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I can't believe the hammer price on that piece. I clearly misjudged the appeal of the cover ..

Darwyn is an all-time favorite of mine. I only found out when he did that he was also friends with some old pals of mine. All of them sing his praises frequently and loudly. That is a sign of a life well lived. New Frontier had a major impact on me, personally. It was instrumental in getting me back into comics in a big way. Fortunate to have two examples of his artistic genius in my collection...A Flash/Superman race homage (oversized, and with a New Frontier prelim on the back).... And his Green Lantern variant cover done during the epic Darwyn Cooke month promotion DC ran years ago.

Checking out the prices today on CAL and can't help but laugh at some of the absolutely absurd prices. I also noticed several dealers trotting out some familiar pieces with higher prices than they've had on their sites. I'm sure some sellers have things priced to sell, but I didn't see much. I don't think I'll waste my time looking tomorrow. Did anyone else have better luck? Anyone buy anything??

Byrne told me once that Terry was smart to hold on to his share of the X-Men pages, and jokingly declared himself an insufficiently_thoughtful_person for selling his years ago (Judging by the endless reprints of JB's work AND his incredible art collection, I doubt we'll need a telethon for him anytime soon). I don't know exactly what art Terry still has, but I do know for a fact he still has one Uncanny X-Men cover (issue #123). He was kind enough to provide a scan that we printed in my book on the comic book history of Wolverine.

You are 100% correct. But man, it still hurt seeing that comic in such a state!

I get packages all the time - from auction houses, eBay, private sellers, etc. I'm not sure how cardboard slabs on either side could have done anything but help protect the comic. There was nothing in the packing to prevent the book from being bent out of shape. very strange and not typically the type of packaging I see from Heritage.

Yes, they process the refund when they receive the item back.

Had a very frustrating experience recently with Heritage and their shipping dept. and wanted to share to see if anyone else has run into a similar issue. I won a raw Hawkman #4 book at auction graded FN/VF. Was excited to get it as I have one CGC 7.5 copy and was hoping to add another to my collection. Imagine my disappointment when the box arrived, looking like it had been delivered by Ace Ventura (see pix). Obviously, the beat-up box is on FED EX. However, a well-packed comic should have easily survived a rough shipping process. Except, Heritage shipped the comic without any cardboard to protect it. They just wrapped it in some bubble wrap and a standard bag/board. As you can see, it didn't protect the comic. Considering they've shipped $300 animation cels to me in heavy duty boxes with cardboard protection, about 2 million packing peanuts & a manila envelope, I could not believe the shoddy shipping for a $1500 comic book. Heritage did offer a full refund immediately when I let them know what happened, but it's still incredibly frustrating. A great Silver Age comic is ruined because someone was too careless or lazy to pack it properly. URGH....rant over. Mike

I want to use this thread to compliment Anthony Snyder & his team for doing a fantastic job of shipping a recent purchase. I bought a page from Wonder Man #1 (Jeff Johnson/Terry Austin) -- not an expensive page, by any means -- and they shipped it in a thick plastic sleeve with multiple pieces of cardboard surrounding it for protection. Thank goodness they overdid it, because the mailman delivered the package and threw it over our gate and into some bushes. It sat for two days during torrential Miami rains before I found it. The packaging was soaked but the art survived unscathed! Mike

Also, how about this Ross Andru Amazing Spider-Man 185 panel page hammering at $22.8k?? great page but ...WOW!

Really strong price - but it's a great Ghost Rider cover. I'm quite happy because I have a decent cover and a DPS from this title.

Same. I've purchased a number of (really nice) pages from Bechara the past few years, and I've never been able to get him to bend a bit.

Thanks for the pix! Some really nice pieces just in these photos...That Secret Origins page with Doctor Fate is fantastic...

Um, so....er, how about all those Ross Andru Spider-Man pages in this auction? Andru Spidey pages rarely show up on Heritage auctions. Looks like some collectors (and maybe a dealer sitting on a big stash?) are finally letting some out.

When I first started collecting, I set my goals based on images related to comics that held great nostalgic value to me. Two covers I was really interested in -- Dazzler #1 and Marvel Team-Up #78 -- were fairly easy to find. The same collector had both and worked out deals to buy them. My most fulfilling OA quest was tracking down the cover to Dazzler #3. This was the first issue of the series I ever bought, fresh off the spinner rack at a Miami U-Totem back in '81. I asked around the various BSD and no one had ever seen it. Then it struck me to actually email the penciler, Brent Anderson, and ask him what happened to it. Turned out he had it in his collection. It was the only time he ever had Joe Sinnott ink his pencils, so he understandably was hesitant to part with it. I hate being pushy, so I just mentioned that if you ever decide to sell it, I'll gladly meet his asking price. He emailed me a few months later to ask if I was still interested, and I simply told him, "what PayPal address do I send the money to?" The cover arrived and happy to still have it hanging in the guest room. Now if only I could find the cover to issue #2....

finally got my pass into the club!

awesome cover! owned this one once upon a time ...

I factor in the BP into the latest valuation of original art. If I tried to sell a piece that cost me $3K at Heritage (2.5k + 20% juice) I would base my asking price off that number.

Holy , missed that result. That is a crazy figure.

I lost out on a ton of stuff I was interested in because there were some crazy prices. I did win a Ron Garney Ghost Rider DpS for a relative bargain, and an X-Men annual page that I really wanted. But one thing I've learned from this auction is that I think I missed my shot at getting a Romita ASM panel page. Damn!

Lost out on the two non-Spidey Romita pages I bid on. Hope to snag something this weekend. Some strong prices today - I couldn't believe what that Romita Jr Iron Man splash went for, but it is an incredible image.

Wow! that is a beautiful piece.

Been waiting for this to arrive before posting, but here's my admission to the PV club....

Great piece and I bet this winds up on a dealer's site for double that price very soon. It's an incredible image -- and AFAIK, the published painting has never surfaced. I spent years trying to track down the whereabouts of the Fireside painted covers, and I never heard a peep about this. I'm actually surprised the Sons of Origins painting hasn't popped up yet with so many black hole collections finally opening up.