Are OA prices out of control? 4 4

[Rick2you2]

On 5/28/2024 at 1:49 PM, Gary Strange said:

I haven’t looked at original comic art in a couple years, I’ll admit, but I watched a video or two on YouTube from the OA art show down in Orlando and the asking prices on interior pages and roughs seems astronomical. Looks to me like $300-500 art is now priced at $2000 or better. What’s going on????

There are some dealers, in particular, who will list prices that can be outrageous compared to what you get. Coollines doesn’t even include prices. I have others in mind.

[jimbo_7071]

On 5/28/2024 at 4:08 PM, Fischb1 said:

As the hobby grows and the really good stuff becomes very hard to make someone move, the next stuff down also grows in price (supply and demand). Some stuff will move temporarily (caution here), and some stuff will move permanently. The game is either A) Figure out which is which or, B) Just buy what you love!

What I'm seeing is that there's not enough differentiation between the good pieces and the mediocre pieces. The good pieces are still undervalued but the mediocre pieces are, if anything, overvalued. People are just buying "whatever" without discriminating enough. It makes me think that the OA market must be flooded with newbies.

[-m]

John Ridgway was the artist for the first nine issues of Hellblazer - essential reading.
Best of luck to anyone trying to get those pages. True gems IMHO!

[Grendel72]

OA prices have remained strong covid and post covid unlike comic books which have fallen somewhat.  Perhaps the fact that OA is one of a kind as opposed to funny books matters more than ever. Fools like me who only got into OA late or worse failed to realise their value have crossed the event horizon. There won't  be any backsies.

[Rick2you2]

On 5/29/2024 at 9:26 AM, Grendel72 said:

OA prices have remained strong covid and post covid unlike comic books which have fallen somewhat.  Perhaps the fact that OA is one of a kind as opposed to funny books matters more than ever. Fools like me who only got into OA late or worse failed to realise their value have crossed the event horizon. There won't  be any backsies.

Some prices will stay frozen, or traded privately at below market rates. A healthy amount of pricing is a function of nostalgia, and as hobbyists age out, so will the demand for what they love. 

[G.A.tor]

On 5/29/2024 at 6:09 AM, Rick2you2 said:

There are some dealers, in particular, who will list prices that can be outrageous compared to what you get. Coollines doesn’t even include prices. I have others in mind.

what is interesting is when I started seriously collecting my art in 2021, I stumbled upon coolines before I had read all the info about them...they had many pages I wanted...I bought them all at the prices less a small discount....turned out in 2022/23 some similar type pages sold for 2-3x what I had paid...maybe I got lucky...but it seems to me that with art, as long as you want it and can justify buying it at listed price, it really can't be a "wrong" price, right?

[gumbydarnit]

I think we’ll find out when the mid 50 guys turn 65-70 and start thinning down their collections or their heirs do… will there be enough interest to support the current prices… dunno the what the answer will be, we’ll all find out together I suppose:

 

or

Edited May 30 by gumbydarnit

[MAR1979]

On 5/29/2024 at 12:29 PM, Rick2you2 said:

Some prices will stay frozen, or traded privately at below market rates. A healthy amount of pricing is a function of nostalgia, and as hobbyists age out, so will the demand for what they love. 

Years back i would have totally agreed however I don't see 1950's or 1960's DC and Marvel Hero art dropping in price so not sure if it will happen with 70's and 80's anytime in the mid-term or longer...

[Kevin76]

On 5/28/2024 at 4:08 PM, Fischb1 said:

As the hobby grows and the really good stuff becomes very hard to make someone move, the next stuff down also grows in price (supply and demand). Some stuff will move temporarily (caution here), and some stuff will move permanently. The game is either A) Figure out which is which or, B) Just buy what you love!

I hate this type of advice...cause what most people love is Wrightson, Neal Adams, Dave Stevens, Mcfarlane, Jim Lee, Frank Miller and Jack Kirby and most collectors don't have that kind of money to spend 6 figures or millions to just "buy what they love"  "Buy what you love" doesn't mean "Buy garbage that you love"  

[Ecclectica]

On 5/30/2024 at 5:02 AM, Kevin76 said:

I hate this type of advice...cause what most people love is Wrightson, Neal Adams, Dave Stevens, Mcfarlane, Jim Lee, Frank Miller and Jack Kirby and most collectors don't have that kind of money to spend 6 figures or millions to just "buy what they love"  "Buy what you love" doesn't mean "Buy garbage that you love"  

I love Vicky Wyman's Xanadu, for me one of the most beautifully drawed anthropomorphic series ever done. Fortunately we are not that many in this league so I could get 3 pages under 100$ last year. I wish you to find your very own Xanadu.

Edited May 30 by Ecclectica

[Fischb1]

On 5/29/2024 at 11:02 PM, Kevin76 said:

I hate this type of advice...cause what most people love is Wrightson, Neal Adams, Dave Stevens, Mcfarlane, Jim Lee, Frank Miller and Jack Kirby and most collectors don't have that kind of money to spend 6 figures or millions to just "buy what they love"  "Buy what you love" doesn't mean "Buy garbage that you love"  

You hate the advice because you misunderstood it. 

I'm not telling him to spend his mortgage payment on a piece of art he can't afford. I'm telling him to try and choose wisely on what to spend his money on because, as he pointed out, prices have gone way up. And the wisest way to choose imo, is to buy something you love (that you can afford). 

The alternative would be you telling him "yup, prices have gone up. It sucks. Leave the hobby." But I don't see it that way. 

Edited May 30 by Fischb1

[Terry E. Gibbs]

From what I have seen, which is almost all DC, the good stuff, SA and Bronze has gone up a lot, the ordinary stuff in SA modestly, the ordinary in Bronze patchy. A lot of the Bronze stuff was good but overlooked. Harder to find now and therefore more people paying attention to it. A lot of over priced stuff from 2000 upwards. It is like comics 40 years ago when NM was 4-5 times good. The same with modern art. People ask too much for filler pages while the really good stuff is often cheap by comparison.

[Grendel72]

On 5/30/2024 at 12:29 AM, Rick2you2 said:

as hobbyists age out, so will the demand for what they love. 

I have always been intrigued by this. When I started collecting, the non superhero books e.g the  pre code horror books were around 3-4k . These were books which were already 50-60yrs old. I thought the prices would be stable and I could always buy them when I wanted. I  This was around 2010 to 2016. Lo behold the priced quadrupled in the next few years. Who were the buyers ? Not new collectors for sure. Why did pre code horror books suddenly become popular ? The love seems to come and go. 

[Rick2you2]

On 5/29/2024 at 7:36 PM, G.A.tor said:

what is interesting is when I started seriously collecting my art in 2021, I stumbled upon coolines before I had read all the info about them...they had many pages I wanted...I bought them all at the prices less a small discount....turned out in 2022/23 some similar type pages sold for 2-3x what I had paid...maybe I got lucky...but it seems to me that with art, as long as you want it and can justify buying it at listed price, it really can't be a "wrong" price, right?

 Not if you don’t sell it, or plan to sell it. If you do, there are areas in the market which are pretty lackluster, like Golden Age material. And really, people who read original SA material are still alive, mostly, and collect (or hold) what they have. That will change. 

[Rick2you2]

On 5/29/2024 at 10:17 PM, MAR1979 said:

Years back i would have totally agreed however I don't see 1950's or 1960's DC and Marvel Hero art dropping in price so not sure if it will happen with 70's and 80's anytime in the mid-term or longer...

There is a difference between a collapse in pricing and a freeze or slow decline. I doubt there will be a true collapse. People will simply refuse to sell. But a frozen price or unsold item isn’t much different than a price drop because the price of everything else goes up. Some people are still holding firm on their “rare” Beanie Babies, hoping prices will rebound.

[Rick2you2]

On 5/30/2024 at 1:52 AM, Grendel72 said:

I have always been intrigued by this. When I started collecting, the non superhero books e.g the  pre code horror books were around 3-4k . These were books which were already 50-60yrs old. I thought the prices would be stable and I could always buy them when I wanted. I  This was around 2010 to 2016. Lo behold the priced quadrupled in the next few years. Who were the buyers ? Not new collectors for sure. Why did pre code horror books suddenly become popular ? The love seems to come and go. 

Good point. But as for those books, they scream kitschy cool. 

[IngelsFan]

On 5/29/2024 at 10:52 PM, Grendel72 said:

I have always been intrigued by this. When I started collecting, the non superhero books e.g the  pre code horror books were around 3-4k . These were books which were already 50-60yrs old. I thought the prices would be stable and I could always buy them when I wanted. I  This was around 2010 to 2016. Lo behold the priced quadrupled in the next few years. Who were the buyers ? Not new collectors for sure. Why did pre code horror books suddenly become popular ? The love seems to come and go. 

After a decade of mostly only buying art I jumped back into comics in 2014 because they seemed like a bargain by comparison. I hit precode horror HARD. I’m glad I did because it was right before the huge explosion in prices. Now it’s come back around to where art seems like a bargain compared to the books I’m after. I don’t think horror as a genre will ever not be in demand. 

[vodou]

On 5/30/2024 at 6:22 AM, Rick2you2 said:

People will simply refuse to sell.

What I've seen playing in other deeper sandboxes is this is exactly what happens. Then they die and the kids or other heirs inherit stuff the don't want and it all goes into a local auction house. And everything but the A+++ material resells for significantly less that original purchase price paid decades before. And that's in nominal terms too, essentially a zero inflation adjusted.

Several years ago I bought a wonderful signature style oil by a once darling artist from a once darling region, heavily collected from 1950 through the mid/late 90s. I paid, all in including freight, 1/3 what it sold at Christie's for 30 years before.

I'm happy, and probably the kids are too 

[Unstoppablejayd]

On 5/29/2024 at 7:18 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

What I'm seeing is that there's not enough differentiation between the good pieces and the mediocre pieces. The good pieces are still undervalued but the mediocre pieces are, if anything, overvalued. People are just buying "whatever" without discriminating enough. It makes me think that the OA market must be flooded with newbies.

The issue with this - is that in some areas of collecting (like my X-men ) the “good” stuff rarely changes hands… so if you want a Paul smith page.. or a jrjr first run you take what shows up. And with many people wanting it it drives auction prices skyward 

[vodou]

On 5/30/2024 at 11:42 AM, Unstoppablejayd said:

...some areas of collecting (like my X-men ) the “good” stuff rarely changes hands…

It's a pretty crummy time to really want 1980s Uncanny X-Men art.

(Unless you're the son of a hedge fund billionaire.)

You've done pretty well in spite of, enjoy that!