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(attempted) Flip of the Day!
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2,073 posts in this topic

Good morning!  I follow art sales fairly carefully and am constantly impressed by the ambitions of art sellers to turn a quick profit.  I admit to having done this in the past, but on other occasions my attempts to "flip" art have been disasters where I have lost money.  It's a fact of life, and I'm not passing judgement, but I think it might be helpful to less experienced collectors to highlight instances where art is being offered at multiple times of a recent sale price.  It's a free country (sorry Vodou!), and sometimes you do get a real bargain and can resell at fair market value to make a quick profit.  But not always.  So, I'd like to highlight a page that I normally would not be interested in, except for the disparity in pricing over an eight-month period.

$478 in November 2016:

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/fred-carrillo-the-savage-sword-of-conan-170-back-cover-original-art-marvel-1990-/a/7141-94184.s?ic4=OtherResults-SampleItem-071515

$1,800 today:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Savage-Sword-of-Conan-170-MARVEL-1990-Original-Art-Back-Cover-Fred-Carrillo/232232885875?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D41376%26meid%3D513b07248aa245e2a7a5ca7a1923c056%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D162543243450&autorefresh=true

Cheers, Lee

Edited by Lee B.
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I find flipping annoying & really anything overpriced to that degree, but isn't this just an attempted flip so far? if you want to list all the potential ripoffs on ebay, we're gonna be here a long time.

Is the seller doing anything unethical (or is this just buy low sell high)?

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Hi Twanj!  This is definitely an attempted flip, and I don't think the seller is doing anything unethical.  I think I'll change the name of the thread to reflect the attempted nature of this flip.  I agree that these listings are a dime a dozen, but for an obscure splash like this, I think it's interesting to know what it recently sold for.  Thanks, Lee

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It is annoying, especially when it's a piece you'd/I'd like for the personal collection.  But as @Twanj said, it's not a flip until it's flipped. Asking price and selling price aren't always the same number.

 

He got the piece in Nov 2016 and is trying to sell it Jun 2017. Some people around here call that "Collecting"  :baiting:

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It's definitely good to point out, transparency is best. Stuff on dealers sites too.

He does have a Make Offer option, which is better than most people...

I just can't imagine enough people buy this stuff to make it work posting for stupid high prices, like the crappy Hulk 330 McFarlane cover for $65k.

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1 hour ago, Lee B. said:

Good morning!  I follow art sales fairly carefully and am constantly impressed by the ambitions of art sellers to turn a quick profit.  I admit to having done this in the past, but on other occasions my attempts to "flip" art have been disasters where I have lost money.  It's a fact of life, and I'm not passing judgement, but I think it might be helpful to less experienced collectors to highlight instances where art is being offered at multiple times of a recent sale price.  It's a free country (sorry Vodou!), and sometimes you do get a real bargain and can resell at fair market value to make a quick profit.  But not always.  So, I'd like to highlight a page that I normally would not be interested in, except for the disparity in pricing over an eight-month period.

$478 in November 2016:

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/fred-carrillo-the-savage-sword-of-conan-170-back-cover-original-art-marvel-1990-/a/7141-94184.s?ic4=OtherResults-SampleItem-071515

$1,800 today:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Savage-Sword-of-Conan-170-MARVEL-1990-Original-Art-Back-Cover-Fred-Carrillo/232232885875?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D41376%26meid%3D513b07248aa245e2a7a5ca7a1923c056%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D162543243450&autorefresh=true

Cheers, Lee

Same seller, Clink December 2016: $3500

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2Fauctions%2Fpreview.asp%3Fcode%3D2016nov%26itemtype%3D1%23Item_1148655&id=1148655

Ebay: $9,000

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultimate-Spider-Man-35-MARVEL-2003-Original-Art-Venom-Cover-by-Mark-Bagley-/351976487715?hash=item51f36efb23:g:dNoAAOSwU8hY5BFv

 

Not that there's anything wrong with it...it's just "ambitious". 

 

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3 hours ago, mister_not_so_nice said:

He got the piece in Nov 2016 and is trying to sell it Jun 2017. Some people around here call that "Collecting"  :baiting:

" I love this piece, it's been a person grail of mine since childhood, I am honored and thrilled to own it and make it part of my permanent collection"

Five minutes later:

squirrel-up-dog-gif.gif

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I remember at the New York Comic Con 2014 seeing an art dealer buying cash a piece at 30.000 USD from one of his colleagues, walking back to his booth and setting a price of 45.000 USD. This was an Olympic flip. But one day later it was gone, maybe sold with a friendly discount, maybe 100 percent cash, maybe part trade, who knows. But gone.

In my opinion, there's a very big difference between professional dealers, paying taxes on their benefits, and many, many collectors who love to earn money on the side. I've seen many private collectors being much more greedy that professional dealers when it's time to offer a piece for sale. And the "Make an offer" situation grows on CAF now.

Also, in our first months of collecting, I'm sure we were many to receive a message from a fellow collector on CAF, who loved one of our pieces, but it would have to be a very reasonable price cause it's his grail but too expensive at market price. And we candidly agreed on a more than reasonable price. And a few weeks later, the piece appears on ebay, or on CAF, set for sale with a comfortable benefit.   

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2 hours ago, lobrac said:

The ebay auction used a color scan, but at Clink the scan is grayscale, which hides the fact that the backgrounds are fading to magenta.

Edited by comix4fun
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