Expensive Missing Artist

This is a piece of original comic book art that's currently up for auction on eBay. If you notice, the piece is not signed, and the seller doesn't know the identity of the aritst(s). In fact, the seller doesn't know anything about the piece at all! Where it comes from, where it may have been published or in what capacity, or if it was even published at all! He suggests possibly Ditko or Kirby, but it's clearly neither. (Maybe he just threw those names out there to get some additional hits from people searching for those artists?) He also suggests it's from the 1960s, but a couple people I know (and I wholy agree with them) say it looks to be no older than the mid-1970s at most.

If you have ideas, I'm sure folks would be interested, BUT that's not why I'm posting this. I'm posting this because the seller has set the price tag for this piece at $3,000!!! I just can't figure how you can even begin to justify asking for that kind of money for a piece that you can't identify in any way. If it were a proven Kirby or Ditko piece, sure, but one that is clearly not either of them and could well be from no one of any significance in comics? I can't imagine anyone paying even half that amount for this!

It's not a terrible piece of art, a little internally inconsistent with regard to the inking , but not appreciably worse than a lot of known published comic art. But I could get a new version of this piece commissioned from any number of named artists for quite a bit less than $3,000. It doesn't look like he deals much in original art, but would you randomly throw a four-figure price tag on a piece you knew nothing about?

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