Concept of Trading Comics for Original Art

[Murray Clack]

Hypothetical question...

 

I am interested in letting go a particular modern comic that is especially hot right now in trade for original art (in particular, original cover art)

 

So my question is: How common is it to trade comics for art (either privately or through a reputable dealer), and where is the most common place/method to do so?

 

I apologize if this is not the proper forum or etiquette to ask such a question (figured I was safe being that I did not name the comic I am interested in trading).

[mister_not_so_nice]

If you can trade a mass produced comic for an original cover, DO IT !

 

The problem/issue is will the owner of the cover accept a comic in trade? What's their mindset? Is the art a "one of a kind" or a commodity worth $xxx and you comic worth a similar $xxx?

 

If you find a place that takes comics for OA, let me know. I'd gladly trade in 20 long boxes for a few pieces to slip in a portfolio.

[zhamlau]

I traded a CGC high grade silverage book for a page, and i almost completed a trade for some bronze marvel art for a CGC 5.0 JIM 83 but the guy stopped responding in negotiation. Its totally do-able, just you have to hit the right guy. Also when trading modern you are going to have a hard time finding someone who crosses both realms. If you were going to do it, this might be the best place for it.

[bluechip]

I traded a CGC high grade silverage book for a page, and i almost completed a trade for some bronze marvel art for a CGC 5.0 JIM 83 but the guy stopped responding in negotiation. Its totally do-able, just you have to hit the right guy. Also when trading modern you are going to have a hard time finding someone who crosses both realms. If you were going to do it, this might be the best place for it.

 

Some people cross the realms but the values get so wonky in both fields that I would guess you'd do better selling to those who collect only comics and using the money to buy the art. I like both comics and art and find the art only people unnecessarily down upon comics. But I am hard-pressed to understand it when I see people paying more for a copy of comic than I could ever get someone to pay for a nice piece of art tied to the same book. There are many examples of that out there, and sure the examples are mostly confined to the ultra high grade books, but I am not talking about books that are rare (or even rare in high grade).

[Brian Peck]

Never traded comic books for comic art but did trade comic art for signed baseballs. Signed by Keith Richards and Mick Jagger.

[Matches_Malone]

its a little bit challenging trading modern books for OA. Their values can be all over the place . But it can be done. I've been suscesful with GA books. Even trade OA for a particular statue.

[alxjhnsn]

Barter works for all kinds of things. Once upon a time, Poland traded a tanker ship full of oil to Sweden for ABBA records.

 

http://abbaarticles.blogspot.com/2012/10/hitkrant-1977-abba-trading-music-for-oil.html

[Bird]

I have traded OA for slabs. I have also offered up OA for comics but no one ever took me up on that.

[BrianR]

I am almost always happy to get rid of comics for original art. I sold a ton to get some of my pieces. I still have too many comics and not enough art.

[suspense39]

I am almost always happy to get rid of comics for original art. I sold a ton to get some of my pieces. I still have too many comics and not enough art.

 

I sold almost all my comic and bought art. I tried trading a few times but it seemed like unless they were high grade cgc it wasn't even a consideration. My observation is obsessive comic art collectors don't mind having a few books, but with obsessive comic collectors they really still prefer comics. One of the people i was selling books to came over and I though I'd show him some original stuff, he didn't care all that much he was WAY more into seeing what books I had.

[BrianR]

The Marvel Super Special 10 cover I have. That cost me a vg+ FF 1. The thing is if I wanted another FF 1 it may cost a few bucks more, but I can get one any day of the week online. My cover is probably once in a lifetime.

 

[zhamlau]

Actually, I traded a peter cushing signed TV contract and a Mark Hamill vintage 8x10 signed uninscribed photo once for a few pages of Marvel Star Wars art. That was an odd deal...point being, anything can happen you just gotta find a willing dance partner.

[Bird]

Exactly. I had a boardie come to me and say "I see you are getting into slabs. Want to trade OA for a Doc Strange 169 slab?" It cost me some Elvira interior art and I had to go get but that is what he wanted and I traded for that as well.

 

I will trade Starman art for SS4 & Doc 169 and other books, raw or slabbed.

[PokerKid]

A boardie on here who is an excellent artist was also an Archie collector. I had a nice early Archie and traded for a commission. We both ended up happy. One commodity for another works as well as cash if both sides are happy.

[Michael (OML)]

I liquidated over time my entire golden age, silver age, bronze and 90% of all moderns for artwork -- I had collected comics for 30 years and every collector of art told me I would end up doing it...I didn't believe them but sure enough, I did.

[JadeGiant]

Conceptually? An easy yes. In reality – much harder but definitely feasible. As people have said, you just have to find the right equation to make things work. I actually think there is probably a lot more potential to do this than actually does due to most people tending to stay within the confines of their own collecting sandbox. Like OML, I have a lifetime of comics along with statues, collectibles, etc. that I am sure I would trade if the right deal came along.

[Ironmandrd]

About 8 years ago I traded a lot of Marvel original art sketch cards for a late 80s Iron Man cover. It was at the early height of the sketch card wave (which of course has substantially died since then). At the time the seller was in my view getting a much better deal but over time it's turned out a much better deal for me. Two other big Iron Man comic art collectors tried to do a similar deal with that seller at that time but for whatever reason I was the lucky one who ended up getting the seller to do the deal.

[chrisco37]

It definitely can be done.

 

I traded a page to a good friend of mine years ago at a show. Instead of cash, I picked a book from a dealer wall and he bought it for me.

 

He got the page, I got the book.

[comiconxion]

I sold most of the Gold and Silver Age I had to finance art years ago, but now that I have so much art, would consider trading in the reverse - for marquee books like AF #15, Marvel #1, Detective #27, etc. Wouldn't trade back for runs of stuff however - just no space to store them and the Marvel Essentials fill that need.