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Cool Lines Art Work Inquiry
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210 posts in this topic

I wish I had saved them. A couple of them were verbal quotes at SD Con. Of course there is always confusion over which brother owns what piece. No prices on anything even at the Con. I don't think I've ever been able to see those two guys together in one place ha ha.

 

I just don't think "inquire" is the right way to go about it when you are a OA business.It come off as " oh, you are interested?" "Uhhh Make up a crazy high price for the sucker that wants it!!!"

 

Of course they can do as they like. Seems like stuff like this makes many people here on the boards none to happy.

 

It's a crazy thing we've gotten ourselves into this OA.

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Back when I transitioned from GA to OA collecting, several friends told me that most collectors don't buy from Coollines / Donnellys who mostly prey on newbie, uninformed and/or desperate collectors who lack hobby and dealer relationships and don't understand market values. When values were appreciating 25-50% annually and droves of new collectors were coming into the hobby, their model of 'maximizing profit margin' worked well.

 

Coollines has same approach today although it's far easier for newbie collectors to establish relationships via CAF and CGC boards while gaining a better understanding of FMV given the prevalence of auctions (where you theoretically can bid $1 million on any piece and 'overpay' by only one increment) and their historical archives. This puts pressure on business models like Coollines focused on fleecing the ignorant or desperate. Today, values are appreciating more slowly (or flat in some cases), so the 'Please inquire' dealers like Coollines are increasingly challenged to recover inventory and transaction costs. As a collector, I do worry long-term that the Donnellys will soon realize it's defective model and decide to cash out flooding the market with their inventory. My 2c

 

Happy New Year folks!

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No point in asking about the Steve Ditko Spiderman 20 page, I guess.

 

No I don't have a lot of money.

 

I'm assuming this is a typo. Burkey has all of ASM 20 in his private collection.

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No point in asking about the Steve Ditko Spiderman 20 page, I guess.

 

No I don't have a lot of money.

 

I'm assuming this is a typo. Burkey has all of ASM 20 in his private collection.

 

It was a mistake. There is a SD page with Green Goblin on the Cool Lines site. thought it was 20, but that's the Scorpion.

 

Correction: ASM 23, page 6

Edited by NoMan
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No point in asking about the Steve Ditko Spiderman 20 page, I guess.

 

No I don't have a lot of money.

 

I'm assuming this is a typo. Burkey has all of ASM 20 in his private collection.

 

It was a mistake. There is a SD page with Green Goblin on the Cool Lines site. thought it was 20, but that's the Scorpion.

 

Correction: ASM 23, page 6

 

They quoted me $35K back 2009 so knowing them they likely are asking $70k now.

 

$35K was crazy then so that is why they still have it.

 

John B.

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No point in asking about the Steve Ditko Spiderman 20 page, I guess.

 

No I don't have a lot of money.

 

I'm assuming this is a typo. Burkey has all of ASM 20 in his private collection.

 

It was a mistake. There is a SD page with Green Goblin on the Cool Lines site. thought it was 20, but that's the Scorpion.

 

Correction: ASM 23, page 6

 

They quoted me $35K back 2009 so knowing them they likely are asking $70k now.

 

$35K was crazy then so that is why they still have it.

 

John B.

 

thanks. what does this Cool Lines place have a giant vault with all that art in it?

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Firstly I would like to say a thank you for all the info I picked up here when starting this earlier in the year. Learned a lot met some great people, spent way too much money, but it made me very happy. My wife had 7 weeks in France and the UK, I bought some Infantino and Porter Flash and could not be happier. Different strokes.

 

At the start I followed the dealers and ebay and realised after a short while that the Infantino stuff seldom came up.

 

Moy had a page for $500 with Flash at speed but no Rogues, I should have bought it but passed and it sold on Heritage for maybe mid $700s including buyers fee.

 

A page from 300 showing Barry at speed, but no Flash or Rogue went for I think $580 on ebay in Feb.

 

I then went to Cool Lines in late Feb about a couple of pages and was sent a full list of Flash Bronze Infantino.

 

I picked two pages that really did it for me, including a Rev Flash / Mirror Master page and started haggling. In the end was happy.

 

Steve replied to emails promptly and shipped it quickly and efficiently.

 

As the year has turned out, looking over Heritage and Comic Link I think I may have gone maybe 10% but not 15% over, maybe less.

 

Sure there have been cheaper pages sold this year, and I got some of them, but every time the content, context picked up the price jumps.

 

Know your stuff, check the archives, and roll the dice. You may get a similar page for less, if you just wait, but for certain stuff, it is getting harder and harder to find.

 

My perspective may also differ. If I go to SDCC it will cost me around US$1,800 in Airfares alone before paying the crazy accommodation.

 

Also just like these posts, the more research the better you will be.

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I have a question.

 

Has anyone actually called them on the carpet - in person? At a show? If so, how did it go?

 

Or is everyone still worried about burning a bridge to a prominent inventory, one whose depths have probably not been fully revealed?

 

(Full disclosure: that would by MY reasoning, along with my general avoidance of needless confrontations)

 

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Has anyone actually called them on the carpet - in person? At a show? If so, how did it go?

 

Or is everyone still worried about burning a bridge to a prominent inventory, one whose depths have probably not been fully revealed?

 

(Full disclosure: that would by MY reasoning

 

And thus why things never change. And never will. (shrug)

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With dealers it comes down to how much is my time worth and how much do I want this. Not, "is this a great investment" or "how much can I flip it for next year, to someone not lucky enough to live in the same town as this Con".

 

Having now faithfully checked Ebay every day for a year, looking for Infantino art and found 5 bronze pages only, some with okay content and some with low content (none I would rate as high) how much is your time worth (my time) to just keep looking.

 

I doubt I will sell this stuff. If my son does not look at it a little more (gamer) then it may wind up with a friend in my will. (Applies to Bronze only). So if Cool lines have stuff I can afford and I know the chances are remote of acquiring similar it makes good sense to use them.

 

that is why you use retailers to buy clothes and not spend eons looking in second hand clothes shops.

 

Convenience.

 

and if you have some Bronze Infantino Flash please let me know. Why let Steve have all the fun.

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With dealers it comes down to how much is my time worth and how much do I want this. Not, "is this a great investment" or "how much can I flip it for next year, to someone not lucky enough to live in the same town as this Con".

 

that is why you use retailers to buy clothes and not spend eons looking in second hand clothes shops.

 

Convenience.

 

How much of a "convenience" is it, when you inquire for a piece and are given a price nearly twice as much as the dealer has it listed on eBay for (which was already well above FMV)?

 

How much "convenience" is it, when you ask a dealer at a show about a piece, they quote a crazy price, you say you need time to think and when you come back later, the price is changed to something even higher?

 

How much convenience is it, when you ask if a piece of art has any stat work, are told it is all original, then get it and see it does have stat work. Then, when you complain, are told "well it has original art under it"?

 

How much time have you wasted, with a dealer who does these things? The Donnelly's have. These are all examples taken from stories I've heard (or personally experienced).

 

Oh, and it is hilarious you call eBay "a second hand shop." Any dealer is the same thing. The "premiere retailer" would the artist themselves or their rep (if they have one). Then you are getting the merch direct from the source. ANYTHING else is "second hand."

 

So if Cool lines have stuff I can afford and I know the chances are remote of acquiring similar it makes good sense to use them.

 

If you can afford the Donnelly's prices, then I envy you your billionaire status.

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Not going to defend Coolines for their shady practices, but never had a' problem' with their pricing. That is to say, they can price things any way they want. To buy or not to buy, that's up to individual buyers.

 

Here is a short personal story.

 

One of the first pieces I bought when I got back into collecting several years back was from them. It was crazy expensive but I wanted the art. I had no current market knowledge so while it felt expensive, I was not 100% sure if I overpaid or not.

 

If I knew then what I know today (about value)I most certainly wouldn't have made the purchase.

Recently similar pieces have sold at auction for around what I paid back then or slightly more.

 

So knowing more about pricing would have meant the end result would have been not to own that art. But would I have been better off? It's hard to say.

 

Recently another boardie talked about paying a crazy multiple of value for an archie grail. He was happy and who are we to judge? Art is irrational. We are free to buy it or not. Would I buy from them again? probably not - but not for pricing reasons.

Edited by Panelfan1
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Not going to defend Coolines for their shady practices, but never had a' problem' with their pricing. That is to say, they can price things any way they want. To buy or not to buy, that's up to individual buyers.

 

I never said or alluded to anything to suggest otherwise. I merely stated the fact that, to be able to buy from the Donnelly's, you'd have to be "very well off" financially. That isn't saying they can't price how they want, nor that people are obligated to buy. It's merely a statement of observational fact.

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i agree, they can price their pages whatever they want, you accept to pay for it or not (same goes for everyday stuff if you think about it, you overpay for a lot of things)

 

but the problem is that they cheat a lot (without ever really cheating), never explaining simple things

 

- selling cover color guides as original painted covers (the only hint you have is the size of the page, but if you never have bought color guides, you can't know that point)

 

- selling inks over bluelines as original art (for example, on eBay, they only explain that some art thy sell "may" be inks only, but as this sentence is put on every auctions they have, you don't know if the page you're looking at is concerned or not

 

and so on

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All good on the recent pricing conversation. I think people can/should price their goods the way they see fit and then they will find out if the market is game too. Or not. But this other stuff that's been there in the background, That Swan Superman trophy cover from several years back, other similar examples, a certain propensity for vagueness. Not good. And now this thing that Chris (comix4fun) brought more to the light...that is misrepresentation and then radio silence when called out on it (privately, originally I'll add). Not cool(lines) and more to the point dishonest. It would appear that they are willing to put their integrity itself at risk, quite publicly, and face potential civil and criminal (?) damages too...all to play chicken at protecting a bloated profit built primarily on misrepresentation (Liefeld "did it" it's "vintage"). It's really a shame for all parties involved and the hobby itself.

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And in typical Donnelly flip flop fashion, I had a Coollines experience around the same time as yours. Even though I knew full well what to expect, I gave it a shot. Mine went like this....

 

They had a few pieces of Guy Davis Sandman Mystery Theater art pop up on their CAF with the usual note about asking for a price. They had just listed a few pages of Davis' work on eBay the week before. Same book. All around the same quality and all at around $600-800 a page. Really high for Davis' work, which is normally around $200-500, but the page they listed on CAF was one I really liked. Again content, time period, historical "significance" all around the same equivalency. I figured even if the one I asked about was more like $900 I'd hold my nose and cross my fingers.

 

The price that came back when I asked about it? Had to have been at least $1800. I want to say might have been over 2k. I was just looking for the emails to see who it was that responded and gave me the numbers, but seem to have deleted it out of frustration. I simply thought "of course it is" and moved on.

 

Same old same old. Buyer beware.

 

If someone knows for sure what the actual story behind the art is (not what they purport it to be) and it's at a price the buyer can live with, and they actually follow through without changing their mind or conditions... more power to the buyer.

 

All others... you know what they say about fools and their money.

 

"Buyer beware."? Nobody in their right mind buys from these guys - you should probably have said "Enquirer beware." lol

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Not going to defend Coolines for their shady practices, but never had a' problem' with their pricing. That is to say, they can price things any way they want. To buy or not to buy, that's up to individual buyers.

 

Here is a short personal story.

 

One of the first pieces I bought when I got back into collecting several years back was from them. It was crazy expensive but I wanted the art. I had no current market knowledge so while it felt expensive, I was not 100% sure if I overpaid or not.

 

If I knew then what I know today (about value)I most certainly wouldn't have made the purchase.

Recently similar pieces have sold at auction for around what I paid back then or slightly more.

 

So knowing more about pricing would have meant the end result would have been not to own that art. But would I have been better off? It's hard to say.

 

Recently another boardie talked about paying a crazy multiple of value for an archie grail. He was happy and who are we to judge? Art is irrational. We are free to buy it or not. Would I buy from them again? probably not - but not for pricing reasons.

 

 

 

This isn't about pricing things high enough to elicit a giggle. They would be among at least a dozen dealers who do that regularly.

 

I take it, from your post, that you've never been subjected to the "blank post-it note/gotta ask my brother/price on post-it note was wrong/piece is already spoken for/it's back up for sale an hour later at an even higher price" gambit many of us have witnessed or been subjected to.

 

If every piece you've seen from them had a price on it already without you having to ask and that price never changed when you expressed interest then count yourself as blessed.

 

 

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