Dark Knight Returns prices

[fable]

Hi,

 

I have a large OA collection (around 400 pages) but nothing i consider incredible - no grails here Don't get me wrong; i have a lot of nice pages but nothing that makes me look at it every day and smile.

 

The book i most like is DKR - we all know how attractive this art is and i have followed some of the sales - i know its expensive.

 

My problem is that i want to bite the bullet, sell some of my pages/stock and buy a DKR page. Obviously the price depends on the page but do we have any guide to how much is a good price? Do we have any DKR experts here to either -

 

a) help me understand the going rates for high/medium/low quality pages (i love them all by the way)

 

and

 

b) help me know who has pages that may be available?

 

It is often the way for the buyer to make the initial offer, and i need help to justify the purchase to myself; if i get a deal where i can at least sell the page and get the money back in a short term emergency i'd be happy.

 

Thanks for reading

[heartened]

Hi,

 

No time to respond right now, but I'll write something later. Perhaps in the interim Stephen Ferzoco will chime in, as he's owned quite a few pages over the years.

 

Best,

[Solar]

The cheapest I've seen is around 3K for pages with little to no Batman involvement. I've seen several decent pages priced at $6K, $10K and 14K respectively. The $14K page was offered by Neatstuff on ebay and didnt sell. The others were private.

[heartened]

OK, I'm home now and have some time to chime in here....

 

Dark Knight pages are always highly coveted and tough to find. When they pop up on ebay, they garner serious attention. They NEVER make it to major auction houses, as they typically sell so fast that they don't need the exposure that those auctoin houses provide.

 

I agree with Solar. Run of the mill pages, otherwise known as "not much of an example, but an example nonetheless", typically will sell for around 3K. Pages with one character on them (Robin, Batman, Joker or Supes) will fetch between 6K and 9K. Nice pages (1/2 splashes, memorable scene, good action, multiple characters) would typically be priced at the 10-14K range. Finally, those truly stellar examples are very difficult to gauge; none have sold in years (at least not publically). I would venture that really nice examples would be over 20K, with the full splashes running over 30K.

 

Of course, I have no real data for splashes and the really nice interior pages, as none have been offered publically, and I haven't even heard of any selling privately in years. This is partly because of the 8 or so full splashes from the book, 4-5 of them are in one particular collection, and 1 is in another, and none have sold in years. Predominantely, it's the 3-15K pages that hit the market, and even these are few and far between.

 

Hope that helps. My best advice to you is to save up some money, and then get the word out (like you're doing) that you'd be interested in a page. Eventually, one will come your way, and you'll want to have the funds available when it does.

 

Best,

[comicartfan]

I agree with Brett and Hari. I haven't owned any of the pages myself (as of yet) but I think if you're thinking about liqudating some pages in order to buy a bigger piece (whether it's a DK page or any "grail") I think it's a no brainer. Sure you may have some nice pages, but like you said , nothing stellar and I am getting the impression that you're not overly attached to anything. So what I would do is get rid of the items that you feel you have no problems with parting with.....you could use them to trade towards other pieces (preferably pieces that other collectors would value) and then use them for either further trade material or just sell them.

The thing with the DK pages is one never knows when they will become available and when one does, especially one with Batman, Robin, Joker, Superman, etc.....is that the demand is going to be intenese and you have to be ready to bid or buy aggressively. You'll need to have the cash in hand. If a collector is looking to sell a page, it's usually financial reasons and they will want cash up front.

 

Secondly, I would go into buying a page like this with the feeling that you're not going to sell it anytime soon. OA is such that you could overypay for this particular piece and it might take awhile for the market to catch up....Hari has done this practice. He's bought items that he knew where overpriced AT THAT TIME, then in a span of time, it's appreciated and he's done well for himself. But he also sells very few items....

 

I would look around, keep your eyes open and be ready when a page becomes available....and like was said, these types of pages usually don't hit the open market.

 

best of luck,

Mike

[spider9698]

Hari has eloquently summarized the DKR market. The best thing to do is beat the bushes and let folks know you are serious about obtaining a page. Cash is king and to quote a now banned board member, "start throwing around bags of money." The real trouble with DKR art is that collectors are holding onto their pages knowing how hard it is to find a replacement page. I would say ebay tends to have 1-2 a year but again they are not the primo pieces that hard-core collectors desire.

Best of luck

[clickhere-migration]

Hari,

 

As always, thanks for the excellent well thought out post.

 

Cool.

[delekkerste]

The book i most like is DKR - we all know how attractive this art is and i have followed some of the sales - i know its expensive.

 

My problem is that i want to bite the bullet, sell some of my pages/stock and buy a DKR page. Obviously the price depends on the page but do we have any guide to how much is a good price?

 

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but the idea of shelling out $6-9K for a page that doesn't even have Batman on it, or $3-5K just to own a page for the sake of owning a page, doesn't seem all that compelling. So, you're really looking at $10-$15K according to Hari and others to put a nice, though unspectacular, example from the series in your collection (I dunno about you, but if I'm going to spend 5 figures for a piece, it had better be spectacular or pretty close to it). As much as I like DKR, spending that much just to have one representative page from the series doesn't exactly make me want to jump off the couch to grab my checkbook (and that would be even more true if I had to sell off a bunch of pieces to afford it). I'd much rather content myself with owning a nice CGC'd set of the comics and let the BSDs duke it out for the pages that come up for sale (I'd be wary about paying up for any pages that they passed over, anyway, if resale considerations are of concern to you).

 

[spider9698]

And it's for that reason that I think prices on DKR will plateau and perhaps even soften over the coming years.

[heartened]

And it's for that reason that I think prices on DKR will plateau and perhaps even soften over the coming years.

 

I'm not sure about that. Gene presents a differing opinion, but as we all know, everyone's tastes differ and I know Gene has other art interests that he would sooner spend the five figures on. But, for many of us who read comics in the 80s, a nice DK page is the absolute Grail, and warrants the price.

 

I expect prices on KEY 80s art (Watchmen, Killing Joke, Dark Knight, etc.) to hold their strong holding, and in all likelihood increase further.

 

Time will tell, of course, but these are the blue chip items from that generation.

[clickhere-migration]

These pages will hold there own at least as long as Marvel Silver Age art. They are the grails for a old and new set of collectors.

 

I would not be to suprise if the Miller Wolverine series started getting as high as these in the not so far future..... even though he did little more than the layouts.

 

A poor mans Miller grail!

 

hhmmm - - - I just said poor for a miniumum 2K page!

[Nexus]

And it's for that reason that I think prices on DKR will plateau and perhaps even soften over the coming years.

 

Gee, Steve, thanks for saying this AFTER I got your page

 

Seriously, though, I know I overpaid. I have no plans for selling this in the foreseeable future, so that wasn't a huge consideration. Bottom line, I really wanted the piece, so I paid for it.

 

As for prices dropping or plateauing, all I can say is, I hope so! It'll give me a shot at some other pages.

 

Finally, let me say that as an initial foray into OA, everyone has been great to me so far. I appreciate all the e-mails of advice, input, etc.. I have also enjoyed reading the posts of such OA collecting stalwarts as heartened, delekkerste, Steve, etc.. It's been a fun learning experience!

 

Felix

[Jeffreykli]

And it's for that reason that I think prices on DKR will plateau and perhaps even soften over the coming years.

 

Gee, Steve, thanks for saying this AFTER I got your page:p

 

Seriously, though, I know I overpaid. I have no plans for selling this in the foreseeable future, so that wasn't a huge consideration. Bottom line, I really wanted the piece, so I paid for it.

 

As for prices dropping or plateauing, all I can say is, I hope so! It'll give me a shot at some other pages.

 

Finally, let me say that as an initial foray into OA, everyone has been great to me so far. I appreciate all the e-mails of advice, input, etc.. I have also enjoyed reading the posts of such OA collecting stalwarts as heartened, delekkerste, Steve, etc.. It's been a fun learning experience!

 

Felix

 

Felix....let's see the page!

[Nexus]

Felix....let's see the page!

 

No, that would only serve to devalue my art

 

Whoops, did I just give myself away?

 

Just kidding. Once I get eveything on hand, I will open a CAF gallery. Of 3 pieces

[spider9698]

Hari

The true blue-chip items (splashes, etc) will go up but not at the breakneck speed we have seen over the past few years. The marginal B and C level pieces will level off (I can't see people shelling out 10K for a page with no Batman on it!) or even decrease as collectors satisfy themselves with the one or two pages from the book.

Again, my 0.02

[spider9698]

Felix

When you tire of the piece, let me know. Happy to buy it back!

Stephen

[fable]

Thanks all - some excellent well thought out posts - it's great to have this board with collectors like you to talk to

 

The 3K mark for a minor page is round about what i was thinking.

 

As for resale, its just in case of a family emergency - i doubt i would ever sell. DKR was what brought me into American comics - i still remember the feeling when i first read the books, and how the price of the first prints shocked me when i saw them

 

I now own six copies of each, a Signature Series CGC set, and three copies of the leather bound collection - to go with the other 10,000 comics i own - what a journey

 

 

Again, thanks all - appreciate your time.

[comicartfan]

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer

 

 

I wouldn't expect anything less from you.....

[Lambo]

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer

 

 

I wouldn't expect anything less from you.....

 

Well, our buddy deliquorstore seems to feel big money spent for anything other than big splashy gaudy oil paintings of Vampi is crazy! Oh and Gene actually does look a lot like that picture...well, after a few drinks he does...

 

But I'm with Hari on the blue chip quality of these pages. Dark Knight was THE book for those of us back in the 80's. The value of DK pages have continued to go up to a point that I've pretty much given up trying to get another page from the series. How many times does DK pages show up as a 'Want' on collectors' wish lists? While I can't speak to how much more they will rise, I do feel confident that DK pages will retain their present values.

 

This thread reminds me of the time about a year and a half ago when a guy emailed me and offered $400 for my Dark Knight page. I guess Krazy Kat was right! Publicly displaying my DK page DID indeed destroy its value! If I only knew then what I know now!

 

Lamb

[mrpunch0]

his thread reminds me of the time about a year and a half ago when a guy emailed me and offered $400 for my Dark Knight page. I guess Krazy Kat was right! Publicly displaying my DK page DID indeed destroy its value! If I only knew then what I know now!

 

Lamb

 

Lamb - Don't worry, I'll give you $500 for your page any day.

 

-m