Popular Post alxjhnsn Posted February 24, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) As many of you know, I've collected tips on how to price comic book art. I have recently updated my write-up to include resources that a seller might use and that are not really appropriate for buyers. I also added a section on pricing pencils/letters/inks on a page vs. pencils/inks on a page vs. separate pencils and inks. Feedback is welcome. BTW, The latest write-up is always on this post. I edit the material in Spoiler tags and add a new comment on the bottom of the thread. This seems to be the easiest way to find the latest. Of course, it means older versions are gone. If you'd like a copy of this in an email, just PM me with your email address and I'll send it along Spoiler Whether you are pricing to sell or buy, you might want to explore the following resources The website Comic Art Tracker can help you find art and look at current asking prices for similar pieces. The OA auction archive at Heritage Auctions – This archive presents the results from all of their OA auctions.. Once you sign-up and get an id, you can search for pieces by your artist and see what they have sold for. Ebay’s completed listings. The data is only 30 days old, but it is a place to find pricing for commonly traded artists. The CAF Market Data - More auction results (more than 1,000,000) are available if you join the Comic Art Fans site, pay for Market Data access, and access eBay’s archive (much more than 30 days worth), Heritage Auctions, and other auction sites. Dealer sites. Dealers, generally, post their art with fixed prices though there are exceptions. The best dealer list is available on Comic Art Tracker. You can see it here. There other dealer lists, e.g., there is a list of dealers on CGC OA board. The CAF site will search the inventories of several dealers for you. However, the Comic Art Tracker is better. Art Pricing Services: Terapeek is an ebay service that provides analytics on lots of ebay transactions - well beyond the 90 day limit. The rates are given on the link. AskArt which for a fee will report auction prices for various types of art including comic art. Subscription information can be found here. The tracked sources are: auction houses, art galleries, and museums. WorthPoint which for a fee will report auction prices for various types of art including comic art. Subscription pricing is here. A full list of their data sources can be found here. Blouin Art Info which tracks sales at major art auctions. It can turn up some Comic OA as well. Look for the “Art Prices” item on the top right of the screen. Subscription information is on the linked page. I can’t find their data sources. Reference Books Jerry Weist's Comic Art Price Guide - Heritage published a third edition of it. In my opinion, it's a good history book and might be useful for comparison work, but it was out of date a year before it was printed. Dr. Patrick Bain’s Comic Art Trends Price Guide series which is available on Amazon.com and the Comic Art Trends Price Guide website. Comic Art Trends Price Guide Modern Masters 2020 Comic Art Trends Price Guide Grading Companion Comic Art Trends Price Guide 2019 Topics on the CGC Board A topic on the CGC OA boards, Part 2: A-Level Panel Page Valuations by Artist/Run, holds a discussion that relates to your question. It provides some "generally agreed upon" ranges for popular runs by popular artists on popular characters. An earlier version of this thread , A-level panel page valuations by artist/run - thoughts/additions/changes?, might add some historical perspective The Biggest OA Prices thread tracked some of the largest sales in the OA space. While that particular thread has stopped; it's probably worth reading for the discussions. Meanwhile , the information is still being updated - just with a different mechanism. The price information moved to The OA Elite blog. Click on the categories on the top of the page to see the updated list. The discussion moved to Biggest OA Prices: The Blog. Videos and Podcasts Cantu Comics - How to Collect Comic Art - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMuo86-2WOhWIAw1u_c65AQ Tips and background on the hobby Comic Art Live (Comic Art Fans YouTube Channel) - https://www.youtube.com/c/comicartlive The live feed is on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ComicArtFans), but Bill Cox posts them on YouTube, too. Felix Comic Art Podcast - https://felixcomicart.libsyn.com Felix interviews comic art collectors on a regular basis Felix Comic Art YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/FelixComicArt Felix works with collectors to show their collections Other resources Subscribe to Francesco Brisighelli's newsletter, Original Comic Art Tips. It's quite interesting as he survey's various auction sites and picks out the pieces that he believes are interesting. He maintains a website at comicart.tips and a Facebook Page as well. If you are pricing to sell, there are additional resources: Auction houses will often appraise art. Here are links to a few auction houses. There are others. Free appraisal from Heritage Free appraisals from ComicConnect Free appraisals from Hake's You can get a list of Auction Houses on the ComicArtTracker site here Art Dealers will frequently provide appraisals. To get one, you approach a dealer with the art (in person) or image (by email) and ask for an appraisal or for an offer. If they make an offer, remember that they need significant margin especially if they feel that the piece will not sell immediately. You might double their offer to reach a retail price. Of course, this is a very hard to manage approach. You can get a list of Dealers on Comic Art Tracker here. Check a few and use those that seem to carry art like you are trying to sell - some dealers do specialize. Facebook has a large number of groups that address comic art both published and commissioned. You can always ask on those groups for opinions. However, prepare for odd/funny answers, unsolicited offers, and the usual social media snark. Comic Art Buyer Beware Comic Art Trends Advisors Comic original art sale, trade, show Original Comic Art Original Comic Art Collectors Original comic book art Original Comic Book art and Commissions for sale Original Comic Book art for sale Original Comic Art Collectors Bad Buyers Sellers Traders Group Sketch Prices - Comic Book Sketches, Commissions & Autograph Prices Sketch and commission: price, artist credit, & review CGC Original Art Board and its Marketplace. Again, prepare for odd/funny answers, unsolicited offers, and the usual social media snark. The ComicArtTracker site as the best list of Auction Houses (here) and Dealers (here) on the Internet. I do not claim that this information is either exhaustive or useful. Even with the information above, new buyers and sellers often find that OA is too hard to price. I agree that it is difficult. However, I think that there is a valid reason. Each piece is unique. Uniqueness make art sales generally and OA specifically non-linear. Examples of how piece can differ in ways that impact pricing include: Content: Consecutive pages could and do sell for radically different amounts based on their content. Page Layout: In general, you might say: Covers > 1st Page Splash > Other Splash > 1/2 splash > panel page However, that's not always true either. The right panel page can be much more compelling than a bland splash. Penciler vs. character: There are "A-list" artists, but not all of their books/characters have the same value. Kirby FF pages generally go for more than JIM/Thor pages which go for more than Cap pages (2nd run) which go for more than ... Pencilers/inkers combinations - Kirby/Sinnott FF pages rank above Kirby and anyone else on FF, but a Kirby/InkerX FF page might be more or less than a Kirby/Stone Thor page. Hard to tell. Production Technique: Classic - pencils, letters, and inks all on the same page Recent - pencils and inks on the same page - no lettering Modern - pencils and inks on different pages - no lettering In general, Classic > Recent > Modern When looking at a "split" Modern page, consider what it might be worth if done in Recent style and then split the cost with 60% of the "Modern-style" page going for the pencils and 40% going for the blue-line inks. Why? The penciller tells the story and that's the page (s)he handled. The inked page has the advantage of being the published page, but even so most prefer the pencil page. There’s another reason - scarcity. You may ask how can it be scarce especially modern art since pretty much anything drawn for a comic since the late 70s has been saved by someone. Well, that’s a good question and my friend, Rabid Ferret, explores this topic in Francesco Brisighelli’s blog. Rabid’s key point is that if one has specific types of pages in mind, one should do the research to determine how many such pages exist. In his blog post, he poses that question with regard to the Lee/Williams Uncanny X-Men run and the fan favorite Wolverine in the fan favorite action scenes (claws out). You’d be amazed at how few pages there are with the most desired characteristics. He then talks about ranking the pages. The gist is, if you have an idea of what you want, do the homework so when the piece comes up you know whether or not you should jump on it. I found the article to be quite enlightening; it also made me glad that I’m not s super specialist! Finally, you should join the comic book OA community. The main points of Internet contact are: Yahoo's comicart-l mailing list has passed because Yahoo has discontinued the service. However, two new lists have risen to replace it. I have joined both and I post to both most of the time. On groups.io, we have comicart-l@groups.io (Sign up by clicking here and look for the word subscribe.) At this writing, there are 98 members. On Freelists, we have comicartl@freelists.org (Sign up by clicking here.) At this writing, there are 307 members. The Comic Art Fans website The CGC OA Board The Facebook Pages listed above The main points of physical contact are probably: Dedicated Comic Art Shows Comic Art Con (Spring/Fall) - A twice yearly show originally in northern NJ, but moving to NYC. The domain seems to have lapsed, but the show owner has a page for it here. NYC Comic Art Expo - Annual spring show, nothing but art people (dealers, individual sellers, and buyers) and a few local artists. Held at the Penn Hotel opposite Penn Station Torpedo Comics Collectors Convention (née LA Comic Art Show) - Annual art show one week before SDCC to leverage the dealer’s visit to the west coast Conventions with High Dealer Attendance San Diego Comic Con (July) New York City Comic Con(October) Shows with a comic artist focus Heroes Comic Con - Not a lot of comic art dealers, but a huge number of artists who generally will draw and have portfolios to sell Baltimore Comic Con - Similar to HeroesCon. One last comment, if you are looking to buy or sell, spend the time to learn the market. That might take 6 months, but it's worth the time. I recognize that this is simply a general description and each piece of art and each seller is unique, but I think this information can be useful. Edited January 13, 2021 by alxjhnsn Added the replacements for comicart-l and cited Rabid Ferret's blog on researching comic art SuperTom, JadeGiant, NC101 and 19 others 12 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicdonna Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 This thread should be stickied at the top of the forum. alxjhnsn and Unca Ben 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc McCoy Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Much appreciated, Alex. Great resource! alxjhnsn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeGiant Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 Love the effort you put into this Alex - thanks for assembling! alxjhnsn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Voord Posted February 25, 2020 Share Posted February 25, 2020 If you're looking for ball-park figures, you might want to consider inviting opinions from members of several of the FB groups specializing in OA. alxjhnsn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted February 25, 2020 Author Share Posted February 25, 2020 4 hours ago, The Voord said: If you're looking for ball-park figures, you might want to consider inviting opinions from members of several of the FB groups specializing in OA. Terry, thanks for the reminder. It's funny how often the obvious is missed especially by me. I've added both the CGC Marketplace and a number of Facebook groups as potential sources of (mis)guidance. The Voord, exitmusicblue and JadeGiant 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted April 3, 2020 Author Share Posted April 3, 2020 I updated the section on Dealers a little and re-formatted it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick2you2 Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 6 hours ago, alxjhnsn said: I updated the section on Dealers a little and re-formatted it. Helluva job. But is the comic art con really moving from Northern NJ to NYC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted April 4, 2020 Author Share Posted April 4, 2020 (edited) 17 hours ago, Rick2you2 said: Helluva job. But is the comic art con really moving from Northern NJ to NYC? To be honest, I don't remember. I had it in my notes at one time, but ... Decided to change it and changed the link to the owner's site. Decided to list venues by cost. Edited April 5, 2020 by alxjhnsn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCarter27 Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 14 hours ago, Rick2you2 said: Helluva job. But is the comic art con really moving from Northern NJ to NYC? They had one show in lower Manhattan and then moved back to NJ for the subsequent shows. Rick2you2 and alxjhnsn 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted June 25, 2020 Author Share Posted June 25, 2020 I've added and updated the list of paid services for obtaining art prices. I added Terapeek, AskArt, and Worthpoint. As always suggestions are welcome. Thanks for the suggestion Timothy Scott Guerrero. BCarter27 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadeGiant Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 And he shall be known from this day forward as Alex "teach a man to fish" Johnson ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud cloddie Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 On 2/25/2020 at 11:17 AM, The Voord said: If you're looking for ball-park figures, you might want to consider inviting opinions from members of several of the FB groups specializing in OA. I don’t disagree, but I find Facebook a little predatory in their estimates. Whenever I see somebody inquire about pricing, it’s usually tons of lowballs followed by ‘pm sent’. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share Posted June 26, 2020 (edited) On 6/25/2020 at 5:05 PM, cloud cloddie said: I don’t disagree, but I find Facebook a little predatory in their estimates. Whenever I see somebody inquire about pricing, it’s usually tons of lowballs followed by ‘pm sent’. I do provide a warning about this path - "prepare for odd/funny answers, unsolicited offers, and the usual social media snark." I'm open to a better warning. Edited December 28, 2020 by alxjhnsn Fixed the font. It bothered me. cloud cloddie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 I've updated the note again. I've added a newsletter, a new book, and made a few other minor changes. As always, comments are welcome. BCarter27 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 A friend reported a couple of broken links - say goodbye to dragonberry and the Comic Art Database. Twanj 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post alxjhnsn Posted December 22, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 22, 2020 I've updated the write-up with: References to the replacements for the late, lamented comicart-l mailing list on Yahoo Citation of @RabidFerret's blog on Francesco Brisighelli's ComicArt.tips website explaining the research buyers should do Reorganized the material to make it more useful, I hope As always, comments are more than welcome. It's good to have feedback! BCarter27, ShallowDan, Unstoppablejayd and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 Updated the post with links to both the original "A-list" thread and the newer "Part 2" thread. heartened 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartened Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 1 hour ago, alxjhnsn said: Updated the post with links to both the original "A-list" thread and the newer "Part 2" thread. this is an amazing thread (and updated initial post) Alex and you are to be commended for putting this together for the hobby. Knowledge is power in this hobby, and for too long people didn't want to share that knowledge. I believe the opposite. The more people coming into and enjoying and understanding the hobby without getting burned the better. grapeape, alxjhnsn and NicoV 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alxjhnsn Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 45 minutes ago, heartened said: Knowledge is power ... and for too long people didn't want to share that knowledge. I believe the opposite. I agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...