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NFT comic art sales
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23 posts in this topic

I'm not sure if any of you are aware of the Veve app?

Veve is a digital collectables app which lets users purchase and display digital collectables on the blockchain. One of the things you can buy are digital comics which seems to be fueling sales of 'actual' comics amongst millennials. I was at a comic convention a few months ago that sold a majority of Bronze age comics. I came across an individual who seemed a little young to be there. When asked they explained that they had collected the digital comic on the Veve app and now wanted the physical copy. I had heard of this phenomenon before but wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes.

Well now, Veve have started to sell Digital Original art (Artists Proofs) as NFTs. These are being offered as silent auctions and a few artists (Adam Kubert, Peach Momoko and Scotty Young amongst others) already have pieces sold.

Now, I know a majority of you are not into NFTs but I feel it's worth being aware of them as they are an avenue of comic art sales and it seems a new market is emerging, one that could bleed into original art sales. There was an interesting conversation regarding NFTs a while ago in this forum and I think the possibility of being offered the NFT of owned original art was discussed. It seems that if you own an original art piece, another individual could very well own the NFT version. A Peach Momoko NFT recently sold, (Ghost Spider #2 cover) the original I narrowly missed out on buying (initially I refused the piece and then Peach's popularity skyrocketed. When I next inquired about it, it had sold!). I'm a little glad I didn't buy it now that a separate NFT has been sold to another individual. After the NFT sale, a few people in the Veve forum were inquiring on the original art. If anything, the sale of NFT art could lend itself to exposure of the original art market? For what it's worth, the original art was in the price range of $2500. The NFT art silent auction started at ~$1500. Not sure how much it sold for but the buyer has already relisted it for sale at ~2.5 Mil

Edited by New School Fool
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On 9/15/2022 at 2:17 AM, New School Fool said:

I'm not sure if any of you are aware of the Veve app?

Veve is a digital collectables app which lets users purchase and display digital collectables on the blockchain. One of the things you can buy are digital comics which seems to be fueling sales of 'actual' comics amongst millennials. I was at a comic convention a few months ago that sold a majority of Bronze age comics. I came across an individual who seemed a little young to be there. When asked they explained that they had collected the digital comic on the Veve app and now wanted the physical copy. I had heard of this phenomenon before but wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes.

Well now, Veve have started to sell Digital Original art (Artists Proofs) as NFTs. These are being offered as silent auctions and a few artists (Adam Kubert, Peach Momoko and Scotty Young amongst others) already have pieces sold.

Now, I know a majority of you are not into NFTs but I feel it's worth being aware of them as they are an avenue of comic art sales and it seems a new market is emerging, one that could bleed into original art sales. There was an interesting conversation regarding NFTs a while ago in this forum and I think the possibility of being offered the NFT of owned original art was discussed. It seems that if you own an original art piece, another individual could very well own the NFT version. A Peach Momoko NFT recently sold, (Ghost Spider #2 cover) the original I narrowly missed out on buying (initially I refused the piece and then Peach's popularity skyrocketed. When I next inquired about it, it had sold!). I'm a little glad I didn't buy it now that a separate NFT has been sold to another individual. After the NFT sale, a few people in the Veve forum were inquiring on the original art. If anything, the sale of NFT art could lend itself to exposure of the original art market? For what it's worth, the original art was in the price range of $2500. The original art silent auction started at ~$1500. Not sure how much it sold for but the buyer has already relisted it for sale at ~2.5 Mil

Tl;dr Veve is an app selling digital versions of copies of original art. Now some insane seller thinks the actual OA is worth an exponential amount more? :makepoint:

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On 9/15/2022 at 2:17 AM, New School Fool said:

It seems that if you own an original art piece, another individual could very well own the NFT version

The physical original is the original art if that was used for production. Whereas, the NFT is a digital reproduction, in this case -- a later "print" of the original work. It's annoying that the artist is splitting the original from its COA (the NFT) and doubling down, but that's where we're at right now until the NFT collector base is more educated.

NFTs are a valid form of original digital art, if the art used for production only exists digitally. (And mainly if the NFT is a 1 of 1 release.)

 

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On 9/15/2022 at 7:09 AM, KirbyCollector said:

Tl;dr Veve is an app selling digital versions of copies of original art. Now some insane seller thinks the actual OA is worth an exponential amount more? :makepoint:

Close, but I think it's actually worse. I think the OP might have mixed up his words in the last few lines

" The original art silent auction started at ~$1500. Not sure how much it sold for but the buyer has already relisted it for sale at ~2.5 Mil"

The NFT's silent auction started 1500, and the buyer of that NFT has relisted the NFT for 2.5 million

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On 9/15/2022 at 11:39 AM, JC25427N said:

Close, but I think it's actually worse. I think the OP might have mixed up his words in the last few lines

" The original art silent auction started at ~$1500. Not sure how much it sold for but the buyer has already relisted it for sale at ~2.5 Mil"

The NFT's silent auction started 1500, and the buyer of that NFT has relisted the NFT for 2.5 million

Feeling a little dim today; so a question:  I understand that NFT's are a digital product, ideally a one-of-a-kind-digital-only product.

Does its status as a sold NFT grant the file some sort of legal status/exclusivity which drives the pricing?  Otherwise, you're paying that much for a file which lives on a drive, with a 'I will be good and will not copy' promise from the artist/author?

If so, ah..... no thanks.  Easy call.

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On 9/15/2022 at 12:30 PM, thethedew said:

Feeling a little dim today; so a question:  I understand that NFT's are a digital product, ideally a one-of-a-kind-digital-only product.

Does its status as a sold NFT grant the file some sort of legal status/exclusivity which drives the pricing?  Otherwise, you're paying that much for a file which lives on a drive, with a 'I will be good and will not copy' promise from the artist/author?

If so, ah..... no thanks.  Easy call.

As I understand it, ownership of an NFT means you're name on the blockchain as the owner of the the NFT. Unless, something is agreed up otherwise, no transfer of copyright, and there's no way to stop other from having a digital copy.

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On 9/15/2022 at 1:38 PM, Brian Peck said:

NFTs are just another scam to get people to part with their money. Don't waste your time trying to figure it out.

Beanie Babies for the 2020s.

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On 9/15/2022 at 5:28 PM, JC25427N said:

So this storage space you just bought which probably contains a URL that you don't own, you can't change what's in this storage space if that URL ever goes bad for whatever reason

There is somewhat of a solution for this that minters are using -- a decentralized file storage to link to for NFT images, such as IPFS. This hosts the linked-to image in a more resilient location.

On 9/15/2022 at 3:38 PM, Brian Peck said:

NFTs are just another scam

They do solve a legitimate problem for established digital artists. But there is a lot of garbage out there gumming up the conversation. It will settle down into something resembling the physical art market.

On 9/15/2022 at 3:30 PM, thethedew said:

Does its status as a sold NFT grant the file some sort of legal status/exclusivity

Legal status over the IP? Hard no. Just as owning physical original art doesn't give you a right to reproduce.

Exclusivity? Yes, the easiest way to think of an NFT is that it's a COA verifying you own the original digital artwork. Imagine 5 million copies of a JPG and the artist points at the list and says, "That one there... That's the one that has value." And everyone agrees to that because it's written down in a ledger (the blockchain.)

Why is that valuable? Because the collector community says it is. And because digital artwork can take a lot of hours and training to create something special.

On 9/15/2022 at 3:30 PM, thethedew said:

a 'I will be good and will not copy' promise from the artist/author?

It's more reliable than a 1 of 1 monoprint because it is on the blockchain and transparent to anyone who wants to follow the breadcrumbs of a particular piece's provenance.

Opinion time...

  1. Physical original art should not be sold separately from an NFT.
  2. Savvy artists should offer to produce physical prints at custom sizes for NFT owners as an additional revenue stream.
  3. NFT prices should come back down to earth to align closer to their physical counterparts. That's where a sustainable market can grow from.
  4. Digital FX companies should sell NFT "movie props". Imagine being able to own the 3D model of the T-Rex or the Avengers Hulk?
On 9/15/2022 at 6:08 PM, Dr. Balls said:

Beanie Babies for the 2020s.

I get it. I really do. But Beanie Babies didn't solve a pain point for digital artists. NFTs do. And that's why they aren't going away.

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On 9/15/2022 at 8:52 PM, Taylor G said:
On 9/15/2022 at 6:16 PM, BCarter27 said:

Physical original art should not be sold separately from an NFT.

You are not taking this far enough.

Take a scan of the art, create an NFT.....and then destroy the art.

Otherwise anybody can make another scan of the art, and since no two scans are the same, you can't claim exclusive ownership of [the COA for] the original art.

You are also building a public record of all transfers of the art.  That should go down well.

That is hardcore.

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I recently bought a piece of traditional art said to be a new cover somehow related to some NFT issuance of Avengers Annual #10, the debut of Rogue, with Michael Golden art. I've not been able to find said NFT of the Avengers Annual on the web, though, so I'm not sure how it relates to the original publication. Oh well, I like it just as art anyway.

 

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Edited by RBerman
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It will be interesting to see what happens with NFTs in the future. I’m a later millennial and would never buy an NFT, but I’m interested in collecting comic art otherwise, and not just OA—I also collect prints. But I collect to be able to display and appreciate the art, and I don’t believe in the value of NFTs. And just like any collectible, an NFT is only worth what buyers are willing to pay. 

Obviously, art is subjective, but it seems like many who collect NFTs don’t collect it on the artistic merit (see: those apes) and are either using it for money laundering, are trying to sucker other buyers, and/or were suckered themselves. NFTs are like an extension of Bitcoin/other cryptocurrencies so I imagine there’s a significant amount of overlap between people who collect and NFTs and ones who are into Bitcoin. NFT producers/collectors have a vested interest in making NFTs seem legitimate/valuable. So you could buy your own NFT from yourself for $100k of Bitcoin by transferring between your own wallets and now that you have your baseline “value”, turn around and attempt to resell to an actual buyer for that amount+.

I also see digital artists on social media complain that their art has been stolen to be sold as an NFT, so while the blockchain might establish that you own the NFT of that image, it doesn’t necessarily establish that the seller had the copyright/rights to sell that NFT.

When it comes to physical art, at a certain level of art purchases, there’s definitely going to be some fraud and money laundering just because of the sheer amount of money involved, but there is an actual physical product, more established baselines of worth, more hoops to go through, and more legitimate avenues of purchase/establishing provenance such as auction houses.

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On 9/16/2022 at 11:56 AM, Hawkgirl said:

it doesn’t necessarily establish that the seller had the copyright/rights to sell that NFT

Yep, you still have to do your due diligence and track the NFT back to the minter -- typically using their handle posted on social media, etc. Checking provenance on a new purchase should be a knee-jerk reaction for most physical art buyers too. We just get lazy about it in comic art.

On 9/16/2022 at 11:56 AM, Hawkgirl said:

I collect to be able to display

Everyone has giant 4k TVs in their homes now. Problem solved! :cool:

 

On 9/16/2022 at 11:56 AM, Hawkgirl said:

collect NFTs don’t collect it on the artistic merit (see: those apes)

Definitely. The apes and punks, etc are muddying up the waters.

I'd wager that MOST of the working artists around the world across various fields are exclusively digital now. And for those of you who like to dip your toe in non-comic art waters, there are some talented people out there with a lot to say -- just as it used to be with physical art.

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