Lake Como Comic Art Festival announces first-spot auctions to guarantee a commission 2 2

[nerdcrawlerdotcom]

We wanted to share some news: Lake Como Comic Art Festival and Nerd Crawler are partnering together for First-Spot auctions, allowing bidders to claim the first spot on over 40 artists’ commission lists at LCCAF 2024!

 

To view all the participating artists, visit: https://www.nerdcrawler.com/lake-como-comic-art-festival-first-spot-auctions

 

To read more about the announcement, visit: https://www.nerdcrawler.com/blog/lake-como-comic-art-festival-and-nerd-crawler-announce-first-spot-auctions-for-commissions-from-top-artists

 

and if you have any questions, let me know! 

[Will_K]

Congrats on being part of that event !!

[nerdcrawlerdotcom]

@Will_K - thank you so much! I won't be able to attend this year because of family obligations, but I'm glad I can be a small part in the LCCAF experience. 

[alxjhnsn]

Clever! Was it your idea? Should be an interesting venture!

[RBerman]

On 5/14/2024 at 2:03 PM, alxjhnsn said:

Clever! Was it your idea? Should be an interesting venture!

This was done on a small scale for a couple of artists last year. I can see it becoming a thing, since it's basically an opportunity for the artists to let the market ensure that their commission fee is high enough.

[Sean I]

Looks like about 20 of these went for less than $10.  

Edited May 16 by Sean I

[Dmit317]

On 5/16/2024 at 1:53 PM, Sean I said:

Looks like about 20 of these went for less than $10.  

Those prices you are seeing the auctions went for aren't the actual Commissions. These auctions were just to get a Spot. You still pay full Commission Price. 

 

Isn't Lake Como a really small Con? Like only 1500 people attend. My assumption for it has been that it's so small it's not as hard to get Commissions as others. 

I am curious if the artists are discounting the guaranteed Commission the amount the auction went for. Multiple went for $75+ bucks.

[RBerman]

On 5/17/2024 at 8:57 AM, Dmit317 said:

Those prices you are seeing the auctions went for aren't the actual Commissions. These auctions were just to get a Spot. You still pay full Commission Price. 

 

Isn't Lake Como a really small Con? Like only 1500 people attend. My assumption for it has been that it's so small it's not as hard to get Commissions as others. 

I am curious if the artists are discounting the guaranteed Commission the amount the auction went for. Multiple went for $75+ bucks.

It is a small con, but for artists spending a lot of time on the work, thy won't be doing many. For instance IIRC, Milo Manara only took one commission there last year, a painted head sketch.

[Will_K]

Maybe the Lake Como first-spot auctions didn't have enough lead time or promotion??

I'm sure it's an idea that will catch on.  Was it Adam Hughes that would auction commission opportunities on ebay ?  I think they did pretty well.

[nerdcrawlerdotcom]

On 5/14/2024 at 12:03 PM, alxjhnsn said:

Clever! Was it your idea? Should be an interesting venture!

Sorry for taking so long to respond back! But as @RBerman mentioned, Steve and Arno did these last year but the execution wasn't great because they didn't have a platform to handle the bids. And since Steve has auctioned a few things on Nerd Crawler for Maui charities, we decided to partner together on this one.  

[nerdcrawlerdotcom]

On 5/17/2024 at 8:18 AM, RBerman said:

It is a small con, but for artists spending a lot of time on the work, thy won't be doing many. For instance IIRC, Milo Manara only took one commission there last year, a painted head sketch.

Yeah a few artists mentioned they would only do a handful so this was a good way for dedicated fans to get the first spot. I think the scarcity element is what resulted in Frank Quietly's and Dell'Otto's being the top sellers. 

 

On 5/17/2024 at 8:31 AM, Will_K said:

Maybe the Lake Como first-spot auctions didn't have enough lead time or promotion??

I'm sure it's an idea that will catch on.  Was it Adam Hughes that would auction commission opportunities on ebay ?  I think they did pretty well.

Yeah, this was an experiment built on the previous year's experiment so we're constantly learning. I think long lead times and more communication will help. I think we can see that at play with Art Adam's commission option for Fan Expo Dallas currently having a bid of $1,320.