Do you hold out for super grail, of grab stuff as you go 0

[exitmusicblue]

The nice thing about landing a grail -- or two or three -- is that it really raises the bar for future purchases.  Frivolous buys have way less pull afterwards.  So, ironically, it can actually save money in the long run.

[Timely]

“Grail” can be very misleading. I have “grail” pieces and want other “grail” pieces that are $5000, $50,000, $500,000... 

 

If by “grail” you mean by definition the one and only piece that would make you complete, I suppose it depends on the cost of your personal grail piece, if the piece is even known to exist and if it is known to exist, will it ever be available within a reasonable amount of time.
Answer those questions and you’ll have a pretty good answer as to what you should do.

[aokartman]

I had my grails before I even realized it.  Luckily, I kept a few.  I love tinkering around the edges these days, but the air is too rare for me to even think about buying something today that would complement my early finds.  David

[Terry E. Gibbs]

9 hours ago, www.alexgross.com said:

ocd alert driving me crazy.

can yew korekt the spellig errorz in youre titell pleaz?

Yup, had to look twice to see it, but damm I can't find the edit for it

[exitmusicblue]

32 minutes ago, Terry E. Gibbs said:

Yup, had to look twice to see it, but damm I can't find the edit for it

Just hit edit on your first post, then you can change the title.

[Terry E. Gibbs]

Thanks, I appreciate the opinions. I did put aside some funds (which a couple of you also do) which was very important when I got my grail, first chapter in Flash 140, and as a Heatwave Captain Cold, Rogues tragic, I think only the cover the Flash 174 could top it. (or a certain page from 155, or the cover to 147 ....etc. etc . ), but as I said I would so love some Gil Kane from when I think his GL art was at it's best with Green inking. None of those pages have ever turned up on HA, and I know someone could be sitting on a chapter in full and probably are, but chances of it being one I want are remote indeed. Maybe for DC fans Anderson's stockpile will be the last great reveal. I was hoping the cover for Flash 165 may be there but as more and more HA auctions go by I now hold little hope.

So I will hold some cash enough for a deposit with a dealer or CAF and then find funds elsewhere, (sell a couple of slabs) .. or even ask my wife ( ) but if anything else ticks my boxes, then I will grab it and enjoy it, until my time to move it on.

[GeneticNinja]

Since comic pages are one of a kind, I tend to believe they are all grail pieces. I was too late on a cover and haven't seen it for resale ever. So I believe in watching for those pages and covers that you really want.

[Twanj]

Wait a while and watch the hobby. If you can, find someone to bounce ideas off of. Browse ComicArtFans. Make a list of what you love.

ComicArtTracker ( https://comicarttracker.com/ ) is your friend. Set Watch Lists/Notifications on ebay, Heritage, Comic Link. See Heritage for past sales & keep an eye out for the pricing/valuation FAQ

Follow some auctions. Buy it at auction if you want it "cheaper" or buy it later at a dealer for 50-300% markup if you really MUST HAVE IT.

Buy what you love (artist, character, genre, aesthetically) that's comfortably in your budget. Whether that's $200 or whatever. Something you could afford to spend on entertainment and never get back.

Are those grails coming up? Are they in your price range you can comfortably spend?

Think about what you want your collection to look like. 1-3 nice pieces on your wall or 20, 30, 60 in a portfolio? Something in between? Save and spend accordingly.

[sfilosa]

On 8/3/2020 at 11:10 PM, Terry E. Gibbs said:

Thought of this last night after telling my wife about a purchase last month. (only half the story I break these things gradually). Right now on the main character I collect, I have loved the current stories and art for maybe 9 months now, and after not buying any new stuff since 2016 I have bought a stack of covers from this one artist, and two whole books. Generally I have steered away from panels unless SA, but to have a whole book of pencil and inks these days is getting harder to grab and I love them both. I was kind of shocked when I realised how much I had outlaid. It is around 3 Kirby FF pages from 60-90 (minus Surfer or Doom), probably more. In my collection I kind of scored my grail back in 2017, but there are still certain covers splashes and panels in the SA, I would love so much, but I have come to the conclusion that they are probably lost and if they emerged, then those covers or splashes  would be out of reach.

So the question kind of is, do you keep saving and allocating funds to stuff that you may never have a chance to get, or do you grab stuff you want before it disappears, and cheer from the sidelines when the whales go after those grails, you did not wait for.

The one thing that wasn't mentioned in the other post are "why did you feel you needed to buy a lot of covers and 2 complete stories"? My first thought is that "this artist" is an "artist grail" for you. By that I mean you really, really like this artist and his work on this title. Sounds like they are all grails in some form or fashion. And if they really aren't, then you should have maybe bought one cover and that complete story and called it a day with this artist. 

Also, "grail" is overused. To be a true grail, it would have to be absolutely your favorite piece, maybe by a specific artist or character, and you would not sell/trade it for any other piece (regardless of price) unless it was time to get out of collecting. Most of us have pieces we love, but if another piece came around that we liked better, we would buy or trade our "grail". Now what really happens is that we have a "grail" and other better pages/covers that we would trade that piece for might be out of our economic reach. That pretty much means the piece we own is not really a grail, just our favorite piece in our collection at the time. 

[JadeGiant]

33 minutes ago, Twanj said:

 

Think about what you want your collection to look like. 1-3 nice pieces on your wall or 20, 30, 60 in a portfolio? Something in between? Save and spend accordingly.

This is probably the best advice for a newer collector (which I know isn't the exact point of this thread but there is something to be taken from this notion) and can be applied along your collecting journey. "Begin with the end in mind" is a precept I wish I had figured out earlier but is something I like to think about when making collecting decisions like this one. I now try to keep this in mind to a degree with my purchase habits and what it has resulted in is the war chest mandate for myself so that the "grail" (using the term loosely) is always possible should it come along. 

[delekkerste]

1 hour ago, sfilosa said:

Also, "grail" is overused. To be a true grail, it would have to be absolutely your favorite piece, maybe by a specific artist or character, and you would not sell/trade it for any other piece (regardless of price) unless it was time to get out of collecting. Most of us have pieces we love, but if another piece came around that we liked better, we would buy or trade our "grail". Now what really happens is that we have a "grail" and other better pages/covers that we would trade that piece for might be out of our economic reach. That pretty much means the piece we own is not really a grail, just our favorite piece in our collection at the time. 

Yeah, "grail" or "Grail" is a loaded word and is badly overused/misused in this hobby.  I'm not a strict Grail-stitutionalist; there is no one piece that I would forsake all others to own (yes, at least one person here has made the argument that this is the only definition of a Grail).  The next level down from that is there being one single piece that you love more than any other one single piece, which is a definition I can get behind as a one true Grail, though, I will sometimes refer to a grail with a lower-case "g" when referring to, say, a top 5 or 10 most wanted type of piece. 

And, when I say "most wanted", I mean in absolute terms, not just the most wanted piece that you can afford.  If someone says that an Alex Saviuk Spidey strip is their grail, well, unless that particular strip somehow has special personal meaning, I'm going to call bs on that, because to be a grail or Grail, that means that strip is more desirable to you than all the other Spidey art out there.  And, if you think that example is ridiculous, well, we all have seen countless examples of people calling budget art their grail or Grail when we know that, 99% of the time, it's just not the case.  

But, I digress.  I think the better question than "do you hold out for a super grail or buy as you go along" would be the less loaded question of "do you hold out for that example that has everything you want, or, do you settle for a merely good enough example or even just a placeholder?"   

[Benedict Judas Hel]

I have no “grail” to speak of in original comic art.  While I’d love a Ditko Spider villain page, or a John Romita Sr. one or a Todd McFarlane, I can easily live without them (and the price to acquire them).

Thankfully, I also set up some strict rules for myself when it comes to purchasing comic art (content, price, panel size) so I don’t feel the need to impulse buy certain pieces that become available and can save my available funds when a piece that fits my criteria becomes available.

[fishbone]

In Comic Art I definitely buy "what I like". It doesn't really matter how much it "costs" in terms of importance to me. Having said that, my Mcfarlane Spidey/Venom page I did purchase is as much for the way he draws Spiderman (maybe the best version ever!)  as it is the "higher-end" perception in the collecting community  of the piece itself (which I also do enjoy the thought  of owning as well). But, my Frenz Spidey sketch blank-cover variant that only cost a few hundred, or my Sal Buscema cover re-creation that I commisioned  for myself for a fraction of the McFarlane page,  are just as important to me as they were created only for me.

[ShallowDan]

3 hours ago, delekkerste said:

Yeah, "grail" or "Grail" is a loaded word and is badly overused/misused in this hobby.  I'm not a strict Grail-stitutionalist; there is no one piece that I would forsake all others to own (yes, at least one person here has made the argument that this is the only definition of a Grail).  The next level down from that is there being one single piece that you love more than any other one single piece, which is a definition I can get behind as a one true Grail, though, I will sometimes refer to a grail with a lower-case "g" when referring to, say, a top 5 or 10 most wanted type of piece. 

 

I was tempted to make a slight tease about the coining of the term "super grail" as evidence of grail inflation or the watering down of the term., but managed to abstain.  I generally take a similar approach to the word as you do, though, using the lower-case "g" to describe what would be a favorite or most-wanted piece from a particular artist or genre/type of art.  For example, I love the work of illustrator Earl Norem and have several pieces by him.  What I don't have, but would absolutely love to get one day, would be a SSoC cover from him.  There are a handful of favorites, any one of which would be my 'grail' Norem piece, but not necessarily an end-all/be-all piece.   

[sfilosa]

36 minutes ago, ShallowDan said:

I was tempted to make a slight tease about the coining of the term "super grail" as evidence of grail inflation or the watering down of the term., but managed to abstain.  I generally take a similar approach to the word as you do, though, using the lower-case "g" to describe what would be a favorite or most-wanted piece from a particular artist or genre/type of art.  For example, I love the work of illustrator Earl Norem and have several pieces by him.  What I don't have, but would absolutely love to get one day, would be a SSoC cover from him.  There are a handful of favorites, any one of which would be my 'grail' Norem piece, but not necessarily an end-all/be-all piece.   

Perfect comment regarding grail. I actually do own a SSOC cover by Earl Norem that I think is one of his best (my opinion of course). I have been offered or seen in auctions between 5-10 other SSOC covers by him (since my acquisition), that I think are nice, but I passed on because I did not like them as much as mine. Price was not really a concern. Yes, if they were being sold at 1/2 off, I would have bought them, but in general, I didn't feel like I needed to add them to my collection. But is the one I own a grail? No, because there are a few other covers that if I was offered, but had to trade mine (KEY POINT HERE), I would trade and pay some cash. Hence, my piece isn't a grail, but I am very happy with it. I don't feel like I need to own another unless I like it more than mine. 

[ShallowDan]

4 minutes ago, sfilosa said:

Perfect comment regarding grail. I actually do own a SSOC cover by Earl Norem that I think is one of his best (my opinion of course). I have been offered or seen in auctions between 5-10 other SSOC covers by him (since my acquisition), that I think are nice, but I passed on because I did not like them as much as mine. Price was not really a concern. Yes, if they were being sold at 1/2 off, I would have bought them, but in general, I didn't feel like I needed to add them to my collection. But is the one I own a grail? No, because there are a few other covers that if I was offered, but had to trade mine (KEY POINT HERE), I would trade and pay some cash. Hence, my piece isn't a grail, but I am very happy with it. I don't feel like I need to own another unless I like it more than mine. 

If I'm not being too nosy, do you mind if I ask which one you own?

[sfilosa]

32 minutes ago, ShallowDan said:

If I'm not being too nosy, do you mind if I ask which one you own?

I'm on CAF as Steven Filosa.

I really like this one, but mostly because it is pretty large. A lot of covers have almost nothing on the top third of the art, as that is where the Title goes. 

 

[ShallowDan]

2 minutes ago, sfilosa said:

I'm on CAF as Steven Filosa.

I really like this one, but mostly because it is pretty large. A lot of covers have almost nothing on the top third of the art, as that is where the Title goes. 

 

That's a beaut!  Norem had a such a masterful knack for composition and with this one I love how your eye goes from the giant to Conan, to the babe.  Thanks for sharing.

And yep, if you're used to 11x17 pages a 20x30 (I'm guessing) painted piece on illustration board will blow your mind.

[Aahz]

I think it depends on how you collect.  Is it a character, or an artist, or a book, or a theme.  Some collections lend themselves to broader purchase options ... so there are no real grails.  I was lucky to get one of my grails early on.  I actually wanted two consecutive pages from Sandman ... I got one.  I have never seem the other and doubt I ever will.  I think if you identify your grail as a "good" Kirby page from fill in the blank book or run on character, for example, it makes sense to save up, since you have more chances to find it.  If you are looking for a specific page ... may not be worth waiting.

[GreatEscape]

As I began collecting, I tended to buy stuff that ‘check the boxes’ for a desired artist/character or artist/title combo.  As my collection matured, so did my tastes and my ability to better define my collecting goals.  It helped to prioritize and set realistic goals for each piece (ie, Byrne X-men panel page vs. Miller Wolvie splash vs Sienkiewicz Moon Knight cover) to ensure some budget discipline (“where do I get the most bang for my buck”) then try to get the best example I could find (“one and done, baby!”) and turn focus elsewhere. 

Naturally, I learned from past experience to gradually upgrade while “keeping the keepers“.  I focused on buying fewer pieces where my personal value/nostalgia greatly exceed FMV.  This means letting go some incredible pieces that others value far more than I do, and accepting this as a part of the journey.

Eventually, I discover a number of pieces that I have refused to let go over time (despite many compelling offers and/or opportunities to sell) have become “untouchables” as well as significant purchases that bring me exceptional joy...these are my GRAILS.

Bottom line:  Don’t go searching for grails...they find you. 
 

Edited August 8, 2020 by GreatEscape