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Near six figure MTG art sales
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619 posts in this topic

3 hours ago, ESeffinga said:

Bravo to her for selling these pieces herself and realizing the maximum market $. They are lovely fantasy paintings for the folks into that type of work, and ahve a tie to a franchise with more staying power than I'd ever anticipated.


That said, the prices make my head hurt. Clearly I'm not at all the market for these, and wouldn't be since I don't play, so who cares about my headache. I've always appreciated the artistry of the folks Wizards would hire for doing their cards. Well a lot of them anyway. Some folks and some cards still get a serious WTF, from me.

 

Oh I agree 100%, but its no different than 30k Alex Rosses and Jim Lees hot or relatively hot off the presses.   Its mental, but comic OA pricing is mental too.

Edited by Bronty
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Seeing this thread, thought I would chime in on a little nostalgia from a MTG player and collector that got in early.....

Had a chance to buy the original artwork for Force Field for $800 back in the late 90's but I didn't have the money for it at the time, had to pass.

I used to own several MTG originals, mostly from the late 90's early 2000's when i was still playing. Mostly land originals as i thought those were the coolest looking at the time. Plus I owned an original with some furry beast or monster in a tree, can't remember the name of it. Reminded me of the Guardian Beast card.

I originally purchased Terese Nielsen's island original back in 2001/2002'ish (can't remember the set it was from, still have my signed cards from her though) I believe it was the only land card she has done besides the guru lands. I think I paid $600-$700 for it at the time which I was younger and not making a ton of money at the time and put it on the credit card.

Sold off all my cards, including the power 9 and all my art when I got out of MTG in the mid 2,000's so I could put a down payment on a house.

Now, $1,500 for unlimited mox pearl and $4,000-$5,000 for alpha/beta mox pearl is disgusting crazy money. I mean thats some ridiculous money. $2,000 for an Ancestral Recall is freaking bananas. In 2011/2012 Ancestral Recall was a $300-$400 card slightly played, i know because i had an extra one I found and flipped. I thought i did good at the time Ha!

I also lived near the Seattle area around the late 90's early 2000's and WotC had a shop/tournament/arcade/hang out place on The Ave in the U-district i would go there and hang out all day and night and play with people and play in the occasional tourney. High end cards were so cheap back then. I bought a moderate to heavily played Timetwister for $35 there from another player. Same guy had a mox sapphire for $75.

I also remember playing MTG back in 1994, pulled a lotus out of an unlimited starter pack. Very cool. I also remember paying $6 for unlimited mox ($10 for alpha or beta) at my local comic shop and $12 for black lotus. Timetwister $7 and dual lands $4, I had 2 shops in the area with similar prices, gotta love pre-widespread internet days. My times have changed.

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Recently auctioned-off on the MTG Art Market FB group, Julie Baroh's original painting for UNDERWORLD DREAMS, measuring 7" x 8.5"  Circa 1994, I think?

Winning bid:  $31,000.

The artwork does absolutely nothing for me, but I guess this is one of those pieces that carries importance to MTG collectors.

mtg.jpg

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I recently started auctioning-off some of my spare MTG artworks on the MTG art-market FB group.  Less than 12 hours into my latest offering my hidden reserve has easily been met . . . with six more days to go.  Can't help wondering if the auction scenario brings out the competitive spirit from playing the game into trying to win the artwork?

My current offering . . .'Feebleness' by Kev Walker.

Feebleness.jpg

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On 8/7/2018 at 1:59 PM, Bronty said:

Oh I agree 100%, but its no different than 30k Alex Rosses and Jim Lees hot or relatively hot off the presses.   Its mental, but comic OA pricing is mental too.

 

On 8/6/2018 at 2:44 PM, rotembk said:

What number are we actually talking about?

As for the highest value options since ‘93 that come to mind:

- Wolverine losing his adamantium in ‘93 (so either the interior page of Magneto doing the deed or the cover to Wolverine 75 ). 

- The cover to NYX 3 (2004) sold for $71,700 on HA sligfhtly more than a year ago; could be the underbidder would be willing to pay more today?

- Batman Adventures 12 came out in ‘93. In the wake of NYX 3 several people on this board claimed they’d pay ridiculous prices for the cover.

By happenstance, UXM 266, NM 98, Adjectiveless Spidey 1 and the like missed the train by just a couple of years.

I agree with all of you that the NYX 3 was way overpriced for a character who can't sustain high sales on her own comic.  The latest issue of X-23 #3 sold 36,000 which is pretty low for a monthly comic, and a significant drop from the usual first issue spike.  Comics at that level border on cancellation.  X-23 couldn't keep The All New Wolverine from cancellation so I don't see how this could ever justify $71,000.  Maybe it was because Logan had just come out and there was thought that there might be some X-23 films spun off from this, which we now know won't happen with the Disney purchase of the Fox assets.  I think this was an aberration and not a benchmark.

I think Harley is different because she is popular to sustain her own comics, and also appear in group comics and may be in 4 movies currently in preproduction.  I'm not saying that $71k is a good measure of BA12 art, but more that I think that 71K for NYX 3 was not a good investment if that was what it was.  But maybe the buyer just really likes X-23 as a character and the art is not an investment.  So it's hard to find a fault with someone who really wants a piece for personal value regardless of the money.  

As far as I know, the highest a Ross sold for since that time was 50k which was supposedly a really large cover for the anniversary of Kingdom Come that was larger than a twice up page.  But a lot of great grade A pieces have sold for 35K in the last few years.  I don't think the high prices with his work are attached to the circumstances in the comics though.  I think they are associated with the craftsmanship of the pieces.  For example, if you look at Josh Middleton's undeveloped lines on the NYX3 cover, it has little to no aesthetic value with most of the work done on the computer.  If you look at a Ross piece, it is usually as a high aesthetic value put on the craftsmanship that has little to do with what is going on in the comic.

I think the Jim Lee popularity is both his craftsmanship, and that he seems to associate himself with some of the more important comic moments from his time at Marvel to today at DC.  

I also think the prices are depressed since 1993 because there aren't too many great landmark runs or stories since then.   If we look at this list, the only recent runs to make the top part of the list are Synder and Morrison's Batman and X-Men, and Brubaker's Captain America.

https://www.cbr.com/2016-top-comic-books-runs-of-all-time-master-list/

And on this list it's just Marvels, Kingdom Come and The Long Halloween.
https://www.cbr.com/comic-book-storylines-top-100-master-list/

So if we look at these two samples, it seems that comic voters don't seem to be appreciating comics since 1993 as much as they have before 1993.  On both lists as we go towards the bottom more recent titles show up but the sample size gets much smaller and there is recency selection bias.

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Looks like heritage is eyeing up this market...

"

Special announcement, Heritage has launched a new initiative,
TCG, Magic, Pokemon
Cards and Art!
Our European Sale is also accepting consignments NOW
Contact us for further details
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1 hour ago, Bronty said:

Looks like heritage is eyeing up this market...

"

Special announcement, Heritage has launched a new initiative,
TCG, Magic, Pokemon
Cards and Art!
Our European Sale is also accepting consignments NOW
Contact us for further details

We shall see, there has always been community resistance to selling on Heritage.  Maybe the Sharazzad finish opened up some eyes?

 

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27 minutes ago, Pete Marino said:

We shall see, there has always been community resistance to selling on Heritage.  Maybe the Sharazzad finish opened up some eyes?

 

Community resistance is "cute" ;)

It boils down to this - if heritage can get big results, it will win that business.

If it can't, or if the spread isn't enough to justify the fees, it won't.

 

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40 minutes ago, Bronty said:

Community resistance is "cute" ;)

It boils down to this - if heritage can get big results, it will win that business.

If it can't, or if the spread isn't enough to justify the fees, it won't.

 

What was the FMV feel pre-Heritage result for Sharazzad? Half the final hammer? That's a massive justification for HA's fee structure right there -at least for similar quality pieces, no?

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9 minutes ago, vodou said:

What was the FMV feel pre-Heritage result for Sharazzad? Half the final hammer? That's a massive justification for HA's fee structure right there -at least for similar quality pieces, no?

Yes but people want to see a track record first.    Those HA fees are really scary to the unititiated particularly when they are used to selling peer to peer with no fees.

the things you and I take for granted in understanding heritage will be learning curve on their end, such as the idea that the fees aren’t always 40%

Edited by Bronty
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52 minutes ago, Bronty said:

..such as the idea that the fees aren’t always 40%

lol so true, that's horrible marketing right there for HA. Interesting business model actually. They want (and get) the volume but also want to take a monster slice of the pie. Most businesses have to pick one (high volume, low margin -WalMart) or the other (low volume, high margin -Ferrari).

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You can run your own auctions on some of the MTG FB groups to good effect.  I've done very well for myself these past couple of years selling MTG art on FB.  Matter of fact, I met up locally last night with a collector from Japan visiting my neck of the woods, here in the UK, who spent GBP 3,000 cash on several pieces I'd previously agreed to sell privately (about $3,768).

Funny thing was, when I first started putting-up MTG art on FB at fixed asking prices, not everything sold.  As I don't like to leave things listed for sale indefinitely I pulled them after a short time.  Fast forward about a year later, I re-listed the artworks as reserve auctions.  All the MTG art sold at big increases in the auction format over my original fixed price listings!

 

Edited by The Voord
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