Collecting goals for 2021 3 3

[Varanis]

My goal this year is similar to many others - just to be ready for whatever comes available.

The strategy has already been working this year as I was able to pick up the #1 cover to my wife’s favorite comic!

Otherwise, I’d like to start identifying and saving for the right Moebius and Kirby pieces. I mostly collect modern art, but those are the two classic artists that I’d really like an example from. 

[Rick2you2]

On 1/1/2021 at 7:03 PM, exitmusicblue said:

Am fairly confident that many a dealer/seller reads these kinds of threads + makes available some of our wishlists.  Happened to me with Ravenloft OA earlier this year. 

 

Well, in that case, pencil me in for anything with the Phantom Stranger on it. If its shown up on CAT, or the auctions, or the CAF "for sale" sections, I've almost certainly seen it, but, I'm always willing to look again. 

Since I already have representative pieces of all the top artists who have drawn the character with any regularity (I think), I am particularly interested in the obscure and offbeat, instead of still another Jim Aparo page. But again, a cool page is always something which will draw my attention. 

[Unstoppablejayd]

I have been thinking about this for a week or so.. and with my 2nd full year of OA collecting behind me i finally think I am getting the hang of it...

Goals for me

1) Be disciplined... think before you buy. Sleep on it before making a decision unless you are sure

2) Continue My X-men plan.. lots of artists to still check off my list of everyone who worked at least three consecutive issues on the main title.. but Jim Lee is time.. I need an uncanny page this year

3) Be selective with modern art.. good subjects with great art and A pages only

4) trust my instincts and do not be afraid to stretch a little for something I love.. do not be a slave to comps the way the market is going it will quickly catch up and I may not get another shot.

5) Finally a couple artists I would like to add representation to my collection from Sam Kieth, Bernie Wrightson and George Perez.

 

 

[Michael Browning]

Here's an example of why I set NO annual goals: Since January 2, I've bought 21 pieces of art, none of which were on my grail list and none were any "goals." I bought what I liked as it was made available to me and I got some pretty neat stuff to start the year (a year in which I was going to try to NOT buy some much...).

[Bronty]

2 hours ago, Michael Browning said:

Here's an example of why I set NO annual goals: Since January 2, I've bought 21 pieces of art, none of which were on my grail list and none were any "goals." I bought what I liked as it was made available to me and I got some pretty neat stuff to start the year (a year in which I was going to try to NOT buy some much...).

Amen to that.   I set no goals either except generally to improve collection.    If you limit yourself to a checklist approach, ok fine, that works for some people, but I think to think keeping things wide open will get the best results.

[JadeGiant]

Agreed. I see goals as more of a guideline and not a strict template to follow. We all have goals, not everyone makes a list. 

[gumbydarnit]

My goal - stick in the kiddie pool and watch the big kids do Triple Lindies for Mavel Bronze Age covers.

Edited January 7 by gumbydarnit

[gregory staab]

Amazing Spider-man -Mark Bagley clone saga piece Peter Ben Kaine 

Tom Lyle Scarlet spider piece 

 

[Mephisto]

None. I’ve bought one piece of art in the last year and a half and would’ve okay with keeping plugging a long at that rate.

[DomUga]

Nic Klein Thor Splash 

Daniel Warren Johnson BRB Splash 

[Stefanomjr]

On 1/1/2021 at 2:04 PM, Stefanomjr said:

Focus more on nostalgia pieces - of which I have none.

Continue to pick up quality art from great, current, runs that focus on great storytelling 

After the Mazz auction yesterday I think I'm done. Nothing modern or nostalgia feels attainable anymore. And I've wasted years.

[Rick2you2]

15 minutes ago, Stefanomjr said:

After the Mazz auction yesterday I think I'm done. Nothing modern or nostalgia feels attainable anymore. And I've wasted years.

Try changing focus. Lots of pretty funny cartoons go on sale. Or shift to new artists, some of whom you can buy direct and are excellent. Or, off character pieces, like some of Howard Chaykin’s lesser known works. Or, less popular older excellent artists, like Grandinetti. Or, less popular characters, which works for me. 

[retronymXX]

5 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

Try changing focus. Lots of pretty funny cartoons go on sale. Or shift to new artists, some of whom you can buy direct and are excellent. Or, off character pieces, like some of Howard Chaykin’s lesser known works. Or, less popular older excellent artists, like Grandinetti. Or, less popular characters, which works for me. 

Words of wisdom indeed!

[Rick2you2]

31 minutes ago, retronymXX said:

Words of wisdom indeed!

Thanks. Let me add something I have said before. In my opinion, the artwork of “yesterday” is no better than “today” (with both terms relative to a person’s era). If anything, the artwork of today is better because artists have been given more freedom to push beyond the old panel box boundaries. You get art that better follows the story, and surrenders none of the drafting skills. Just different artistic style idiosyncrasies. What you do lose is the nostalgia factor. But for me, I can satisfy it by getting a copy of the actual story—which even comes with colors on it. I have passed on lots of pieces where there was a nostalgia factor associated with them; not worth parting with my money since I don’t sell what I buy. Free yourself from spending orthodoxies, and get back to the fun of buying. You too could own a wonderful set of Sugar and Spike 100 covers, and enjoy them without feeling you’re missing out.

Edited January 16 by Rick2you2

[Sideshow Bob]

17 hours ago, Stefanomjr said:

After the Mazz auction yesterday I think I'm done. Nothing modern or nostalgia feels attainable anymore. And I've wasted years.

Four years ago, I stretched and was able to pick up about 1/3 of the art for Detective #526 (18 of the 56 pages) and 1/2 the art from Batman #366; 'Tec #526 is my favorite comic book issue and I'd say Don Newton's top work. As the pages started showing up sequentially on Ebay, I called Felix and asked his advice, and he told me I'd regret it if I didn't try my damnedest. Perfect advice at the time, and I pushed my boundaries on OA spending to their limit. I was compelled to sell a substantial amount of OA to keep my financial house in order, but it took a year to work off that spending binge.

Today? Not a chance I could justify doing that today. This recent shift upwards on price ranges overall, but for top pages in particular, has me all torn up. I just can't justify these prices. I just can't. I know others can, but I just don't know where they are getting the confidence to pay this much per piece. Maybe I'm too disciplined in keeping OA from moving past a certain percentage of my overall net worth, and others are more comfortable with a higher percentage. Maybe others got in earlier so they have more paper gains on art they bought or acquired cheaply as compared to these levels; house money is a lot easier to play with than wage money. Or maybe this is becoming a (very) wealthy person's hobby and I'm getting tiered out. All assets are inflating, as Gene so rightly points out, but not every single boat is rising with the tide at the same rate.

No doubt, I'd love a KJ page, but instead I have two A-level Camelot 3000 pages. I'd love a DKR page, but instead I have some great Aparo and Newton covers and interiors. There are tiers of collectors in this hobby, and there are tiers of pages, as seen by the effort to refresh the A-page price levels. I had a chance a few years ago to get a quality DKR page, and I could have stretched for it and I passed. In retrospect on the DKR page, I should have tried. But now? At these levels? No way. I'm not going to plunk +$100k on a piece. I just won't do it. That's it...there are some things you aren't going to have an example of. And that's OK. 

So find what will make you happy. I'm looking at my wall with a framed Zeck recreation (1 of 1) of the Punisher mini-series #1 cover. It's not the original (a +$100k piece), but its an awesome piece of art. Still expensive on a relative basis, but it brings me tons of joy. I'm OK with that. Rick2you2's advice is solid. Find that level that makes you happy. 

Bob

Edited January 17 by Sideshow Bob
clarity of thought.

[malvin]

37 minutes ago, Sideshow Bob said:

Three years ago, I stretched and was able to pick up about 1/2 of the art for Detective #526, my favorite comic book issue. As the pages started showing up sequentially on Ebay, I called Felix and asked his advice, and he told me I'd regret it if I didn't. Perfect advice at the time, and I pushed my boundaries on OA spending to their limit. I was compelled to sell a substantial amount of OA to keep level, but it took a year to work off that spending binge.

Today? Not a chance I could justify doing that today. This price move overall, but for top pages in particular, has me all torn up. I just can't justify these prices. I just can't. I know others can, but I just don't know where they are getting the confidence to pay this much per piece. Maybe I'm too disciplined in having OA be greater than a certain percentage of my overall net worth, and others are more comfortable with a higher percentage. Maybe others got in earlier so they have more paper gains on art they bought or acquired cheaply as compared to these levels; house money is a lot easier to play with than wage money. Or maybe this is becoming a (very) wealthy person's hobby and I'm getting tiered out. All assets are inflating, as Gene so rightly points out, but not every single boat is rising with the tide at the same rate.

No doubt, I'd love a KJ page, but instead I have two A-level Camelot 3000 pages. I'd love a DKR page, but instead I have some great Aparo and Newton covers and interiors. There are tiers of collectors in this hobby, and there are tiers of pages, as seen by the effort to refresh the A-page price levels. I had a chance a few years ago to get a quality DKR page, and I could have stretched for it and I passed. In retrospect on the DKR page, I should have tried. But now? At these levels? No way. I'm not going to plunk +$100k on a piece. I just won't do it. That's it...there are some things you aren't going to have an example of. And that's OK. 

So find what will make you happy. I'm looking at my wall with a framed Zeck recreation (1 of 1) of the Punisher mini-series #1 cover. It's not the original (a +$100k piece), but its an awesome piece of art. Still expensive on a relative basis, but it brings me joy. I'm OK with that. Rick2you2's advice is solid. Find that level that makes you happy. 

Bob

Well said Bob.

Malvin

[comiconxion]

5 hours ago, Sideshow Bob said:

Four years ago, I stretched and was able to pick up about 1/3 of the art for Detective #526 (18 of the 56 pages); its my favorite comic book issue and I'd say Don Newton's top work. As the pages started showing up sequentially on Ebay, I called Felix and asked his advice, and he told me I'd regret it if I didn't try my damnedest. Perfect advice at the time, and I pushed my boundaries on OA spending to their limit. I was compelled to sell a substantial amount of OA to keep level, but it took a year to work off that spending binge.

Today? Not a chance I could justify doing that today. This price move overall, but for top pages in particular, has me all torn up. I just can't justify these prices. I just can't. I know others can, but I just don't know where they are getting the confidence to pay this much per piece. Maybe I'm too disciplined in keeping OA from moving past a certain percentage of my overall net worth, and others are more comfortable with a higher percentage. Maybe others got in earlier so they have more paper gains on art they bought or acquired cheaply as compared to these levels; house money is a lot easier to play with than wage money. Or maybe this is becoming a (very) wealthy person's hobby and I'm getting tiered out. All assets are inflating, as Gene so rightly points out, but not every single boat is rising with the tide at the same rate.

No doubt, I'd love a KJ page, but instead I have two A-level Camelot 3000 pages. I'd love a DKR page, but instead I have some great Aparo and Newton covers and interiors. There are tiers of collectors in this hobby, and there are tiers of pages, as seen by the effort to refresh the A-page price levels. I had a chance a few years ago to get a quality DKR page, and I could have stretched for it and I passed. In retrospect on the DKR page, I should have tried. But now? At these levels? No way. I'm not going to plunk +$100k on a piece. I just won't do it. That's it...there are some things you aren't going to have an example of. And that's OK. 

So find what will make you happy. I'm looking at my wall with a framed Zeck recreation (1 of 1) of the Punisher mini-series #1 cover. It's not the original (a +$100k piece), but its an awesome piece of art. Still expensive on a relative basis, but it brings me tons of joy. I'm OK with that. Rick2you2's advice is solid. Find that level that makes you happy. 

Bob

Bob -  I'm glad that Zeck Punisher #1 recreation I commissioned years ago is making you happy.  Great to hear it's on the wall and being appreciated.

[delekkerste]

On 1/16/2021 at 2:18 PM, Sideshow Bob said:

Today? Not a chance I could justify doing that today. This recent shift upwards on price ranges overall, but for top pages in particular, has me all torn up. I just can't justify these prices. I just can't. I know others can, but I just don't know where they are getting the confidence to pay this much per piece. Maybe I'm too disciplined in keeping OA from moving past a certain percentage of my overall net worth, and others are more comfortable with a higher percentage. Maybe others got in earlier so they have more paper gains on art they bought or acquired cheaply as compared to these levels; house money is a lot easier to play with than wage money. Or maybe this is becoming a (very) wealthy person's hobby and I'm getting tiered out. All assets are inflating, as Gene so rightly points out, but not every single boat is rising with the tide at the same rate.

We are in a terrible market from a buying perspective. As one collector noted to me yesterday (echoing thoughts that I have had myself), everyone is scared of leaving money on the table in this environment, so everything really good is priced in the stratosphere these days (at least for mainstream superhero art) - "no regrets" pricing.  Meanwhile, the quality of art hitting the auction block has been steadily declining as well, perhaps in part due to people not wanting to risk having one of the few pieces that gets hosed even in a hot hot hot market (re: potential unbearable regret).  Plus, prices are so high now, that if you let something good go, there's a very good chance that you will never get another example back.  As a result, you're seeing fewer great pieces coming to auction, so the price escalation is now manifesting itself in B and even C-level art which is skyrocketing as well.  So, if you like paying A-quality prices from 3 years ago on B and C-level art today, congratulations, because this is the perfect market for you!  

A hobby whale reached out to me a couple times very recently asking about the availability of pieces that he's long been interested in that I haven't been willing to let go.  I told him flat-out that I'd be afraid of selling anything really good in this market at anything resembling a reasonable valuation, because regret comes very swiftly nowadays (there are a ton of pieces that I let go in late 2018 and 2019 that I would love to have back now as prices have skyrocketed since then ). 

I am at the point where I'm no longer interested in 98% of what I used to be interested in. Part of that is having bought most of what I want, and the rest is that I can think of so many other things I'd rather buy at the current steroidal price levels.  Even if prices continue to go higher (a real possibility as there seems to be no end in sight to the debasement of money), I can think of so many other things I'd rather spend my money on these days. It's what caused me largely to jump ship to the card collecting hobby last year - prices are rocketing higher there too, even more %-wise than comic art, but, it's much cheaper in absolute dollar terms.  I'd rather pay $4K there for something that was $600 a couple years ago than $60K in the comic art market for something that was $15-20K a few years ago.  

At this point, I actively hope that the few remaining things that I still really want in the OA hobby just don't show up or become available, because I know that I'll have to pay up double from year-ago levels to get that stuff just because of how jacked-up everything is nowadays.   

Edited January 21 by delekkerste

[batman_fan]

1 hour ago, delekkerste said:

We are in a terrible market from a buying perspective. As one collector noted to me yesterday (echoing thoughts that I have had myself), everyone is scared of leaving money on the table in this environment, so everything really good is priced in the stratosphere these days (at least for mainstream superhero art) - "no regrets" pricing.  Meanwhile, the quality of art hitting the auction block has been steadily declining as well, perhaps in part due to people not wanting to risk being one of the few pieces that gets hosed even in a hot hot hot market.  Plus, prices are so high now, that if you let something good go, there's a very good chance that you will never get another example back.  As a result, you're seeing fewer great pieces coming to auction, so the price escalation is now manifesting itself in B and even C-level art which is skyrocketing as well.  So, if you like paying A-quality prices from 3 years ago on B and C-level art today, congratulations, because this is the perfect market for you!  

A hobby whale reached out to me a couple times very recently asking about the availability of pieces that he's long been interested in that I haven't been willing to let go.  I told him flat-out that I'd be afraid of selling anything really good in this market at anything resembling a reasonable valuation, because regret comes very swiftly nowadays (there are a ton of pieces that I let go in late 2018 and 2019 that I would love to have back now as prices have skyrocketed since then ). 

I am at the point where I'm no longer interested in 98% of what I used to be interested in. Part of that is having bought most of what I want, and the rest is that I can think of so many other things I'd rather buy at the current steroidal price levels.  Even if prices continue to go higher (a real possibility as there seems to be no end in sight to the debasement of money), I can think of so many other things I'd rather spend my money on these days. It's what caused me largely to jump ship to the card collecting hobby last year - prices are rocketing higher there too, even more %-wise than comic art, but, it's much cheaper in absolute dollar terms.  I'd rather pay $4K there for something that was $600 a couple years ago than $60K in the comic art market for something that was $15-20K a few years ago.  

At this point, I actively hope that the few remaining things that I still really want in the OA hobby just don't show up or become available, because I know that I'll have to pay up double from year-ago levels to get that stuff just because of how jacked-up everything is nowadays.   

I haven’t picked up a piece of comic book OA for several years.  Not because I haven’t seen anything I like but prices have moved beyond what I am willing to pay.  I have picked up a bunch of Peanuts stuff but prices there are moving past what I am willing to pay and I may be forced to be satisfied with what I have or pony up a bunch of money to acquire a piece which is getting hard to justify.

Comics have gone crazy and my hopes on closing some titles is gone.  I have started the long slow process of trimming my collection.  I am definitely generating funds but not to crazy about spending them on anything right now.

I was snagging Mars Attacks gum cards but they are about 2x what they were a year ago.  I contemplated going to Sports Cards but after looking at prices, decided to pass.  I was buying newly minted gold coins but again, prices are pretty high so I have stopped.  I think the last place to look at collecting is spores, molds, and fungus.

[John E.]

15 minutes ago, batman_fan said:

I think the last place to look at collecting is spores, molds, and fungus.

Not to mention print is dead.