Tom Strong's Terrific Tales - Book Two, wraparound cover

I love win-win situations. Although this one certainly started out as anything BUT.

When my buddy AJ told me he was inspired by my Adams collection to go out and get a nice piece of his own, I was both excited AND nervous (the last thing I needed was MORE competition for Arthur's stuff). While he is almost as much of an Adams fans as I am (if not moreso), he had never really been an art collector. But he said that after seeing all the Adams art in my gallery, he decided he should have at least one nice piece by his favorite artist.

After this piece showed up on ebay, I got an email from AJ asking what I thought of it. Of course by then, the cover to the first volume had already been in my gallery. I guess he wanted to see if I liked it or not, and if I had any intention of going after it. When I told him that I liked the first one better and that this one would probably go for a lot more (because it was an auction instead of the fixed price I paid for mine at WonderCon), that's when he revealed to me he was going for it.

Long story short, he ended up barely winning the piece and we both celebrated. Then, the twist of fate! Have I mentioned already how much I love those? AJ had been looking for a new job for some time. He had already applied to several companies and some of them were out of state. Here's where the win-win part comes in. He was recently offered a position with one of the out of state companies and decided to accept the job and relocate. That's HIS win. MY win came from his decision to part with this piece and instead use the money to help with his relocation.

So I guess congratulations are in order for both of us! Good luck with the new job (and the move) buddy! And of course, thanks for this new addition to my Adams collection. I suppose when you're raking in the big bucks, you'll want to buy it back, huh? :)