grapeape

These are tough Javier. Unless its dirt....dirt...cheap like twenty bucks, stay away. Is there any verifiable provenace for the piece? I'm not talking about COA's which are worthless in our hobby. Just provenance... like a chain of ownership to atleast see if the story matches the art.

Price protection is a precursor to somebody holding the bag. That's the shame of not letting the market find its own top. I'll be waiting if it all collapses

It's going to be interesting to watch. In most cases I would agree that an "iconic" published page is king. In this case though we have an iconic non published piece by a comic art legend, drawing the most iconic hero in comic history (with no disrespect to Supes and Batman). The quality, large drawn Spidey by Ditko....... published or not it's like finding an unbelievable treasure. The pin up I think matches or surpasses any page Ditko ever drew, and he displayed Amazing quality in his work in 1-37 and AF15.

Normally I'm sharper minded. Apologies my friend.

💯

Very good points. Just know that there are some on the board who insist comic OA will never crossover to, say, the fine art market. While they make relevant points about snobbery, Or Rembrandt vs. Sal Buscena... I still believe there is a way OA expands in some form over to the galleries of fine art. It's not always comparisons that drive an art market. Picasso is on another level than Don Heck. Okay. A given. Art is intuitive, and the collector is a target for manipulation, but also self examination of what appeals to them. Now it only takes money and access, mixed with enthusiasm.and A clever gallery rep will one day "challenge" the fine art world with primitive expression that relies less on comparing the talent of the fine art masters, but does mark a significant time period of the comic created form. Nostalgia and "one of a kind" art mix together and make a hell of drug. I can't speak to digital art, other than to say it's what we have now. I prefer the old way. I'm happy to hear your experience with young people and their expressed appreciation of comic art! I think are likely to impact the OA market over the next 10-20 years:

Terry I'm not sure there is one. I just want to see what if anything might be there. The treasure Hunter in me. Artie Simek rocks!!!!

The powers that be at DC the moment they dreamed up the final nail for his coffin.

There she is with Joe Sinnott. We're losing so many artist friends. Rest in peace and God bless.

I'm telling everyone straight up. One of the best art drops I've seen from Glen. Pretty good round up, really. A+

Bingo. That's what it looks like. It was a solid description but I think the more info on an unpublished piece the better the 💰 for seller. it's too good. It feels like this one was presented with one of the published ones, and was sent to the bench as a second choice. It's so damn good! This is why I search everyday to unearth treasures. None of the time is wasted. Not just the goal, or the grail, but the glory of the journey to fetch said treasure brings joy to a collector like me. Excelsior Stan Lee for giving this one away. Ditto to dashing Steve Ditko, the artist who quit us long ago, but we've never quit loving his mesmerizing talent.

Buddy, if you can get a scan from them and post here, it would be most appreciated.

They can. They will. Hypothetically. Allegedly. Most definitely.

I wish I knew how to combine them.

Some good takes, thank you. For the 90's period Witchblade stood out for me. I am on the side of the argument that "objectification of women" as an art form will always appeal to the audience it was intended for. Any protest, or downward pressure to censure the art form ultimately majes it more desirable. Mark Bagley's Amazing Spider-Man run has a lot of fans. He is a ⭐️ to watch over these next few years. The point of this thread is pretty simple. The best known copy of comic fandoms signature superhero now trades for millions. But I remember the day when it would've sold for a fraction of the price. Many other golden age comics of the same time period sell in the hundreds of dollars. So, figure out what's the cream of your collection, and let it rise to the top.

I apologize that CGC and maybe my unsteady hand posted this topic x 2 threads same name. Yeesh.

I agree with you that the FF Annual 1 page was a deal for the buyer. Appreciate your breakdown of the number of early Kirby/Ditko pages.

I have no empirical evidence only intuition. I'm 56 years young, so I've seen a thing or two. Enough so that I have an outstanding offer from State Farm Insurance to be a claims adjuster I remember the year 1987 hanging out at Page After Page Comics and debating the value of the Mile High copy of Action Comics 1. The story we heard was a guy walked in with a briefcase with $300k, but his offer to buy was rejected. This stunned us. Surely the refusal was a mistake. $300k in 1987 was a lot of money. Later I thought about it and told myself, if I owned the book, and didn't need money, I wouldn't sell either. My gut is telling me that we enjoyed a renaissance due to unusual factors related to the gloomy, doomsday Covid fear days. And now a lot of the heat has cooled. Perhaps a good deal of mid and lower tier material has lost its HOT value. I'm holding my best work. I believe there's a second wave that's coming in the next ten years that will explode the values of the best examples of OA that will distance the 2020-2022 period by a good amount. Agree. Disagree. It's just my personal opinion, my gut. what say you?

It's occurred to me that there are collectors who did buy stolen, pillaged European art from H***er. In spite of all the horrors he unleashed on the world, there are those who, to this day have stolen artwork hidden away in their collections. I'll stop here. I'd like to believe we will all obey our moral compass, but collecting in and of its nature brings about green eyed monsters within our souls. What are you willing to live with? Let your conscience be your guide.

Which auction was this slated for?

Being unpublished I think will temper the bidding. It's one of the best Spidey pinups by the late great Ditko though. My guess is $395,000. I'll be surprised if it goes way over, but not surprised if it goes lower. if it were a published pinup from the era of 1-37 I'd have it at $673,012.49. So here's a thought. If grapeape wins this, is there a way to make this available to Marvel so it could be published in Amazing Spider-Man? How about a tribute issue ASM #37 B with this pinup used on either cover or title splash, or center of comic! A 56 year old boy can dream:-)

I went back and looked but I didn't see an obvious issue. What don't you like my friend?

Me: Love the original Simek lettering ✅ Me: A DITKO PINUP ✅ Me: Stan Signature not across chest ✅ Hater: It's not a published piece ❌

....... "this artwork was gifted to him and his brother." Two brothers. Two....... brothers... Oh no, please no not, please not them........

The dealer that has (had) this tried to. The ask was + $100,000