"Manufactured" collectibles rarely appreciate in value. It's always items in hindsight that people at the time didn't think were special.

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They do appreciate in value, but it is usually only in the immediate short term. After a shorst period of time, usually two years or less. the prices will often drop 50-75%.

This Mike Zeck page from Secret Wars 8 just sold at Heritage Auction

$3.36 million seems insane fora more "recent" piece of original comic book art. For that price I would rather buy a high grade CGC copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 or an Action Comics #1.

Insane doesn't even begin to do it justice. I'm not even sure what the word would be to convey just how inexplicable it is. That is far and away the highest price anyone has ever paid for a piece of American comic art (publicly) not painted by Frank Frazzetta. I'm not sure anything else had even hit 7 figures before today.

​​​Mike Burkey (one of the biggest comic art dealers) revealed a couple of weeks ago that he offered the consignor $250k for this page and the preceding one, but Heritage suggested they could do better, so to auction it went. At the time (2 weeks ago) that $250k offer seemed pretty generous. A couple of years ago, a fair estimate would probably have been mid 5 figures.

I've dabbled in the art hobby for a few years, and things have gotten pretty nuts the last year or two, but this is like a sledgehammer to my forehead telling me that I am way out of my league. It's not even fun to look anymore.
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Who bought it? And were there multiple bidders bidding it up? I understand it's an iconic first but man.

Did the success of the latest Spider-Man movie drive the bidding? It's pretty clear at this point that Spider-Man is Marvel's most popular property across the globe and Sony has every reason to keep him that way in films.

The price does seem crazy and reminds me of famous homerun balls which dropped in price once the hysteria wore off years later.

I don't think so. There's a new crew of comic art collectors that are placing an extremely high premium on first appearances. That might seem like an obvious thing to do because it's been a focus in comic collecting for so long, but it's relatively new territory for comic art. Historically comic art has been driven far more by aesthetics and/or nostalgia.

Zeck is obviously a talented and well loved artist, but it's not like he's thought of on the level of a Kirby or an Adams, or even contemporaries like Byrne or Perez. And it's not even clear who the inker is on this piece. That's the sort of thing that used to matter. Obviously there's nostalgia at work here, but this is 99% about it being the first appearance.

Jim Lee sold the cover to X-Men #1 in November and the rumor is that the sale his 8 figures. The deal was brokered by Torpedo Comics, and it was estimated that the entire piece went for at least $25M

Where'd you hear that number?

That wasn't really a public sale. It was a weird blind auction and there was much speculation that John Dolmayan bought it himself after collecting the bids. Even if that's not true, the price was never disclosed. I do know that Lee had turned down offers of at least 2 million. I wouldn't be surprised if it went for way more than the Zeck, but I guess we'll never know.

I have connections and know of one person that placed a bid. Heard Jim had a set price in mind to sell those and $25M was like the minimum he was going to accept.

Then there’s this kind of idiocy, which makes me think is more of a stunt because this is straight up fraud and criminal. If this fucking idiot is not pressing charges and suing everyone involved, then it reassures that this is just another stunt by these dipshits

A lot of money going around

Just saw that Tom Fish posted the X-Men #1 cover on Comic Art Fans today. I guess that solves that mystery. He owns all the pin up posters and interiors from that issue (amongst many, many other high end pieces), and has made offers to Jim for the cover in the past, so it makes sense.

https://www.comicartfans.com/Gallery...?Piece=1786363

Damn, beautiful and jealous to see all four covers together like that.

Those prices are crazy but at least it was for actual physical art and not NFTs.

I figured that Zeck page went for that as an NFT at first just because people are throwing stupid amounts of money at that crap. Strangely relieved that it was real art.