barneythecantankerous

Not to go over the more sensitive topic which triggered a lot of folks, but there was a fascinating documentary I saw sometime ago, about the Freeport in Switzerland which the more affluent use to store and hide away their art collections. It touches on how some art which was STOLEN/LOOTED (not bought, y'all are being way too generous) during the occupation may be stored there. I'm giving the worst description ever, but it's a great documentary: As a European I can tell you unequivocally this supposed law about paying artists is codswallop. No one does this and there's a myriad of ways around it. So just move on from that because it's a non-starter. One major issue I have with this topic is that everyone wants to point to the 1% of pieces which sell at eyewatering prices. What about all of the art that never makes back it's original price? Or all the subpar pieces which go for a few hundred bucks? Or just consistently break even? Because those are in the majority.

Yes I've also had flaky responses. So just went around them, as I got answers quicker directly from the artists.

As my CAF description points out, I reveal everything, especially commissions as I think it's important people out there set appropriate expectations. Having CAF as a new collector, who mostly started out with commissions, I found that kind of stuff incredibly useful. I absolutely get why 99% want to only post gems and can respect that decision but as a resource there's no point pretending some artists only output diamonds. There is an irony I love that the majority of this hobby are boomers, who most likely complain about the over sensitivity of millennials and gen z, but a couple of emails send them completely over the edge and cause them to not want to post pieces. That's one hell of an overreaction to emails that you need not read or respond to and take seconds to delete...

Couldn't you make the argument that collectors buying up an entire issue is greedy? Which seems to be very common place today and especially with some recent titles I feel people are operating speculatively, one that comes to mind is The Department of Truth. But I'm sure to these individuals their counter point would be that they're just "protecting their investment". It's been a while since I backed something on Kickstarter but I don't think you can just choose X of a reward. So these dealers were potentially going well out of their way to gouge collectors. I think they responded the right way personally, because once you commit to launching a Kickstarter you can't just easily walk it back but $2,500 for a random piece is still a massive gamble IMO (but then I don't know his market).

Don't use them, at all. Storing art in portfolios will absolutely not result in the same issues - putting them in toploaders is a more guaranteed way of trying to cause damage though. From causing unintended damage because of how tight the opening is, so getting art in and out of them, to how they retain moisture. I definitely recommend checking out the Itoya Advantage line over the Profolio, as they present beautifully (as a much stronger/cleaner kind of plastic is used); get a 13x19, not a 11x17 (as pages tend to be way too snug and will sit kind of wavy once you fill it up); and something I do with the art I want to flip through and keep in a portfolio is put the art into a plastic sleeve, with a piece of thin cut to size mat board (that's archival, acid-free, yadayada), not as a mount but to act as a backing board; and centered on the black lining paper with framing corners (to stop the art shifting around and add to that presentation feel).

Every so often (meaning when I remember every few years) I checkout what original art that MyComicShop has available and it is typically pretty weak. However over the last couple of months it looks like they're now starting to get slightly better consignments through, out of curiosity has anyone bought anything interesting from MCS? Also if you were a consignor what prompted you to go with them over the larger auction houses like Heritage and CLink?

Yes, I see the change, great work Nico! Out of curiosity, was it an issue with cookies? As when I do look at the updates from the Gmail app it looks like I'm signed into CAT. I'm not seeing the cookie notice issue though, I wonder if that's something related to the browser on iPhone doing something weird with the CSS?

I've learned to live it and I'm on Android and use Gmail. I think the problem is (just using the Gmail app as an example) that at least in Android it uses a new and separate web browser context, rather than one which is shared with the chrome app. So whilst you might be signed in on the chrome browser app the Gmail app doesn't/shouldn't have access to other contexts. I'm not quite sure what that means for cookies though! I guess one way around this is to have the update be some kind of unique link instead, so rather than being signed in anyone can view the URL?

Because forums are outdated today, especially as they typically tend to be cesspools filled with nepotism, so they're a difficult entry point for new participants, and they're a pretty poor way of keeping up to date. Keep in mind this forum is very negative of dealers and they make up the majority of CAFs business and live shows, which is probably why a lot of shade is thrown this way.

Directly from artists and auctions.

This just popped up on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dondart/permalink/628728355430112/

I got some over-sized art (about 18" x 24") which I've done 6 scans of; cropped; and stitched together but don't really know how to get rid of the shadows around the stitched areas - does anyone have any advice? FWIW I'm using GIMP for the editing

Look at how many flyby night dealers and reps popup; the FOMO YouTube/Facebook/WhatNot streams; the constant enthusiasm and buzz about prices; heck even the flip thread... The fourth point you've missed is investment

A lot of folks frequently criticise these guys and ultimately to everyone upset with them the reality is you just have to suck it up. No amount of complaining about them is going to get them to drop their prices or change anything. They bought the absolute ugliest Mike Dringenberg Sandman piece I've ever seen and managed to flip that in just a couple of months of it being at auction. The biggest reality check we all need is this business model works for them. Yes, even with them touching up art, people don't give a mess and still buy from them. :shrugs: The cost of running a site that looks as bad and outdated as theirs is really not that much today either, so I doubt their overheads are that much that they probably don't mind holding onto a lot of the art. I don't know them, nor do I care to, it's just my observation, rightly or wrongly. I frequently use the wayback machine and am shocked by the amount of stuff I regularly find still out there for a number of reps and dealers. Yet they still won't budge on 10 year old art for a now forgotten indie series. It's irritating but all sellers are guilty of setting arbitrary prices in their heads they don't want to let go of, regardless of stuff not moving or auction results proving their pricing wrong.

This is the email address of his art dealer: davidceci.fisio@gmail.com There's also a newsletter he sends out every so often with artwork available from Gab. I haven't received one in a while, so not sure what the situation is, but he was very quick to respond. So hopefully he can help you out!

To be completely honest with you I fail to see what your offering brings that a bog standard site checker app, Chrome extension, etc. offers already at a significant fraction of the cost. Sometimes even free. It's way overpriced compared to what's out there already. As someone else mentioned, this is offered free with a CAF premium membership, i.e. an email when site updates go live for search terms in your want list. It's even still there for a free membership, just a few hours delayed.

Apologies if I'm reaching or overstepping but if your WonderCon commission was with Babs Tarr, I've never commissioned her personally, but I have read and heard about some awful experiences, so I would just push for a refund. If it was Tula Lotay you shouldn't worry - that doesn't take away from you wanting to vent, because it's no less frustrating, but she will come through... If I'm wrong about either, WOOPS! I think most of us who do commissions have a story or frustration, so I decided to set some boundaries and parameters for myself when I organise them now. All of this stuff you hear about contracts, paying afterwards, etc. is just codswallop, it's just not how things are done or unique opportunities come along and you just don't have much control. My biggest thing though - always use a credit card to pay, NEVER in cash and even if through PayPal, use your CC, never funds. That way even if you are pressured to use F&F you're still protected if you want/need to pursue a chargeback. In most of these situations the reality is most of us are forced to wait and sit feeling annoyed, then receive bittersweet art, so I do hope things get resolved or you're able to pursue a refund and start setting boundaries for yourself when it comes to future commissions!

Looking for pages and even covers from the Geoff Johns Green Lantern work, including Rebirth

Right off the bat, apologies if this is in the wrong section, after a bit of poking around this felt like the right place! Last December I sent ComicLink a bunch of slabbed comics, art and a single ungraded comic. I was told, albeit without a lot of detail, that the unslabbed comic could be graded on my behalf and then put into auction. Since then I've asked a handful of times about what is happening with the ungraded comic and I either get completely ignored or the question gets dodged (I've had to reach out about other auctions and the question gets completely unanswered). I even CCed other departments the last time I asked and just got a blanket "we have no updates". Is this kind of dismissiveness normal from CLink? It's not as if I'm asking weekly and pressuring them, since December I've reached out three times about it and I've got absolutely no details - they haven't even told me if it's submitted.

Are those DPs taped using archival materials? As you're wasting your time storing it in mylar if it's been stuck using some random tape from the dollar store, as acid-free plastic isn't going to stop cheap adhesive potentially damaging the paper/artwork. @Jay Sing whether you decide to store or frame, I would always start out by looking into what the situation is with the tape, because it does have the potential to cause long term damage if it's not archival and isn't removed. You could go to a restorationist to make sure it's removed and cleaned up properly, but that's probably overkill. The brand Lineco does a whole range of archival adhesive products, depending on your preferences.

The EU brought in legislation so that VAT is collected at PoS. This was decided back in 2016 but only introduced last year. It could be that border force in France is strict about this or, more likely, the seller filled in the customs documentation incorrectly, they needed to contact one of you, but couldn't, and the package got sent back. The package will most likely have a sticker with the reason on it.

I checked with David at Spanishhq already and from what I can tell Splashpage has never listed any of the issue #0 art. On a sidenote, I recently stumbled across your site (before this post!) and I think it's absolutely fantastic that you've devoted your personal time to this effort and hopefully helping out so many collectors Oh I know, I'm just wondering if there is somewhere else Spanish collectors are sharing their art and that's perhaps why I haven't seen the pages I'm looking for! Thanks for the reminder! I do have a tracker setup but haven't updated it in a while!

There's several Spanish artists I've been trying to track down pages from and I've been turning over every stone I can to find them. I've been through their reps, managed to make direct contact, scour CAF, 2dgallery, HA, webarchive, most of the bigger Facebook groups but there is zero trace of these pages! Based on my searches it doesn't seem like they have done conventions outside of Spain either, so I'm unsure whether these pages have traveled overseas. So I'm wondering, is there somewhere I haven't looked where Spanish collectors are hanging out, that I've yet to find?! P.S. the artists in question are Kano (issue #0), Jesus Saiz (issue #23.1) and Javier Pina (annual #2), in relation to some of their work on New 52 Swamp Thing.

Nobody is salty apart from yourself given most of your responses. I think the piece is ugly, hence why I didn't make an offer to the original owner when they contacted me. But that's irrelevant. Because as I stated, I made the post so anyone considering purchasing the piece is aware. As Coolines did not bother to mention anything about the added logo or show pictures without, one can only assume that the intention is to deceive.

I'm a huge fan of the series but wasn't collecting art when the volume 1 and 2 pages were on sale. I've been lucky enough to pickup a number of volume 3 pages but if you have any pages you would consider selling (or maybe even trading), HMU! I mostly want to make up for my lack of volume 1 and 2 pages, so those are the priority, but I'd also consider volume 3 pages.