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

[Terry E. Gibbs]

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.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Terry E. Gibbs

[grapeape]

15 minutes ago, 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.

There’s a lot to unpack here Terry. 
If you impulse buy affordable art by the dump truck load to fill an emptiness inside.,,.,then....scream when a grail comes by....its time to change tactics.

There are many things “out of reach” either because of price or availability. However “focus” as a strategy can pay off. That means let the chafe sail by, keep your finger off the bid or buy now button. Save your cash. Then go hard for that one piece you’ve wanted all your collecting life.

Don’t worry about what might never appear for sale. Most things you’re looking for reveal themselves. They might not be for sale but it puts your mind at ease.

[Terry E. Gibbs]

2 minutes ago, grapeape said:

Don’t worry about what might never appear for sale. Most things you’re looking for reveal themselves. They might not be for sale but it puts your mind at ease.

Well that actually is the whole problem. I would love a page from Kane's GL 41-43,Cinf Flash 155, 165, 174, a Sekowski page late in his JLA run with Doc Fate Black Canary or Hourman etc but I think they are simply not out there. Julie stopped giving them away to super fans around 1965 and even then many of those fans were under 18 and had no real idea of how huge what they were given was. (Unlike the Thompsons) They swapped them for old copies of All Star, or early Batman. I know that all the art from GL 41 was handed to a kid who turned up to interview Julie for what was probably a crudzine. Following year he probably became a marvel Zombie and may have given it to his little sister to colour in or maybe mum one day cleaned up his room. Most SA DC was lost. This is my impulse buy. Love it to death. Would I love a Gil Kane Iris West page with carol Ferris more, yep, but I not sure I want to hold my breath. (the cover is the original, someone forget the explain the subtlety of the story to the artist and the issued cover was redone, what the hell got em both - no such thing as too much Captain Cold)

[William-James88]

I love original art and have a sketch collection I am really proud of https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetail.asp?gcat=34336

Luckily, I got my grails rather easily, early on. And they are not a page per se, but sketches and I got them from the creators making them extra special.

 

Since then, what I do though is wait until something falls into my lab. It has to be an artist I like, doing a character I like and cost under $200. I know I won't get that often so I just enjoy what I can get and I wait for a really good deal on something I like to come around, usually from the creators themselves. So clearly I don't buy original art often, but it makes the times I buy it all that more special to me.

If you want an example, there will be a rare occasion that an artist I like chooses to liquidate his stuff on an unannounced facebook auction, or an inker i follow got some of his pages in and just wants to sell them quick, or Tony Daniel has had enough of sitting on his Batman art and is just doing a bunch of auctions on e-bay. I don't look for this, I just get a notice of it when going about my day. 

I still get grails, but I make them up as I go along (so I guess to answer your question, it's both at the same time). What I mean is I will meet a creator I love at a show and give them money to make me a grail. it will be of a character they are associated to and that I love. Here is my latest one was from Kevin Nowlan:

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by William-James88

[Varanis]

Save for grails 100%. I'll buy other odds and ends if I have the budget above the war chest.

[Terry E. Gibbs]

2 minutes ago, Varanis said:

Save for grails 100%. I'll buy other odds and ends if I have the budget above the war chest.

but what if what you are saving for does not exist, .. buyers regret at stuff you could have had while you waited, now gone or buyers regret at what you are about to miss.

[Varanis]

15 minutes ago, Terry E. Gibbs said:

but what if what you are saving for does not exist, .. buyers regret at stuff you could have had while you waited, now gone or buyers regret at what you are about to miss.

I'd rather have the money ready for when I find out it does exist. It's just a matter of time for pieces to show up and you can never go wrong with cash in hand.

[drdroom]

I tend to spend. When the real grail shows up, I wheel and deal with the stuff I have. Sometimes that works to my advantage, if I bought low. If I just break even, well, I had the pleasure of the lesser stuff for a while. Sometimes cash now is the only way and I have missed a couple things from lack of instant liquidity. So it goes!

[miraclemet]

in OA collecting, having the money to buy a grail is only half the battle. More often than not the real battle is finding the piece for sale in the first place (either by just waiting for it to come to market or getting the metaphorical crow bar to pry it out of someones collection). 

If we all just saved money waiting for that grail then most of us wouldn't be collecting art, we'd just be collecting money. 

[srezvan]

I suggest creating an online bank account. However you choose to save (e.g., selling stuff, % of each paycheck), put it in that account and use it for your "grail" purchase. Speaking from experience, if you keep it as cash in the house or in a shared account, it just gets spent on other things. As my collection has grown from buying in bulk, I've found it more fulfilling to shed some of the random stuff and instead fill gaps in the core collection and buy a few select large things. Buying a grail from selling stuff you don't need makes it extra special.

[ShallowDan]

I guess for me, it's one of those where "it depends".  There are some things where I recognize that beggars can't be choosers, and it's a situation where there simply aren't that many examples out in the wild.  In those cases, I'd usually be happy just to get my hands on anything at all, rather than holding out for the single one I'd most like (with the mindset of being able to "trade up" should the better one ever come along).  But if examples are relatively plentiful, I'm usually more willing to wait for something I really want.

What I've learned the hard way is that it's never wise to spend on something, just because.  There were times in the past where I had planned for weeks to bid on Item A in an auction, lost it to someone else, and then semi-impulsively bid on and won Item B, just because I'd already mentally spent the money and had to use it on something, right?  That almost always resulted in me getting a piece I was lukewarm about (and short on cash when something I liked much more came up again in relatively short order).

 

[alexgross.com]

ocd alert driving me crazy.

can yew korekt the spellig errorz in youre titell pleaz?

[JadeGiant]

I don't think there is a hard line in the sand on this approach, at least for me personally. I tend to keep my ability to get a "can't let it go" piece (call it a war chest) intact but will grab pieces along the way as well. If your grail list is short and highly unlikely to surface and you don't buy anything else, it is hard to really feel like you are collecting art (at least in my experience). A lot of this really depends on what your grail is and how likely it is to show up. If it is early SA art that has never surfaced (and good chance didn't survive), you might want to keep collecting other things (but keep the ability to pivot toward a purchase if it does come up). If you are a more modern art collector and have a reasonable expectation that the art is out there in the wild, you probably have a more realistic chance at it showing up or you being able to flush it out of a private collection. 

[Will_K]

10 minutes ago, www.alexgross.com said:

can yew korekt the spellig errorz in youre titell pleaz?

Do you hold out for super grail...

[ShallowDan]

22 minutes ago, JadeGiant said:

If your grail list is short and highly unlikely to surface and you don't buy anything else, it is hard to really feel like you are collecting art (at least in my experience). A lot of this really depends on what your grail is and how likely it is to show up.

Exactly!  Similarly, if I kept saving myself for Scarlett Johansson, imagine all the other poor gals who would've missed out on my charms.

[Marwai]

If you tend to purchase art in public auction, save up and hold out for a grail to show up.  If you are looking to pry art from collections, some pieces have that trade/cash or "trade only" sticker price.  Collectors want to trade up instead of down.  So you may need some better artwork that is also appreciating in value to use as ammunition.

[Rick2you2]

I don’t save for grails. For me, there aren’t any I am likely to see. If I did, I would buy it, deduct the cost from savings, and refill the savings later. I’m a big boy; I can control myself in the future.

No, the bigger problem for me is buying a lesser piece rather than wait for a better one to come along within the amount I will spend on this stuff. That is not a grail. For example, I have passed on a number of George Perez pieces with the Phantom Stranger in them because either they were mediocre or too high priced, IMO, to meet my collecting interest. And if I don’t ever get one, I will still sleep well.

Don’t forget: all art has some aesthetic appeal. If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Rick2you2

[malvin]

12 hours ago, drdroom said:

I tend to spend. When the real grail shows up, I wheel and deal with the stuff I have. Sometimes that works to my advantage, if I bought low. If I just break even, well, I had the pleasure of the lesser stuff for a while. Sometimes cash now is the only way and I have missed a couple things from lack of instant liquidity. So it goes!

My approach is very similar to yours.

I don't really have "grails".  There are things that I like but I rarely seek them out.  I only buy things that are actively for sale.

I buy  if they check my boxes (I like it, the price is ok, etc.).and if a must have does come along then I find a way to buy it if my art funds are depleted (like they are now) and selling stuff I previously bought at a lower price helps.

Psychologically, it also helps me pay for more something if I have a similar thing to offset it.  E.g. a splash will cost $5K, which normally I would say is too much, but if I have a similar panel page that I can sell for $2K, telling myself that I'm only spending an extra $3K to get a splash helps me pull the trigger.

Malvin

[Brian Peck]

I am not a fan of the word grail, no one piece if I own it would stop me from collecting. There are a number of pieces high on my want list some specific some are general (great example of this artist on this series). I have been collecting for over 30 years and I have found one thing is true patience is the most important thing in collecting. I buy art I like, not as much now, being more selective recently. I have filled in many of the holes in my collection. I am still on the lookout for certain pieces, many not cheap but if I do get the opportunity to acquire it I have options (some nuclear). If it is for a very special piece with strong nostalgia.

[The Voord]

18 hours ago, Terry E. Gibbs said:

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.

What's the point of saving funds for something that may never surface?  It's like waiting for a decent restaurant menu to appear . . . and starving in between meals.