What's your A+ piece -- the Budget Grail Edition 0

[The Shoveler]

On 11/13/2017 at 4:40 PM, furthur said:

Sure there are books and stories I remember fondly and things I would like to own, but my triggers are mostly seeing something cool and wanting it because I like it-not thinking about something I loved back in the day and pining for it now. I realize that isn't particularly typical in this hobby, but that is how it is with me these days-which is why I am often just as happy with something for my collection that came out this year or 25 years before I was born as I am about something that I grew up reading-and often I don't know I want it until I see it.   

x2.  I can just as easily get lost in a page from a book that I never read, or a brand-new commission, as I can with a page from the good 'ole days.

Ever since I started collecting art, I've passed on several memorable pages from my childhood.  Sometimes the price was out of my range.  Or I just didn't consider the page the best value overall in comparison with other available art (or other wants and needs).  Other times the image just didn't age well from my point of view.

There is no "one-size fits-most" approach.  It all depends on your preferences and what you value.  And it's perfectly acceptable for your artistic preferences to grow, evolve and change (or not) over time.  I like to believe that there's room out there for almost anybody's budget and aesthetic tastes.

I've built my collection almost strictly from public auctions and dealers' public websites.  Over the past couple decades, only a few pieces were picked up at cons and that just happened in the past two years.  It takes a little patience, but it is possible to build a collection this way.