Mastro/Heritage OA Auction Results

[dem1138]

Anyone care to comment?

 

Some of the results have been...Amazing - to say the least.

[delekkerste]

I was only going for one piece (on Heritage), the Frank Thorne Marvel Feature v. 2 #6 (Red Sonja) cover. I bid almost $8K for it and it ended up going for almost $9.6K (the high estimate for the piece that Heritage cited in their eBay listing was only $3.6K).

 

Oh well, more money for the apartment purchase.

 

Gene

[nkatradis]

david, this is nick katradis

 

i can only assume that the $39k price that the Ditko ASM pg sold for on Heritage last night has to do with the euphoria over the upcoming Spidey 3 movie. Or is it something else?

 

i was actually stunned by the final price. it was a great page but i believed it would go for about $25k. i was actually watching it to see if by any chance it would stay under $20k. not the case.

 

to be honest, i was almost embarrassed by what i had to pay for the ASM 27 pg only a month earlier at Mastro?

 

nick

[cheekyj2112]

I was only going for one piece (on Heritage), the Frank Thorne Marvel Feature v. 2 #6 (Red Sonja) cover. I bid almost $8K for it and it ended up going for almost $9.6K (the high estimate for the piece that Heritage cited in their eBay listing was only $3.6K).

 

Oh well, more money for the apartment purchase.

 

Gene

 

Gene

I knew that at least one long term collector with v deep pockets has been looking for a prime Thorne piece for a while so suspected that the end result could be surprising. They aren't as easy to turn up as one might assume.

 

I thought the Spidey/Scorpion page went surprisingly high, especially in comparison with the recent Goblin pg. And the Dave Stevens cover was pretty low, though not really to my taste.

 

Joseph

[Solar]

david, this is nick katradis

 

i can only assume that the $39k price that the Ditko ASM pg sold for on Heritage last night has to do with the euphoria over the upcoming Spidey 3 movie. Or is it something else?

 

i was actually stunned by the final price. it was a great page but i believed it would go for about $25k. i was actually watching it to see if by any chance it would stay under $20k. not the case.

 

to be honest, i was almost embarrassed by what i had to pay for the ASM 27 pg only a month earlier at Mastro?

 

nick

 

Nick - compared to the Heritage page, it looks like you got a great deal on the Mastro page. I think the Mastro page is hands down the better of the two.

[Sharkey]

Anyone care to comment?

 

Some of the results have been...Amazing - to say the least.

 

 

I assume you mean the Spidey 29 page that went for $32K? Spidey 29 auction

 

Yeah, that's huge money. But it's one of the nicest, cleanest, action-filled pages I've seen in a while. I thought it would go in the mid-20s, so this was a little surprising. I think I can kiss my hopes of owning a really nice Ditko Spidey action page goodbye....

 

The Mastro auction of the entire issue of 31 had some reasonable prices realized, but I think it's because there were 22 pages hitting the market at once. Had they pieced out the pages here and there, they might have garnered higher prices. Unfortunately I was out of the country at that time and not in position to bid on anything anyway. Now I see some of the pages for sale at almost double what the auction price was.

. Ah, capitalism!

[comix4fun]

Anyone care to comment?

 

Some of the results have been...Amazing - to say the least.

 

 

I assume you mean the Spidey 29 page that went for $32K? Spidey 29 auction

 

 

And that's just the hammer...in this case the Buyer's Premium accounted for another $6500 in top of that hammer. $39g's aye carumba.

 

When the buyer's premium on a piece if more than I like to spend on any individual piece of art you know the game is changing.

 

Chris

[dem1138]

The ASM 29 page went for almost 39K (with the juice - which you can't get away with not paying).

 

It's unbelievable - if you do a search of all the OA Heritage has ever auctioned and then sort it by closed price - it's amazing to see what has sold for similar prices.

 

At one point, you could buy all 8 interior pages to HOS 92 for about the same price. I would imagine that you could get at least 10K/page for those at this point -plus maybe 20K for the 1st pg. splash

[Sharkey]

Anyone care to comment?

 

Some of the results have been...Amazing - to say the least.

 

 

I assume you mean the Spidey 29 page that went for $32K? Spidey 29 auction

 

 

And that's just the hammer...in this case the Buyer's Premium accounted for another $6500 in top of that hammer. $39g's aye carumba.

 

When the buyer's premium on a piece if more than I like to spend on any individual piece of art you know the game is changing.

 

Chris

 

Yeah, $39 k with the juice. YOW!!! Outta my league. Well, until that Nigerian widow sends me that fortune I helped arrange the bank transfer for....

[sborock]

[*paull*]

The price is ridiculous, but it is a really nice action page.

[delekkerste]

Yeah, $39 k with the juice. YOW!!! Outta my league.

 

You could always sell off your yacht...

[Sharkey]

Yeah, $39 k with the juice. YOW!!! Outta my league.

 

You could always sell off your yacht...

 

My name is Elmer J. Fudd, Millionaire, I own a mansion and a yacht.....

 

If I had yacht I'd be on it, rather than freezing my *spoon* off in Chicago...

[delekkerste]

[delekkerste]

When the buyer's premium on a piece if more than I like to spend on any individual piece of art you know the game is changing.

 

No question that the game is changing. It's hard to justify calling it just a "hobby" these days when the $$$'s are getting so high. Buying pieces at prevailing prices does not really give me much enjoyment these days (I haven't bought anything in almost 5 months, actually) because I feel obligated to take an appraiser's/investor's view on a potential purchase with the dollar stakes so high (even though I'm not buying for that purpose).

 

Even though I started collecting fairly late in the game (December 2002) compared to a lot of people, I'm glad I started when I did because I don't know that I would have started collecting if I had waited around for prices to get to where they are now.

 

I was chatting with a well-known, longtime collector about this very topic (the changing $tate of the OA game of late) and this is what he had to say:

 

"This hobby has indeed gotten out of hand. If a single dude like you making a very fine living is complaining, imagine what us married with children schlubs think! I do not enjoy the fact that certain things I want such as [references removed] are out of reason financially unless I sell/trade what I already have....I agree with your assessment. A crazy market is not necessarily a healthy market. Somewhat similar to the comic book frenzy years ago."

 

Gene

[Sharkey]

When the buyer's premium on a piece if more than I like to spend on any individual piece of art you know the game is changing.

 

No question that the game is changing. It's hard to justify calling it just a "hobby" these days when the $$$'s are getting so high. Buying pieces at prevailing prices does not really give me much enjoyment these days (I haven't bought anything in almost 5 months, actually) because I feel obligated to take an appraiser's/investor's view on a potential purchase with the dollar stakes so high (even though I'm not buying for that purpose).

 

Even though I started collecting fairly late in the game (December 2002) compared to a lot of people, I'm glad I started when I did because I don't know that I would have started collecting if I had waited around for prices to get to where they are now.

 

I was chatting with a well-known, longtime collector about this very topic (the changing $tate of the OA game of late) and this is what he had to say:

 

"This hobby has indeed gotten out of hand. If a single dude like you making a very fine living is complaining, imagine what us married with children schlubs think! I do not enjoy the fact that certain things I want such as [references removed] are out of reason financially unless I sell/trade what I already have....I agree with your assessment. A crazy market is not necessarily a healthy market. Somewhat similar to the comic book frenzy years ago."

 

Gene, That pretty much sums up what a lot of us feel. :rapidly-nodding-in-agreement graemlin:

[dem1138]

Gene,

 

As usual, I agree with everything that you say EXCEPT comparing mass produced comics with comic art. The fact that it is art, and that it is finite, puts it into another category. True, you can look at the art market and see similar patterns in the market going banannas and then normalizing - much like real estate, but, over time, even those "crazy prices" in art (and I'm referring to blue chip artists/pieces) become "sane" over time.

 

I am certainly not speaking of all comics in general or all OA in general. I mean, if you were buying Action #1s for the last 25 years, even if you were paying "crazy prices" at any point in time, you still would be way ahead of the curve today.

 

That's my opinion on one specific statement on one specific argument. Obviously, the discussion is very multi-faceted, and time will be the true determinant.

 

I am in agreement that for certain artists, and certain art, the game is changing. However, I do not think that the sky is falling.

 

For every ASM 29 price realized, there are 30 auction pieces that ended below expectation. I mean, $3600(w/juice) for that Miller Captain America cover? That was a good deal. I'm sure the buyer is VERY happy that they got that piece at that price.

 

--David

[cheekyj2112]

 

 

For every ASM 29 price realized, there are 30 auction pieces that ended below expectation. I mean, $3600(w/juice) for that Miller Captain America cover? That was a good deal. I'm sure the buyer is VERY happy that they got that piece at that price.

 

--David

 

Did someone actually get it though? I'm reserving judgement till I see that its actually changed hands. A friend of mine bought a piece through Heritage that had been listed as sold on at least 2 prior occasions but then was miraculously available for sale again soon after.

These practises seem less than transparent to me.

Joseph

[spider9698]

Gene, another insightful post.

David, completely agree with you. Everyone focuses on the crazy ASM Ditko piece but the Romita 155 cover made just over 15K with the juice. We are seeing crazy prices for only the most extreme pieces while prices taper quickly for the B and C level pieces which have remained relatively flat.

My two cents.

[Nexus]

When the buyer's premium on a piece if more than I like to spend on any individual piece of art you know the game is changing.

 

No question that the game is changing. It's hard to justify calling it just a "hobby" these days when the $$$'s are getting so high. Buying pieces at prevailing prices does not really give me much enjoyment these days (I haven't bought anything in almost 5 months, actually) because I feel obligated to take an appraiser's/investor's view on a potential purchase with the dollar stakes so high (even though I'm not buying for that purpose).

 

Even though I started collecting fairly late in the game (December 2002) compared to a lot of people, I'm glad I started when I did because I don't know that I would have started collecting if I had waited around for prices to get to where they are now.

 

I was chatting with a well-known, longtime collector about this very topic (the changing $tate of the OA game of late) and this is what he had to say:

 

"This hobby has indeed gotten out of hand. If a single dude like you making a very fine living is complaining, imagine what us married with children schlubs think! I do not enjoy the fact that certain things I want such as [references removed] are out of reason financially unless I sell/trade what I already have....I agree with your assessment. A crazy market is not necessarily a healthy market. Somewhat similar to the comic book frenzy years ago."

 

Gene

 

I got in late, too, three years after you (December 2005). In the short time I've been collecting, I've seen prices increase across the board, dramatically in some cases. How long can this last? It smacks of short-term money.

 

Doing a little research, using Frank Miller DD as a simplified example, prices increased 10-fold from the 80's to the 90's and ANOTHER 10-fold from the 90's to the 00's. The last increase can be attributed to the kid who read DD in the 80's growing up and now having disposable cash to spend. But another 10-fold increase is unlikely, even impossible. There's no reason for it. The nostalgia factor has already kicked in (and this would be true for just about all 80's art). Simple common sense would indicate that there's only so much room for this hobby to grow. Of course, common sense and this hobby appear to be mutually exclusive...

 

So, yeah, I think about this all the time. It still hasn't stopped me from collecting. I have had a great time getting involved in the hobby. I love looking at the stuff. And when it's available for sale...common sense leaves the building.