IS IT TIME FOR AN ORIGINAL ART PRICE GUIDE

[parkinson]

Well is it? First of all it would stop the Donelly's from overcharging lol and second it would give a helping hand to collectors paying for original art. I am aware that this has been discussed briefly and it has been said that it is upto the buyer what he/she is willing to pay and indeed there are some pieces of art by certain artists that you know you will have to pay a lot for but some prices have got so out of wack im begining to wonder if the sellers are just pricing high and hoping someone will bite. There was one piece of art that was for sale a couple of years or so ago on a dealers site that i wanted priced at 3K that i lost out on. I have now seen it on another dealers site for over 10K and whilst i would still love to own that art there is no way im paying over 10K for it. Anyone else who would like to see a guide.

[malvin]

this topic has been talked about before.

 

Pricing on the OA market is not as stable as other collectibles like comics. I know a panel page from the same artist and comic can be considered equivalent, but sometimes they aren't.

 

All it takes is one or two people gunning for a piece to make it go up, or one or two collectors to go on vacation to make prices go down.

 

A price guide will not work.

 

Malvin

[bocaratondefense]

The danger of a printed price guide is if and when fake and manipulated prices are used, causing more confusion for collectors. The prices that you see on dealer websites or ebay Buy It Now listings are not real prices, but rather inflated starting points for cash/trade negotiations. That $3K page that you see marked up several fold to $10K is not a $10K page, at least not until there is a verifiable transaction.

 

The combination of CAF Market Data and the Heritage archives usually provides good enough reference points for most of the art that I am interested in. These are usually real sales with real exchange of money for art.

 

[CollectingFool]

There are two existing price guides out there. If you like I'll supply one to you then we can go through your collection and I'll gladly pay you guide or above for any comic art you may have.

 

Sound good?

 

[delekkerste]

Never mind the merits (or lack thereof) of such a guide - how could anyone possibly hope to sell enough copies to make it worth their while?

[bocaratondefense]

Never mind the merits (or lack thereof) of such a guide - how could anyone possibly hope to sell enough copies to make it worth their while?

 

Good point. Original comic art is such a small hobby compared to comic books, stamps, coins, baseball cards, etc and many those printed price guides are struggling. I wonder how many OA collectors are out there and how many copies of a book like Grailpages are sold.

 

[MedicAR]

Jerry Weiss put one of these out awhile back. I picked it up, but it just didn't work really well at all. I respect the time and effort, but ugh.... we'll leave it at that.

 

I don't think a guide would be a bad idea, but keep in mind that it is just that, a guide. I know when I started collecting, Overstreet was the be-all, end-all of comic pricing. Since then, Al Gore invented the internet and everything has changed. I still love Overstreet, but consider it to be a guide rather than a bible.

[wurstisart]

I don't get why a guide would be needed.

We all know each page only exists once.

If you like it...it is up to you to decide how much you are willing to spend.

 

If it seems too expensive, walk away.

If it seems like a good deal, buy it.

 

If you like the page so bad that you are willing to pay extra, do it.

 

 

[MedicAR]

I don't get why a guide would be needed.

We all know each page only exists once.

If you like it...it is up to you to decide how much you are willing to spend.

 

If it seems too expensive, walk away.

If it seems like a good deal, buy it.

 

If you like the page so bad that you are willing to pay extra, do it.

 

 

Or you could look at it that way!

 

 

(thumbs u

[mister_not_so_nice]

I don't get why a guide would be needed.

We all know each page only exists once.

If you like it...it is up to you to decide how much you are willing to spend.

 

If it seems too expensive, walk away.

If it seems like a good deal, buy it.

 

If you like the page so bad that you are willing to pay extra, do it.

 

 

That's a good guide (thumbs u

 

You can also look at the pieces listed and re-listed and re-listed on eBay as a guide. That guide is telling you that no one wants that particular page at that price. Same with pages on various sites. Or it could be the right person hasn't seen it yet.

 

And any OA guide published would have to be in many many volumes because the hobby is so segmented. The prices for Artist A on title 1 or title 2 can vary by hundreds(or thousands) of dollars. The best knowledge you will get is to do your own research on the niche you like. As someone who buys pages from a few select titles, even I am surprised at times what a page sells for.

[wurstisart]

The thing is, if a price is marked at $ 10 K...and we all agree it is WAY overprized, not even a guide will change this.

 

Why...because there is only ONE page each. If you have it, you are the only one that can determine the price. You can not get this particular page any place else.

 

And if you on the other side are the one that wants the page, well....there goes what i said earlier.

 

Sure it stinks...if you are after a certain page and that page is in a dealers hands and it is overpriced. I feel you.

 

But again, the guide will not change the price the dealer is asking.

[bocaratondefense]

 

Why...because there is only ONE page each. If you have it, you are the only one that can determine the price. You can not get this particular page any place else.

 

This is what I hear so often in this hobby, especially from sellers, and I don't necessarily agree. Of course, there is only one original for any given page. But for most comic art, there are dozens of comparable pages in that issue and hundreds of comparable pages in that title. If dealer is asking 3 X what the comparable pages went for, and 3 X what it sold for only three months ago, then how can anyone defend the dealer as not overpricing this page?

 

That is why I find pricing history data to be at the very least an useful guide. I just don't see how a printed guide can be more accurate or current than the real actual price realized data on the CAF.

[wurstisart]

I am not defending the seller at all.

 

But....face it...each page only exists once and if you want THAT PARTICULAR (not any other from the same issue)....then it is what it is.

 

Here again applies what I said earlier. If you feel it is overpriced...walk away.

Buy a page from that particular issue some other place.

 

You can try to tell the dealer that his pricing is off, but again it is his / her call.

 

Another thing to consider, and I am sure we all can agree to this.

Certain pages you just don't push to sell too much.

Why..maybe out of sentimental reasons.

Maybe because the page means something to yourself.

Maybe you feel like it is an awesome page, and just because it is not selling high in other places you don't want to give it away.

 

 

[*paull*]

No. The first attempt was a waste of time and quickly outdated.

[wurstisart]

I agree to that guides / examples are necessary to build an opinion.

But I feel everyone shoud do their own research, like you said by looking through ebay, CAF, etc.

 

Another thing is what kind of page is it? Is it a panel page, a splash page.

So many factors to consider.

Are there characters on the page and so on.

 

I just can't see how it is done.

[Bronty]

The price guide for comics (should be easy, right?) doesn't work anymore so how could a price guide for art work?

[Bronty]

I guess it would be useful to know some things (that wouldn't change tooo quickly) in respect of each artists' work like:

 

- most/least a cover has sold for

- most/least a full splash has sold for

- most/least an all panel page has sold for

 

..and let everybody else fill in the grey areas, but as everyone else is saying would that even be worthwhile.

[wurstisart]

most silver age covers and splashes that sell now for tens of thousands....sold for less than $ 150.

but that was many MANY years ago.

does this help ?

 

No...it only hurts...

And we all wish we would have been buying back then....

[malvin]

I actually remember reading some old Wizards that made attemps at pricing too. But as we are all saying, a guide doesn't work...

 

Malvin

[Child,pleeze-migration]

I agree with wurstisart. A price guide can't work if every piece is unique. Even two consecutive panel pages by the same artist can have different values due to the dialogue on each page.

 

In our hobby, we can use data from previous sold prices to help determine a current price for a page. But what do we do if something fresh hits the market? If someone decided to sell the Kirby cover to FF#1, how do they determine the price? If the cover art from a hot new Marvel artist hits the market, how will a price guide help? For new comics, you can always use the cover price as a baseline value. But for art fresh in the market, there is no baseline; therefore, people just take the highest offer.