800 still sounds ridiculous to me purely because you can get a fairly decent original page for that price. No contest. I'm not that into detailed sketch covers myself, purely because in the majority there is no big gulf between them and the originals. There are cases for some artists like Neal Adams where even though his sketches are very expensive there is a jump when it comes to his OA.
I still think they are better for quick sketches than a sheet of A4 paper if there isn't an option for anything else.
Still if you want to go as far as to break it down that auction is the 300, plus the price of the blank, plus winning the sketch lottery or queueing the night before, plus possibly taking a day's holiday from work, plus the cgc fees, plus the con tickets, plus the travel and possibly the stay, plus a bit on top to make a profit. It's not unreasonable to say that someone wanting to get one made for themselves could wind up spending 5 to 600 doll hairs in cash and time before thinking about profit. Heck they even have to risk not even getting a sketch op but turning up to the con anyway and leaving empty handed.
800 suddenly sounds almost reasonable.
3k+ is silly because this isn't a charity auction. I would understand it if someone is thrill listing it and they actually want to keep it.
Hey Bjorn. Thrill list your #1 page for $50k
I'd rather spend the 800 to buy original art/WD pages.
I mean, the way I see it, if someone is going to a con that Adlard is in, just pay them the $300 plus another $100 for their trouble of picking it up.....
But that's just me....