C-Link and Heritage auctions a flop tonight? 4 4

[Michael Browning]

I am shocked at some of the bargains there were in the two auctions ending tonight. I really hope the sellers in both auctions only had pennies in the art they sold, because everything but a Steve Ditko Fly page sold low.

I predicted the Michael Golden Star Wars 38 end page with Luke and Leia and the next-issue tease for the Empire Strikes Back at the bottom would hit at least $15,000 in the C-link. It ended up being a major bargain at $7,900 - about the price of a page from The Nam. Clearly, this page was either overlooked or bidders thought - like I did - that it would go much higher and didn’t bid. Maybe those “back-off” bids really do work…

The other bargain in the C-link was the Batman 357 page by Don Newton with the first appearance of Jason Todd that sold for $5,988. I figured the first appearance collectors would push that into at least five digits. I mean, in a day and age where every first appearance page is worth five digits, this page underperformed big time.

Over at HA, the Frank Thorne Red Sonja market appears to definitely be very saturated and it showed when the Marvel Feature 5 page sold for just $1020 with the BP. The seller had to have paid more than that for it.

The Ross Andru Fantastic Four 146 DPS sold for an incredibly low $720 with BP. I know it’s a DPS on an 11x17 board, but you can’t buy a Paul Ryan common page for that. Heck, a Vigilante Annual 2 page by Andru sold at ComicLink for $1,600.

There we’re a few surprises, like the very faded Green Lantern 20 cover by Pat Broderick that sold for what I think is high at $2,400 and the Ty Templeton Batman Adventures 2 page 17 (featuring the first appearance of BTAS Catwoman) selling for $2,750. It is a first appearance page, so maybe that was very low.

Except for the Kirby animation drawings, there really weren’t any major highlights for C-link and the Ditko Fly 8 page selling for $10K was, in my opinion, the highlight of the HA.

[Sideshow Bob]

On 7/13/2022 at 11:35 PM, Michael Browning said:

I am shocked at some of the bargains there were in the two auctions ending tonight. I really hope the sellers in both auctions only had pennies in the art they sold, because everything but a Steve Ditko Fly page sold low.

I predicted the Michael Golden Star Wars 38 end page with Luke and Leia and the next-issue tease for the Empire Strikes Back at the bottom would hit at least $15,000 in the C-link. It ended up being a major bargain at $7,900 - about the price of a page from The Nam. Clearly, this page was either overlooked or bidders thought - like I did - that it would go much higher and didn’t bid. Maybe those “back-off” bids really do work…

The other bargain in the C-link was the Batman 357 page by Don Newton with the first appearance of Jason Todd that sold for $5,988. I figured the first appearance collectors would push that into at least five digits. I mean, in a day and age where every first appearance page is worth five digits, this page underperformed big time.

Over at HA, the Frank Thorne Red Sonja market appears to definitely be very saturated and it showed when the Marvel Feature 5 page sold for just $1020 with the BP. The seller had to have paid more than that for it.

The Ross Andru Fantastic Four 146 DPS sold for an incredibly low $720 with BP. I know it’s a DPS on an 11x17 board, but you can’t buy a Paul Ryan common page for that. Heck, a Vigilante Annual 2 page by Andru sold at ComicLink for $1,600.

There we’re a few surprises, like the very faded Green Lantern 20 cover by Pat Broderick that sold for what I think is high at $2,400 and the Ty Templeton Batman Adventures 2 page 17 (featuring the first appearance of BTAS Catwoman) selling for $2,750. It is a first appearance page, so maybe that was very low.

Except for the Kirby animation drawings, there really weren’t any major highlights for C-link and the Ditko Fly 8 page selling for $10K was, in my opinion, the highlight of the HA.

Michael,

I was the seller of the Batman 357 page. I thought it did fine at just under $6k. It was the first issue for Jason Todd, but not the “birth page”. Plus they ret-conned his origin (and hair color) in #408, so it’s status as a birth page has got a little hair on it since the Flying Todd’s never existed in continuity. Nonetheless, it’s an important page to the Jason Todd fan.  I didn’t think it was a soft result, but right in line for an early appearance. However, it certainly didn’t outperform, which would have been much appreciated!

For what it’s worth, people seemed to enjoy seeing Jason Todd leaving the DC universe  way more than being brought into it.

The Golden SW most definitely underperformed. Kicking myself for not bidding too, as I expected it well over $10k.

Bob

Edited July 14, 2022 by Sideshow Bob

[tth2]

On 7/14/2022 at 1:32 AM, Sideshow Bob said:

For what it’s worth, people seemed to enjoy seeing Jason Todd leaving the DC universe  way more than being brought into it.

[Rick2you2]

I won a little Stuart Immonen page with the Phantom Stranger and Spectre, which is fairly nice but no world beater, and I thought the price was a little on the high side (but in this price range, percentages of high or low don’t mean much). What did strike me based on the bid pattern was that after an initial burst of low end bidding, there seemed to be only one other serious bidder. Admittedly not popular characters, but that spread would still support your apparent thesis that bidding interest seemed low. 

[kbmcvay]

On 7/13/2022 at 11:35 PM, Michael Browning said:

 

$7,900 - about the price of a page from The Nam.

Really? I'm surprised by this as this and Nth Men are books I would roll my eyes at every time I saw an ad for them inside the book. I figured nobody read these.

[Michael Browning]

On 7/14/2022 at 7:47 AM, kbmcvay said:

Really? I'm surprised by this as this and Nth Men are books I would roll my eyes at every time I saw an ad for them inside the book. I figured nobody read these.

Wow. Okay, so … The ‘Nam was one of the best comics of the 1980s and got three trade paperback collections long before collected editions became the norm. It was critically acclaimed and Michael Golden’s art on the series is some of the best of his career. Golden pages from the series consistently sell in the high five figures.

[Guest Race]

Was buying comics off spinner racks in 7-11s when The Nam came out and never touched an issue LOL

Prices on HA were very much on trend, based on 2 pieces I won. Re: the Marvel Feature page, I like and buy Thorne's Red Sonja work but this was a poor one (no RS action, awkward panel placement, odd dialogue at the end). It finished in line with my expectations. Lastly, the Golden SW page had some flaws (to me), with its toned word balloons, Leia in a pantsuit (what is she, Hillary Clinton?!?), and Leia's slightly off facial expression in panel 4. Plus, no action whatsoever.

Edited July 14, 2022 by Race

[Michael Browning]

On 7/14/2022 at 8:38 AM, Race said:

Was buying comics off spinner racks in 7-11s when The Nam came out and never touched an issue LOL

Prices on HA were very much on trend, based on 2 pieces I won. Re: the Marvel Feature page, I like and buy Thorne's Red Sonja work but this was a poor one (no RS action, awkward panel placement, odd dialogue at the end). It finished in line with my expectations. Lastly, the Golden SW page had some flaws (to me), with its toned word balloons, Leia in a pantsuit (what is she, Hillary Clinton?!?), and Leia's slightly off facial expression in panel 4. Plus, no action whatsoever.

All of the Star Wars 38 pages have toned word balloons.

I didn’t think the Leia was any more off-putting than she is in some of the later Star Wars pages that have sold higher.

Generally, any SW page of this vintage would hit sell at this price, but this is one of the coveted Michael Golden pages, so I figured it would go at least to $15,000. I thought the whole auction and the C-Link auction were both letdowns. The trajectory of comic art hasn’t slowed down - even for lackluster pieces - over the last couple years and I think these two auctions and the last HA signature showed deflated prices. I don’t think anyone should panic because I figured this would happen after the Secret Wars page sold so high.

[Michael Browning]

On 7/14/2022 at 6:01 AM, Rick2you2 said:

I won a little Stuart Immonen page with the Phantom Stranger and Spectre, which is fairly nice but no world beater, and I thought the price was a little on the high side (but in this price range, percentages of high or low don’t mean much). What did strike me based on the bid pattern was that after an initial burst of low end bidding, there seemed to be only one other serious bidder. Admittedly not popular characters, but that spread would still support your apparent thesis that bidding interest seemed low. 

I saw the exact same thing. Bids happened in the first few days and then the bidding was light in the end.

[Guest Race]

On 7/14/2022 at 8:49 AM, Michael Browning said:

All of the Star Wars 38 pages have toned word balloons.

I didn’t think the Leia was any more off-putting than she is in some of the later Star Wars pages that have sold higher.

Generally, any SW page of this vintage would hit sell at this price, but this is one of the coveted Michael Golden pages, so I figured it would go at least to $15,000. I thought the whole auction and the C-Link auction were both letdowns. The trajectory of comic art hasn’t slowed down - even for lackluster pieces - over the last couple years and I think these two auctions and the last HA signature showed deflated prices. I don’t think anyone should panic because I figured this would happen after the Secret Wars page sold so high.

On the word balloons, was not aware -- just explaining why the page didn't speak to me as a casual viewer, despite Golden's fabulous rendering of the cinnamon buns. The same page and layout would have been an instant bid from me if it classic Infantino SW though 

Edited July 14, 2022 by Race

[Humpty-Dumpty]

Maybe this is the beginning of what will probably be a long painful down trend. The market is in for at least a 30% correction. To high, to fast the last handful of years. 

[vodou]

Three continents in pain...what do you expect?

EUR - 20 yr lows

JPY - 30 yr lows

GBP - 40 yr lows

[Unstoppablejayd]

The other thing that I think hurt all oa last night was the fact that there were many comic art sales/auctions all going off at the same time. I know my attention was divided so unless it was something I was very interested in there was no chance of impulse bids on things going cheaply. 

[Grendel72]

On 7/14/2022 at 10:05 PM, Humpty-Dumpty said:

Maybe this is the beginning of what will probably be a long painful down trend. The market is in for at least a 30% correction. To high, to fast the last handful of years. 

I sincerely hope you're right  but I do feel this needs to be qualified.  Yes perhaps on the whole we may see pieces see declining prices but the High end pieces ( or any piece for that matter)  just needs one trigger happy determined , recession proof person to buy whatever he/she wants and that price becomes the new price point.  Averages are useful but neva an absolute indicator. 

[Guest Race]

On 7/14/2022 at 10:22 AM, Unstoppablejayd said:

The other thing that I think hurt all oa last night was the fact that there were many comic art sales/auctions all going off at the same time. I know my attention was divided so unless it was something I was very interested in there was no chance of impulse bids on things going cheaply. 

SDCC and people keeping powder dry for purchases there also played a factor, I believe

Edited July 14, 2022 by Race

[Fischb1]

Last night, all at the same time, I was watching:

1) The CL auction

2) The Heritage auction

3) Dueling Dealers

4) Spencer selling art livestream on Clan Mcdonald

Like J said, there was a lot going on and not much room for impulse buys.

That being said, although there were some lower prices, there were also some higher prices. Did you see what that Galactus page went for? 

[Unstoppablejayd]

On 7/14/2022 at 10:24 AM, Race said:

SDCC and people keeping powder dry for purchases there also played a factor, I believe

This too- multiple shows have come already and are coming… cash is spread thin 

[cloud cloddie]

I wasn’t tracking a ton last night, but I didn’t think it was light. Strong price on the Clink Excaliburless Excalibur page, and same for HA Sienk NM page. 

[Rick2you2]

On 7/14/2022 at 8:59 AM, Michael Browning said:

I saw the exact same thing. Bids happened in the first few days and then the bidding was light in the end.

Window shopping can be an indication of tight money.

[cstojano]

On 7/14/2022 at 7:16 AM, vodou said:

Three continents in pain...what do you expect?

EUR - 20 yr lows

JPY - 30 yr lows

GBP - 40 yr lows

So is this a bad time to send stuff to Prop Store for their London auction? I suppose if the bidders are international it doesn't matter much,  as stuff is cheaper for us in the US to bid in GBP. Ignore global macro trends, mostly focused on whether the weak GBP necessarily means weaker USD in my pocket. I think it should in some way.

Edited July 14, 2022 by cstojano