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For those "Big Boy" (Value, Count) collectors on here....
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34 posts in this topic

14 hours ago, Blastaar said:

Also it seems that most of the larger collectors out there are from the NY area. Makes sense as that is where most of the raw artwork was floating around when first available. 

Also, $10k for a Kirby Thor panel page is a smaller percentage of the average New Yorker's income than say, a collector from North Carolina, where that amount might be 25% of their annual salary.

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18 hours ago, Blastaar said:

I just feel like I am going to go broke trying to get to where I want to be. I think unless you started years ago new collectors may have missed the boat. 

While I do have some pieces of real value which date back to my first collecting run in the 1980’s, the bulk of what I have bought is in the last 8 years or so. I don’t sell art I have accumulated.  To fund most of my purchases (I do break my rules if I really want something) I make deliberate reductions in my weekly, disposable expenses. Then, I put the saved cash in a little envelope and watch it grow. If you want to save, a good way is not to use debit/credit cards. I once read that the average person spends about 12% more by using plastic than cash (since it doesn’t feel like real money). I typically take the same amount out of the bank every week to fund general expenses. What’s left goes in the envelope. Once you get into it, and watch the $ add up, the pile grows fairly quickly.

Over the years, I have picked up things I really wanted. Curiously, some of the things I didn’t spend a lot on have become favorites, and things I really wanted lose some of their luster. So if you see something you really want, it may later be worth more to you than the Kamandi page.

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9 hours ago, MGS said:

That's exactly where in ended up in my quest for a Kirby page.  It's not a silver age Marvel page, but he was still doing good work on a character he created, and it wasn't going to break the bank.  Maybe I'll add another page someday, but for now I'm happy I get to enjoy this one.

 

KamandiIssue33Page18 (2).jpg

So I have my sights on several of these pages. Is there any reason to believe that his pencils are not present under inks during his Kamandi run? Don't think I have heard otherwise but I know with Kirby sometimes it can be tricky. Are there any runs that I should be skeptical about?

 

 

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18 hours ago, grapeape said:

Blastaar you are a legit good contributor with a passion for art. I get where you’re coming from. I started in 1996 and I managed to hold on to three key pieces acquired between 1997-2003 that are very valuable today.

I made very smart buys and today everything I own has been paid for from the profits of the art I sold. 

Focus.

I swear I didn’t have a lot of money. But I learned to focus. Focus on one great piece then do everything in your power to get it. 

Many of my friends would impulse buy $100-$400 pages because they were restless/ Then a great page would come up and they were scrambling to get funds.

its hard to flip art today to acquire bigger and better. So many people know the FMV of what they have. You’re probably over paying on most anything you want to buy. I think a Kamandi page is doable

Blastaar focus on one great page.

After you  obtain that page hold it at all costs..

Zero in on your next desired art.

You will build a collection over time. don’t worry about the past. I too cursed not finding OA until 1996. I’ll never get a Romita page without paying crazy amount. Things I missed out on.

Focus is the key 

Focus on one desired piece and do whatever you have to to get it.

Best to you

+1 on this is good advice. Buy something whether it's new or old because you love it, and only because you love it.

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56 minutes ago, Blastaar said:

So I have my sights on several of these pages. Is there any reason to believe that his pencils are not present under inks during his Kamandi run? Don't think I have heard otherwise but I know with Kirby sometimes it can be tricky. Are there any runs that I should be skeptical about?

 

 

I’m not much of an expert unfortunately, but I bought the page at a show, so I was able to take a close look at it, and there were several places where I could still see pencil marks, so I was pretty confident that it was ink over the original pencils.  Like you said, I haven’t really heard anything specifically about his Kamandi run, but you can never be too careful.

Mike

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12 hours ago, J.Sid said:

Also, $10k for a Kirby Thor panel page is a smaller percentage of the average New Yorker's income than say, a collector from North Carolina, where that amount might be 25% of their annual salary.

Maybe, that North Carolinian's housing and living expenses are also much lower, so no telling on the net of those two effects. Also depends on what job they're doing too. 130k goes a real long way in NC, but in new York... probably not so much.

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1 hour ago, The Cimmerians Purse said:

Maybe, that North Carolinian's housing and living expenses are also much lower, so no telling on the net of those two effects. Also depends on what job they're doing too. 130k goes a real long way in NC, but in new York... probably not so much.

It's not what you make but what you keep :)

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22 hours ago, Blastaar said:

My wallet buster is 4 kids under the age of 13. :flipbait:

4?!? Aye Caramba! I feel your pain - I’ve really only been collecting the past few years and the war chest I put together in lieu of a mid-life crisis car is almost finished. I’ve got 2 young kids and I think that mentally I have put any truly big fish purchase out of reach for the foreseeable future. I’ll never have the gallery of kirby covers or great splashes from significant golden/silver age classics - I found a nice piece with a classic character And Kirby pencil for days at 1/3 cost of a Jim Lee commission. There have also been some fantastic Thor pages popping up recently. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to bother me that much. I have one grail piece that I’m chipping away at - my expected timeline is about 20 years. Other than that I’ll echo everyone else in saying I buy stuff that I love and I never regret it. That being said, sometimes I’m mindful of the future. For example, I recently bought a lot of art from a younger/contemporary artist I really love. In 20 years if those pages fund a big purchase so be it, and if not, I’m delighted to have them. Win-win. Also, for our generation (making an assumption here), there are so many achievable semi-grail pieces from the 80s/90s. I’m sad I likely won’t ever have a Mcfarlane cover, but I’ve got a nice page. But we’ll never be able to amass a WORLD class collection of older pieces, not until they start to devalue in 20 years...

On the other end of the spectrum (aka definitely not appreciating) I really, really enjoy hunting for commissions. I like meeting creators and speaking with them, and I end up with mostly amazing pieces that I value in a very different way. 

 

Happy collecting!

086E5AEB-8045-4A33-AE38-35C1616B141A.jpeg

Edited by dichotomy
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Not a "big boy" collector, but awesome discussion idea. For those earlier collectors, what went in to your decision-making for those high valued pieces? Were you collecting based on popular artists/titles/characters/stories? Albeit strategies should change with the times, but it would be interesting to see any trends in what ends up becoming valuable decades later. Could be useful in driving/focusing our current/future purchases. With the surge in social media platforms, I've been basing some of my purchases on things that I've enjoyed and that I've seen other people rave about or that have made major headline news like on the Rolling stones, New York times, etc. I feel like those would draw in high value later, especially with controversial content. We have a better gauge through articles, discussion threads, podcasts, etc, for what people are enjoying or feel strongly about now and that people are more likely to feel nostalgic about ten or twenty years down the line. 

Edited by Mike R V
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11 hours ago, Mike R V said:

Not a "big boy" collector, but awesome discussion idea. For those earlier collectors, what went in to your decision-making for those high valued pieces? Were you collecting based on popular artists/titles/characters/stories?

When I bought them, they weren't high value; this was a very casual hobby where pages were stacked randomly on a table or flat in a box. I still remember a young Bill Sienkiewicz standing up hawking 4 pages of his at his table at one show; and drawing no interest at all. In fact, my old Eisner Spirit page was only $400-450 (with the logo on it). I guess you could say my buys were purely nostalgia based.

I bought what I bought because I liked the character and the character's stories. Still do, and hate the movement to digital (just learned that Batman/Superman issue 2 was done that way). 

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17 hours ago, dichotomy said:

On the other end of the spectrum (aka definitely not appreciating) I really, really enjoy hunting for commissions. I like meeting creators and speaking with them, and I end up with mostly amazing pieces that I value in a very different way. 

 

+1 on this thought. A big part of it is the interactions. Whether it's from a new art, commission art, meeting a living legend who is YOUR art hero. One of my absolute favorites is a Wrightson pencil that I got from him at Heroes. Nice finished pencil concept drawing for the monster from one of the mini series he did with Niles. It's absolutely, awesomely, grotesque ... exactly which series is slipping my mind right now, which is my excuse for being on amazon at the moment ordering the hard cover compilation :)

But the most fun part about it was that the second year he came to heroes I went by his booth to say high and look through his portfolios. He looked up and saw me and my buddy Nate, and said hey guys have any other restaurant recommendations for liz and I?... Nate and I are Charlotte locals... blew me away!

Wish he was still around :$

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