LastRaven

Finally was able to add a bunch of stuff to my galleries. Weirdly, in the same week I picked up both a cover to Transformers Galaxies 12 and the last page of the book. Also really pleased with the large Prime shot I picked up.

I like fiddling around with my pieces. Sometimes if I'm getting too many inquiries / questions, I take stuff down just for my own sanity. I kind of wish we could assign something to multiple galleries. For example, I would like to just have an "oops all Optimus Prime" gallery or "Combiners" room just to mix it up without having to repost since I take pics on my phone and it can be annoying. Plus it helps with the "one piece per room" issue where something may fit into my Combiners or Commissions gallery, but without some more options, it ends up as a single piece in its own room. Right now I have a "catch all" room for Transformers and one for "other" pieces. I'll break out the "other" pieces into Earthworm Jim once I post a few more things. But some of the "other" pieces are truly random like an AP that was (in theory) colored by Jerry Robinson. That doesn't fit my collection and other rooms.

I was able to pick up a trio of pages from an auction for Transformers' most recent reboots from Andrew Griffith. Not a huge fan of the newest series' writing, but I'm trying to complete my published pages for Transformers combiners. So far, I have 3 (Devastator, Superion, and Predaking). I'm still looking for Victorion, Bruticus, and a few others. The other two pages I felt were really great moments in the comic with some nice art.

CAF Update for me recently with some art that's been finally allowed into my house. Transformers 84 Issue 3 pg. 3 with the "big bads" of the Transformers Universe - Thunderwing, Straxus, and Scorponok. Ebay pickup, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I have a reason for saying that. Removing money from the crypto system may cause capital gains or other taxes to kick in for US folks. Leaving the money in crypto has value. A lot of people don't have crypto and most (until recently) comic art vendors don't take crypto either. If I want to buy something with crypto gains, it gets sticky. It's like selling stock to buy a car. You end up losing money to taxes because of the way it's currently taxed. Literally every time you turn crypto into USD to buy something, it's a taxable event. In fact, up to 20%. Even buying on a website (for example) that takes crypto would be the same thing. You get taxed on top of whatever state's sales tax. https://news.yahoo.com/irs-taxes-cryptocurrency-avoid-paying-113330009.html https://blog.blockonomics.co/do-tax-rules-apply-to-bitcoin-purchased-items-d95f212d2145 So... Let's say you want to buy that sweet vintage OA with your crypto, you have to take an up to 20% hit on your crypto profits, which could be a sizable amount of the sale. Do taxes, etc. That kind of sucks. Depending on how long you held the crypto it affects the tax rate.

Well... It won't draw money away from vintage. The reason being that there's a lot of people with a lot of wealth parked in cryptos. That's what's needed (to a degree) to buy the art. It's easier to exchange like for like.

I watched the show last night and I will say it was very informative. It definitely opened up my eyes to a whole new field. I don't think a few hours of googling makes me the most educated to speak on this, but your thought is like saying I will force you to get a COA when your art didn't come with one. It obviously doesn't have any real meaning to you and you can't be forced, coerced, or even given a COA in this context without a few things happening. Some people might "want" a COA though and that's their prerogative. It'd be like buying a modern Neil Adams sketch and it not coming with his sticker. It'd devalue it if you think it should have come with one. If it doesn't, it doesn't and that might affect the value. It might not. There's a bit of alarmist attitude as well I see in the thread, but really, there's not much to be worried about at this time. Long story short, that's a pretty gross misunderstanding of the topic if you'd feel threatened enough to take your art down. It's not like they're going to steal your OA picture, tokenize it, and say that yours is not legit or legal or something. What MAY happen is that let's say Charles Shultz's estate (just randomly picking something) may issue a token attached to each piece of art they have, so when they do sell it, they get a kickback based on the digital contract you "sign" when buying the art or maybe they'd tie in something else. I don't know. Before you get up in arms about signing a contract to buy art, people do this A LOT with a number of kinds of assets. Even art. Contractual obligations when buying dogs, art, etc. have existed for quite some time. For example, in fine art, the gallery or dealer may have a right of first refusal when you (the buyer) are reselling a painting. Is this legal? "Maybe" and it depends on the contract terms. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/galleries-legal-resale-clauses-1924336 http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/spencer/spencers-art-law-journal-9-2-11.asp The point is that attaching a contract to fine art is not unusual, but also is not common for comic OA. That the contract "lives" with the art is kind of the novel idea and the fact that the contract itself serves multiple purposes from kicking back to the artist (or their estate) upon a sale or transfer to serving as a pseudo-COA is quite creative. Would this alienate some collectors? I believe so. But some people will pay and do anything or sign anything to get what they want. If the contract is onerous, it will (accordingly) devalue the art. If the contract essentially said, "you kick back 50% to the original artist", I imagine that'd be a tough pill to swallow.

One of my goals is to go from a stack of pages in a binder to actually having the art displayed. I think a big part of that for me is actually acquiring original pages that are actually "displayable". Guido Guidi, who does a lot of Transformers art, does a LOT of great, displayable pieces, but I'd like to branch out from that particular artist since I feel I've "over collected" (is that a thing?) his art. Though, I'd never turn down a great splash or cover from him. I think I have maybe 5 pieces of comic art in my collection that's been published that I'd consider as good display pieces (i.e., no context needed to understand / appreciate). I'd definitely like to get an "original marvel run" of Transformers piece that's nicer to look at.

I often wonder this myself on how to price a "premium" OA thing like that. I mean, looking through ha.com, I see that recently we have had sales for #4-5 go for 4-6k (with a turtle) or 1.5k (without a turtle). I can only imagine that it'd be close to 10-15k per page, but that's pure baseless, wild speculation. I think it would be in Kevin's hands still, but I know most of the stuff he let go of. Right now, for example Transformers (which is about the same age, but the art is IMO not as good as the TMNT) you could pick up a cover a year ago for somewhere in the 4-5k range. Pages are in the $2-300ish range (now) for a medium page. A pretty good page might be $500-$1k range. When it comes to issues 1-4? I have no idea. I just know that people have a death grip sometimes and certain collectors scooped it up years ago.

This was pretty fun. I will say that I did fork out for two pieces of Transformers Issue 2 from Chuck. I think it was worth it for what I did pay, but I do have an impulse control issue, haha. Next time, probably won't pull the trigger so fast, but sometimes, you gotta roll with it. Other than that, I didn't see much as a pure Transformers OA collector. I think some people are winding up for a few big TF pieces coming up in the near future. I didn't sell anything because I generally keep my stuff to a one way street. Maybe I will next time, IDK. Not a huge fan of selling and would rather trade cash + art for my wants since they're particularly based on subject matter rather than artist.

Yeah, Chuck you had some pieces that were definitely new to me I did see some stuff that's been offered before in what I was looking at, but were hardly new or priced to sell. I just stayed away from it. I'm generally of the philosophy that if I have the money and I am in the market at the time, I buy what I can. Lots of stuff you just know you won't have the opportunity to pick up again.

Kind of sort of. I got a piece last week as a gift from my brother. Had been collecting over the last 10 yrs or so, but the gift spurred me to update. He bought a Kupperberg piece and "forgot" about it until he moved recently and "traded it" (lol) for something I bought "for" him. https://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1675625&GSub=115839

CAF Update: After about 8 or so years, I got off my lazy butt and decided to update my pieces. Good to be back. https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetailsearch.asp?yr=2020&gcat=50036

I'm picking back up in collecting again and wanted to see if anyone had IDW "Phase One" art for sale (pre-reboot). In particular, I'm looking for art with the following characters / from the below series: Sixshot (Spotlight one shot) Combiners (e.g., Devastator, Predaking, Superion, Victorion, etc.) Art from Nick Roche (Wreckers, etc.) Art from Guido Guidi Thanks! Not super huge on trades for now, but maybe in the future as I get my collection in order or if you have something very particular that would pique my interest.

Ugh, I still can't find a Nick Roche piece from Transformers. I was somewhat ok with it because he only did cons or something, which is fine. Then I saw a whole bunch of his stuff showing up on Comic Art Fans... Now I'm not ok.

If you're looking for some historic prices on OA, you could try ha.com . They have prices for OA gone to auction. For example... #35 went for $239 in 2010. You do have to sign in to see the older prices. http://www.ha.com/common/search_results.php?Ntk=SI_Titles&Ntt=cheryl%20blossom&Nty=1&N=790+231+52+1067&chkNotSold=0 I don't know much about the series, but since Dan DeCarlo was the artist on both. I would assume they may go for similar prices but that looks to be on the high end from this set of results, though they are older and the art market has been changing. Each piece is unique, so you may pay more or less depending on the seller, but that should give you a good starting clue. Also, try contacting people on comicartfans.com who have similar pieces. You will probably not find it on short order and it will take a bit of time, but with some legwork you may come into contact with someone who may know about it. Feel free to ask more questions. There are also a number of vendors who may sell such items and some of their listings can be found on comicartfans on the sidebar. For example, there is a cover over at coollines.com http://www.coollinesartwork.com/featured.asp?Piece=281032

I do agree. Honestly, protecting your art and having an "exit strategy" isn't a bad idea because people do get bored or lose passion or sometimes have to give up pieces to make ends meet in tough times. It happens and maybe the stuff you collect today might be the pieces you sell to fund your interests 10 years from now. Connections aren't just great for potential sellers in the future, but potential sellers to you as well. It's good to have friends in the hobby with your interests! Also, I would tend to think that a fellow collector might provide a handy alternative to eBay or auction routes (but give them a break off the price ). However, collecting with the intent of selling isn't my goal and I'd be reluctant to sell my items to someone who has that intent. I don't agree with fresh to market mentality though since I know personally how many pieces on CAF are there I would love to own right now and there are pieces that aren't or may never be that I'd still like to own, but it doesn't change my valuation of them. Maybe it's because I don't spend 10k per page / cover.... but starting small was a way I found the hobby accessible to me. I decided to move up gradually as I learned how to deal with people and what things were worth and who to / not to buy from. I know I made one or two $100 (cost of the error) mistakes early on by buying a few flipped pieces and if I had gone big, that might have been a lot larger mistake (at least on my budget).

Well... Not me, but I am grateful that people were able to indicate that the pieces I was looking for were sold at some point and exist in private collections outside of the artists' hands, so it's just a matter of time. From what I've been reading, there are a few people in the same boat as myself, but no one has reported back in here that they found something.

Here we go! Here's my newest piece on CAF and definitely one of my favorite. So glad I got the chance to buy it and was stoked to get it in the mail today! It's a pic of the Predacons defending China (erroneously referred to the Republic of China instead of the People's Republic of China in the book) from the incursions of Optimus and his skirmish with the constructicons. CAF Page

That sounds awesome! Congrats. I'm looking forward to see that.

That's such a cool idea. Great commissions. The best commissions come from those with the best ideas and this was definitely a pretty great idea.

I see... Oh well, I'll just have to be patient and save my money, heh. That's a pretty sweet page you have there though! Definitely! It'll have to be a dream for awhile longer, heh.

Ah thanks. Oh well, I'll just have to sit on my hands and wait. It was just something I thought I'd throw out there.

I would really like to find TF 27... Something that's been in the back of my mind for a long time as one of the covers I would like to own some day. Also... I wouldn't mind knowing if this exists, even if I can't afford to own it myself. Just the fact that someone has it would be interesting to me.

I just want to add to the discussion this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9105364/Shepard-Fairey-creator-of-Barack-Obama-Hope-poster-admits-destroying-evidence.html Basically, I would put this on the same level as Litch's work. I mean... In essence isn't it very similar? I wish Shepard hadn't done what he did with the evidence and lying though since he's done similar manipulation in the past (Andre the Giant / Obey), which makes it seem like even today this issue is not clearly understood by artists at the very least. Fair use seemed to be muddled about I suppose for legal reasons beyond me. Why the AP got upset is beyond me as well. But you know it's very similar in that the original artist seemed to "work for hire" and the AP decided to sue. Even though the suit was dropped, I'm curious as to how it would have actually turned out.