Where do you buy your art ?

[Panelfan1]

Re: Anthony

 

I am sorry to hear about experiences above. I've had one mix up happen, but all the rest of my dealings with him went well. Orders were generally packed well and shipped quickly.

 

It's just an opinion, but it seems he deals in bulk and sometimes loses track of an item here and there. When errors happen I think it's not him playing games or what not. Just too much stuff.

 

Regarding pricing, I feel for average stuff he charges market or close to it. Hot items he charges a lot more for, but not cool lines levels. We all sang to pay low and sell high.

[alxjhnsn]

Re: Anthony

I've had good service from Anthony and his team. He may not be warm and friendly in person, but he's always taken care of any issues I've had (not many).

 

Re: Sources of my comic art

This figure summarizes it.

[Mighty Hal]

Re: Anthony

 

I am sorry to hear about experiences above. I've had one mix up happen, but all the rest of my dealings with him went well. Orders were generally packed well and shipped quickly.

 

It's just an opinion, but it seems he deals in bulk and sometimes loses track of an item here and there. When errors happen I think it's not him playing games or what not. Just too much stuff.

 

Regarding pricing, I feel for average stuff he charges market or close to it. Hot items he charges a lot more for, but not cool lines levels. We all sang to pay low and sell high.

 

Panelfan1 and I have had similar experiences with Anthony's Comic Art. There are some gaps in communication, especially if a big convention is happening, but I've never felt Anthony was trying to play me or jack up his price. Plus, he's willing to negotiate, his prices are generally reasonable -- as much as I enjoy Mike Burkey's site, there are times I wonder if he's just adding a zero to the end of a number to see if anyone bites -- and I occasionally feel as if I've gotten the better end of a deal. That's a rare and wonderful thing.

[AKA Rick]

Anthony Snyder I feel prices his pieces to move, in that he's reasonable and fair, but also prices with a bit wiggle room for negotiations of discounts if the piece sits for a while, and he's a smart enough businessman to know holding too much inventory kills cash flow and doesn't keep the lights on.

 

I've never had issue with his honesty, integrity, reliability nor trustworthy nature. I can't say anything negative about him at all. I think recently he added hired staff, so maybe that's the lapse some are getting in services, where it's always easy to deal directly with Anthony, with the new layers it might be a bit harder to communicate with him, especially when engaging in negotiating a deal.

 

He's one of the few art dealers out there who refreshes his inventory sometimes daily or weekly, with enough frequency that it's worth visiting his website often to see what's new.

[John E.]

Thank you, Alex, for posting those statistics of yours. It looks like "direct from artists" makes up a big chunk of your source of art. I wish I had a bigger sample, but it seems like my "everyone gets their art from an auction house" hypothesis is debunked.

 

Of eBay, I'll add another thing about it's good to scour eBay regularly: to find art posted by casual sellers--those folks who certainly aren't dealers, nor are they fervent collectors, but those soft collectors who bought a piece on impulse and who've lost their attachment to the art after a few years. For us obsessives, we need those pieces to pop up now and again.

[John E.]

Anthony Snyder I feel prices his pieces to move, in that he's reasonable and fair, but also prices with a bit wiggle room for negotiations of discounts if the piece sits for a while, and he's a smart enough businessman to know holding too much inventory kills cash flow and doesn't keep the lights on.

 

I've never had issue with his honesty, integrity, reliability nor trustworthy nature. I can't say anything negative about him at all. I think recently he added hired staff, so maybe that's the lapse some are getting in services, where it's always easy to deal directly with Anthony, with the new layers it might be a bit harder to communicate with him, especially when engaging in negotiating a deal.

 

He's one of the few art dealers out there who refreshes his inventory sometimes daily or weekly, with enough frequency that it's worth visiting his website often to see what's new.

 

Yep, I agree. I've had nothing but good dealings with Anthony (I've written about this before). On the flip side, I've heard mixed reviews, too. I had a friend to had to negotiate hard with AS at San Diego because AS had jacked up the price on a piece from a website. It was hard to tell if AS was just ball parking the price or if he was trying to exploit the situation. I haven't bought from Anthony in 3 years and since then he's moved into a warehouse and has upped his staff. I can see how things have changed since then with a lot of communication having suffered from it. If I found a piece I wanted, I'd certainly call and make sure they have it in hand; I wouldn't rely on purchase orders or email. Lastly, I appreciate AS acquiring a lot of "C" level stuff, because sometimes the "C" level stuff hits the nostalgic sweet spot that you know Romitaman, et al aren't going to carry.

[Mephisto]

65% of my art has come direct from the artist or the person directly repping the artist.

[alxjhnsn]

Thank you, Alex, for posting those statistics of yours. It looks like "direct from artists" makes up a big chunk of your source of art. I wish I had a bigger sample, but it seems like my "everyone gets their art from an auction house" hypothesis is debunked.

You are welcome. It' interesting to see. Getting to know the artist is a big part of it for me so having 2/3 of what I have being a commission or something bought directly from the artist doesn't surprise me though I hadn't realized that until I did the work.

 

I should do it by $ spent per source. That'd be interesting, too.

 

 

[Mmehdy]

Grapefruitmoongallery.com, Mitch I, and Fred Tarbara

[John E.]

Thank you, Alex, for posting those statistics of yours. It looks like "direct from artists" makes up a big chunk of your source of art. I wish I had a bigger sample, but it seems like my "everyone gets their art from an auction house" hypothesis is debunked.

You are welcome. It' interesting to see. Getting to know the artist is a big part of it for me so having 2/3 of what I have being a commission or something bought directly from the artist doesn't surprise me though I hadn't realized that until I did the work.

 

I should do it by $ spent per source. That'd be interesting, too.

 

 

I didn't want to bring money into this because I know how that's generally a taboo subject. Nonetheless, crunching statistics gives me an objective look at where my budget is going. It turns out that 14% of my money went to convention sketches and prelims. That's way too much for me. And to think that I felt I pulled the reigns on that this year. For 2017 I'd like to get that number as close to 0 as possible, but I think 10% is more realistic.

[JadeGiant]

Good stuff. Love the spreadsheet. Not going there myself – too much introspection if I had all the data points. Maybe ignorance is bliss. I don’t wanna know.

[Bronty]

Thank you, Alex, for posting those statistics of yours. It looks like "direct from artists" makes up a big chunk of your source of art. I wish I had a bigger sample, but it seems like my "everyone gets their art from an auction house" hypothesis is debunked.

 

Well, there's no (or almost no) finding any golden age art "direct from artists". Heck even bronze age or copper age is difficult at this point. Newer stuff, sure.

 

So anyone buying a large amount direct from artists is going to be someone purchasing material published within the last 30 years, no more, as a general rule (and even that is stretching it).

 

In another words, how much you can buy direct is a function of the age of the art. The older the art you collect, the more you'll have to buy at auction.

 

Most of my material is about 25 years old and I'm happy to have purchased the lion's share direct.

 

 

[John E.]

Thank you, Alex, for posting those statistics of yours. It looks like "direct from artists" makes up a big chunk of your source of art. I wish I had a bigger sample, but it seems like my "everyone gets their art from an auction house" hypothesis is debunked.

 

Well, there's no (or almost no) finding any golden age art "direct from artists". Heck even bronze age or copper age is difficult at this point. Newer stuff, sure.

 

So anyone buying a large amount direct from artists is going to be someone purchasing material published within the last 30 years, no more, as a general rule (and even that is stretching it).

 

In another words, how much you can buy direct is a function of the age of the art. The older the art you collect, the more you'll have to buy at auction.

 

Most of my material is about 25 years old and I'm happy to have purchased the lion's share direct.

 

 

You make a very good point. If a large chunk of your purchases come from "direct from artist," then yes, you are likely a modern collector. Although on the flipside, if a large chunk of your buying is from dealers and auction houses, it's harder to tell because you may very well be snatching up pieces from the year 2002 as well.

 

 

[John E.]

Thank you, Alex, for posting those statistics of yours. It looks like "direct from artists" makes up a big chunk of your source of art. I wish I had a bigger sample, but it seems like my "everyone gets their art from an auction house" hypothesis is debunked.

 

Well, there's no (or almost no) finding any golden age art "direct from artists". Heck even bronze age or copper age is difficult at this point. Newer stuff, sure.

 

So anyone buying a large amount direct from artists is going to be someone purchasing material published within the last 30 years, no more, as a general rule (and even that is stretching it).

 

In another words, how much you can buy direct is a function of the age of the art. The older the art you collect, the more you'll have to buy at auction.

 

Most of my material is about 25 years old and I'm happy to have purchased the lion's share direct.

 

 

Yeah, I don't look at budgets for household expenses because I don't want to see how much I spend dining out or...on comics! I started to look at my numbers for comic art to understand how much I spent (I never kept track) and how often I spent. I do want to better my collection with my limited resources. If I find that I spent, say, $1500 in a year on comic art, then I better think twice about spending $2500 on a piece that I've been drooling over. If I want it, I better change my buying strategy, that's what got me to look at my numbers.

[Bronty]

Thank you, Alex, for posting those statistics of yours. It looks like "direct from artists" makes up a big chunk of your source of art. I wish I had a bigger sample, but it seems like my "everyone gets their art from an auction house" hypothesis is debunked.

 

Well, there's no (or almost no) finding any golden age art "direct from artists". Heck even bronze age or copper age is difficult at this point. Newer stuff, sure.

 

So anyone buying a large amount direct from artists is going to be someone purchasing material published within the last 30 years, no more, as a general rule (and even that is stretching it).

 

In another words, how much you can buy direct is a function of the age of the art. The older the art you collect, the more you'll have to buy at auction.

 

Most of my material is about 25 years old and I'm happy to have purchased the lion's share direct.

 

 

You make a very good point. If a large chunk of your purchases come from "direct from artist," then yes, you are likely a modern collector. Although on the flipside, if a large chunk of your buying is from dealers and auction houses, it's harder to tell because you may very well be snatching up pieces from the year 2002 as well.

 

 

[alxjhnsn]

[

 

I didn't want to bring money into this because I know how that's generally a taboo subject. Nonetheless, crunching statistics gives me an objective look at where my budget is going. It turns out that 14% of my money went to convention sketches and prelims. That's way too much for me. And to think that I felt I pulled the reigns on that this year. For 2017 I'd like to get that number as close to 0 as possible, but I think 10% is more realistic.

 

So I decided to examine this as by source by % of total spend. Here are the results:

 

[alxjhnsn]

The Con Sketch item is a bit miss leading in that I show the 40 con sketches in the sketch book that Kathy gave me for my 60th as one item. By the way, that was one seriously awesome gift.

 

 

 

[theflashunc]

Overwhelming majority of my collection has been from the artist directly. I'm also skewing more modern.

 

 

[Steven Ng]

I'm another one who gets most of my art directly. Con sketches, prelims, and interior pages represent over half the pieces. That is summed up on my CAF dashboard.

 

I'm in the San Francisco area so getting to cons in California has been relatively easy. WonderCon, SDCC, Big Wow ComicFest, APE, CTNX Animation Expo, and others. Been up to Emerald City a few times.

 

 

[ComicArtMall]

Most of my art comes from eBay or directly from the artist. There are a lot of artists who sell directly on eBay as well. I've also bought some pieces from conventions and various online websites that sell comic art.

 

I am building a website right now, to improve the buying and selling experience of original comic art.