A Day in the Life of a Comic Book Auctioneer, and An Inside Look At Heritage Auctions' September Comic and Comic Art Signature Auction (The Short Box Podcast #401)
[00:00:00] Intro music plays
[00:01:12] Badr: Yoo, Short Box nation. Welcome back to the podcast. How's everyone feeling? If you're new to the show, welcome. My name is Badr and this is the short box podcast, the comic book talk show that brings you the best conversations about comics and the pop culture inspired by them. This is episode four Oh one, which means it's the official start of season nine.
[00:01:36] Badr: Now, most of you know, every 50 episodes, we count it as a season. We're now in season nine. Uh, hopefully all you newcomers will at least give a season a shot, you know, stay for a season and see if you like it and you can bounce after 50 episodes. That's all we're asking, right? That's a fair trade. Now, today we'll be talking about the upcoming Heritage Auction, Comics and Comic Art Signature Auction, taking place September 14th through the 17th.
[00:01:59] Badr: If you're listening to this episode on the day of release, that means it's taking place tomorrow throughout the weekend, alright? So, good news for you, good timing, right? There's over 1, 300 plus items in this auction, ranging from rare and holy grail comics, to original art, and hundreds of memorabilia and collectibles.
[00:02:17] Badr: It is... Whew, it is a lot of cool stuff, as I'll warn you, all right? And we're going to get into the nitty gritty. You can check out some of the items in this upcoming auction. I have a link for that in the show notes. You can follow along that way, too. I'm also bringing along a new friend for this episode.
[00:02:32] Badr: We're starting Season 9 with a bang, with friendship. You know, that's gonna be the theme for this new season. He's someone that's going to give us a lot more information and insight into the auction and the items in it. I've invited Heritage Auctions very own Brian Weidman to join us. He's a comic book assignment director working at Heritage Auction.
[00:02:49] Badr: Which, if you've never heard of Heritage Auction, maybe there's some folks out there that are scratching their heads. What is Heritage Auction? It is the largest auction house founded in the US and currently serves more than 40 different auction categories. They do coins, sports, comics, historical, jewelry, original comic art, and a whole bunch of other categories.
[00:03:09] Badr: You've definitely heard us mention Heritage Auction a few times on the podcast because they always seem to be making news and headlines every other couple months. They're either setting or breaking world records anytime one of their comics and comic art signature auctions come around. Matter of fact, one of the most recent world records, they said, came in January of 2022 with a 3.
[00:03:28] Badr: 36 million dollar sale of page 25 from 1984's Secret Wars number 8. That's the comic that tells the origin of Spider Man's black costume. That sale, that 3. 36 million dollar sale, remains the world's most valuable page of original comic book art. And if you thought that was a fluke, Well, the year before that, their 2021 September comics and comic art auction became the world's most valuable comic book auction, selling 26.
[00:03:55] Badr: 5 million worth of items. Look, without much hyperbole at all, they claim to be the undisputed internet leader in their field. And I believe them because they've got more than 1. 5 million online bidders registered on their platform from all 195 countries in the world. Now we're going to get to talking about some of the standout items and what goes on behind the scenes at the auction house when it comes to an epic weekend of auctions.
[00:04:20] Badr: But first, let's give a warm acknowledgement to the people that help us keep the lights on here at Shortbox HQ. Like our incredible sponsor Gotham City Limit, Jacksville's premiere shop for comics, toys, and collectibles. You can take your comic shopping experience to the limit with store exclusives and variant covers you won't find anywhere else by shopping at GothamCityLimit.
[00:04:38] Badr: com. And a lot of goes out to our Patreon subscribers. The best supporters a podcast could ask for. If you're looking to support the show in a meaningful, major way or you want access to bonus episodes, early access to all of our content before anyone else, and other cool perks, sign up at patreon. com slash the short box.
[00:04:57] Badr: Now without further ado, short box nation, let's welcome for the first time ever, Brian Weidman to the show. Brian, how are you doing, my friend? Happy Friday. Welcome.
[00:05:07] Brian Wiedman: Hey, Peter. How you doing? Thanks for having
[00:05:09] Badr: me. Brian, it is my pleasure. I cannot tell you how excited I've been leading up to this.
[00:05:15] Brian Wiedman: We we've been talking about this for months.
[00:05:17] Badr: Yeah. Yes, we have. And you know what? It's, it's been worth it. Just building up the hype. I've had a chance to, I feel like go through every single item in this upcoming September auction. And, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm ready to pick your brain, man. Well,
[00:05:29] Brian Wiedman: let me interrupt. I kind of want to blow your mind before before we start blowing everybody's mind.
[00:05:35] Brian Wiedman: You know how you said we had 195, you know, countries and we sell in every country, but that includes all the continents too. That's 1 of the favorite stories around the owners. Uh, we have actually sold in Antarctica. There was a doctor that was Bidding while in Antarctica on a, on a, you know, scientific research mission.
[00:05:54] Brian Wiedman: And he won an item in it while in Antarctica. So not even a country we have, we have the seventh continent that nobody thinks exists and we got that too. So I do like that story. I don't know why. Oh
[00:06:07] Badr: yeah. Look, the tagline should be heritage auction. Global baby. Now, Brian, you're based, um, you're living in Dallas, right?
[00:06:16] Badr: Cause that's where the heritage auction main HQ is, right? That is correct. Ryan, you sound like a well traveled man based on what I've been able to pick up via our emails and, you know, the little bit we've chatted. Where are you originally from? Are you originally from Dallas
[00:06:30] Brian Wiedman: or Texas? No, I'm from Chicago.
[00:06:32] Brian Wiedman: Okay. I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. What do you
[00:06:35] Badr: remember about the comic scene in Chicago growing up?
[00:06:39] Brian Wiedman: Oh, I mean, it's only been seven years since I left, so it's not too far removed. Good, you know, um, you had, you had, um, you know, the main, uh, comic stores around there is Graham Cracker's Comics. Uh, that is, you know, Jamie Graham owns that.
[00:06:56] Brian Wiedman: Uh, he's a very well known, um, dealer, uh, comic book dealer on the, you know, on the convention, uh, scene. Uh, plus he's got, uh, 11 shops, I think. So, uh, he's got more shops than anybody in the country. So that, that's kind of who I grew up with. Uh, but the comic scene in Chicago was always very strong. Uh, that's kind of one of the Midwest hubs for it, you know.
[00:07:20] Brian Wiedman: You forgive the sneezing for my, my parrot, guys. I, I apologize. I do have a parrot and I'm at home, so she's going to, she's going to interject, uh, her colorful commentary when, while, while we're at
[00:07:31] Badr: this. And Brian, before I, I ask how you got from Chicago to, to Dallas, I want to actually find out. What does the job of a comic book consignment director entail?
[00:07:42] Badr: Like, what, what does that mean in layman's term? It means
[00:07:44] Brian Wiedman: I go and I find, you know, my job is to facilitate the sale of comic books. So, uh, if you have a comic book collection and you bring it to us, my job is to evaluate whether we can sell it for you or not. Uh, my job is to go look for them. We get a lot of phone calls.
[00:08:01] Brian Wiedman: To, to build a rapport with clients, uh, and to sell them on your behalf. So we don't buy comics in general, uh, from you. We're not going to say, Hey, you have 100, 000 collection here. I'll give you 10, 000 for it and make all our money from, from the client. We actually sell them for you and take a percentage off the, off the sale price.
[00:08:23] Brian Wiedman: So the more money you make, the more money we make. That's, that's our basic
[00:08:26] Badr: premise. Is it safe to assume your job has taken you to some interesting places, got you in front of some interesting people? Like, do any stand out? I,
[00:08:34] Brian Wiedman: I was, I was in Sydney and, and New Zealand a, um, a month ago. I got to go across the world.
[00:08:39] Brian Wiedman: Oh, wow. So, yeah, for about two and a half million dollars. Wow. Last year, we sold 1. 4 billion in collectibles.
[00:08:49] Badr: If you can encapsulate some of these sellers, or maybe like there's a standout interaction you've had, like, uh, what are some of these sellers like?
[00:08:58] Brian Wiedman: Uh, most of the people I deal with are, are either retiring, uh, or they're family members, uh, um, uh, of people who have passed away.
[00:09:09] Brian Wiedman: So most of the people I deal with are not the dealers, you know, my bosses tend to deal with the dealers, uh, you know, across the country. Um, but most of the people that I'm dealing with, I'm picking up the phone and they have a comic collection, uh, that, that they're, you know, either trying to plan for the future, like retire they've passed away or, uh, the family members are not dealing with that.
[00:09:32] Brian Wiedman: So my job is to try and figure out what they have, because many people are very. You know, we know about comics, right? You know, we were very enmeshed in the culture, but, but a lot of people still don't, even though they watch the movies, they still don't know certain comics are very valuable. Um, so my job is to, to try and help.
[00:09:51] Brian Wiedman: them, you know, uh, uh, make as much money as possible. So that that's really it is my job is to is really a salesman. She get, get you to believe in heritage auctions, but also that I'm the best option for you. I'm not, I'm not out to try and make a money off of you. I'm trying to make money with you.
[00:10:09] Badr: Brian, so it sounds like you would be perfect on, it sounds like Shark Tank and, uh, Pawn Stars combined together, like the classiness.
[00:10:17] Badr: Right, yeah, it sounds like that, yeah. Speaking of, of, you know, that, that amount, you mentioned, you know, a billion dollar in sales, I shared some of the records that Heritage Auction has already made or, or broke, and a lot of those, like, Uh, a lot of those records are ones that you guys broke from your previous, like, setting, which I thought was pretty interesting.
[00:10:39] Badr: We do it all the time, Yeah, which is a major flex. One of the ones I didn't share in the intro is that, uh, Heritage Auction currently holds the world record for the highest price ever realized for any Batman comic. In 2021, they sold the finest known copy of Batman number one. A CGC graded 9. 4 sold for 2.
[00:10:57] Badr: 22 million, beating the previous record that was held by them. I was like, man, talk about a flex. These guys know how to sell comics. I
[00:11:04] Brian Wiedman: brought that in. Oh, wow, you're the man brought that in. Yeah. In the same year, I brought that in and I brought the lowest grade one in. Also, I had a cover list. So I had a cover list.
[00:11:14] Brian Wiedman: I had the highest graded and I also had a 3rd 1 in between. It's really weird. Batman ones kind of migrate to me. I've had about 5 since, you know, in the last 2 years. But I've never had an Action Comics one. I've never brought in an Action one or a Detective 27. Um, never a Superman one, but I brought in the five Batman ones, go figure.
[00:11:34] Brian Wiedman: That one book that seems to keep coming to me.
[00:11:37] Badr: I like how you've been so exposed to rarity. You're like, yeah, you know, I'm just a magnet. I'm a rare magnet. I'm a rarity
[00:11:42] Brian Wiedman: magnet. I'm a Batman one magnet, you know. But I'm not a magnet to the ones that, you know, the Action one or the... The tech 27 or anything like that.
[00:11:52] Brian Wiedman: Would
[00:11:52] Badr: you say Batman one is, is the craziest, uh, find you ever, you've ever had, like when you're flying out or, you know, looking at collections, would you say Batman number one has been like the craziest rare one?
[00:12:03] Brian Wiedman: Well, yeah, I usually deal with a lot of silver age. A lot of it comes to us. So I generally, before I fly out, I know what's.
[00:12:13] Brian Wiedman: What's in a collection before I, before I fly. Um, but, but I did get a collection from Canada that had made a Batman. There were some books in there that made a Batman one look common. Wow. There was a better comics too. Uh, that came out of Canada. It's the only one that's been graded. It's the highest grade.
[00:12:34] Brian Wiedman: It's like a 7. 0, but that's like the better comics to Canada did a really weird thing in the 1940s. They stopped importing comic books. They didn't like the fact that all these comic books were coming in from the United States, so they started making their own and put a. Ban on comic books and they started with better comics.
[00:12:54] Brian Wiedman: One was their, their action comics won in the Canadian line. Um, and, and so we had a better comics two and 7. 0, and that would be like finding an action comics number two in the attic, in the highest grade possible. You know, just, just, you know. Out of nowhere. And that actually happened. That came in from Canada and there were about 10 books like that, that nobody had ever heard of, nobody seen, nobody seen in 20 years, things like that.
[00:13:20] Brian Wiedman: There were about 10 books like that in that collection, uh, all highest graded, they were beautiful.
[00:13:26] Badr: Does being a historian, is that a, is that a requirement for the job? Cause that's something I've noticed. Uh, about you, Brian, outside of like what you shared as far as your job, I noticed that on the Heritage Auction website, there's a blog section and you write a few, quite a few articles and you seem very well versed in that golden silver age in that atomic age, like, was that something that you came to Heritage Auction already possessing or is that like what you kind of picked up along the way?
[00:13:53] Badr: Yeah, I
[00:13:53] Brian Wiedman: knew all that ahead of time. Um, I did, I knew all that ahead of time. I'm, I know history very well. Um, uh, I, I kind of, I, I minored into history in college. I was a major in political science. Um, so I, I've got the kind of historical background, but, uh, as far as the job goes, it was more of a, uh, who I knew, not what I knew, even though I knew a lot about comics, uh, I'd been doing it for a very long time, uh, but I got lucky to get into heritage just because of who I knew.
[00:14:25] Brian Wiedman: Um, you know, I mentioned Jamie Graham earlier, so he is very well known in the, in the circuit. My bosses knew him very well. He helped me get into heritage. Uh, my mentor who I learned a lot of the golden age, you know, stuff from 25 years ago, he helped me get into the, into the, you know, into the department.
[00:14:43] Brian Wiedman: And so, um, but I, I've known this stuff for a very long time. I just kind of. Keep learning as I go, you know, it's not always, you know, the worst stuff I never would have thought 1950s, uh, uh, war books would have been worth, worth anything, you know, five years ago, but you know, that's kind of when I learned how rare they are, um, and I, and the more I learned, the more I researched and, and sort of that, that's kind of how it comes about.
[00:15:10] Badr: Do you have a favorite era of comics, you know, like, or a favorite
[00:15:14] Brian Wiedman: pre code horror by far? So 1950 to 1955 is my favorite, you know, people would still count that as golden age, or they would count that as atomic age, but by far 50 to 55 is my favorite. Uh, and then golden age, I like silver age is a dime a dozen.
[00:15:31] Brian Wiedman: I'm sorry. I love no matter how much I say, I love. Spider Man. I, you know, if you had any idea how many amazing fantasy 15s I've held, uh, you know, you just, I probably held 50 last year, held, just held 50, you know, they're, they're a dime a dozen, uh, in my business, they are, I'm not trying to sound pretentious or snobby or anything.
[00:15:50] Brian Wiedman: It's just, you know, when you get them all the time, they're, they're not as rare as you think they are. Um, they're only rare because of the value. When you're in a place that sells a lot of value, you see a lot of them. What you don't see are things like 1950 to 1955 pre code horror, uh, pre code war comics because they don't exist as much.
[00:16:09] Brian Wiedman: You know, the census might be 20, census might be 10 on a lot of those books because they were, they were burned. You know, we had book burnings in America. Um, during that time, we had the comic code authority coming out and they were censoring all this stuff. There was a lot of all this stuff. So those are very, very rare books.
[00:16:27] Badr: Brian, I had a feeling that I was going to not only get a history lesson on comics and an insight into how, you know, auction houses work, not only entertain, but I feel like my perception of rarity is about to be blown through the roof. It already is. You're sitting here explaining to me why. Uh, you know, pre horror books might be, might hold a little more rarity than the, um, than the, uh, what's the phrase I'm thinking of, than the typical, you know, I guess when you think typical, typical like rarities in comic books, you know, as a.
[00:17:00] Badr: Maybe as a casual fan or just someone that's, you know, just been raised on the big two, your mind definitely goes to like the ASM 15s and you know, the detective comics one and all those, but yeah, that's a really good insight. I never thought about that perspective of like, these books are rare. Because there was not that many made.
[00:17:19] Badr: And there was like an active campaign to get rid of them and have them destroyed.
[00:17:23] Brian Wiedman: Right. And so, yeah, in 50 to 55 it was definitely like that. You had an active campaign. There were 250 publishers in the country in 1950. By 1955 there were 5. So you lost 98 percent of, of all the, all the, you know, comic publishers in the country in five years.
[00:17:44] Brian Wiedman: And, and the reason for that was, was juvenile delinquency. It was getting bad enough to where the parents needed a. scapegoat, instead of being a parent, they wanted to blame comic books or this, you know, the doctor, Dr. Wortham, you know, Frederick Wortham wanted to blame comic books. Uh, and so he doctored his research, you know, he, he, he said, Oh, well, all juvenile delinquents, uh, are juvenile delinquents because of comic books.
[00:18:08] Brian Wiedman: But he was, he was saying that because all juvenile delinquents read comic books along with every other person in
[00:18:14] Badr: America. Yeah, 1950s, uh, those comic books were basically Mortal Kombat, you know, like that. Right, right. Now, let's shift gears to... Last year. All right, let's like fast forward just a little bit to last year.
[00:18:28] Badr: I mentioned in the intro you guys, you know, Heritage Auctions set another record with that sale of that Spider Man. From the sale of that page from Secret Wars number eight, it was everywhere. I mean we covered it, a few other podcasts covered. I feel like every, not just comic book news outlet, but other like prestigious news outlets were also talking about that sale.
[00:18:49] Badr: Were you involved in it? How does your team or department, like, how do you guys celebrate, like, those moments? Like, is it to the point now where you guys have done it so many times, it's like, yay, or is it still like, wow?
[00:19:01] Brian Wiedman: We look at each other like we're stupid, because, you know, uh, everybody, everybody, I know, really, seriously, because that was, come on, there's no way that that page was worth that much in our eyes, you know, we, We tell a client, Hey, look, we think it's going to go from X amount to X amount.
[00:19:18] Brian Wiedman: And I think, I think I saw the estimate at that point. It was like 300 to 500, 000. I said it was going to go for 500 to 750 because it was a big page. And then, you know, if you were watching that, I was watching that. My wife had COVID, um, or one of us was sick. There was a reason I wasn't at the auction for that, but I was watching it remotely.
[00:19:40] Brian Wiedman: And, um. Uh, I was at 750, it stopped, it stopped dead for about 10 seconds and the auctioneer was going to, you know, start winding it up. And then all of a sudden the next bid came in, the next bid came in and it didn't stop at that point until 3 million, you know, it's later. So it was just that situation that, that it, uh, uh, it escalated to a point we just couldn't believe.
[00:20:06] Badr: Wow. So even Blue, you're expecting, I mean, it sounds like, is there a particular item in this lot and we can go into more detail about the specifics of this lot or the standouts, but is there an item in this lot that you're thinking that your team feels confident might be the, the golden child or, or the crown jewel of this lot?
[00:20:25] Brian Wiedman: No, you know, it's funny. We don't, we don't ever really go into it. Like, I mean, yes. So, you know, the punch 12 is a big deal. Anything we put on a cover is a big deal. Um, there was a, there is an incredible, um, um. Hal Foster, uh, not Hal Foster, um, um, Flash Gordon strips, uh, that came in as some of the best Flash Gordon strips we've ever seen.
[00:20:52] Brian Wiedman: You know, the one that's in the sale is, is kind of the, uh, inspiration for Princess Leia. I mean, that is an incredible piece, but it's not like that we, we, we curate the auction and, and. We hope it does really well and we are always crossing our fingers because that's our job, you know, um, but we never expect a, you know, 100, 000 item to go for 3, 000, 000.
[00:21:13] Brian Wiedman: We never expect a 1, 000, 000 item to go for 5, 000, 000. It's not like that. We hope it will, but you can't gauge those, those instances. You can't ever know that's coming because those are two people who will just, they have a lot of money and they want the piece more than anybody else. And there's two people like that and they fight over it until somebody finally placed chicken and they throw in the towel.
[00:21:38] Brian Wiedman: Um, and that's what happened with the secret Wars page. That was, that's exactly what the P two people finally said. No, if I can't win it, I'm going to make you pay for it. And they did, they did to a. Ridiculous number because listen, even at 750, 000, that's way above any page, you know, really that it should have gone for, and then it went to a million, but then it didn't stop.
[00:21:59] Brian Wiedman: It went to a million and a half and then it went to 2 million and at 2 million. The buyer's premium is 2. 4. You know what I mean? You're, you're, you're paying 2. 4 million and now we have a still another million to go. So that's how crazy that item was. You can't ever expect something like that. And it just won't.
[00:22:18] Brian Wiedman: And, and it doesn't happen really on a comic book, you know, it does happen every once in a while in a comic, but not on that kind of scale, you know, something we think is going to go for 75, 000 goes for 200 maybe, but it's not on a scale of it's, you know, it's a 1 million book and it goes for 10 that that doesn't exist, you know, for a comic really.
[00:22:38] Brian Wiedman: Could you
[00:22:39] Badr: speak a little more about the, the, the curation that goes into these auctions? Because I guess I completely overlooked that part. That yeah, someone's got to, I guess in my head, okay, you guys went out maybe for a quarter of the year, got all these collections and you're like, okay, this is everything.
[00:22:55] Badr: Let's put it on. But it sounds like, yeah. Right. All right. It sounds stupid. Right. But. No,
[00:23:01] Brian Wiedman: no, it doesn't because other auction houses do that because they're very, very small. And so they only have two sales a year, you know, or something like that, whereas we're so large and there are so many people in our department all doing the, you know, I'm one of 10 that are doing this.
[00:23:17] Brian Wiedman: So I don't even see 1 percent of the auction that goes into sale until it's out. You know, when the sale comes out,
[00:23:23] Badr: then I see it. Like I do like the variety, you know, like you guys have obviously like the, the clear holy grails, the cliche holy grails, and then there's like so many different pieces of memorabilia and like original art, and then you guys have sketch, I like the variety, I guess is what I'm saying, can you talk a little more about the mindset and, and the work that goes into curating, you know, an auction with over 1300 pieces.
[00:23:45] Brian Wiedman: We put those signature sales together. There's five a year and we carefully pick the best of the best. Okay, so that's the signature sale We have 52 sales a year of just weekly sales that that a lower grade of basic fantasy 15 will go into that an amazing spider man 1 will go into that the 20 other copies of every x men 1 that we get that you know only the 8.
[00:24:09] Brian Wiedman: 0s and or above go into the Big, big sale. The rest of it all goes into the weekly sales. So we have all these different venues for that. Um, and, and they do just as well in the weekly sales than they do the, the, you know, signature sale, but we curate that bigger sale. So it, it, it is one of those attention, you know, getters.
[00:24:28] Brian Wiedman: So you, oh, look at what they have now. You know? Oh my God, they had the Frank Miller, you know, uh uh. Batman, you know, returns cover, you know, the number one, like who else would that have gone to, you know, because heritage gets the best.
[00:24:43] Badr: Is there a particular auction or signature auction? We'll keep it just a signature auctions that you were maybe a little more proud, you know, that that held maybe a little bit of a special, um, place in your heart.
[00:24:54] Badr: You know, maybe it's, you know, the story about going to get the items or the way you curated it. Is there like a standout auction that comes to mind for you? The Batman one,
[00:25:02] Brian Wiedman: the Batman one and nine. was a big one to me because I helped bring that in. Um, but no, you know, I, I, to be honest, I, I always worry that I don't have enough items in that sale, uh, you know, because I get so many, you know, silver age consignments that, that I tend to go out and get most of that stuff doesn't qualify.
[00:25:22] Brian Wiedman: It's never an high enough. Uh, you know, most of the items I'm, I'm running across are 3. 0 to 6. 0 collections. Um, they're not golden age and for most, you know, most parts, um, they're, they're silver age runs of, of massive, massive runs all the time. And so no, you know, I'm an auctioneer also, so I'm also on the podium doing, you know, doing the sale.
[00:25:45] Brian Wiedman: Uh, so I'm proud that I could just get through the day without sounding like an idiot. So, you know, I, I know my numbers very well. I know, I know I didn't mess this up. I got people a lot of money. So no, I, I look at them all about the same. By the time we're done with this sale in September, we're literally getting ready for the next one.
[00:26:04] Brian Wiedman: So we work so far ahead. That our focus right now isn't on this auction. Everything we've done is already done that we can do. We're already working on the next one, trying to plan that, get all the items in, are they the right items? What do we have? Who do we have it from? That sort of stuff. It's we work very far ahead.
[00:26:24] Badr: Ryan, don't think I'm going to let you skip over the fact that you also work as an actual auctioneer and when I hear that, I'm thinking, are you the guy that's on the podium that's like, can I get a 5, 000, 5, 000, can I get it
[00:26:35] Brian Wiedman: once? Not that fast, but yes. It's, it's, it's a lot more, it's a lot more, we're, we're, we're a higher class auction house.
[00:26:42] Brian Wiedman: We don't, we're not going to, we're not going to cattle call. They gave us those CDs in class, the, the CD, uh, you know, cattle calls, I'll learn your rhymes, do this. And I never even listened to it because there was no way I'm going to, you need to know what I'm saying to be able to,
[00:26:57] Badr: yeah, you're like, look, I may live in Texas, but I do not work at a Texas state fair.
[00:27:02] Badr: Right, sir. We have class. Uh, if you're someone that hasn't watched. One of these live heritage auctions, it is well worth your time. It's, it's entertaining in so many facets. As a comic nerd that likes to just look at cool stuff, you can look at a bunch of cool stuff, but when it's time to watch the auctions and, um, take place and happen, it is just as thrilling.
[00:27:22] Badr: And, and the way you describe like that sale of that, um, of the Sequel Wars Spider Man page, I kind of want to go back and find this video, man. It sounds intense. So I can only
[00:27:30] Brian Wiedman: imagine. You can, it's on YouTube. So we have all the auctions. If you, if you can find, so if you go into the lot number, um, on the heritage, you'll find the auction number and then you'll be able to go onto YouTube and find it.
[00:27:46] Brian Wiedman: It'll, it'll be up there. I'll make sure
[00:27:48] Badr: to, uh, I'll make sure to pop some popcorn for that. When you're up
[00:27:51] Brian Wiedman: there and there's something like that's happening you're like, oh, yeah
[00:27:58] Brian Wiedman: Feel like I'm macho man Randy Savage.
[00:28:00] Badr: Oh, yeah, you're celebrating like you bought it you like yeah. Yeah, that's awesome Well,
[00:28:05] Brian Wiedman: that's did you get into it like and if I'm on the phone if I'm a phone bidder. Oh man, if I'm one of the phone reps and my, my guy on the phone is going for an item, I'm like, bid, it's mine.
[00:28:17] Brian Wiedman: It's mine. Don't you dare bid against me. It's mine. You know, because I want my phone better to win it. You know? And so, uh, it's, it's one of those things. I like doing that stuff. It's a fun day out of the office. I'm not behind my desk. I'm not, you know, it's, I like it. I like doing the auctions.
[00:28:34] Badr: Do you have like, uh, any piece of advice for a comic buyers or especially like people that are trying to get more into the auction house style market, you know, that are tired of like the secondary market or doing the eBay route, do you have any tips or strategies when it comes to maximizing profit
[00:28:49] Brian Wiedman: and stuff?
[00:28:50] Brian Wiedman: Yeah, there's a couple. So a lot of people ask me, what do I think a good investment is? I'm not an investment broker. You know, my job is to get you an item you want. So my, my first rule of thumb is always collect what you love. If you love it, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's worth a dollar or it's going to be worth 5, 000 later on.
[00:29:11] Brian Wiedman: If you love it, it doesn't matter if you're collecting in for, for, um, You know, uh, you know, investment purposes. Well, then it matters and you're on your own because you're going to have to figure all that out, you know, but that that's number one. Number two is as far as the auction part goes, know your limits.
[00:29:33] Brian Wiedman: Um, it, it, because, and, and I say that because when I first started buying with Heritage, I didn't start buying with heritage until, uh, I started working here. Uh, one of the reasons is, and and people will say this and they'll say this quite a bit, the, the 20% buyer's premium is very intimidating to somebody who doesn't know.
[00:29:52] Brian Wiedman: Okay? So the 20% is a lot. So on a thousand dollars, if, if your bid's a thousand dollars, you have to pay $1,200 to take possession. Um, So know your limits. If you, if you really can only afford a thousand dollars, we'll factor the buyer's premium into that. If you don't win it, and this is where I was getting mad, I was constantly getting outbid and I was constantly upset because I wasn't winning what I wanted to win.
[00:30:18] Brian Wiedman: Well, we have something next week, you know, and so you're going to find things over the course of time. If you're just patient and you, you. Stay within yourself. Don't go crazy. Don't spend three million dollars on a piece of paint, you know I know and unless you have the money and you don't care then it won't matter right because that person that person had the money They don't care three million to them is like thirty dollars to me.
[00:30:42] Brian Wiedman: That's That's great, you know, uh, to each their own. I'm not that rich, uh, but, um, I've found, uh, over the course of these few years, the seven years I've worked there is that something will come up next week or the week after or the week after. And, uh, you can lose your paycheck to them that way. I, you know, it'll always be, there'll always be something for you.
[00:31:03] Brian Wiedman: Just stay within yourself. Budget if you need to. So. Well
[00:31:08] Badr: said. And look, if you're someone, uh, if you're a listener, we've said three million dollars to spare on, uh, comic page art, and you're not a Patreon subscriber, shame on you. I'm just asking for two, five dollars a month. You got three mil over
[00:31:20] Brian Wiedman: there.
[00:31:20] Brian Wiedman: What a terrible time to plug that,
[00:31:23] Badr: I
[00:31:23] Brian Wiedman: tell ya. I mean, you got to get that in there
[00:31:26] Badr: somewhere, right? Look, they don't call them shameless plugs, all right, for nothing, right? I know that was shameless, but I'm just saying, what's more shameless, having three mil and not supporting your favorite comic podcast? I don't know.
[00:31:37] Badr: They're kind of, they're on the same right there.
[00:31:39] Brian Wiedman: 2. 999 mil and come on over to Heritage and buy another, uh, page of whatever I wish I could afford. I mean, that's Secret Wars page. I love that page. I have a picture of me holding that page before, before it's sold. And, you know, because that's what got me into comics, um, you know, aside from Spider Man, uh, that was.
[00:31:59] Brian Wiedman: That series is what got me into the X Men. It's what got me into all the other, you know, groups was because of Secret Wars. So I know that page very well. I've read it a thousand times. Um, but, um, you know, uh, you know, three, three million, man. I wish I could afford that. That's...
[00:32:17] Badr: Brian, uh, I guess, like, do you guys, as an auctioneer, as a, you know, consignment director, do you guys get any, like, special privileges or first dibs when it comes to, like, some of the items you guys get?
[00:32:29] Badr: You've never made, like, a, uh... I have to bid
[00:32:31] Brian Wiedman: and win it just like anybody
[00:32:32] Badr: else. What's been, like, the best thing you've bid and won? Like what's a standout? I
[00:32:37] Brian Wiedman: have, I have a couple, so I, I'm, I don't buy comic books anymore. I've, I'm, I'm away from those completely almost. Um, while I do still have some, I'm, I'm really transitioning out because I can't hang them on my wall.
[00:32:50] Brian Wiedman: I, I've, I've learned, you can see kind of behind me. Um, I'm a big fan of Bugs Bunny and animation cells. Um, I'm a big fan of animation cells. So I have a, I have a. Batman, uh, the animated series, uh, Riddler, uh, animation. So that has about 10 Riddler's on it. Oh, that's cool. Um, so I've got that, uh, but I own an original Vargas preliminary, uh, uh, Vargas was a, um, uh, pinup girl, uh, uh, you know, um.
[00:33:17] Brian Wiedman: Uh, illustrator in the 1950s, uh, and I didn't think I'd ever own a Vargas. They're, they're very expensive. They're very rare, uh, way more rare than a comic book. And I just happened to get one. I got lucky. I got lucky. That's all I can say is I bid the right price. It was the right amount. Uh, and uh, I won it.
[00:33:37] Badr: Ryan, you are a very classy man. You've said it yourself. You had amazing Spider Man 15 so many times. You're just like, I get it. I get it. You're now like elevated. You're, you're talking animation sales. You're talking a pinup girl illustration, original art.
[00:33:51] Brian Wiedman: Not really class, it's just, like I said, it's collect what you love.
[00:33:54] Brian Wiedman: But the problem with comic books to me was, I was a dealer in the 90s, and so the problem was always money, money, money, money, money. It could always, it's always worth this amount, it's always worth that amount. But with an animation cell, or, you know, an animation cell is really original art that's one of a kind.
[00:34:09] Brian Wiedman: Uh, even though there are... There are 24 cells in a second. Each one is different. And so that's what makes up the movement. So none are too, you know, no two are like, um, so I can say it's unique. Uh, and when I hang it on the wall, it won't, I won't lose the color off of it. Uh, and artwork is, is. One of a kind.
[00:34:29] Brian Wiedman: Comic art is one of a kind. And so I put that on the wall and I won't lose the inks off it. Whereas if I put a comic book on the wall, I can only just look at it anyway and the cover will fade. I have to keep it in the dark in a box in the closet. And that's not, that's not what I want. I want to hang things on my wall and look at them, you know, uh, you know, no different than anybody else.
[00:34:50] Brian Wiedman: So, which, which is a cautionary tale, by the way. If you're one of those people who have comic books and you put them on your wall, get them off your wall. I promise you, you will regret it 20 years from now if you do not. You are actually bleaching them no matter what kind of light they're in. At some point, you are going to damage the book.
[00:35:09] Brian Wiedman: Get them off the wall. Take nice, really nice photocopies of them. High quality, high grade. You could put those on the wall instead, but don't put your comic books on walls. They will, it'll kill them. This episode
[00:35:21] Badr: is chock full of interesting facts and helpful information. That's how we're coming out the gate for season nine, folks.
[00:35:27] Badr: Brian, how about we talk about some of the standout items that are in this September 14 through 17 comics and comic art auction, uh, number 7341, if anyone's looking for a reference number. Um, let me share my screen if you're watching on the video version, I will try to describe everything we're sharing if you're just strictly audio.
[00:35:49] Badr: Okay, so I gave us both the homework assignment of picking a few items from the auction that really stood out to us. You sent me two, so I want to start with yours. And we are looking at Punch Comics, number 12. Tell us a little bit about this book here. Why'd you
[00:36:03] Brian Wiedman: pick this one? So this is, this is a classic, um, uh, cover.
[00:36:09] Brian Wiedman: Again, it's a pre code horror book. It's probably one of the hardest to get. Uh, even though I've seen about seven copies in the last five years. Um, or 25 on the census. Right, right around that number. Um, And this is the highest grade, uh, at an 8. 0. And you know a book is really rare when the highest is 8. 0.
[00:36:29] Brian Wiedman: Most books have a, have a 9, 9. 2 maybe. Uh, even 9. 4, 9. 6 for a lot of the newer stuff. Uh, but when you have a 1950s book that is an 8. 0. Uh, or in 1940s, I think in this case, um, it's, it's a rare thing and I'm a big fan of black covers too. Black covers tend to show up all the flaws very, very easily. Um, but as you can see, if you flip to the back again, you can see it's made on inferior paper.
[00:36:57] Brian Wiedman: Uh, it's tanning around the edges. And it's an 8 0. So that's, that's the problem with those books. They were made with inferior paper, inferior inks. And so they aged much easier. They were used in book burnings in America. And so there aren't that many of them. Uh, but this book is going to break, break all records, uh, for pre code horror.
[00:37:18] Brian Wiedman: This is going to be the most valuable by far.
[00:37:21] Badr: Shorebox Nation, look, we're getting a private, look, we're not on premise at the Heritage Auction Showroom, but we're getting a little private tour. What a great classic cover.
[00:37:29] Brian Wiedman: That's the best Skull cover there is. It's just,
[00:37:31] Badr: it's just awesome. If you're just strictly audio only listening right now, go ahead and get ready to get your...
[00:37:37] Badr: Phone by you. Go ahead and look up punch comics. Number 12 and take a look at this. Not while you're driving. Please obviously not while you're driving. Don't multitask.
[00:37:44] Brian Wiedman: I know some of you are coming home from work right now. Don't do it while you're driving. Jump on there or later on.
[00:37:49] Badr: Um, we're going to say the current bid at the time of this recording, which is September 1st.
[00:37:54] Badr: So a full 13 days before the auction even starts current bid right now is 60, 000 with the buyer's premium bumps it up to 72, 000
[00:38:02] Brian Wiedman: already. It's going to go a lot higher than that. Wow. Awesome. Wait, wait until you see, so our auctions tend to die out. I wouldn't say die out. That's, that's the wrong word.
[00:38:11] Brian Wiedman: It's not really what I mean. So you get a flurry of bidding in the beginning and at the, at the last two days of the auction, you get, you get most of the bidding. So you get this lull of, of two weeks of looking at it. Uh, and, and that's because. It's like playing poker, you know, you don't want the other person to see what you have.
[00:38:29] Brian Wiedman: And so you don't show your bids like that either. It's at 60, 000, but trust me, that book is worth a lot more and it'll go a lot higher. I
[00:38:37] Badr: imagine you've probably got a lot of insight on the psychology of, of people and especially when it comes to buying, you know, you mentioned like earlier about that, the bid between the two folks and that psychology of like, well, if I can't enjoy it, I'm going to make it, you know, as painful for you to enjoy it as, as well.
[00:38:52] Badr: Yeah, you
[00:38:52] Brian Wiedman: know how I know that. I do that. I get so mad when I'm not getting the item I want. Do I push the person? You better believe I do. I'm a jerk. I don't, you know, because I want the item. Darn it, stop bidding.
[00:39:12] Badr: All's fair in the Heritage Auction Love and War. All right, Brian, your second item that you, that you wanted me to highlight was this item right here for our audio listeners.
[00:39:21] Badr: This is a, uh, Dan DiCarlo and Alison Flood Veronica number 28, uh, original cover art. Yeah, original art for the said cover.
[00:39:30] Brian Wiedman: This is a classic cover. In the modern age, there aren't many classic covers. You have an amazing Spider Man 300, but that's more, uh, copper age. This is really a modern book. But it's considered a classic cover.
[00:39:42] Brian Wiedman: I would be very surprised if this book doesn't go way, way higher. Um, or this, this, I'm not book, I'm sorry, that the cover art, um, because you've got Archie and, and, uh, Reggie sitting outside in the cold and she's in turn, you know, she's in a bikini, uh. Doing a butterfly dive, uh, you know, into the pool and they're steaming up the windows.
[00:40:06] Brian Wiedman: I mean, that's, that's about as, as, uh, racy as you can get for the nineties and the two thousands and, and keeping it, keeping it PG rated. Uh, uh, but yeah, I, I, so the client that, that has, this has a bunch of the Carlo. Covers and, and um, which is one of my favorite artists for Archie and they're all bikini covers and that's what sells are the bikinis, you know, that's why Archie is as popular as he
[00:40:34] Badr: is even for Archie sex sells even as tame as it is.
[00:40:37] Badr: It is portrayed. He's
[00:40:38] Brian Wiedman: not. No, you, you don't know Archie then because I thought the same thing until I started working for heritage. I had to collect, I had to grade a whole bunch of Archie's and I started realizing just how raunchy they are. Pull up Archie 48. It's got, it's got, uh, Betty and, uh, if you pull up, uh, Archie Comics 48, it's got, uh, uh, Betty and, and, uh, Archie in the, in the chocolate shop.
[00:41:04] Brian Wiedman: And he goes, they're sharing a sundae. He goes, you want a spoon? And she goes, sure. Pick me up at eight. Whoa! 1940s.
[00:41:14] Brian Wiedman: So, yeah, that's, that's, there's a, those innuendo covers are a big deal. I own one of these. I love it. I, that's one of my favorite covers. This,
[00:41:22] Badr: this cover was basically a Cardi B, uh, WAP, uh, for the forties right here for all of you, uh, Gen Zs. The current bid for this particular cover is at 15. 50 right now, which is pretty reasonable for, you know, original, um, comic book art, especially from Dan DiCarlo.
[00:41:39] Brian Wiedman: Oh, two weeks to go. Hmm. So trust me, it won't stay there. If it stays under $2,000, I'll own it. There's no chance , I have zero chance of owning
[00:41:47] Badr: that. That's what I'm talking about. Brian, talk your shit. I like
[00:41:49] Brian Wiedman: it. I have no chance of owning that. Paige. I would
[00:41:52] Badr: love that. Brian, could you, it sounds like you are, obviously, I, this is probably part of the, the job is being able to grade a comic book just from holding and, and seeing it.
[00:42:02] Badr: Like, was, was that something you already knew how to do from your press experience? Like, you know, setting up at conventions. Yeah,
[00:42:08] Brian Wiedman: I, I had to learn how to do that a long, long time ago. Um, when I got with Heritage, obviously, I, you know, they, I went through a lot of, you know, you need to get in line with what we do.
[00:42:19] Brian Wiedman: Um, but no, I've known how to do that for a very long
[00:42:21] Badr: time. All right, let me go ahead and share. Now, I think I told you before we hit record, I went overboard with the, uh, homework assignment. Here is my list, and then here's yours too. We're not going to go through all of mine. Look, I'll, I'll say this, you can burn some hours just scrolling through the items that are up for bid, uh, for just this you really can.
[00:42:42] Badr: Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and start with, um, let me start with this one right here. And right now I've got pulled up on my screen for your video, uh, for your audio listeners. A Frank Frazetta, Death Dealer, what is that? Six? Death Dealer 6 painting. Original art from 1990. The current bid at the moment is 320, 000.
[00:43:04] Badr: Brian, could you say a few things about this, this glorious epic piece right here?
[00:43:08] Brian Wiedman: You know, we've sold that before. What? Yeah. A number six? This is the second time we've had this. Oh, wow. So, uh, um, Yeah, if you pull up, if you pull up the last one, I think it went for 1. 26 million. I think that's what it went for.
[00:43:23] Brian Wiedman: Um, we get Frazetta paintings in quite a bit. I, I, I, you know, maybe one, one a sale, maybe one every other sale. Um, I, I mean, what do you say about Frazetta? I mean, he's the best. He's, he's the master. Um, and, and, uh. Uh, he just, it's, it's, I'm in awe. I, I want the, I want to see the Death Dealer number one. That's the one I want to see.
[00:43:50] Brian Wiedman: Oh yeah. That's the image everybody knows of Death Dealer. Uh, but he made six different Death Dealers. Uh, this one has a snake on it and he's riding towards you. Um, the Death Dealer you're very familiar with is him on the horse and a side profile. Uh, and that's, I can only imagine what that's worth. I mean, that's his most famous painting.
[00:44:09] Badr: All right. One last thing I'll say about this dev dealer painting is that it is massive. It says here in the description, the large and impressive work was fashioned in oil on Masonite, signed and dated in the lower right, the 18 by 30 image area and open front frame to 23 and a half by 35 and a half.
[00:44:27] Badr: This thing would be, I could definitely make room for this in my home. All right. I've seen
[00:44:32] Brian Wiedman: it hanging on a wall. It's really, it's large. Yes. Awesome.
[00:44:36] Badr: Alright, so that was my first one. I think I've got, alright, another one that really piqued my interest. What type of comic podcast would I be if I didn't? I feel like
[00:44:44] Brian Wiedman: this is I was gonna have to
[00:44:47] Badr: bring it up.
[00:44:49] Badr: Exactly. This is
[00:44:50] Brian Wiedman: like low hanging fruit.
[00:44:50] Badr: I've been waiting for this. Action Comics number one is in this auction lot. Uh, it is a CGC 0. 5 off white pages is what they've got, um, noted for this. I don't think I've ever seen, I think I've maybe seen one other 0. 5, but nothing like an action comics in a 0. 5 condition.
[00:45:09] Badr: And if you're curious, the current bid, even for a 0. 5 graded action comics, number one is currently at 145, 000 at the time of this
[00:45:19] Brian Wiedman: recording, uh, it's going to go way higher. I know about four people that want it really bad, because it's a starter copy. And it's going to be so out of range for most people after this that this is going to go a lot higher.
[00:45:34] Brian Wiedman: I'll be shocked if this stays under a quarter million. I can't imagine, I know three people who are going to fight it at a quarter million. Wow. So, I can't imagine this book stays, you know, low very long. It's going to break all records for a 5.
[00:45:50] Badr: And, and just to, you know, just to appeal to the layman's out there, you said a starter copy and I'm assuming that's like, look, this is beat up, but it's a holy grail.
[00:46:00] Badr: I'll start with this and then work my way to, you know,
[00:46:02] Brian Wiedman: higher grades. Yeah. So the, the problem here with an action one is that. what I think the rocket copy we had last was, um, what was that? A six Oh, and it's sold for three and a half million or right around there. So your problem here is, is that we haven't had anything in seven years.
[00:46:21] Brian Wiedman: I've been here. We've only had five, five or above. So we've had a five, five and a six and had no, nothing under that. Uh, unrestored that is. So you have a starter copy that's in low grade. Uh, and so. People can get together a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the question is how many hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[00:46:40] Brian Wiedman: So technically, yeah, technically the book should be a quarter million dollars. That's, that's about really where it should fall, but because you don't see anything. You know, below in the 4. 0, 3. 0, 2. 0, 1. 0 range, they're going to fight for this. And because they're going to fight for it, that's going to set a record, which is then going to take the 1.
[00:47:03] Brian Wiedman: 0 to 2. 5s and push them up to a really high level. So they're not starter copy available anymore. You can't just pull a couple hundred thousand dollars together. You'd have to pull a million dollars together. And that's, that's going to be what the problem is after this. Book, you know, what is a 1. 0 really going to cost you?
[00:47:22] Brian Wiedman: It's going to cost you way more than a 0. 5. So it's, it's going to defeat itself. It's going to become so expensive of an item. People are going to get, they're not going to be able to get it. I won't be able to afford the tape that's holding the cover.
[00:47:41] Badr: Maybe we can get a group buy going on. I need some, I need some loyal, dedicated short box listeners to come in on, on this 0. 5 Action Comics number one. We could share it. Remember that episode of Simpsons where, where Bart Milhouse, oh my God, I forgot the third one right now, but I'll share Radioactive Man number one.
[00:47:57] Badr: That could be us. Martin.
[00:47:58] Brian Wiedman: Martin. That can be us, huh? Uh, I'll put in 10 cents. I'm going on vacation next week, so you've got my 10 cent donation there.
[00:48:05] Badr: Let me just have it on the days I record, alright? So just on Sundays, I get the book, and then you get it every other day. I'd take that. I'd take that deal.
[00:48:14] Badr: That's a solid deal. All right, obviously I, I gotta go in a spotlight some Marvel on here. Uh, cause Brian, I, I, I too am a self, um, described Marvel head as well, just like you. And in this auction, uh, is Avengers number four at one of the highest grades I've ever seen it. Uh, a nine point. Eight. It's got the word white pages at the very top, letting you know that it is in pristine condition for those that might be unfamiliar.
[00:48:39] Badr: Avengers number one is it's the, um, reintroduction of Captain America into the Marvel, uh, comic universe. If I'm not mistaken, is that right? The number four is yeah. Yep. Number four. And right now it is at a current bid of 50, 000. You got anything to say about this one, uh, Brian?
[00:48:54] Brian Wiedman: It's a beautiful book. I actually had this, uh, uh, you know, our social media, uh, guy came around and he had me pull books, uh, a couple of books from each age to show off on, on, uh, Heritage Comics on, on Instagram.
[00:49:08] Brian Wiedman: And this is one of the books I pulled because it's, it's just gorgeous. It's beautiful. Like you said, it's white. You know, white with white pages. It's a beautiful
[00:49:16] Badr: book. The way you guys, uh, have these items listed, like you could just tell a lot about it, just from your, um, um, item descriptions. It's like, and we'll tell you what color the pages are.
[00:49:26] Badr: So you know what time it is? Uh, you know what, let's just kind of stick to low hanging fruit. Um,
[00:49:32] Brian Wiedman: uh, holy fruit. There is no low hanging fruit.
[00:49:36] Badr: Well, I, I guess, uh, just easy, you know, a name tra you know, traditional name brand, uh, Holy Grails when it comes to comics. And we got a Batman number one, CGC, uh, 3. 5, which is a very good off white pages for those curious.
[00:49:51] Badr: Sitting at a current bid of 135, 000. Uh, got anything to say about this one, Brian?
[00:49:56] Brian Wiedman: It's the first appearance of Joker and the first appearance of Catwoman. So, uh, you know, everybody will argue that the third most important Golden Age book is Superman I. I'll never, you'll never hear me say that. It'll always be a Batman I.
[00:50:09] Brian Wiedman: First appearance of, uh, Joker, the best bad guy that exists. The first appearance of Catwoman. And it's not a reprint story. Those are all original stories. As opposed to the Superman I, which is a reprint story. So I've always liked this as the third best. You know, uh, uh, Golden Age comic book. The third best comic book that exists.
[00:50:27] Brian Wiedman: I'd want this over Superman 1 any day. Although, Superman 1 is by far, by far rarer. I mean, on an order of 3 to 5 to 1. You know, it's, it's very rare.
[00:50:39] Badr: I think I like Batman one just from a cover and art perspective. Like it is such a beautiful cover. Like, I love how Batman and Robin both pop from the cover because of the yellow and the red background
[00:50:51] Brian Wiedman: and very dangerous to fading too.
[00:50:53] Brian Wiedman: So it can fade very easily. Reds and yellows fade very easily. So you don't want to keep it in the light.
[00:50:59] Badr: The more you know, and I mean that classic, uh, um, a masthead to the logo. Yeah. So good. Awesome. All right. Okay. Let me, let me do, let me pick two more. Let me pick two more. You said two more, two more ago.
[00:51:11] Badr: I know. I know. I lied. Look, the listeners know, I, I really get into like homework assignments like this. I'm always going to go way above and beyond. So we'll just go a little quicker so we could do the remaining a few that I got on here. So I'm going to move away from, uh, uh, CGC graded comic books. I want to get into some of the original art that I found.
[00:51:28] Badr: For starters, there is an original art by Kevin Eastman, one shot Raphael TMNT comic book from the nineties. You guys have page 21, which shows Casey Jones. And I think this might be the page where it's his first. Well, I know, I know this comic is one of his first drawings. There we go. Yeah. So it's currently sitting at a bid of six thousand dollars.
[00:51:50] Badr: And talk about, like, some owning a piece of history, right? Like, not only just the Raphael one shot original comic art by the, you know, one of the co creators, Kevin Eastman, but also, uh, the first appearance of Casey Jones in the comic book form, you know, on the page. Yeah,
[00:52:07] Brian Wiedman: I mean, if you will, if you like...
[00:52:08] Brian Wiedman: Turtles and you like the history of turtles, then this is what you want. I mean, that's, you couldn't ask for more. And, and he's, he is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet in your life. I mean, Kevin really, I've talked to him on the phone a few times. I've, I've met him. He punked me in New York. He, he, uh, he completely, uh, uh, was messing with me, uh, in New York last year is the first time I had gotten to meet him, uh, but the nicest guy you could possibly ever meet.
[00:52:36] Brian Wiedman: Uh, and. It's, it's amazing. It's nice to meet people who know, like their fans, you know, want to be around their fans. Yeah. Uh, and, uh, he's, he's one of them. So it just, this is going to be a big deal. It's a big deal because it's the first appearance.
[00:52:52] Badr: For sure. For sure. I see this one going up, but how often do you guys, um, uh, I guess deal with, uh, the like comic book artists, like buying stuff from them, like how often do you guys have like comic book artists wanting to sell?
[00:53:05] Brian Wiedman: Yeah. So I'm, you know, the, the, you know, it, it depends on who has passed away. We had the Murphy Anderson, you know, um, uh, collection, which was, and he kept everything. Um, but it, it really depends on, on what the artists themselves have held on to. Um, Kevin, we've had a bunch of Kevin's stuff because he's given it to us.
[00:53:28] Brian Wiedman: And, you know, it's been from the personal collection of. of Kevin Eastman, so I don't know what else he still has, but it keeps coming because I mean, it would be nice to be an artist and to me be able to, I wish I could draw more than just stick figures because I could just print, I could just draw money every time I do something, you know what I mean?
[00:53:47] Brian Wiedman: It's, I wish I had Kevin's talent. I just draw money. You know, anytime he puts pen to paper, he makes money. It's, it's a.
[00:53:57] Badr: He's just like Todd McFarlane, it's like, he can print money, he literally has the power
[00:54:01] Brian Wiedman: to print money. Yes, he literally has a printing press at his fingertips.
[00:54:05] Badr: Next up on my list is this John Byrne Wolverine illustration.
[00:54:09] Badr: Original art from 1979. Uh, it's also colored, looks beautiful. Uh, you know, John Byrne drawing X Men, Wolverine. It's current bid is at 550, which... Once again for a 1979 drawing by John Byrne, you know, original art. It looks awesome. It is, what is it, 10, it's basically, let's call it 10 by eight. The 10 by eight piece of
[00:54:29] Brian Wiedman: artwork.
[00:54:30] Brian Wiedman: I'm not a personally, I'm not a fan of, of convention sketches. I, I try and go for, you know, published items. But, uh, again, that's what people, a lot of people like. And if you're gonna do that, go for this one, because for sure it's got the yellow costume. He, they've already shown the yellow costume's gonna be in Deadpool.
[00:54:48] Brian Wiedman: Good point. It's gonna be, it's a big deal.
[00:54:50] Badr: I don't know, Brian. You said you weren't an investment consultant, but you've already kind of given us a lot of good gems
[00:54:57] Brian Wiedman: so far. I just tell you, if you like it, get it. I'm not saying that you should get it because of value, but get it while you
[00:55:03] Badr: can. Alright, this is, uh, this is one of the last two items, and I promise what we'll
[00:55:09] Brian Wiedman: be doing.
[00:55:09] Brian Wiedman: You said there were two items twice ago. I know, Brian, but
[00:55:13] Badr: it's so... I told you, I spent hours going through this auction lot, and I was like, I don't think I... Can do three, you know, I had the same problem and you had, I had the same problem, except for I was the boss in the situation. I was like, bought her pick three items, boss.
[00:55:26] Badr: I can't do that. Here's 20. The one I'm currently showing is a Dave Gibbons Watchman movie concept illustration that features. Basically the whole cast. You got Night Owl, Roshak, and Ozymandias. Um, original artwork by Dave Gibbons for, uh, the movie concept, like some movie concept illustration. It looks fantastic.
[00:55:47] Badr: And once again, another like original piece of art that, you know, the bid is, is reasonable. It's currently at 625
[00:55:53] Brian Wiedman: bucks. For now, it's reasonable. Yes. And again, who knows what it's going to be like in two weeks, but, uh, you know, I couldn't afford a cover. I couldn't even think of affording a Watchmen cover.
[00:56:05] Brian Wiedman: Those go for hundreds of thousands.
[00:56:06] Badr: When I first started getting into, like, collecting comic books, why, which was maybe, I don't know, 15 years ago, Watchmen was just like, even then, uh, Watchmen was like, in my eyes, in my group, uh, circle of friends, Watchmen was like our holy grail. We were looking for any issues we could find.
[00:56:26] Badr: So to imagine that I could probably possibly, you know, bid on this and, and own a piece of watch for an original art by Dave Gibbons is awesome. This particular piece though, uh, like I said, is, uh, for the movie concept illustration. So it's from 2009. It's about 15, uh, by 10, which is a good size. You could get a nice little frame for that.
[00:56:43] Badr: Yeah. That's a nice piece. Yeah, it is. It looks awesome. Last but not least. And it kind of ties back to what you said about your own drawing skills, uh, Brian. And this might be the most, uh, you know, out of all the cool stuff I showed, this next one, um, made me a little emotional, brought a little tear to my eye.
[00:56:59] Badr: You guys have a Stan Lee Spider Man sketch. Original art, it's not dated, but it's signed by Stan Lee. I heard he
[00:57:06] Brian Wiedman: hated doing this because he thought he was terrible at it.
[00:57:10] Badr: In a weird way, it's got his, like, style. Like, this It does, yeah. Yeah, you know, like, how how casual it is, how kinda cool the the the hands on the hip, the one leg up.
[00:57:20] Badr: It's got it's just, like, got his style just embedded into it. Uh, and it's currently at 125 bucks. I I say currently because, I don't know, I feel like this you know, it's It's a Stan Lee sketch. I don't know how often you see that.
[00:57:34] Brian Wiedman: Not very often. We had a comic book come through which, which had a, um, a Spider Man face on it that he did.
[00:57:42] Brian Wiedman: And the client said, oh, it's going to be worth 10, 000. And I said, not a chance. And that's kind of where I learned I gotta stop, I gotta worry about saying not a chance. Because then two weeks later, it was at 10, 000. You know, I, I don't know, you know, it's, you know, no matter what I say about being an expert, I'm still, you know, there's still so much I need to learn.
[00:58:03] Brian Wiedman: You know, even I've been doing this now, my whole life, comic books has been my whole life and I still don't know anything, you know, that's, that's the humbling part about the show, you know, or about, about working at Heritage is I learned something new all the time.
[00:58:19] Badr: If you don't know anything about comics, I don't even want to think about where I'm at on that scale right there.
[00:58:25] Badr: If you weren't doing comic books, if you weren't a comic book assignment director and having all this fun, you know, finding comics and helping sell them, what other category or fandom would you be this passionate about?
[00:58:38] Brian Wiedman: Historical. I love history. So when I see things, you know, like I got to auction off the first flag that landed on you, uh, D day, uh, on Omaha beach.
[00:58:49] Brian Wiedman: Wow. I got to auction off an Enigma machine. I got to auction off the flag that was sitting on the Nagamoto when I said Tora Tora Tora to bomb Pearl Harbor. Those are the things I would love to see. I love history. Wow,
[00:59:03] Badr: great answer. Great answer. That was a lot of fun. Thank you for, uh, you know, putting up with my, my 20 item list, but, um, yeah, you guys have some awesome stuff.
[00:59:13] Badr: I'm really excited to see where, you know, where some of these bids land. I'll definitely be tuning in live and to anyone that is listening. Like I said, I'm gonna have a link. To the auction. You could take a look at all of the items and, and, you know, maybe make some bids, let us know if you make a bid.
[00:59:28] Badr: Brian, I just want to say thank you so much for your time and sharing all the things you've shared. You shared some great stories. This is the part where you can shamelessly plug anything you want. If you've got anything else going on, or if you want to share any words, anything else, and in terms of what makes this particular auction so special, I pass it over to you, good sir.
[00:59:45] Brian Wiedman: I just appreciate having me on. It was very fun. I love doing things like this. Uh, if you need to see anything at the auction, you can just go to ha. com. Uh, 72, or was it a forward slash 7, 2, 4, 4 should be it. I think. 7341, sorry. I'm still stuck on last year. That was last year, 7241. Um, but, um, you know, it's been a lot of fun.
[01:00:13] Brian Wiedman: Like, like, you know, you said you could lose yourself for hours just looking through stuff. Uh, that's, that's very true. I do it all the time. So part of, part of the job, but just part of, cause I'm shameless and I love doing it. So I'm addicted to collecting like all you guys are.
[01:00:31] Badr: That's what made you such a fantastic, a perfect choice to kick off this new season of the show.
[01:00:37] Badr: Um, like I said, it's been extremely, extremely insightful, uh, talking with you and, and Brian, one, one thing real quick, I'm gonna help you out with the shameless plug. Cause I believe you mentioned there is a dedicated, uh, Instagram page for heritage auction comics, but I think you're, you're also on Instagram to sharing like comic book.
[01:00:55] Badr: Yeah.
[01:00:55] Brian Wiedman: So you can get a, uh, Get a, um, hold of me on heritage as heritage comics grader. Um, I started that kind of on my own. I kind of got in trouble for it a little bit. Uh, but, uh, I did that because I just wanted to show stuff that was coming across my desk, you know, um, you know, here and there. So I show things that, you know, things I've gotten in, um, you know, items that, that people might not get to see on a normal basis.
[01:01:23] Brian Wiedman: I'm, I'm like a museum, just showing, showing things off. None of it's mine, really. Every once in a really long while, I say, hey, look what I picked up. But truth of the matter is 99. 9 percent of its collections that, that have come in the
[01:01:36] Badr: door. I love the honesty, and I'll put a link to that in the show notes as well so people can give you a follow.
[01:01:41] Badr: But Brian, this has been great. I can't wait to be watching the auction and share this with the rest of the world. You have a good night, my friend.
[01:01:48] Brian Wiedman: Thank you.
[01:01:50] Badr: Well, there you have it, Shortbox Nation. That's the end of the show. Alright, if you enjoyed this episode, if you love what we're doing, and you want to help us spread the word, Do me a favor and share this episode with a friend or someone you know that loves comics as much as we do.
[01:02:05] Badr: Maybe you know someone that's into heritage auctions or really into comic collecting and buying and this is right up their alley. Do me a favor, share this episode with that friend or family member or whoever it may be. And if you're feeling extra generous, feel free to leave us a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
[01:02:21] Badr: Maybe you don't know anyone, you know, in real life that loves comics as much as you do, but you leaving a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify helps us ensure that we get this show to the folks that do love comics as much as you do. And as far as next week, if everything works out, we're having Daniel Warren Johnson on the show next week, and I'm playing it cool right now, but trust me when I say I am a stupid excited to have Daniel Warren Johnson on the podcast.
[01:02:50] Badr: We're going to be talking about his upcoming Transformers series. That's coming out through Skybound and Image. There's no way if you are collecting or reading, uh, comics currently, or, or, or if you're into, if you're saying you're into comic books, you definitely have seen the news of Daniel Warren and the hype behind this series.
[01:03:08] Badr: It's going to be epic and he's going to be on the show talking with us about that. So that's what we got in store for you next week. You'll want to, you know, just come back to the podcast feed. However you're listening to this, just come back to that next week for that awesome episode. Um, if you can't wait that long, we are going to be dropping some more bonus episodes and we're going to do a another live stream for Patreon.
[01:03:28] Badr: So this is a good time to join our Patreon for extra episodes, bonus episodes, and all these extra perks that our patrons get to enjoy. That's patreon. com slash the short box. Sign up for a month, see if it's a good fit for you. Regardless, we got some awesome stuff coming to you for this season. Thank you guys so much for tuning in.
[01:03:46] Badr: And if you're still here, you're, you're among my favorite, right? If you're still listening, consider yourself in my favorites. In the meantime, take care of yourselves. Go read your comic books and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll talk to you next week. Peace.
