cstojano Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 On 12/1/2022 at 12:17 PM, comix4fun said: True, it's the extreme cases where people keep throwing out numbers like the Caldwell and the Byrne. The guy is his own underbidder, bidding against himself. On the Caldwell, if I were the owner and had any inkling of not keeping it forever, I'd probably reconsider. At auction the mechanics won't work without someone equally rabid for the piece involved. Everyone I have spoken to who has sold TSR art in the last ten years has regretted it. You will never be able to replace this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comix4fun Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 On 12/1/2022 at 8:17 PM, cstojano said: Everyone I have spoken to who has sold TSR art in the last ten years has regretted it. You will never be able to replace this. I would totally 100% agree on TSR artwork, especially pre-85 TSR artwork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronty Posted December 2, 2022 Share Posted December 2, 2022 On 12/1/2022 at 9:17 PM, cstojano said: Everyone I have spoken to who has sold TSR art in the last ten years has regretted it. You will never be able to replace this. Ehh. They only regret it because they wish they had it back to sell again at a higher price. They sold it for a reason at the time. I sold a caldwell 10 or 12 years ago but I'm glad I did... great money at the time. Not a good deal now, but it let me buy other things at 2010 prices. buttock, Sideshow Bob and nightbells 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Marino Posted December 9, 2022 Share Posted December 9, 2022 On 12/2/2022 at 2:48 PM, Bronty said: Ehh. They only regret it because they wish they had it back to sell again at a higher price. They sold it for a reason at the time. I sold a caldwell 10 or 12 years ago but I'm glad I did... great money at the time. Not a good deal now, but it let me buy other things at 2010 prices. I think as a collector (of anything) this is really good perspective that I think everyone should have. Regrets, we all have a few, but most of them let us get other things that we cherish today as well. I think too many people forget they sold x that's worth 25 times more today, but it was to help them get that page in their collection that they love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodou Posted December 9, 2022 Share Posted December 9, 2022 On 12/9/2022 at 11:01 AM, Pete Marino said: I think too many people forget they sold x that's worth 25 times more today, but it was to help them get that page in their collection that they love. About 20 years ago I realized that I was making the mistake of selling good art to buy other good art. That sounds fine but it wasn’t. I was sort of treading water but in actuality I was slowly losing ground, as better eyes than mine, at the time were “picking” me very specifically when they bought from me, lowering the average quality of my collection, while what I was using the funds to bring in wasn’t quite the same as what was going out. This will happen in the beginning of a bull market. I sort of figured that out and: just stopped selling, knowing I’d rather have two pieces and a lot less cash in that kind of situation over selling one to buying another. Selling to buy here or there with maybe 10% slippage isn’t a big deal but it sure is when magnified by hundreds of transactions a year, across a 30 year collecting career. That very quickly becomes a huge unrecoverable from type mistake. Stopping cold turkey worked out very well, it forced me to raise capital in ways other than cannibalizing my own collection, ending up 20 years later with much, much more art than I can handle and being impossibly happy too. No regrets, except that I didn’t stop selling even sooner! This may come off as braggy but it’s not intended to; hopefully it will be instructive instead. MyNameIsLegion, Ecclectica and Bronty 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exitmusicblue Posted December 15, 2022 Author Share Posted December 15, 2022 My D&D OA collection has expanded... always on the lookout for more Dragonlance and Ravenloft, both OG + modern art! https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=219187 https://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=194413 HouseofComics.Com 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstojano Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 Curious if anyone picked up the Easley Gamma World just now. I was underbidder on it, I think. Never played Gamma World, not a huge fan of the cover given its non-fantasy focus but <5k for a vintage TSR Easley module cover seems quite fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronty Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 On 1/19/2023 at 1:39 PM, cstojano said: Curious if anyone picked up the Easley Gamma World just now. I was underbidder on it, I think. Never played Gamma World, not a huge fan of the cover given its non-fantasy focus but <5k for a vintage TSR Easley module cover seems quite fair. link? sounds cheap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstojano Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 (edited) 4750 hammer. Like I said T-Rex and robots are not prime Easley art but still... https://www.weissauctions.com/Online-Catalogs.aspx#/sales/102234/lots/20667388 Edited January 19 by cstojano Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronty Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 I'm sure the small venue and lack of TSR mention didn't help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comix4fun Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 On 1/19/2023 at 1:30 PM, cstojano said: 4750 hammer. Like I said T-Rex and robots are not prime Easley art but still... https://www.weissauctions.com/Online-Catalogs.aspx#/sales/102234/lots/20667388 I know I've been desperate and tempted by the old school TSR original artists on pieces that were later or a difference genre, just for their names. exitmusicblue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbydarnit Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) On 12/9/2022 at 1:02 PM, vodou said: Stopping cold turkey worked out very well, it forced me to raise capital in ways other than cannibalizing my own collection, ending up 20 years later with much, much more art than I can handle and being impossibly happy too. No regrets, except that I didn’t stop selling even sooner! Good tip. One thing that was a bit difficult to learn for me was - it is ok to gracefully exit long negotiations when you get the feeling your enthusiasm for piece in a deal is started to be taken advantage of a bit too much. When asked for “Just a little more” yet again that was my cue to gracefully part ways from a deal. I had a feeling that I had already given too much and I could have regrets if my previous offer was accepted. I was happy to give the other guy the better end of the deal. Especially, since I initiated the trade talks. Don’t let the fact you had invested so much time in negotiations cloud your judgement. Deal or no deal, always be pleasant during the course of trade talks, because for most of us, it is a hobby. End of thread drift… D&D Art by Bill Willingham was insanely interesting to me… why didn’t someone have him draw a D&D comic?!? Edited January 21 by gumbydarnit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tth2 Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 On 1/22/2023 at 12:09 AM, gumbydarnit said: D&D Art by Bill Willingham was insanely interesting to me… why didn’t someone have him draw a D&D comic?!? Because he wanted to work on his own creation, the Elementals? gumbydarnit and Randall Dowling 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comix4fun Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 On 1/21/2023 at 10:09 AM, gumbydarnit said: End of thread drift… D&D Art by Bill Willingham was insanely interesting to me… why didn’t someone have him draw a D&D comic?!? I actually really overpaid ( I think ) at auction for an 11x17 commission piece he completed in the 90's simply because I love his D&D work and this is the closest I've ever come to finding him working in this subject matter that reminded me even a little of those glorious early years. I have to find a scan of it.....even the art folders on my hard drive are in disarray. gumbydarnit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstojano Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 On 1/23/2023 at 9:52 PM, comix4fun said: I actually really overpaid ( I think ) at auction for an 11x17 commission piece he completed in the 90's simply because I love his D&D work and this is the closest I've ever come to finding him working in this subject matter that reminded me even a little of those glorious early years. I have to find a scan of it.....even the art folders on my hard drive are in disarray. I hear you, his interiors were penetrating in those old DnD books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronty Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 On 1/24/2023 at 9:38 AM, cstojano said: I hear you, his interiors were penetrating in those old DnD books. What kind of role playing are we talking about here? delekkerste, exitmusicblue and batman_fan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comix4fun Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 On 1/24/2023 at 8:38 AM, cstojano said: I hear you, his interiors were penetrating in those old DnD books. Found the scan... PhilipB2k17 and nightbells 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstojano Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 On 1/24/2023 at 12:57 PM, comix4fun said: Found the scan... pretty darn nice, the sig rocks as well. My other post got deleted accidentally, but was musing on whether even MK has originals from Willingham, or did they go the way of many Jeff Dee interiors? comix4fun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tth2 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 It wasn't just that the Willingham drawings were good (which they were), but how poor a lot of the other art in the books was (I'm referring to the 1st ed. books). Even in high school, I was struck by how mediocre to poor the art was, although I thought the cover to the Player's Handbook wasn't bad. I seem to recall the Fiend Folio being the first book from the 1st editions that had consistently decent art. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comix4fun Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 On 1/25/2023 at 10:10 AM, tth2 said: It wasn't just that the Willingham drawings were good (which they were), but how poor a lot of the other art in the books was (I'm referring to the 1st ed. books). Even in high school, I was struck by how mediocre to poor the art was, although I thought the cover to the Player's Handbook wasn't bad. I seem to recall the Fiend Folio being the first book from the 1st editions that had consistently decent art. True. '83 was the dividing line, but Fiend Folio was a step up in art. That was likely due to the fact it was compiled from issues of White Dwarf as submissions of new monsters and they could be a little more choosy. Also that was 1981. D&D was rolling by then. The comparison between their first HC cover art, Monster Manual and everything that came after was really noticeable. For me all of that '75-'82 artwork has so much more charm of a place in my heart than the '83 and after (Red Box as the dividing line) when D&D had become a machine printing cash and got "respectable" with all the higher end fantasy artists coming on line. For my nostalgia-driven-dollars....I'll take Trampier, Otus, Easley, Willingham, Roslof and Dee all day long. delekkerste 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
