Heritage June Auction 7 7

[comix4fun]

On 6/20/2022 at 3:22 PM, Nexus said:

I then asked if it was OK if I only showed a few select others the pic from *my* phone, but didn't distribute the pic otherwise. That he was OK with; he'd known me long enough to know I wouldn't burn him. It was just too good not to show a handful of friends at the show.

Gene was one of the few I showed the pic to. We all pretty much agreed that it LOOKED good...

 

I still remember that day...cloistered room, ceremonial robes, NDA's....

[Hekla]

On 6/21/2022 at 8:30 AM, comix4fun said:

 

I still remember that day...cloistered room, ceremonial robes, NDA's....

I'm not buying it. a bunch of comic nerds and all you could come up with was 'Circle of Trust'? no 'Secret Society of OA Grails' or C.A.I.I.D. (Comic Art Insider Information Defenders)? lame.

[comix4fun]

On 6/21/2022 at 11:01 AM, Hekla said:

I'm not buying it. a bunch of comic nerds and all you could come up with was 'Circle of Trust'? no 'Secret Society of OA Grails' or C.A.I.I.D. (Comic Art Insider Information Defenders)? lame.

To be fair..."Meet The Parents" memes were still hanging on in 2017. 

[Hekla]

I'll give you that....

[Guest Race]

On 6/21/2022 at 11:30 AM, comix4fun said:

 

I still remember that day...cloistered room, ceremonial robes, NDA's....

[grapeape]

On 6/21/2022 at 7:24 AM, lurker said:

 

It went for "cheap" because it's not from his original run / glory days pre-Image. He briefly came back circa 1999 for 3 issues ( this double page is from these ). Much less nostalgia involved/ Not as fondly remembered/ R 

IMO it actually went for a very strong price all things considered. If I remember this correctly it was available on CAF for a while about 2-3 years ago at a much more affordable price.        

 

I agree.For what it is and the time period, this final hammer not bad at all.

Edited August 11, 2022 by grapeape

[grapeape]

On 6/21/2022 at 8:30 AM, comix4fun said:

 

I still remember that day...cloistered room, ceremonial robes, NDA's....

I wasn’t there, but I wish I was there. So I tell people, “I wasn’t there.” Then I smile and wink 😉 knowingly,

Sometimes when I tell my tall tale I light a cigar and stare off Northward, towards the Canadian woods. I’m imagining  Wendigo is there, lurking. The roar of a wounded behemoth. Then the cracking of branches under foot. All the tranquil silence broken by ferocious sounds....

KDOW!         PHTOP!         PWOK!

”All right you freaks, just HOLD IT !”

”If you really want to tangle with someone.....”

                    S N I K T

...” why not try your luck against- -

         THE WOLVERINE!”

I wasn’t there 😉 

I was on route 180

181 was a month and a mile away.....

 

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by grapeape

[batman_fan]

Paid for my winnings today.  I think I am getting close to the point where I could do a mini Schulz art show.  

I now have 2 Sundays and 5 dailies  

[Bronty]

On 6/21/2022 at 3:20 PM, batman_fan said:

Paid for my winnings today.  I think I am getting close to the point where I could do a mini Schulz art show.  

I now have 2 Sundays and 5 dailies  

Trade you a daily for a Sunday garfield?

[jjonahjameson11]

On 6/21/2022 at 1:59 PM, grapeape said:

I agree.For what it is and the time period, this final hammer not bad at all. If another Larsen quality ASM page comes up it would likely perform much better than this one.

 

Sorry fellas, but HA archives would prove you wrong

[grapeape]

On 6/21/2022 at 12:28 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Sorry fellas, but HA archives would prove you wrong

Comp “pricing” archives, yea.

But this piece, yes  you’d find cool while reading a comic book, but as a stand alone display art object, it’s I don’t know, busy?confusing?

As a display piece what are you paying for? 🕷-Man is camouflaged big time.Clever as it is the page fails to scream “show me off” like a page full of webs and such. I compared to the way McFarlane might layout a jumbled Lizard page. Some Collectors don’t like that either but McFarlane is better at it than most.

I think to a point bidders were willing to support this one, then said let me live to bid another day or on another lot.

Now here’s where I contradict myself. This page will likely flip at $20-22k. People will remember this piece and think maybe they should have grabbed it. Larsen. Cheap compared to ASM Larsen and more room to grow.

 

 

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by grapeape

[alxjhnsn]

On 6/20/2022 at 8:45 AM, grapeape said:

Well reasoned Alex. 
 

And pretty close.

[tth2]

On 6/21/2022 at 10:23 AM, Bronty said:

Btw Tim, where did you expect the #1 pages to end up?   I had guessed 15-20 each pre auction due to the #1 factor, which I clearly undersold. 

Same

On 6/21/2022 at 10:23 AM, Bronty said:

Its was really peculiar that they had the #9 pages, IIRC, in the earlier session, and the #1 pages buried in the late session.    Sadly, that didn't stop anybody.

Yes, I thought that was really bizarre.  Obviously didn't hurt the #1 pages at all.

I think the days of finding good deals in the online-only phase of Signature Auctions are over.

Edited June 22, 2022 by tth2

[John E.]

On 6/20/2022 at 3:22 PM, Nexus said:

 

I asked my friend if I could share this pic with some collecting buddies at the show. He said no way, that this was for my eyes only. He half-admitted that he may have taken this picture surreptitiously (he didn't realize what a big deal it was until I let on, and then realized maybe he shouldn't have just taken a shot of it). I then asked if it was OK if I only showed a few select others the pic from *my* phone, but didn't distribute the pic otherwise. That he was OK with; he'd known me long enough to know I wouldn't burn him. It was just too good not to show a handful of friends at the show.

Gene was one of the few I showed the pic to. We all pretty much agreed that it LOOKED good...but without seeing it in person, couldn't say 100% for sure if it was the real thing or a recreation.

Fast-forward another year or so, and it turns out it was the real thing, and that real thing might be available for the right price. Beyond that...no comment.

But it's been long enough otherwise to share the "SDCC phone pic" story. If/when the art does sell, maybe I'll get some of the principals together again for a podcast.

Hi Felix, long time listener to your podcast. I have no doubt the cover to Hulk 181 exists. I have a burning question though: if there is a lot of cloak-and-dagger secrecy behind the piece how would it “be available for the right price?” I’m just wondering how these deals happen among the upper echelons of collectors? Would your friend act as a middleman and say something like, “These are my friends Felix and Gene. They are also friends of <ahem> Herb’s. They are looking for a place to rest their briefcase full of cash somewhere in [dramatic pause] the Canadian woods.”

I’ll take your “beyond that…no comment” answer off the air. Thanks! 😉😊

[Dick O.]

On 6/21/2022 at 10:24 PM, lurker said:

 

It went for "cheap" because it's not from his original run / glory days pre-Image. He briefly came back circa 1999 for 3 issues ( this double page is from these ). Much less nostalgia involved/ Not as fondly remembered/ R Ramos is fine but not usually associated with Larsen ( Janson inked most of his Marvel pages from that era: 3 issues of Thor and then Defenders ) and maybe not the best match.

Same as comparing Uncanny Byrne/Austin VS Hidden Years. Or 1990-92 Liefeld NM/X-Force VS his brief returns a decade later. Apples and (blood) oranges.

Also this spread is mostly of a big bad robot. Spidey is obscured on every panel. 

IMO it actually went for a very strong price all things considered. If I remember this correctly it was available on CAF for a while about 2-3 years ago at a much more affordable price.        

 

Spot on 

 

[NinjaSealed]

What a great auction. I was excited because I had a lot of targets so I figured I would have a good shot of taking something home, which I did. I didn’t think the auction was weak, but there weren’t many massive jumps in pricing. Most stuff finished about where I thought it would or a bid or two under.

The things I was interested in/bidding on

Sale Joker DPS - phenomenal page, I wanted it bad, kept bidding but it kept going.

Killing Joke pages - new highs but not surprisingly so compared to the rest of the market.

Jim 108 pages - I thought some of the best ones would go a bid or two higher.

Arkham Asylum pages - really reasonable I thought, kind of wish I through another bid on the first two. I love the art but the story has never really resonated with me.

Sandman pages all went cheaper than I thought they would. Thought the number one page would hit 100k. I was the underbidder on the Wagner Death page which I thought would do closer to 20.

 

[lurker]

On 6/21/2022 at 9:28 PM, jjonahjameson11 said:

Sorry fellas, but HA archives would prove you wrong

Sorry, not sure what this was supposed to mean. I don't see any other post-Image Larsen Spidey pages listed in Ha's archives ( just ONE Aunt May/MJ page that sold for $500 ) 

For what it's worth ( ) I love Larsen ( vintage and recent ). From 2012-2015 ( before prices went bonkers ) I was always on the lookout for a good ( pre Image ) Spidey page of his. A couple of pages from that 1999 issue ( including the double spread that just sold on Ha ) were available time and time again on CAF for 1-2k. This double page did nothing for me then and on a purely artistic/enjoyment level I honestly would still not buy it today even at that 2015 price. To me ( not trying to rain on anybody's parade here ) it's simply a C- level example of his work ( combination of later time period, Spidey obscured, D list vilain, ink job that doesn't compliment Larsen's style ) and just because Spider-Man technically APPEARS on every panel and it's a double spread doesn't even begin to overcome all its other "flaws" ( again, for me ).    

Judging from the auction result at least two people found it appealing ( or at the very least thought it was a good deal - and good for them ) but since you were originally asking why it went so "low" I am going to insist ( sorry ) that the pool of potential buyers for this is simply a lot smaller than for most prime pages or it's collectors who have one less zero to spend. Similarly Byrne Hidden Years and 1999 asm/Chapter One pages now go over 10k: That's always going to look cheap compared to a 1979 Byrne/Austin  page. But it's also a very high number for what it is ( not that they are all terrible but they are C level Byrne ). And more to the point the pool of potential buyers is just a completely different one VS his 1970's art collectors ( There may be a few double dippers but probably not that many ).     

Not to say that some of Larsen's pages from 2000 wouldn't fare better. His first (2000) Spidey issue had Venom, the Black Costume ( and inks by John Beatty) so yes, certain pages could fetch a hefty price. But that's not what we saw offered on ha last week. And these pages would probably appeal more to people who discovered Larsen at a later time and don't see any major difference between his 1992 and 2000 art ( I sure do even though I also love some of his current work on TSD ).                      

[tth2]

On 6/22/2022 at 2:33 AM, John E. said:

“These are my friends Felix and Gene. They are also friends of <ahem> Herb’s. They are looking for a place to rest their briefcase full of cash somewhere in [dramatic pause] the Canadian woods.”

If Gene is involved, there'll be no cash, only crypto.  Of course, the problem with crypto these days is that at the exact moment it's paid, it'll be worth whatever the agreed price was, but by the time the seller actually exchanges the crypto for good old fashioned cash, it'll be worth 20% less.

[Bronty]

In other news, anybody see the $103m peace prize medal sale?   Apparently already paid for.

NINE figure sale thru HA (apparently HA waived all fees and commissions and the funds were donated to relief efforts in Ukraine).

That one will take a while to top.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Bronty

[vodou]

Very, very public money laundering; unlikely to be investigated...ever.

I'll suggest that hosting the venue but not taking any piece of the action is a pretty decent plausible deniability defense, just in case. PR value - huge, and 'free', of actual spend and legal concerns. Smart move Dallas.