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Pricing Comic Art - Update 2021
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Started by alxjhnsn,

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alxjhnsn

alxjhnsn

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Reason for the new thread: The one year period for updates to a post on a thread has passed so I can no longer update the first post on the old one. I'll mark the annual updates with the year.

 

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.
  • Artists Selling Directly
  • 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.
  • Auction Sites
    • The best Auction House list is found on the Comic Art Tracker site. You can see it here.
  • 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
  • Videos and Podcasts
  • 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.
    • There's a website listing comic artists and where they sell their wares - Buy from Comic Artists.

If you are pricing to sell, there are additional resources:

 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 it can 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 held in northern NJ (Secaucus). The formal domain seems to have lapsed, but the show owner has a page for it here.
    • LA Comic Art Con - Annual art show one week before SDCC to leverage the dealer’s visit to the west coast
  • Conventions with High Dealer Attendance
  • Shows with a comic artist focus
    • Heroes Comic Con (June) - 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 (October) - 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 by alxjhnsn
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Rick2you2

Rick2you2

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Posted (edited)

Is the selling group “original comic book art for sale” group still active? Just looked at it on Facebook, and it seems dead.

Also, the Comic Art Con is still in North Jersey. I went to it this Spring.

Edited by Rick2you2
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