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All your eggs in one basket?
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47 posts in this topic

1 hour ago, Jay Olie Espy said:

A lesson I learned about commissions early on, but not before taking some licks. SELLING ART has made me a better collector.

Thats so true.   For one thing you learn not to overpay as often after you've sold some art at a loss.  As a collector you want to stretch your  budget to get you the most/best art that you can. 

 

 

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I don't have all my eggs in one basket, but quite by accident, I have pieces that became a far larger share of the value of my collection than anticipated. I recently did some analysis for insurance and was somewhat surprised to find that 50% of the value of my collection was in the top 10% of the pieces (by total number) that I own. Some of that is because I have concentrated on preliminary art, both because I enjoy it quite a bit and also because I can afford it in a time of rapidly rising prices. I am also consciously trying to move away from the middle-buying things that are at the higher end of my budget and the lower end, but not having quite so much in the middle.

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When it comes to art, im only looking for general art from 2 books from 2 different time periods. The rest of the art I get really I never chase it I wait to see whats beautiful and speaks to me, and at a price cheap enough I can afford to keep it :-)

I'm the same way with comic books, I collect 35 cent price variants, all 80s marvels (including my 2 series I like), and Silver Age Marvel CGC unrestored Mega Key books Like AF15 and Hulk 1. Im in no real danger of being "over exposed" to anything.

Whats funny, is that as of the last year my comic collection has started to surpase my art collection and that hasnt been the case since 1993 lol.

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Rather than just buying art of one character or by one artist like I did when I first started collecting, I am trying to find art that has a nostalgic feel to it, so nowadays, my collection is becoming focused on more pieces that are part of my "Permanent Collection." I think my collection is better than ever nowadays and, thank God, I have been blessed to have found some of my personal grails (art from comics I owned as a child or teen).

The Charlton art that I collected when I first started collecting wasn't so hard to get rid of, because they were mostly all cover paintings, so there was a market for those and they weren't by any one artist. I actually traded up with some of those and the others I broke even on when I decided I wanted to move in a different direction with my art collecting.

As for my Jonah Hex collection: At one time, I probably had the largest collection of Jonah Hex art around. I had lots of covers, lots of pages, the pencils preliminary pages to his first appearance and commissions by a large number of artists. But, when I decided I wanted to branch out and explore other comic art collecting, trading away and selling my Jonah Hex-focused art was very difficult. Eventually, I traded or sold off nearly all of the Jonah Hex art (one cover left and I've got only a few commissions that were more personal to me from artist friends like Tim Truman; Dan Parent and the late, great Ernie Chan). I lost a lot of cash on most of those pieces and barely broke even on the rest.

I simply don't do commissions anymore except a cover recreation every now and again from Bob Budiansky, Tim Truman and Jeff Aclin (all three I highly recommend if you're looking to get a commission). Bob is my favorite Marvel artist, Tim is a native West Virginian and a friend, and Jeff is awesome to deal with. He's reliable, very quick and affordable.

I learned a valuable lesson: Focusing on only one character or artist is only good when it's published Spider-Man covers and pages and the artist is someone like Frank Miller or Jack Kirby.

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8 hours ago, Michael Browning said:

I learned a valuable lesson: Focusing on only one character or artist is only good when it's published Spider-Man covers and pages and the artist is someone like Frank Miller or Jack Kirby.

I am so in trouble.  
:jokealert:

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On 4/1/2017 at 6:51 AM, Michael Browning said:

 

I learned a valuable lesson: Focusing on only one character or artist is only good when it's published Spider-Man covers and pages and the artist is someone like Frank Miller or Jack Kirby.

I don't know if there's any hard and fast rules, but I hear what you're saying.   When you focus on a small niche, you have to consider the risk that you are pushing the market up when you buy and dragging it down when you sell.

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