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Heritage May 16 - 18 Comic Art Signature Auction - Chicago
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764 posts in this topic

20 minutes ago, tth2 said:

Clearly no one else would.

Consignor was clearly wishing and hoping on that one.

Consignor was a different family member than the one who consigned EQ.  We know this because Jaguar God was on consignment with another dealer/auction house in the past. 

Interesting that there was no guarantee on that one.  I guess it's one thing to get stuck with EQ and another to get stuck with an overpriced painting that nobody wanted at $300K when it was consigned the last time around. 

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5 hours ago, Mmehdy said:

Halpin did NOT purchase the EQ for sure.

That may or may not be the case, but, I am skeptical of the reason you cited in your PM based on anecdotes I have heard from various people in the past (don't want to air any of this publicly...) :whistle: 

HA was ready with this right away (it's been up for hours)...I'm confident that they were 100% sure it was going to sell, and 98% sure about the price. 

738923468_Haad.PNG.685d2732dd711abc936be4e52dfc03fb.PNG

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7 minutes ago, delekkerste said:

I'm confident that they were 100% sure it was going to sell, and 98% sure about the price. 

Pure wild speculation on my part but would it surprise anyone to learn that the buyer, seller and “commission” were preordained?  Lots of “free” publicity for Heritage. 

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15 minutes ago, delekkerste said:

That may or may not be the case, but, I am skeptical of the reason you cited in your PM based on anecdotes I have heard from various people in the past (don't want to air any of this publicly...) :whistle: 

HA was ready with this right away (it's been up for hours)...I'm confident that they were 100% sure it was going to sell, and 98% sure about the price. 

738923468_Haad.PNG.685d2732dd711abc936be4e52dfc03fb.PNG

It's not really 5.4 if the way it sold didn't generate full/any BP, right? Then again, if the deal was 100% neg SP, then same number but all to consignor. Those much closer will know what the number wanted in the past was and how that compares to 4.5/5.4. Anyway, I think we'll all agree that this was one of the coldest 4/5m sales in the history of art...at least until you get to Richard Prince and similar folk lol

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58 minutes ago, delekkerste said:
1 hour ago, tth2 said:

If only someone here had pointed out that no one (whose opinion actually matters) cares about the signatures. :whistle:

Who's to say that it wouldn't have gone for more without them? :whistle: 

Because the rhetoric in this thread was that the only thing the page was good for was bird cage lining, not to spend $200k, which in my piker's world is still a lot of money. 

1 hour ago, delekkerste said:

$204K is actually less than where a lot of people thought it would end up, myself included. 

I can't defeat arguments that are based on unknown, moving targets that people are able to pull out of their butts whenever necessary to win an argument.

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4 hours ago, delekkerste said:

"As billionaires compete for art in an overheated market, the merely affluent are giving up."

I kind of feel like this is happening on a smaller scale in our hobby. At this point in my collecting career, I feel like I've been priced out of most of my all-time favorite pieces if they were to ever become available, while the prices on the material that is still potentially within reach are now so high that I have to keep my powder dry for these and not blow cash on anything that isn't truly in the top 1 or 2 % of my want list. 

As such, my true "must-have" want list, of things that are both likely to be attainable and available at some point, is down to probably less than 5 medium-to-high end items, plus a few low-to-medium end items.  I'm just glad I acquired what I did when I did, because if I was starting out from scratch today, I'd probably just be looking to build a collection of maybe 10-20 great pieces; there's no way I could build out anywhere near the collection I have starting from 2019 prices. Would wager that almost no one collecting for more than 15 years would be able to at this point. 2c 

I've been doing this with comics for the past few years.  As prices escalate, books of marginal interest become books of no interest.  My art interests are less pricey, so I haven't had to triage nearly as much, but I also am very happy with the art I have so I'm not going nuts.  

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44 minutes ago, vodou said:

Anyway, I think we'll all agree that this was one of the coldest 4/5m sales in the history of art

How do these guarantees usually play out in a no-bid situation? If it is going to a third-party guarantor, I hope he/she loves the painting. Because if it was a speculator getting a cut of the final, whoops... No, soup for you! And they're stuck with a piece they probably won't see all of their money back out of if they're looking to move it in the next few years.

Or maybe the third party only guaranteed it up to a reasonable amount -- say $3.5M -- and HA covered the rest as a marketing expense. If I were the speculator-guarantor, that would be a better deal as I would think I was closer to FMV at $3.5M than $4.5M, if I got stuck with the piece.

For those in the market for the next headlining Frazetta oil, be very wary about the actual comp here.

An overview of third-party guarantees for anyone just tuning in-

https://news.artnet.com/market/guarantees-new-private-sales-rip-off-insurance-became-new-normal-1290542

 

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1 hour ago, tth2 said:

Because the rhetoric in this thread was that the only thing the page was good for was bird cage lining, not to spend $200k, which in my piker's world is still a lot of money. 

I can't defeat arguments that are based on unknown, moving targets that people are able to pull out of their butts whenever necessary to win an argument.

I called it a great piece and said that the sigs were unfortunate, but not a dealbreaker. (shrug) 

Moving the target tm & copyright 2019 tth2 is practically your signature move, you should have it trademarked or copyrighted or something. :idea: 

Edited by delekkerste
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5 hours ago, delekkerste said:

I kind of feel like this is happening on a smaller scale in our hobby. At this point in my collecting career, I feel like I've been priced out of most of my all-time favorite pieces if they were to ever become available, while the prices on the material that is still potentially within reach are now so high that I have to keep my powder dry for these and not blow cash on anything that isn't truly in the top 1 or 2 % of my want list. 

As such, my true "must-have" want list, of things that are both likely to be attainable and available at some point, is down to probably less than 5 medium-to-high end items, plus a few low-to-medium end items.  I'm just glad I acquired what I did when I did, because if I was starting out from scratch today, I'd probably just be looking to build a collection of maybe 10-20 great pieces; there's no way I could build out anywhere near the collection I have starting from 2019 prices. Would wager that almost no one collecting for more than 15 years would be able to at this point. 2c 

I am essentially starting from scratch, though I have been watching the market since a little before 2016 (and occasionally participating on a low level). 

I saved up enough cash to have a crack of some of the nicer stuff that I might want, but instead just plunked it down on a house on a mountain with ocean views.  The housing market has already sagged in the area, so I couldn't turn it down.  The same can't be said for art yet, even though my tastes aren't exactly mainstream (I'd go for GA before most anything else).

The only down side is now I have three times more wall space and nothing to hang!

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That Frazetta Egyptian Queen auction was no where near as exciting as I thought it would be. I thought there would be some competition. But then I grew up watching the auction scenes in North by Northwest and Octopussy.

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1 hour ago, GeneticNinja said:

That Frazetta Egyptian Queen auction was no where near as exciting as I thought it would be. I thought there would be some competition. But then I grew up watching the auction scenes in North by Northwest and Octopussy.

To keep the video interesting it would be great if some John Wick-style action broke out among bidders every so often.  Todd, Jim, Joe, Nadia, can you make that hahppen? 

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4 hours ago, glendgold said:

To keep the video interesting it would be great if some John Wick-style action broke out among bidders every so often.  Todd, Jim, Joe, Nadia, can you make that hahppen? 

I like going to or watching auctions. I find that one guy at Heritage who always says something like great pieces make great collections, their best auction seller. He always seems to be entertaining.

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32 minutes ago, GeneticNinja said:

I like going to or watching auctions. I find that one guy at Heritage who always says something like great pieces make great collections, their best auction seller. He always seems to be entertaining.

Agreed. If you like cheap entertainment, go to a bankruptcy auction for higher end furniture, or rugs—the stuff they couldn’t sell at their 65% mark-up at retail. A good auctioneer trying desperately to get bids is fun. Also, a good way to get nice stuff for the office or home. I ended up with more Persian/oriental rugs than I can almost count.

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1 hour ago, GeneticNinja said:

I like going to or watching auctions. I find that one guy at Heritage who always says something like great pieces make great collections, their best auction seller. He always seems to be entertaining.

My HA favorite is "The more you bid, the more it's worth!" lady. Also can be seen occasionally on Antiques Roadshow. 

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Did anyone else notice how forced the clapping was?   She seemed to completely forget to encourage any clapping despite a 5M sale until reminded by the crowd . 

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9 hours ago, BCarter27 said:

For those in the market for the next headlining Frazetta oil, be very wary about the actual comp here.

B I N G O !!

Especially at the 'headline' number of 5.4m, which the more I think about it...is very probably not the actual amount of cash that will move from one bank account to another.

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6 hours ago, glendgold said:

To keep the video interesting it would be great if some John Wick-style action broke out among bidders every so often.  Todd, Jim, Joe, Nadia, can you make that hahppen? 

That video will never be played again. Anywhere. Ever. Guaranteed.

(unless one of you guys saved it!)

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13 minutes ago, Bronty said:

Did anyone else notice how forced the clapping was?   She seemed to completely forget to encourage any clapping despite a 5M sale until reminded by the crowd . 

A piped-in Three's Company laugh track would have been more appropriate ;)

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40 minutes ago, vodou said:

B I N G O !!

Especially at the 'headline' number of 5.4m, which the more I think about it...is very probably not the actual amount of cash that will move from one bank account to another.

Oh I disagree.   The 5.4m will move IMO.  You have to remember that even if the buyer is Jim, he has all sorts of reasons to pay the full BP.   For legal reasons, for the perception of a level playing field, so that the number reported is accurate, etc etc etc.   That amount will get paid by the buyer because anything else would from my POV potentially  cause HA/Jim legal and business problems.   Who needs the headache?  You can’t be accused of giving yourself an advatange when you pay the same fees as everyone else.   Now maybe some of that BP eventually comes back to him as profit but that’s a separate transaction or rather , series of transactions because a large outfit like heritage is almost never a single corporation, it’s a whole corporate group, with different companies for different purposes, holding coamonies etc.    For that income to flow back to Jim it has to likely filter through several transactions 

Edited by Bronty
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