” price point setters. Collectors or investors have to figure out what’s real and what’s smoke and mirrors (good luck)

If you want to survive make friends and network. You have to find some art on your own before it reaches the price setters. Hell Comic Connect (uggh) has a Buscema page with only one Surfer panel and Shala Bal for $11,000. It’s been sitting on their site for over a year. I saw it in person yesterday. Stunning art. I mean gorgeous. But flashy? Battles? Nah?

I don’t know if people are crazy ( but art collectors are). How they spend their money hah hah is a part of the Magic!

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grapeape

grapeape

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On 7/24/2021 at 12:01 PM, vodou said:

More like: a Wolverine panel page by whoever.

Canada represented 5% of Marvels readership. Roy and Len gave them the last panel of the Hulk 180. 
But Canadians being Canadians..,. we had to have 181 and well you know the rest of the story!

See when you put it like that $700K sounds like a bargain.

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