70's marvel superhero covers!

[westform]

Has anyone else noticed how really, really expensive nice covers are getting? I have recently had to bend way over for several very nice examples and have heard numerous accounts of other great covers selling way way above what I would have thought crazy a year ago! Vas is going on?? Yes, I like the market to go up, but I also would like to buy some more and this is getting very hard....

[delekkerste]

Make more money.

[westform]

Surely you can come up with more of an answer. Yes that was witty, but I'd really like to spur some discussion about why prices on good covers are rising so fast. Just look at what dealers and collectors are asking for pieces.... and look at what pieces are selling for. Are there a bunch of new buyers? Are people just now finding their 'grails'. What gives?

[clickhere-migration]

Make more money.

 

Whatever Dude. That was a lame arz response.

 

Hey WF, I agree with ya, seems like even mediocre stuff is going for "bags of cash".

 

IMHO - There are quite a few people trying to cash in and drive the market up.

 

I own quite a bit of art, and like yourself, kinda like the market going up, but come on . . . . let me afford some high end pieces here and there!

 

Seems like once a Heritage or Ebay price it set as "market" value then "all" Tthe art starts there. BS. Raise market value, but let's be realistic. Keep the new buyers in first . . . . . kinda like CRACK get them in cheap, which I feel OA is like!

 

pEACE oUT hOMIES!

[glenbru]

I know we talked about this before, Dan. But here is my take:

 

Prices have gotten to the point where collectors or long time holders of prime examples are finally ready to part with them. Believe me, I've been looking for some of these really nice covers for years. None of them surfaced when prices were reasonable. I think word has spread and old time collectors are going into their closits to unearth these treasures and realize record prices.

 

I even parted with things I never thought I would just to finance some of these beauties that only now are finally hitting the marketplace. I think we are only going to see more and more record prices for the killer examples as the seasoned and new collector chase them in the marketplace. I pity the newer collectors who have to shell out cash and don't have a trade pile to help soften the blow of these new price points.

 

Glen

[Haman-migration]

What are you guys talking about as record prices. I havent seen these killer prices you all seem to refer to. Whats hitting the market that I aint seeing?

 

I personally think art is a great hedge against inflation and its the reason this stuff is going up. I think there was a scoop article that predicted this some 18 months ago. Something along the lines of yesterdays record prices would seem cheap in light of the next sale at even higher prices. The article talked about Gold and warned about the hasty mistake of selling your treasures too cheaply.

[spider9698]

Have Dan tell you his tale of woe over his ASM cover.

[blowout]

I personally think art is a great hedge against inflation and its the reason this stuff is going up.

 

 

 

You ARE kidding right?

[Haman-migration]

I personally think art is a great hedge against inflation and its the reason this stuff is going up.

 

 

 

You ARE kidding right?

 

Uh, no. Why?

[clemso]

I know we talked about this before, Dan. But here is my take:

 

Prices have gotten to the point where collectors or long time holders of prime examples are finally ready to part with them. Believe me, I've been looking for some of these really nice covers for years. None of them surfaced when prices were reasonable. I think word has spread and old time collectors are going into their closits to unearth these treasures and realize record prices.

 

I even parted with things I never thought I would just to finance some of these beauties that only now are finally hitting the marketplace. I think we are only going to see more and more record prices for the killer examples as the seasoned and new collector chase them in the marketplace. I pity the newer collectors who have to shell out cash and don't have a trade pile to help soften the blow of these new price points.

 

Glen

 

And its not just Covers either. I've been trying to get a foot back in this hobby for a few years now. Anyone that knows me knows that I like vintage Kirby splash pages and one shot images like Masterwork pin -ups etc, but like the top notch covers that Dan is mentioning. I would like to get good examples with big shots of the Hero involved, the best examples. Prices that i get quoted are crazy and what i might expect to pay for the cover of the same character's book. I am talking top of the tree in quality though.

 

Clem...

[matewan1990]

A dealer friend of mine told me recently that if he pays $500 for a piece of art today and someone wants to buy it, he wants to get at least $1100 out of it.

I can see art going up in value and continuing on an upward climb for a while.

If I have something in my collection that I really like that isn't up for sale and someone wants it, the price is double what I would ever expect to get out of it. If the potential buyer wants it bad enough, he'll give the asking price. If not, it'll stay in my collection. I'd say it's scenarios like that one that causes art to go up in value.

When I first started buying original art, I bought a lot of stuff with an eye looking toward the future. I knew some of the stuff would be hot, so I bought it when I found it cheap. Then, in later years, my gamble paid off and the art I thought would get hot got really hot and I made some trades and sold a piece here or there.

Nowadays, though, the art I have in my collection is almost all art that I want to keep, making it tougher and tougher for me to trade or sell something. Many of the pieces in my collection are meant to be permanent and the ONLY way I'd trade or sell them is for triple and quadruple the actual value. Now, if there's someone out there willing to pay those prices and they buy them, then chances are, the next buyer will have to pay more and the next will pay even more.

I traded for a Kirby Super Powers cover a couple years ago (I think Glen owned it at one time, didn't you, Glen?). I was told by a couple of dealers that the cover wasn't worth even a grand because Super Powers just wasn't a popular title and it was Kirby in his later years. But, I argued, this Super Powers cover is inked by Mike Royer and has Superman, Flash and Lex Luthor battling. It's also a 20-year-old cover, is very clean and in exccellent shape. Another dealer told me it'd be worth around $1800, even though I saw pages WITHOUT any heroes on them by Kirby going for that much on the dealer's site. Heck, even covers by much lesser-known artists were going for $1800 and they weren't even covers from very popular titles. The Kirby covers were all going for well over $3000 each, no matter what they were. (When was the last time anyone saw a really sweet Kirby super-heroes cover sell for under $3000?)

I was told that Super Powers covers weren't worth that much, since it was merely a toy line tie-in comic — even though it was Kirby.

But, over the last few months, that's all began to change and I've watched prices go up, up, up on some lesser Super Powers pieces...

Earlier this year, just the Greg Theakston inks from an issue of Super Powers sold for nearly $1000 and, recently, on www.comiclink.com, the Kirby-Royer cover of Super Powers 1 sold for $4000 and it doesn't have a single hero on it. So, what's mine worth now?

With prices of lesser pieces going up, that surely makes mine worth more, right?

I think that helps prices rise in this hobby, which is still relatively overlooked and almost unknown to many in the art world.

Heck, I can't even make my comic collection buddies understand that these pieces of original art are THE ORIGINAL ART covers and pages, so when these people and others begin to understand what it is we collect, I expect another price hike because you'll have new collectors and investors entering the market with more money.

Mike B.

[markseifert]

 

And its not just Covers either. I've been trying to get a foot back in this hobby for a few years now. Anyone that knows me knows that I like vintage Kirby splash pages and one shot images like Masterwork pin -ups etc, but like the top notch covers that Dan is mentioning. I would like to get good examples with big shots of the Hero involved, the best examples. Prices that i get quoted are crazy and what i might expect to pay for the cover of the same character's book. I am talking top of the tree in quality though.

 

Clem...

 

Prices seem very strong for Kirby Silver Marvel panel pages too. It's not unheard of to see even pages from superhero series that don't have any heroes on them have a $1k+ price tag on them. Low end FF panel pages with at least one of the FF on them seem to start in the neighborhood of $2k now.

 

Although a fair amount of Kirby pages seem not to reach minimums on ebay in recent weeks, I don't see anybody lowering their prices yet.

[glenbru]

A dealer friend of mine told me recently that if he pays $500 for a piece of art today and someone wants to buy it, he wants to get at least $1100 out of it.

I can see art going up in value and continuing on an upward climb for a while.

If I have something in my collection that I really like that isn't up for sale and someone wants it, the price is double what I would ever expect to get out of it. If the potential buyer wants it bad enough, he'll give the asking price. If not, it'll stay in my collection. I'd say it's scenarios like that one that causes art to go up in value.

When I first started buying original art, I bought a lot of stuff with an eye looking toward the future. I knew some of the stuff would be hot, so I bought it when I found it cheap. Then, in later years, my gamble paid off and the art I thought would get hot got really hot and I made some trades and sold a piece here or there.

Nowadays, though, the art I have in my collection is almost all art that I want to keep, making it tougher and tougher for me to trade or sell something. Many of the pieces in my collection are meant to be permanent and the ONLY way I'd trade or sell them is for triple and quadruple the actual value. Now, if there's someone out there willing to pay those prices and they buy them, then chances are, the next buyer will have to pay more and the next will pay even more.

I traded for a Kirby Super Powers cover a couple years ago (I think Glen owned it at one time, didn't you, Glen?). I was told by a couple of dealers that the cover wasn't worth even a grand because Super Powers just wasn't a popular title and it was Kirby in his later years. But, I argued, this Super Powers cover is inked by Mike Royer and has Superman, Flash and Lex Luthor battling. It's also a 20-year-old cover, is very clean and in exccellent shape. Another dealer told me it'd be worth around $1800, even though I saw pages WITHOUT any heroes on them by Kirby going for that much on the dealer's site. Heck, even covers by much lesser-known artists were going for $1800 and they weren't even covers from very popular titles. The Kirby covers were all going for well over $3000 each, no matter what they were. (When was the last time anyone saw a really sweet Kirby super-heroes cover sell for under $3000?)

I was told that Super Powers covers weren't worth that much, since it was merely a toy line tie-in comic — even though it was Kirby.

But, over the last few months, that's all began to change and I've watched prices go up, up, up on some lesser Super Powers pieces...

Earlier this year, just the Greg Theakston inks from an issue of Super Powers sold for nearly $1000 and, recently, on www.comiclink.com, the Kirby-Royer cover of Super Powers 1 sold for $4000 and it doesn't have a single hero on it. So, what's mine worth now?

With prices of lesser pieces going up, that surely makes mine worth more, right?

I think that helps prices rise in this hobby, which is still relatively overlooked and almost unknown to many in the art world.

Heck, I can't even make my comic collection buddies understand that these pieces of original art are THE ORIGINAL ART covers and pages, so when these people and others begin to understand what it is we collect, I expect another price hike because you'll have new collectors and investors entering the market with more money.

Mike B.

 

 

Yeah, Mike. I used to own that cover. It's a really sweet piece. I traded it for the Cap 141 cover by romita and the Iron Man 52 cover by kane. About six months after I did the deal I got an email from the guy I traded with saying he was concerned cause he heard that these pieces were light boxed by Royer and that Kirby never touched the piece. I actually got the cover from Mike Thibedeux the art agent for the Kirby estate. The pencils can be seen on the piece and Mike assured me that Kirby did do the pencils. What's it worth now? Who knows? If it were still mine I wouldn't part with such a fine cover for less than 10k. To the right guy it could be more...

 

Hell, I'll beat those dealers offers any day with a 3k offer. That's a no brainer and would be a steal! Dealers are funny!

 

Glen

[blowout]

I personally think art is a great hedge against inflation and its the reason this stuff is going up.

 

 

 

You ARE kidding right?

 

Uh, no. Why?

 

For me, and I am pretty sure most others, collecting comic books and related artwork is a HOBBY.

I can sure think of a lot of better places to put your money if all you are looking for is a hedge against inflation.

[de-mented-migration]

Has anyone else noticed how really, really expensive nice covers are getting? I have recently had to bend way over for several very nice examples and have heard numerous accounts of other great covers selling way way above what I would have thought crazy a year ago! Vas is going on?? Yes, I like the market to go up, but I also would like to buy some more and this is getting very hard....

 

I totally agree with you, prime A+ examples, are selling for tons of cash. Whoever said inflation doesn't exists should look at the comic art market. I don't see the same thing happening with comic books, however. Perhaps more and more people are selling comics and buying art? I do think if you're buying art to flip it you should be very careful esp at these high prices -I do believe the economy will slow and inturn people might not have as much disposable income to spend on comic stuff. just my 2 cents.

[blowout]

What are you guys talking about as record prices. I havent seen these killer prices you all seem to refer to. Whats hitting the market that I aint seeing?

 

I personally think art is a great hedge against inflation and its the reason this stuff is going up. I think there was a scoop article that predicted this some 18 months ago. Something along the lines of yesterdays record prices would seem cheap in light of the next sale at even higher prices. The article talked about Gold and warned about the hasty mistake of selling your treasures too cheaply.

 

BTW, hello again KK.

[matewan1990]

Glen,

I've been offered up to $5500 for it, but I'm not selling or trading this beauty.

The same goes for a few of my other covers that dealers have wanted for a while.

Like my Doom Patrol 1, Flash 323 and Saga of the Swamp Thing 3 covers. Why, it'd take $10K each to get pry those out of my hands (more than that to get the Flash 323, which is my grail for sure). Yeah, the value of the pieces may not even be close to that in marketplace value, but that's what it'd take to get them from ME; they're not in the marketplace, so the value is mine to decide (because when I sell the pieces, if I ever do, it'll have to be at prices I set).

That's a big reason why some pieces go up so drastically.

And yeah, Mike Royer told me that he only inked the first two covers and that he inked them directly over Kirby's pencils, so I know for a fact that this one is all Kirby and Royer. A dealer who was trying to get this cover from me assured me it was only Royer's inks lightboxed from Kirby pencils. But, I had already talked to a couple of people, including Royer himself, who confirmed that it's KIRBY PENCILS and ROYER INKS. You can see the pencils under the inks. This really is a sweet cover and you're on the mark when you said you wouldn't let a fine piece go for under $10,000. I know that's the lowest price I'd consider for this cover. Others might not feel the same way, but I love the cover and am in no way needing to part with it and no one has come up with any trade material that would make me want to let it go (and there have been many dealers who have tried their hardest to get this one from me, one or two even going so far as to dangle pieces I've searched for for years in front of me to get it; but, I've held out and will continue to do so).

So, there's one reason why some pieces for go up in value and the prices on original covers keeps rising. People who get them really want to hang onto them unless it's for crazy money.

I watched a Conan cover sell for $500 a few years ago, only to see it for sale for more than $3000. I was told by a dealer that sword and sorcery and western covers are hard to sell. That may be the case, but the last dealer that had the Conan cover had no trouble at all making a nice little profit from that same cover.

As more and more people entry the comic art field, the prices are going to continue to rise. Especially if those people have a little extra cash to spend on pieces from their youth.

When I bought the Miracleman 4 cover by Jim Starlin for $1000, I was told I'd paid way too much. But, I traded it for a whole lot more than that and that guy got a lot more for it and I saw it sell for a few thousand at least a couple years later. When I bought my first page of Miracleman art for $135, I was told MM art wasn't popular and was tough to sell. But, that same page sold on eBay two years ago for $650.

Mike B.

[BrianR]

If you want some nice Bronze age superhero coverS cheap look at the Marvel UK books a lot of American artists drew them. The art work is just as good as their American conterparts and The cost less than half of what the American covers cost.

[matewan1990]

If you want some nice Bronze age superhero coverS cheap look at the Marvel UK books a lot of American artists drew them. The art work is just as good as their American conterparts and The cost less than half of what the American covers cost.

 

Yeah, that's one thing about this hobby that I don't understand... I see some really, really nice UK covers and they go for pennies on the dollar compared to their American counterparts. Some of them have better action on them than the American covers, but they're valued at far less.

Mike B.

[COI]

If you want some nice Bronze age superhero coverS cheap look at the Marvel UK books a lot of American artists drew them. The art work is just as good as their American conterparts and The cost less than half of what the American covers cost.

 

Yeah, that's one thing about this hobby that I don't understand... I see some really, really nice UK covers and they go for pennies on the dollar compared to their American counterparts. Some of them have better action on them than the American covers, but they're valued at far less.

Mike B.

 

There are collectors who buy based on aestetics and then there are collectors who buy based on nostalgia. It would seem that nostalgia is the much stronger motivator in the current market.