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Original Art Dealer Reviews

Started by WOXL,

34 posts in this topic

WOXL

WOXL

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

 

I took the plunge into OA last month and have quickly become addicted. I looked around for reviews of the major dealers, but couldn't find a thread. I don't know if this is because this is a very tight community and people are afraid to offend the major power holders or if this ground has already been covered to death. Anyway, I thought I'd share some honest reviews, highlighting both positive and negative aspects of my initial transactions with a few dealers. These are all of the dealers I've worked with so far but am hoping to buy from many more in the future.

 

Albert Moy

Art Selection: Fantastic! Exclusively Represents Jim Lee, John Cassaday, Bruce Tim, Darwyn Cooke, etc. Plus has lots of killer pieces from many of the greats.

Pricing: On the expensive side, but he exclusively has some very desirable art so you gotta pay. I placed an order for three nice Cassaday Astonishing X-Men panel pages for about $450 to give you a pricing indication. I didn't try negotiating prices but have heard others have had some luck getting a slight discount.

Payment methods: Credit Card, PayPal (within US), check, or money order.

Shipping: A flat $15 for 2-Day FedEx. Art placed in polly bag taped between two thick pieces of cardboard - very sturdy. My payment was sent on 5/5 and the art received on 5/8. Very fast, and secure for a reasonable price. High marks here.

Communication: In a word - dissatisfying. Unless my message was a purchase order placed on his website or lack of including my CC expiration date, I never received a response from Albert. When placing my order, one piece was originally listed as "on-hold" but Albert said it was available and gave me a total including that piece. I asked if he was ready for payment or if I should place another purchase request on the website and never heard a reply. A couple days later, I went through with the purchase request online and finally received a response. I send credit card info to him via multiple e-mails but never heard back if everything went through... my answer came a few days later when the art showed up on my doorstep. After receiving my order, I sent a short e-mail letting him know how happy I was with the purchase and inquiring if an on-hold item was available. No response. I recently sent an e-mail inquiring when some art he had at super-con would be available on the website. Again, no response. I just sent another e-mail stating how much I wanted to spend and requested a timeframe in which I wanted to spend it with him before looking elsewhere. My guess is I'll get no response.

Overall: His art is some of the most desired in the field and I am extremely happy with the pieces I bought from him. They were delivered quickly and the art is stunning! But when I think of the whole package, I keep coming back to the poor communication and how small he makes me feel as a customer. Sure, I'm only buying $500 worth of art at a time now, but the day may come when I'm spending a hell of a lot more. Unless there's a piece I just have to have from Albert, I would much rather my money go to someone who treated me with courtesy as a newbie.

 

Splash Page Art - Mark Hay

Art Selection: Great. Exclusively represents Sean Phillips, Ben Templesmith, Ryan Ottley, Charlie Adlard, Paul Lee, and many more hot artists.

Pricing: Maybe a tad bit on the expensive side but it really depends on the artist. Some Charlie Adlard Walking Dead pages can be found a lot cheaper on the Bay (I just picked up two pages for about $45 apiece - and there are many more not moving at that price point). There are a lot of cool Invincible pages for pretty reasonable prices. I didn't try negotiating prices and don't know about any possible discounts.

Payment Methods: Money orders, cashiers checks, and personal checks are the preferred methods of payment. I payed with PayPal and was charged an additional 4% processing fee by Mark. This was a tad off-putting as I believe most major businesses should accept credit cards and be willing to accept the fee as a cost of doing business.

Shipping Methods: A flat $15 for insured USPS priority mail. Art was placed in USPS priority envelopes and then taped between two extremely sturdy pieces of masonite. A couple of the 8.5" x 11" pages I ordered were stuck to a bit of tape but otherwise packaging was rock solid. I payed on 5/14 and the post office attempted to deliver the package on 5/23. This was a bit longer than I was expecting and received no word from Mark when the package was to ship out. I ran into problems with the post office - a signature was required to leave the package but nobody was home so they took it back to the post office... and then proceeded to lose the package. Mark was good with communication through the lost package process. The package was returned to Mark and he resent it to me (for an additional $15 charge) and it finally arrived on June 7.

Communication: Mark's personable style was a warm breath of fresh air after the curt showing from Albert Moy. Mark is very personable and did all he could during the difficult time when the package was in limbo. He was a little aloof during our transaction, initially quoting me a total $100 too low (I corrected him and was charged the correct amount), and he accidentally shipped an extra $35 piece of art with my order, which he allowed me to keep rather than ship back to him. He didn't inform me the first time the package shipped, but that seems par for the course, and he was very informative after the package was returned.

Overall: Some really nice up-and-coming artists are represented by Mark at pretty reasonable prices. He is a very personable guy with a pretty good handle on customer service. He let me keep an extra piece for free, so that is a huge bonus in his favor. On the negative side, he charges an additional 4% for you to use PayPal and was a tad slow to ship. The USPS problems I experienced were not his fault, but I'll definitely be anxiously awaiting my next order from him. His use of masonite for shipping is top notch and the best protection I've seen out of all the art I've bought. Overall, I enjoyed the experience ordering from Mark and will do so again.

 

Fanfare Sports and Entertainment - Tom Fleming

Art Selection: Great. Exclusively represents Greg Land, Stuart Immonen, Mark Ryan, Andy Park, and others. Has some art from the greats that is pretty nice, but not quite as stunning as the stuff Albert Moy has... but definitely more affordable. He also has a very nice section of colorist art where I spent all my money.

Pricing: Seemed very reasonable. A lot of Immonen pages are very reasonably priced with some nice covers in the low hundreds. Of course, the Land pages are more expensive but that's just Land. There's a nice bargain bin section with $5-$25 pages - this is the only dealer site I've seen this great feature. The color art I was interested in was priced around $10 a page with some complete stories going for less, which seems very reasonable. I placed an order for a ton of color pages and asked if I could get a bit of a discount and received 10% which I happily took.

Payment Methods: Credit cards and PayPal are accepted, with no additional fee for the buyer. Money orders and checks are also accepted.

Shipping Methods: Standard shipping is $8 for priority mail but an order can be shipped in masonite for an additional $5. Insurance costs extra. I payed on May 30 and received the priority mail package on June 1! Fantastic turn-around time. I placed a second order on June 4 and received it on June 8. I opted for the regular priority mail and everything was very nicely packaged. As an added bonus, all my cheap $10 color art pages came individually bagged, boarded, & labeled

Communication: Really excellent. Tom answered all of my questions very quickly and informed me when the packages would ship out. He was very friendly and prompt and went out of his way to make sure I knew what to expect when ordering color art. A few of the pages contained extra stat pages and he made sure to let me know before taking my money smile.gif

Overall: Both of my transactions with Fanfare went extremely smoothly and I couldn't be happier. There's a lot of cool modern art and some affordable classic work available at the site. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot else there that I'm currently interested in purchasing, but I would love to work with Tom again. My highest rec.

 

So that's me. Anyone else want to share some reviews?

-Bob

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chrisco37

chrisco37

Posted
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Nice reviews, and I agree with everything you posted. I've bought from all three of them (although Albert and Mark purchases were at shows, so I can't comment on e-communication). Spot on about Tom Fleming though.

 

I'll add these two to the review:

 

Red Sector Art - Enrico Salvini

Art Selection: Very Good. Only reason I didn't go excellent is that he doesn't rep many "mainstream" (re: North American) artists. He reps mostly S. American and European artists. He does, however, rep Eduardo Risso (100 Bullets). Reps some ridiculously talented artists (Giovanna Cassoto, Enrique Breccia).

Pricing: A little on the high side for pages. Commissions are reasonable considering the quality of work you get in return.

Payment: cashiers check, personal check, MO, bank transfer. NO PAYPAL.

Shipping: Since he's located in Italy, it usually takes a week or so from the time your payment clears to get the piece. Art shipped in poly bag between two or more pieces or cardboard. I've bought, IIRC, 6 pieces from Enrico over the years and have not had one problem at all.

Communication: Unparalled. Extremely friendly, prompt responses. Always answers within a day at most, and will answer any question. Will keep you informed of art on the site or commissions coming up. I always tell this story, but I was on a wait list for Eduardo Risso commission piece for almost 2 years. Once Eduardo finished up with his last batch, Enrico contacted me immediately and said it was "Go Time". I appreciated the fact that he didn't just list on the site that Eduardo was doing commissions again, but that he held my request for such a long period of time.

Overall: One of the absolute best. I wish he repped some artists that I was more familiar with. Great customer service. Never a bad experience when buying from him. One negative would be a 10% surcharge for bank processing fees, but still reasonable.

 

 

Graphic Collectable - Mitch Itkowitz

Art Selection: Outstanding. Mitch reps some of the top artists in the field, including Tim Sale, Ed McGuiness, and Frank Quietly. Also an awesome selection of other great artists and pages (Dell'otto, Crumb, Byrne, Adams, Vargas).

Pricing: Fair. Some of the better known artists are a little high (face it, you're not going to get a Quietly Supes page for $200 anyway), but Mitch has cut me a deal as well.

Payment: check, MO, CC

Shipping: Fed-Ex - $15 for 2-day. Art in polybag and sandwiched between two or more pices of cardboard. Have made 3 purchases from Mitch and never a problem.

Communication: Outstanding. Responds to emails quickly. Friendly. Easy to get in touch with via the phone as well. Returns calls promptly.

Overall: Top marks for Mitch. Easy to deal with, great selection, good pricing. Site navigation is very easy and user-friendly. Very fair and reasonable. Would have no hesitation buying from Mitch again.

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MONSTER

MONSTER

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Graphic Collectibles- I got to second the praise for Mitch. I'm currently working on my second transaction with Mitch and my first one with him went flawless.

 

Awesome communication and he reps my favorite artist Tim Sale! How can he not be a great guy?

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Mister Trent

Mister Trent

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Last year I did a deal with Albert for a high-end piece of art.

 

I found him to be very flexible and fair in working with me towards a mutually-acceptable solution. He didn't try to gouge me, knowing of my interest in the art (a Wally Wood WEIRD SCIENCE cover) and his asking price was actually quite reasonable.

 

His e-mails can be very brief, but perhaps he has a lot of customers to respond to.

 

Albert scores high in my book.

 

Haven't got time to go the route of detailed notes, but other dealers who get my vote of praise would include people like

 

Russ Cochran (whom I've been buying art from for 25 years)

Ken Danker (MONSTER'S COLLECTIBLES)

Conrad Eschenberg

 

Appreciate your detailed notes, WOXL, your post is a good one. thumbsup2.gif

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Drummy

Drummy

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I second most all of this, but will also put in a good word for Mike Burkey (www.romitaman.com) and Ruben Azcona (www.cbagallery.com), both of whom are nice, flexible, and communicative. Kudos to both.

 

Dan

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Jacey

Jacey

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I've dealt with Albert Moy twice. Quick shipping and a good transaction, although he was a bit brief on the phone. I don't know if he has another job though, and my second purchase was not long after his mother died. Was never impolite and I plan on dealing with him again.

 

I haven't dealt with Splash Page, but my gf has. She said he was extremely nice on the phone helping her out and getting me a badass bday present, so I'll have no problem giving them my business.

 

Also purchased art from Court Gebeau, and my only complaint is that he has too much good stuff compared to what I can afford, haha.

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WOXL

WOXL

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Nice to see the other reviews! Thanks for all the comments on my reviews, also. I hope I wasn't too hard on Albert - I wrote that review while a little frustrated with communication trying to work out a new deal. It looks like he is extremely busy going from con to con and he's recovering from surgery so I'm sure that adds a lot of difficulty. He's always been very professional and honest... just not terribly inviting tongue.gif

 

So this Mitch guy... we're supposed to stay far far away, right? But seriously, I've browsed the Graphic Collectibles site quite a bit and found a lot of great art. I love how there's an illustration art section as well!

 

-Bob

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JayT

JayT

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New to OA,and usually buy off of Ebay, but just bought from Fanfare and here is the gist:

 

- Excellent customer service/communication. No email took more than several hours to get responded to. The communication itself was personable without being long - I have queried other dealers and it's inevitable that I get a one or two word responses (whether it's positive or negative) as a reply. I don't think the latter as a negative, but I do think the opposite is a positive.

 

- I was a first time buyer and they held the art for me, and the pieces I bought were not high dollar items.

 

- Was received overseas in good order and in less than a week.

 

I will be back.

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doom-migration

doom-migration

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Posted

Hello all, well I have done business with a few you listed

Splash Page, fast shipping and good to deal with

Mitch, he is a stickler with the gotta buy $600 to get free shipping, but is really a good guy to work with and does have some very nice work

Art Shotton is also great, great emails, very friendly, can't say enough to say how awesome he is, great guy to deal with....check his stuff out at CAF

these are just a few but thought I would help.......DOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and e-mail me if you want any other info

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