Spencer Beck Byrne rt 0

[delekkerste]

2 hours ago, grapeape said:

You have to compare to what’s out there and prior sales data. Gene gave a great example of the 113 page. 8 years from 4 K to 15 K. That’s standard operating procedure. There’s a stiff Take it or leave it tax on every page. 

These pages are at a premium. 
Best bet keep searching upcoming HA auctions and take a chance it’s an off day. You will be bidding with determined buyers however.
I could only find a few pages being offered for sale elsewhere. This one by Albert Moy. $38,000. The 121 page is $27 K The DPS is 85 K.

Someone else gave the #113 example, but, still...

Anyway, Heritage sold a very nice #136 page with Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler in action in the Danger Room for $27.6K in May, just six months ago.  A solid #137 page sold for $43.2K then. The infamous white panties shot (discussed in the August HA Auction thread ) White Queen page from #129 went for $33.6K in August. A ho-hum #135 page went for $25.2K in August, and a ho-hum #108 page went for $15K in February.  A much better #108 page went for $22.8K in May.  

IIRC, a pretty solid #115 page went for $30K (?) at SDCC, sold by Metropolis, which was still considered to be a high price (though positively cheap by the current offering's standards!)  

A few months ago, I traded away a very nice page with all the characters, including multiple panels of Wolverine tax material for $35K in trade value (note: I wouldn't have sold it at that price, but, it was necessary to get something I wanted much more).  By the pricing standards of these latest offerings, I should have priced my page at probably $55-$65K!  Now, maybe there's enough pent-up demand for a really nice Wolverine page that my former page could crack into the low-to-mid $40Ks these days, but, I'd be skeptical that it would be worth more than that.  

That #129 page being offered has changed hands a number of times over the past 8 years.  It's gorgeously drawn, with a couple of decent Wolverine panels, but, it's gone from $6.3K in 2011 at Heritage to $7.4K when Albert sold it in 2012 (I know, not a big mark-up), to $17.5K in 2015 when it sold privately, to $18,250 at CLink in 2016...and now it's being offered at more than double again here ($39K) in 2019?  I could maybe understand it if it was an A page, but, it's a B/B+ example, and I don't think prices have anywhere near more than doubled from the already stiff levels of a few years ago.  Numerous pages of equivalent or better quality have sold over the past 1-2 years for considerably less than the $39K asking price. 

And, yeah, Albert's pages, which are priced attractively compared to these other pages, have sat there for at least the past year or two at the offered prices.  Just because everybody wants Byrne/Austin X-Men pages doesn't mean that they're willing to pay above and beyond for an example.  With a few exceptions (#137 pages in particular), most pages have historically sold in the $30Ks or lower; I suspect there is stiff psychological resistance to going into the $40Ks, $50Ks, $60Ks, $70Ks (!!!) as the seller is trying to do here, especially for examples that have all been offered/sold publicly in recent years for much less.  

Edited December 1, 2019 by delekkerste

[Dlux]

Can someone post a link to Spencer’s page? I can’t seem to find it. 
 

thanks!!

[Kwan Chang]

52 minutes ago, Bill C said:

any reason Spencer is selling pages from people he doesnt rep? I thought this wasnt his m.o. (I know he knows austin but I assume he doesnt sell)

im pretty sure these pages are NOT coming from austin.

these pages are from a private collector who has never had a reason to sell art.

 

 

[jjonahjameson11]

Hiya, Folks!

id like to provide some information on this offering, if you’ll indulge me.

1. Spencer has sold artwork on consignment over the years from private collectors, and this latest offering of Byrne art is just that.

2.  Spencer does not set the prices on consignment pieces.  The prices are set by the consignor

3.  REASONABLE offers will be communicated to the consignor for consideration 

4.  The consignment pages are not posted on Spencer’s site so if there’s anything you want to see, please email Spencer directly

hope this helps 👍🏻

[vodou]

Thanks for clarifying YM; I knew there was no way the criticism would stand for long without either yourself or someone else filling in the gaps.

[jjonahjameson11]

[Spidey 62]

10 hours ago, Dlux said:

Can someone post a link to Spencer’s page? I can’t seem to find it. 
 

thanks!!

Artists Choice

[vodou]

24 minutes ago, Spidey 62 said:

Artists Choice

Welcome to...1996.

[Mephisto]

9 hours ago, jjonahjameson11 said:

 

4.  The consignment pages are not posted on Spencer’s site so if there’s anything you want to see, please email Spencer directly

hope this helps 👍🏻

What is the point of consigning these? I’d want someone to do a little work like list them on any easy accessible website with scans to give up a sizeable commission fee.

[roach04]

On 12/1/2019 at 10:15 AM, Bill C said:

any reason Spencer is selling pages from people he doesnt rep? I thought this wasnt his m.o. (I know he knows austin but I assume he doesnt sell)

Terry Austin - unless something has changed - still has ALL (or nearly all) his allocation of X-Men pages and covers.  I met him at a con...10 or 12 years ago...and a then-recent issue of Back Issue Magazine had scans of 3 or 4 covers - really small scans mind you - all listed "from the collection of Terry Austin" so I he and I talked at length about them.  His best line - was that sitting a con with Byrne in the early 1980s, John selling covers for $200, he said "Jesus John...do you really need that $200?"  Austin commented that his pages would comfortably cover retirement - and at today's prices, he's not wrong.

The other interesting thing - Austin has declined to submit any of his pages for IDW's Artist Editions - his view being that those high quality reproductions reduce the value of the originals.  (It's his art, so his right - though at this point I'd think there's actually a better chance that it might raise the prices even more!)

[cloud cloddie]

9 minutes ago, roach04 said:

  Austin commented that his pages would comfortably cover retirement - and at today's prices, he's not wrong.

 

Not knocking him at all, but he’s 67. If he’s going to use those pages as retirement, shouldn’t he start selling some soon?

[roach04]

2 minutes ago, cloud cloddie said:

Not knocking him at all, but he’s 67. If he’s going to use those pages as retirement, shouldn’t he start selling some soon?

I hear you.  Maybe he doesn't need the money yet!

[grapeape]

3 hours ago, roach04 said:

Terry Austin - unless something has changed - still has ALL (or nearly all) his allocation of X-Men pages and covers.  I met him at a con...10 or 12 years ago...and a then-recent issue of Back Issue Magazine had scans of 3 or 4 covers - really small scans mind you - all listed "from the collection of Terry Austin" so I he and I talked at length about them.  His best line - was that sitting a con with Byrne in the early 1980s, John selling covers for $200, he said "Jesus John...do you really need that $200?"  Austin commented that his pages would comfortably cover retirement - and at today's prices, he's not wrong.

The other interesting thing - Austin has declined to submit any of his pages for IDW's Artist Editions - his view being that those high quality reproductions reduce the value of the originals.  (It's his art, so his right - though at this point I'd think there's actually a better chance that it might raise the prices even more!)

Classic Austin “do you really need that $200?” 
1) An artist that is actually going to benefit from mad money prices for his retirement pages. Austin had a vision of the future.

2) I see Austin working. Hide the pages from IDW to maintain minty freshness. Maximum impact when the day comes to drop the X-Men treasures on the art market.
 

Fantastic insider info roach04

[NelsonAI]

The big $ will come from Austin's work on Sonic the Hedgehog.  

[JadeGiant]

11 hours ago, roach04 said:

Terry Austin - unless something has changed - still has ALL (or nearly all) his allocation of X-Men pages and covers.  I met him at a con...10 or 12 years ago...and a then-recent issue of Back Issue Magazine had scans of 3 or 4 covers - really small scans mind you - all listed "from the collection of Terry Austin" so I he and I talked at length about them.  His best line - was that sitting a con with Byrne in the early 1980s, John selling covers for $200, he said "Jesus John...do you really need that $200?"  Austin commented that his pages would comfortably cover retirement - and at today's prices, he's not wrong.

The other interesting thing - Austin has declined to submit any of his pages for IDW's Artist Editions - his view being that those high quality reproductions reduce the value of the originals.  (It's his art, so his right - though at this point I'd think there's actually a better chance that it might raise the prices even more!)

great post - thanks for sharing!

[vodou]

11 hours ago, cloud cloddie said:

If he’s going to use those pages as retirement, shouldn’t he start selling some soon?

Sometimes your assumptions of the future based on the present can turn out to be overly conservative.

Terry's repeated comment from nearly 40 years ago was based on his assumptions of what retirement could look like, he probably ended up doing a lot better than he expected. If nothing else, "rates" have only gone lower and lower from high double digits -ever since he made that comment! At the time though, who would have thought that? Or that anybody would ever see "retail ZIRP" (zero interest rate policy) or $17T and counting of negative yield bonds globally?! That's just one thing that's dramatically changed course from assumed trajectory 40ish years ago. Maybe he had a few bucks in the stock market too, and just held, not trading himself out of eventual gains? The Dow in 81/82 was under 1,000 so that's looking okay too nearly 40 years later. Terry's house (assuming he has one and owns it)...probably worth a lot more than he paid if he bought it more than fifteen years ago. There's just so many ways some people have done much better than trends would have lead one to believe from the late 70s and early 80s pov.

For many years I too saw my collection expanding in size/quality and value such that it became: my retirement assumption. Then other things worked out much, much better than I expected and instead the collection is "just another asset" to be kept or sold (or buried with) at my leisure/pleasure. If you don't need to sell, don't want to sell, and still like (love!) the stuff, why sell?

I do think Terry is wrong re: reproduction diminishing the value of the originals though. At today's levels, nobody with the kind of scratch needed to take down a beloved Byrne/Austin original will be settling for a nice photocopy. Those $150 books are for everybody else. And perhaps aspirational filler for those still building up their war chest.

[stinkininkin]

13 hours ago, roach04 said:

Terry Austin - unless something has changed - still has ALL (or nearly all) his allocation of X-Men pages and covers.  I met him at a con...10 or 12 years ago...and a then-recent issue of Back Issue Magazine had scans of 3 or 4 covers - really small scans mind you - all listed "from the collection of Terry Austin" so I he and I talked at length about them.  His best line - was that sitting a con with Byrne in the early 1980s, John selling covers for $200, he said "Jesus John...do you really need that $200?"  Austin commented that his pages would comfortably cover retirement - and at today's prices, he's not wrong.

The other interesting thing - Austin has declined to submit any of his pages for IDW's Artist Editions - his view being that those high quality reproductions reduce the value of the originals.  (It's his art, so his right - though at this point I'd think there's actually a better chance that it might raise the prices even more!)

Good post.  Things have worked out well for Terry in this regard.  I think it's a pity he didn't share his scans for the IDW books as I don't think it negatively affects the value of his art (probably quite the opposite, as someone else here mentions) but obviously is his right.  Amazing too how impactful his work from this era continues to be as an inker and taste maker considering he has been off the grid professionally for so long now.  The guy essentially retired as a young man, knowing he had a fortunes worth of original art to fall back on if need be.  Sometimes, things just work out.

[cloud cloddie]

2 hours ago, vodou said:

Sometimes your assumptions of the future based on the present can turn out to be overly conservative.

Terry's repeated comment from nearly 40 years ago was based on his assumptions of what retirement could look like, he probably ended up doing a lot better than he expected. If nothing else, "rates" have only gone lower and lower from high double digits -ever since he made that comment! At the time though, who would have thought that? Or that anybody would ever see "retail ZIRP" (zero interest rate policy) or $17T and counting of negative yield bonds globally?! That's just one thing that's dramatically changed course from assumed trajectory 40ish years ago. Maybe he had a few bucks in the stock market too, and just held, not trading himself out of eventual gains? The Dow in 81/82 was under 1,000 so that's looking okay too nearly 40 years later. Terry's house (assuming he has one and owns it)...probably worth a lot more than he paid if he bought it more than fifteen years ago. There's just so many ways some people have done much better than trends would have lead one to believe from the late 70s and early 80s pov.

For many years I too saw my collection expanding in size/quality and value such that it became: my retirement assumption. Then other things worked out much, much better than I expected and instead the collection is "just another asset" to be kept or sold (or buried with) at my leisure/pleasure. If you don't need to sell, don't want to sell, and still like (love!) the stuff, why sell?

I do think Terry is wrong re: reproduction diminishing the value of the originals though. At today's levels, nobody with the kind of scratch needed to take down a beloved Byrne/Austin original will be settling for a nice photocopy. Those $150 books are for everybody else. And perhaps aspirational filler for those still building up their war chest.

For sure. If he had the foresight and restraint to keep his pages for possible retirement, there’s little doubt he planned for it through other avenues. I just figure if he won’t even give scans that might lesson value, he still has selling on his mind at some point. 

[mxs7]

13 hours ago, roach04 said:

Terry Austin - unless something has changed - still has ALL (or nearly all) his allocation of X-Men pages and covers.  I met him at a con...10 or 12 years ago...and a then-recent issue of Back Issue Magazine had scans of 3 or 4 covers - really small scans mind you - all listed "from the collection of Terry Austin" so I he and I talked at length about them.  His best line - was that sitting a con with Byrne in the early 1980s, John selling covers for $200, he said "Jesus John...do you really need that $200?"  Austin commented that his pages would comfortably cover retirement - and at today's prices, he's not wrong.

The other interesting thing - Austin has declined to submit any of his pages for IDW's Artist Editions - his view being that those high quality reproductions reduce the value of the originals.  (It's his art, so his right - though at this point I'd think there's actually a better chance that it might raise the prices even more!)

I personally knew a guy back in the 1980s Austin used to sell originals to on occasion, and I seriously doubt he was the only one. While it's true Austin hung onto a lot of the art he inked, he did sell some, including some of his best panel pages and at least one X-Men cover.

Mike

[vodou]

1 hour ago, cloud cloddie said:

he still has selling on his mind at some point. 

No doubt, I think everybody with more than three figures in overall art value thinks about it regularly.

Life happens. All the time. The stuff is a store of value that can be tapped when the happening ain't happy.