Monday, February 18, 2013

SELLING METHODS -- COMPLETE STORY OR BROKEN UP!

The complete story to THOR 134 by Jack Kirby and Vinny Colletta is up for sale at ComicLink currently.  It's a beautiful thing to behold despite the Colletta inks which Kirby collectors generally tend to think less of.  Personally, I like Colletta's inks on Thor--he adds a romance vibe to the book that's helps enjoyment of the Stan Lee soap operatics and in my mind's eye when I think of the Kirby Thor it's the Colletta inked version that represents definitive Thor to me.  Add in the first appearance of the High Evolutionary and a full page Galactus splash and you've got a winner here.

I was surprised that the seller of this amazing story would choose to sell it complete instead of breaking the book apart.  My personal feeling is that you would get more for the book broken up than to sell it as one complete unit.  Given the hobby's collector base, I believe you'd have a better shot at realizing overall higher numbers by giving the less well to do collectors a shot at bidding on individual pages.  The end result on each, in my opinion, would be higher than selling the entire book as one entity.  More collectors can afford a single page and would drive each page higher allowing for a greater return when the page totals were combined.  Also, if broken up, one could sell the less desirable pages first--thereby creating a market that would grow as the better pages were later introduced to the collecting pool.

I'm sure the book will do well.  It's already at 135k with over a week to go, but I can't help feeling that the owner could have done better for himself by splitting up the book.

I realize that the counter argument is that it's important to keep these books together for posterity, but the truth is that at these values the more likely scenario is that a dealer will wind up buying the complete book and splitting it up anyway thus defeating the purpose of selling the complete story as a unit.

















7 comments:

  1. Yeah, I agree that the seller would probably make more selling them individually, but I am also hopeful that an individual will purchase them and keep them together (though it is not likely). I love the Galactus splash.

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  2. There are many big panel pages so if there's any perceived untapped value left in the story at auction's end, my guess is that a consortium of people are going to buy it with the intention of divvying it up. That's my guess.

    --Hans

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  3. I would be very surprised if it didn't wind up being split and resold piecemeal in the near future.

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  4. "bulls make money, bears make money. Hogs get slaughtered."

    if its the same person who bought it from Heritage in 2005, they stand to make 100k (about, at the current price) over 7 years on 46k, so its basically 30% per year.

    Also, it's hard to factor in how long/difficult it would take to sell the book broken up. Notwithstanding, a few of the pages would have a difficult time selling on their own.

    Someone/s might be willing to pay a premium to have it complete, or sequential (if multiple people).

    At any rate, I think its nearing what it would be worth retail if broken up anyway.

    -J0sh

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    Replies
    1. Josh - I know the owner of the #134 story and he got it directly from Kirby a long time ago. It never sold in Heritage.

      --Hans

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  5. Hans-
    oh, i guess it didn't meet reserve at HA?

    http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=817&lotNo=6329

    At any rate, i'm sure he'd stand to gain even more of a return then. And might feel its his duty to keep it complete, as he bought it directly from kirby.

    !j05h

    ReplyDelete
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