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Where do you draw the line(s) with your collecting?
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33 posts in this topic

70% over FMV as a percentage can be harsh but as stated above it's all relative to the actual dollar amount and where your psychological or financial pain level is at as the numbers start getting high (and that will vary for each person of course).  And sometimes it's just about the feeling of not wanting to be so taken advantage of.  I've happily paid up 70% or more on certain pieces and also firmly refused to pay up that much (or even much less of a mark-up) on other pieces. 

Another way to look it (as my wife is quick to remind me if I think about passing on something good)--how unhappy are you going to be a month, 6 months, a year later if you pass this up?  Again, an individual decision.

In one aggregious case,  I ended up paying a guy over 5X what he had just paid a week earlier for a piece that I REALLY wanted (but had missed the opportunity by one day) (and unfortunately we are not talking hundreds to then thousands).  But losing the piece was going to cause too much regret so i reconciled myself to it.

Edited by Ironmandrd
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At least after all these years I think I already know where I stand on this one as far as the market is concerned.

I think had I discovered OA much earlier in my life then I would have had my "ramen" days... Not so much now. 

It's interesting to see see that brought up. I am definitely getting the overall impression that the lines are out there to either be redrawn or eventually ignored. I know there are a few others that I used to live by and ditched, like making the hobby fund itself. That eventually became too much of a second job to maintain. It was great while it lasted.

@Ironmandrd thanks for sharing that. You reminded me that I have been there too but with a guitar purchase where I was still able to see the original sale on eBay. However, I didn't really care that I was on the sharp end of a flip because it was a super clean example that must have been a cupboard / loft find. Why take the trouble to wait out for something else cheaper that I probably wouldn't have been as happy with?

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6 hours ago, alxjhnsn said:

I have a theme - artists I like and the characters I most associate with them. I seldom go outside that theme. That said, your dilemma is one that I've faced so I'm not sure that drawing a line is an effective approach to controlling your wandering eye.

Not much help, I admit.

Interesting. I do the opposite. I love asking an artist to do a Phantom Stranger he/she has never done before (and I loan them some collected stories from DC to get a sense of the character). If they have, then these days, I try to at least come up with something off the beaten path regarding a scene or pose. It puts their artistry to the test instead of just their illustrative skills. 

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19 minutes ago, Garf said:

At least after all these years I think I already know where I stand on this one as far as the market is concerned.

I think had I discovered OA much earlier in my life then I would have had my "ramen" days... Not so much now. 

It's interesting to see see that brought up. I am definitely getting the overall impression that the lines are out there to either be redrawn or eventually ignored. I know there are a few others that I used to live by and ditched, like making the hobby fund itself. That eventually became too much of a second job to maintain. It was great while it lasted.

@Ironmandrd thanks for sharing that. You reminded me that I have been there too but with a guitar purchase where I was still able to see the original sale on eBay. However, I didn't really care that I was on the sharp end of a flip because it was a super clean example that must have been a cupboard / loft find. Why take the trouble to wait out for something else cheaper that I probably wouldn't have been as happy with?

If you are this worried about the price, and feel you are being taken, don't buy it. That's different than a piece which is just naturally high priced. The former is something you will always think about when you look at it.

There are things I have loved and regretted not buying, but there are also things I loved, didn't buy, and eventually, didn't particularly care about the loss. Also, some of this stuff is a lot more fungible than other stuff. You want a Curt Swan Superman because you love the image? Wait awhile; another one will come up.

There is also the question of how much pain in real dollars is at stake. I prefer the low end of the pool, and would not spend the money for a good sized downpayment on a car for artwork no matter how much I loved it. I would buy something cheaper and remind myself of an old song: "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with." 

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1 hour ago, Ironmandrd said:

how unhappy are you going to be a month, 6 months, a year later if you pass this up?

Yes, this is usually a good benchmark and one I like to ask myself before a purchase.

But...

1 hour ago, Garf said:

as far as the market is concerned.

...another good benchmark is whether the piece will still be sitting there in a year or two at that same price. If it's marked up so high, it is probably not going anywhere. Come back to it later.

Edited by BCarter27
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Assuming you aren't going into massive debt and being thrown out onto the street I think the primary issue is whether your tastes generally align with where the market is heading. I tend to obsess over very niche things, maybe that means I have very bad taste. But that basically means selling anything is that much more difficult. What is an absolute grail to me is likely something most people wouldn't even know what it was. So that leads to my one piece of advice - make sure you document your cost basis very well. I made that mistake with certain pieces I bought many years ago for likely way too much money and it makes the tax situation compound the overpaying (imagine being taxed on a 70% loss).

Chris

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If you aren't going to go into debt over it and you like it, you should buy it.  

No one knows where this market is going.  Last week I was going through Heritage auctions from the last 10 years that I passed on because I thought things were too expensive, and they would all be on the low side today.  

One of the Felix podcasts talks about the idea that art is never cheap.  Art was never considered cheap, even when Albert Moy talks about a Neal Adams cover was $125.  

I thought a Miller/Janson Daredevil page near the end of the run was a little high at $4,000.  I never would have thought we would see one sell for almost $40,000?  

Last year I bought a piece for $4000 more than the seller bought it for about two months earlier.  He made about 25% return by flipping it.  I'm sure both of us are quite happy with the decision.  

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I don't collect/spend outside of what is comfortable and to be honest I am glad that I don't have the burden of curating a collection full of expensive pieces. As mentioned earlier what I am considering wouldn't be my most expensive purchase and I have only ever spent over $1K on a single piece once. It's still been useful to get the thoughts out instead of having them stuck in my head when considering the value of something fairly niche within a niche hobby.

 

(For anyone interested this is my CAF https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=91382 , it's bit of a mix.)

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12 hours ago, cstojano said:

Assuming you aren't going into massive debt and being thrown out onto the street I think the primary issue is whether your tastes generally align with where the market is heading. I tend to obsess over very niche things, maybe that means I have very bad taste. But that basically means selling anything is that much more difficult. What is an absolute grail to me is likely something most people wouldn't even know what it was. So that leads to my one piece of advice - make sure you document your cost basis very well. I made that mistake with certain pieces I bought many years ago for likely way too much money and it makes the tax situation compound the overpaying (imagine being taxed on a 70% loss).

Chris

Trust me, you aren’t the only one here who likes “very niche things”. The other side of the coin is that you will generally pay less for a piece by the same artist which is less “niche-y”. 

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you know what's funny... my god you wont believe... So I go to college USNA yes Annapolis... in the city square there was an art store, it was just some crappy silly gallery and then BANG... they got like Frazetta original paperback covers for like 2 k a piece.  They probably had about 40 pieces of his art I know they are good but I cant afford them.  2000 buck back then was just way too much.  Thank you Frank for making everyones life a little better. CROM!

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Why is it priced above market? Is it because you have asked about a NFS piece on CAF? Is it just the asking price for the piece? If it is the asking price for a piece that is for sale go ahead and make a fair offer and see what the sellers thinks. It can't hurt to haggle a price tag. Most of us OA collectors overprice our art knowing that prospective buyers always try and haggle the price down.

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