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I bought and sold an Everett Sub-Mariner golden-age splash the same day...
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49 posts in this topic

A PANEL PAGE ART collector’s story.

The collectors dilemma — never enough money — the choices you have to make.

I was in San Diego — must have been ’96 or ’97.  I had 10k with me to do some damage, I thought.  First few minutes of the con, I’m looking through a collector’s portfolio and inside, staring back at me, is the splash page to YOUNG MEN 26—a Bill Everett Golden-Age splash from the ’50’s with an angelic looking Sub-Mariner and a beautiful Betty, pictured.  I asked him how much he wanted — I think it was 12k.  I suggested 10k was what I was willing to pay, and as luck would have it he agreed.  We’ll I was done, I figured — that was my convention — tapped out!

One of the pieces I had been looking absolutely everywhere for, I hesitate to say grail, but it was important to me, was a large oversize TOYS FOR TOTS piece by Jack Kirby.  It’s this phenomenal image of Cap, Thor and Spider-Man handing toys out to kids.  Well, I stroll over to Anthony Snyder’s booth and low and behold there is that exact TOYS FOR TOTS art sitting in the booth —bright as day — just asking me to buy it.  I think I offered 4000 right away, not really sure how I was going to pay for it.  Anthony said it wasn’t his alone, he had to check.  When he came back to me the price was 6k.  I agreed, again not knowing exactly how I was going to pay for it.  A few minutes later, Anthony came back to me and said if I wanted the piece I would have to pay 8k.  I was outraged!  “What do you mean?  We had a deal at 6k.”  Anthony explained that the other owner had received an offer before we closed and now the price was 8k.  But the good news, he explained, was if I agreed this time the art was mine for sure.  The other bidder was out.  I agreed to pay the 8k.  Now I just needed to figure out how I was going to get him the money.

Later that day, I show the EVERETT piece to a friend — He offers me 15k for it on the spot.  I really don’t want to sell it, but it does solve my problem of how to pay Anthony and get the TFT piece.  I counter at 17.5 and my friend agrees.  The net result, I basically go home from SD with the TOYS piece for $500.  Now many years later, I no longer own the TOYS art — I traded it long ago for an incredible Ditko Spider-Man page from ASM 22 that I also no longer own.  

I do miss that Everett splash though — even though I only owned it for a day— that was a treasure!  Choices!

I've posted the TOYS FOR TOTS here to whet your appetite.  Please visit my facebook page to see the Everett splash:

https://www.facebook.com/panelpageart/

Thanks,

Glen Brunswick 

tft.jpg

Edited by glenbru
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1 hour ago, comicparadox said:

I know that piece well. It is a great image. I would be happy simply to own one of the Toys For Tots posters. They do show up occasionally on eBay.

I've seen them too, Jon.  They did a color version of the poster as well that's very rare.  When I owned the art, I was trying to track down one of those.  By the time I found one, the art had been traded and I didn't feel the need for the poster anymore -- it would just remind me of the art I no longer owned.

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2 hours ago, glenbru said:

A PANEL PAGE ART collector’s story.

The collectors dilemma — never enough money — the choices you have to make.

I was in San Diego — must have been ’96 or ’97.  I had 10k with me to do some damage, I thought.  First few minutes of the con, I’m looking through a collector’s portfolio and inside, staring back at me, is the splash page to YOUNG MEN 26—a Bill Everett Golden-Age splash from the ’50’s with an angelic looking Sub-Mariner and a beautiful Betty, pictured.  I asked him how much he wanted — I think it was 12k.  I suggested 10k was what I was willing to pay, and as luck would have it he agreed.  We’ll I was done, I figured — that was my convention — tapped out!

One of the pieces I had been looking absolutely everywhere for, I hesitate to say grail, but it was important to me, was a large oversize TOYS FOR TOTS piece by Jack Kirby.  It’s this phenomenal image of Cap, Thor and Spider-Man handing toys out to kids.  Well, I stroll over to Anthony Snyder’s booth and low and behold there is that exact TOYS FOR TOTS art sitting in the booth —bright as day — just asking me to buy it.  I think I offered 4000 right away, not really sure how I was going to pay for it.  Anthony said it wasn’t his alone, he had to check.  When he came back to me the price was 6k.  I agreed, again not knowing exactly how I was going to pay for it.  A few minutes later, Anthony came back to me and said if I wanted the piece I would have to pay 8k.  I was outraged!  “What do you mean?  We had a deal at 6k.”  Anthony explained that the other owner had received an offer before we closed and now the price was 8k.  But the good news, he explained, was if I agreed this time the art was mine for sure.  The other bidder was out.  I agreed to pay the 8k.  Now I just needed to figure out how I was going to get him the money.

Later that day, I show the EVERETT piece to a friend — He offers me 15k for it on the spot.  I really don’t want to sell it, but it does solve my problem of how to pay Anthony and get the TFT piece.  I counter at 17.5 and my friend agrees.  The net result, I basically go home from SD with the TOYS piece for $500.  Now many years later, I no longer own the TOYS art — I traded it long ago for an incredible Ditko Spider-Man page from ASM 22 that I also no longer own.  

I do miss that Everett splash though — even though I only owned it for a day— that was a treasure!  Choices!

I've posted the TOYS FOR TOTS here to whet your appetite.  Please visit my facebook page to see the Everett splash:

https://www.facebook.com/panelpageart/

Thanks,

Glen Brunswick 

tft.jpg

Cool story!  Not sure I would have gone through with Kirby deal after getting a price from the seller only to have the price pulled.  That's only happened to me once, reaching an agreement and then having it yanked it back.  I was furious and from that moment on, the seller was dead to me, as was that piece of art as long as he had it.  But it all worked out in your scenario Glen, and you have a good story to tell! 

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4 minutes ago, stinkininkin said:

Cool story!  Not sure I would have gone through with Kirby deal after getting a price from the seller only to have the price pulled.  That's only happened to me once, reaching an agreement and then having it yanked it back.  I was furious and from that moment on, the seller was dead to me, as was that piece of art as long as he had it.  But it all worked out in your scenario Glen, and you have a good story to tell! 

Thanks Scott!  To be fair to Anthony, he co-owned the piece with Mike C.  They were both offering it at the same time, and I got into a bidding war with another buyer -- at least that's what I was told at the time.  Truth be told, I liked that piece enough to go higher than 8k.  What are you going to do?  Sometimes you gotta pay the price. :)

 

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2 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

Cool story!  Not sure I would have gone through with Kirby deal after getting a price from the seller only to have the price pulled.  That's only happened to me once, reaching an agreement and then having it yanked it back.  I was furious and from that moment on, the seller was dead to me, as was that piece of art as long as he had it.  But it all worked out in your scenario Glen, and you have a good story to tell! 

I'd feel the same way, but I'm glad it worked out for Glen!

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31 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

Agree with @stinkininkin and @Bronty on that price hike issue - but I stopped feeling sorry for you at that same day $7.5k turnaround you pulled on your friend :whatthe:

A real cutthroat hobby, but another entertaining story from the days of collecting yore!

Well, let's say I buy something I would have paid 20k for.     It only costs me 8.

Is it wrong to ask 20, or 15?   Remember, the value to me was not in sync with what I paid.   

Why should I feel compelled to sell something for 8.5 (say) that I would myself have paid 18 for?

I don't think its a straightforward question and I don't think he's automatically 'scum' for taking the profit.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Knightsofold said:

Dear god that Everett page is awesome.  I'm sad you sold it.  Even though that doesn't even make sense....

I appreciate that.  It seemed to make sense to me at the time.  What I did not know then is that it is the only surviving known Everett Sub-Mariner splash from the 50's.

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42 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

Agree with @stinkininkin and @Bronty on that price hike issue - but I stopped feeling sorry for you at that same day $7.5k turnaround you pulled on your friend :whatthe:

A real cutthroat hobby, but another entertaining story from the days of collecting yore!

Well, I'm glad at least you enjoyed my story.

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4 minutes ago, Bronty said:

Well, let's say I buy something I would have paid 20k for.     It only costs me 8.

Is it wrong to ask 20, or 15?   Remember, the value to me was not in sync with what I paid.   

Why should I feel compelled to sell something for 8.5 (say) that I would myself have paid 18 for?

I don't think its a straightforward question and I don't think he's automatically 'scum' for taking the profit.

 

 

People are free to do whatever they choose, I'm not the comic art police, I just have my own opinion (and no negative judgement) that states this type of valueless cost increase is rent seeking. No real value has been created, but one side bettered their economic standing. History is full of it, it works great, a lot of people have done very well by it, and all of the mental gymnastics imaginable have been played over the years to justify it...  but no need  on my account, I'm not judging!

Just calling it like it is, OP ended up fine in the end so there is hardly a reason to feel too bad that price hike hit them.

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8 minutes ago, Bronty said:

Well, let's say I buy something I would have paid 20k for.     It only costs me 8.

Is it wrong to ask 20, or 15?   Remember, the value to me was not in sync with what I paid.   

Why should I feel compelled to sell something for 8.5 (say) that I would myself have paid 18 for?

I don't think its a straightforward question and I don't think he's automatically 'scum' for taking the profit.

 

 

I remember my thinking at the time.  Even though I needed the money I wouldn't have sold it at 15k.  17.5k felt like more than I would pay for it and that made sense for me to sell it there.  

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4 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

People are free to do whatever they choose, I'm not the comic art police, I just have my own opinion (and no negative judgement) 

Well, respectfully, you can't have your cake and eat it too.     If you 'stopped reading', you are implying a negative judgement.

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1 minute ago, Bronty said:

Well, respectfully, you can't have your cake and eat it too.     If you 'stopped reading', you are implying a negative judgement.

I didn't stop reading :)

 

As I said, I stopped feeling sorry that @glenbru had a $2k price increase on what sounded like a done-deal. I read the entire story, and as stated, appreciated the post.

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