What ONE piece of art would you be willing to give up your entire collection for

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Well I would have to throw some cash in plus my collection but this is a classic of classics that was burned into my memory when I was a kid. Great art, great story and maybe the best Avengers lineup.

Bah! I Will Show Thee Power!

The way I look at this question is I trade my collection for one page of approximately equal total value. Id this so now I have one piece that is incredible and something I really love and that is it. So what do I do next? Start adding more pages to my collection with the one piece as my start.

As Bronty said for most collectors with collections that took years and years to build you would first have to throw that FMV clause out the window. I've never been a fan of the Mona Lisa and I don't want to be greedy so I'll settle for Van Gogh's Fifteen Sunflowers from the London National Gallery. That is all I need. I'd be happy owning that single piece till I died.

As Bronty said for most collectors with collections that took years and years to build you would first have to throw that FMV clause out the window.

I wouldn't trade my collection for anybody else's, even without the FMV clause, if I couldn't sell the other collection I got. Owning any other collection would not give me as much joy as mine does for the reasons discussed earlier.

That said, if the "no sale" provision were removed on the collection I was receiving, then, sure, I bet there are a few/some collections out there valuable enough to make it worthwhile. It's not like I wouldn't sell my collection at any cost. At the end of the day, the art to me represents a tangible manifestation of my tastes and memories, both of which I will still have even if the art is no longer there. That said, I love actually owning the art...but, at some life-changing level of money, it would be worth giving it up. It would have to be a sum, though.

The way I look at this question is I trade my collection for one page of approximately equal total value. Id this so now I have one piece that is incredible and something I really love and that is it. So what do I do next? Start adding more pages to my collection with the one piece as my start.

This is how I look at it(and would do it, probably for a few pieces actually.) If had to trade my whole collection and then just have that one and only piece forever. The answer would be no. It would be pretty boring no matter what it was.

The way I look at this question is I trade my collection for one page of approximately equal total value. Id this so now I have one piece that is incredible and something I really love and that is it. So what do I do next? Start adding more pages to my collection with the one piece as my start.

This is what I would do, too -- just start again. Although I'd be so tapped, that I may not do so for years. Heck, on second thought, maybe I would just retire from the hobby.

I almost "sold it all" this summer for an Alex Ross pencil piece of the major DC characters that Anthony Synder posted this past summer. Apparently this was a finished pencil piece that Alex Ross used to paint the final image over a light box. Anthony sold it as from a calendar, but I knew it as a poster that was taped on my bedroom wall for years when I was a teenager during the height of my comics mania. That piece has so many check marks that I would have sold what I had to get it. Unfortunately, when that piece popped up I had just blown $1K on art so I didn't have anything left for a down payment. He posted the piece a day before his road trip to San Diego and I knew it wasn't going to last. He was selling it for a "mere" $2.5K. If it did survive San Diego Comic Con I was going to gun it. But sure enough, it was no longer available halfway through the week.

One other thing, it makes sense how veteran collectors decades into the hobby wouldn't trade it all for one piece. I never thought about it but at this point, these are carefully curated collections. For someone like me, only 4 years into the hobby in three month, with a "small" collection of about 50 published and carefully selected non-published pieces, it would be easier for me to let it all go because I can easily find examples of what I already have.

P.S. +1 on the Batman 497 cover!

Could I be ok with parting with most of the collection? Sure. Not sure that I could easily whittle it down to a single piece.

i think i would part with my collection ,but would keep 3 pieces because they have really personal meanig for me, for the andru/giordano superman vs spiderman cover :-)....

i think i would part with my collection ,but would keep 3 pieces because they have really personal meanig for me, for the andru/giordano superman vs spiderman cover :-)....

Thats definately a good one in my book. I recall coming across that on Albert Moy's site a few years ago - but it was already sold (not that I could have afforded it at the time). I later asked Albert about it. He said it was $65,000. He thought the price was high and a risky price for someone to pay.

I think (feel free to chime in if you got an opinion) that today 65k seems low for this iconic piece.

If there was no FMV limitation in place, and we're living in a complete dream of an alternate universe, sure there's a chance that even a small collector like myself could be convinced to trade for one large famous piece. For me it would likely be the quadruple cover to Jim Lee's X-Men 1. That piece would be a top 5 all time nostalgic favorite for me as well as a valuable and liquid piece that can be moved easily should the need arise to sell in an emergency.

Realistically however, as many have stated, there is no single piece that would be able to replace the amount of nostalgia present in a multi-piece collection. being relatively

If there was no FMV limitation in place, and we're living in a complete dream of an alternate universe, sure there's a chance that even a small collector like myself could be convinced to trade for one large famous piece. For me it would likely be the quadruple cover to Jim Lee's X-Men 1. That piece would be a top 5 all time nostalgic favorite for me as well as a valuable and liquid piece that can be moved easily should the need arise to sell in an emergency.

This was going to be my answer.

If there was no FMV limitation in place, and we're living in a complete dream of an alternate universe, sure there's a chance that even a small collector like myself could be convinced to trade for one large famous piece. For me it would likely be the quadruple cover to Jim Lee's X-Men 1. That piece would be a top 5 all time nostalgic favorite for me as well as a valuable and liquid piece that can be moved easily should the need arise to sell in an emergency.

 

This was going to be my answer.

Same for me OR it may be the newsstand cover for Superman 75

Give me the cover OA to Tales of Suspense #49 (Iron Man but guest-starring the Angel) and I'm good. I'll take the paintings off of the walls, give you my portfolios, and we'll call it even. You'll lose money on the deal but, hey, you'll have made a fellow collector very happy.

It's all nostalgia. Many years ago, my much older cousin had one wall of his bedroom lined with old comics -- before he hauled them all off to the dump, a couple of years later -- and he let me read the first comic he pulled out. It was, of course, ToS #49.

I was, maybe, ten, and the nearly-powerless Angel somehow grabbed my attention. I was a comics fan before the last page turned. An X-Men/Angel fan, too, but only old school; you know, the team that no one else cared about, the one that didn't set any sales records.

So, yeah, that one cover, I'm done.

A few months ago, I couldn't think of any one piece that fit this thread, but this might be it!

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1406550&GSub=0&GCat=5699&UCat=5699

On 1/10/2017 at 3:17 PM, jjonahjameson1 said:

 

I would trade my collection for Joe Le's collection in a heartbeat. Joe, if you're reading this, get in touch with me! Same goes for Mike Burkey's collection, Eric Roberts, and Dave Mandel. Not to mention the collections of a few local collectors here in Toronto ( you know who you are)

I see you set your sites low.

John Byrne's X-Men 115 DPS Wolverine vs Sauron would take my collection! 

Of course, it would not be a fair trade for it's owner. 

I would call it a day and never buy another piece after reaching that mountain top!

When I first got into original art collecting as a teen, the general consensus was that the pinnacle of the hobby was a Byrne X-Men cover, Kirby FF cover or a Frankenstein plate (Miller DD covers just fell short - they might have been #4 on that list - and DKR/Watchmen/Killing Joke pages were still finding their footing, as hard as that is to believe).  

I could probably turn down a Frankenstein plate as much as I admire them because it doesn't scratch that particular nostalgia itch, and, although I wouldn't ask for something as unrealistic as FF 1 or X-Men 137, I would consider a really good example from either.  Don't know if I'd ultimately pull that trigger though.  I do have a handful of pieces (grails? - I know we hate the word grail when used for more than one) it took me 25 years to locate, so my collection is quite personal and geared to my own specific loves...  

I would for the cover to Batman 612 - and never look back.

12 minutes ago, Thawk said:

I would for the cover to Batman 612 - and never look back.

I think I have that somewhere around here.  I think I was using it as a coaster....

Scott

2 hours ago, stinkininkin said:

I think I have that somewhere around here.  I think I was using it as a coaster....

Scott

Right next to the "Only an Android Can Cry" splash used as a placemat.