Was Buck Rogers artwork really worth more in the 70+80s than today? 0

[buyatari]

I was watching a short video on magic the gathering and videogame artwork and found this statement hard to believe. As an example to prove a point that he was making, a youtuber  started that you would have been better off selling any Buck Rogers artwork in the 70s and 80s. 
Now I saw the Frazetta cover sell year on Heritage for 1/2 Million so he must talking about the newspaper strip art ? 
How much did Buck Rogers artwork sell for in the 70s and 80s? What could he be referring to?

Statement is at approx 7:45 on this video.

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[tth2]

I'm guessing the reference was to Caulkins Buck Rogers comic strip art.  But I have no idea what they sold for back in the 70s and 80s, although I'm guessing they might have been more sought after at the time because Buck Rogers was a lot better known at the time, if for no other reason than the TV show.

Still, they sell for around $2k and up today, so it's kind of hard to imagine them selling for more back then.  That would've been a massive amount of money for comic OA back then.

[Brian Peck]

3 hours ago, tth2 said:

I'm guessing the reference was to Caulkins Buck Rogers comic strip art.  But I have no idea what they sold for back in the 70s and 80s, although I'm guessing they might have been more sought after at the time because Buck Rogers was a lot better known at the time, if for no other reason than the TV show.

Still, they sell for around $2k and up today, so it's kind of hard to imagine them selling for more back then.  That would've been a massive amount of money for comic OA back then.

Caulkins Buck Rogers comic strip art has been very rare for a while. Story is he was fired from the strip and the publisher said his art was compared to other artists like Hal Foster, Alex Raymond and Burne Hogarth. then went home and burned all his original.

For years there was only a small handful of his strips on the market. A few years ago a number of them hit the market many from the first year of the strip. I highly doubt the Buck Rogers TV show ever effect the price of the originals Back in the 70s and 80 newspaper strips were very inexpensive like comic book art. Neither had a huge market at that time. 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Brian Peck

[buyatari]

1 hour ago, Brian Peck said:

Caulkins Buck Rogers comic strip art has been very rare for a while. Story is he was fired from the strip and the publisher said his art was compared to other artists like Hal Foster, Alex Raymond and Burne Hogarth. then went home and burned all his original.

For years there was only a small handful of his strips on the market. A few years ago a number of them hit the market many from the first year of the strip. I highly doubt the Buck Rogers TV show ever effect the price of the originals Back in the 70s and 80 newspaper strips were very inexpensive like comic book art. Neither had a huge market at that time. 

So you know how much those strips sold for in the 70s and 80s?

[Brian Peck]

27 minutes ago, buyatari said:

So you know how much those strips sold for in the 70s and 80s?

If its like most of the other strips and art a couple hundred bucks. You could get Kirby Marvel covers for a few hundred back in the 70s.

[Mephisto]

Maybe if you adjust for inflation? 

[Bronty]

Or maybe Sean just doesn't know WTF he's talking about half of the time.     It was either an example pulled out of his butte or a poorly communicated thought.

[cstojano]

Can't assess the video's merits or accuracy but I can say I was watching (casually) some graded videos games at HA this weekend and was pretty shocked at the closing prices. 

[Bronty]

3 hours ago, cstojano said:

Can't assess the video's merits or accuracy but I can say I was watching (casually) some graded videos games at HA this weekend and was pretty shocked at the closing prices. 

what, so the sunday weekend session (session 7 on March 8th)?

The much better stuff was session 3 (Friday March 6).   If you sort the results that way you might find some interesting items from March 6.

 

Edited March 9, 2020 by Bronty

[cstojano]

These were the lots. I don't follow the market but these seem like under examples. I assume there aren't many graded examples of these games. Also FWIW, the cases are worse looking than CGC's, and unnecessarily so.I never heard of WATA. I guess AFA didn't make the market here? Are there population reports for any of these things?

https://comics.ha.com/itm/video-games/nintendo/jrr-tolkien-s-the-lord-of-the-rings-vol-i-atwood-collection-wata-96-a-sealed-snes-interplay-1994-usa/a/7224-93053.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116

https://comics.ha.com/itm/video-games/nintendo/adandd-dragonstrike-wata-92-a-sealed-nes-fci-1992-usa/a/7224-97001.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116

https://comics.ha.com/itm/video-games/nintendo/star-wars-the-empire-strikes-back-wata-96-a-sealed-nes-jvc-1992-usa/a/7224-97052.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116

 

[buyatari]

16 hours ago, cstojano said:

Also FWIW, the cases are worse looking than CGC's, and unnecessarily so.I never heard of WATA. I guess AFA didn't make the market here? Are there population reports for any of these things?

 

The videogame side of AFA is VGA. So far Heritage has dealt only with WATA graded items. Do they sell AFA stuff ?

[Bronty]

17 hours ago, cstojano said:

These were the lots. I don't follow the market but these seem like under examples. I assume there aren't many graded examples of these games. Also FWIW, the cases are worse looking than CGC's, and unnecessarily so.I never heard of WATA. I guess AFA didn't make the market here? Are there population reports for any of these things?

 

 

Those did go high for what they were, but they were only a grand each so I didn't see it as them as that big a deal.

Pop reports are supposedly coming but not yet available.     Long time collectors know what's out there though.

I don't think anyone likes the case style at first, but you do get used to it quickly.    They built theirs with tamper proof being the goal over aesthetics.    Some argue that VGA cases can be tampered.

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Bronty

[cstojano]

I had wondered if the WATA case was meant to mimic some old school game cartridge. The tapering part of the top rings a bell somehow. FWIW, I also think CGC cases are pretty awful and much prefer the AFA clean look where the grade is hidden from view. Tastes differ, I suppose. I'd be fine with CGC just having the grade on a thin strip on the top of the case (as they do now) without the large, forward facing labels. Video games seem perfect for a clean look. 

"A grand each" - for my wallet that doesn't constitute Sunday/Monday night boredom bidding territory for me  (looking at you Rudy Palais Bomber page)

 

[Bronty]

You need the big forward facing labels for Ease of photos and scans (not to mention ease of convention browsing - knowing what you are looking at from a bit of a distance ).  

Edited March 10, 2020 by Bronty

[alxjhnsn]

 

On 3/9/2020 at 7:44 AM, Mephisto said:

Maybe if you adjust for inflation? 

 

On 3/9/2020 at 2:10 AM, Brian Peck said:

If its like most of the other strips and art a couple hundred bucks. You could get Kirby Marvel covers for a few hundred back in the 70s.

Per this inflation calculator, $2000 today has the same purchasing power as $416 in 1975, a.k.a., a few hundred bucks like Brian said.

Interestingly, per this chart, the Dow in 1957 was about $4200 and it's about $20,000 today.


I conclude from this that selling the art in 1975 and re-investing the proceeds in the market was a break even investment relative to holding the art at $400 a strip. Of course, this is hypothetical, but it seems that from 1975 to 2020, the Dow and inflation are similar. 

[shadroch]

8 minutes ago, alxjhnsn said:

 

 

Per this inflation calculator, $2000 today has the same purchasing power as $416 in 1975, a.k.a., a few hundred bucks like Brian said.

Interestingly, per this chart, the Dow in 1957 was about $4200 and it's about $20,000 today.


I conclude from this that selling the art in 1975 and re-investing the proceeds in the market was a break even investment relative to holding the art at $400 a strip. Of course, this is hypothetical, but it seems that from 1975 to 2020, the Dow and inflation are similar. 

Are you factoring in forty five years of dividends? Especially reinvested dividends?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by shadroch

[alxjhnsn]

4 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Are you factoring in forty five years of dividends? Especially reinvested dividends?

Nope, nor the taxes on those dividents or the capital gains as you rebalance your portfolio. It's just a finger in the wind.

[tth2]

15 hours ago, alxjhnsn said:

It's just a finger in the wind.

I love that Elton John song! 

[Dick O.]

On 3/9/2020 at 11:56 AM, buyatari said:

I was watching a short video on magic the gathering and videogame artwork 

 

 

Thanks for the link, love this sort of collectibles investing content!

I'm active in both the comic and M:tG OA markets, and broadly agree with the presenter's points. Most everything he said about M:tG OA also applies to comic OA; the import of cultural relevance was particularly well articulated 

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Dick O.