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Should Artists/Creators upcharge to sign certain issues if witnessed?
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36 posts in this topic

2 minutes ago, reddwarf666222 said:

He signed my record for free. 

Yeah, but you bought the record, didn't you?

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Don't get me wrong.  I have a few sigs like on the pic below of my invite to the marvel holiday party and I do own one SS CGC book. I just don't think its a problem if someone wants x dollars for it. My daughter paid for a signed picture of one of the original wonka kids and asked if she could take a picture of them. The woman said "well wouldn't you want to be in it?" and came out and handed the camera to Mike TV and took a great pic of them both. Now I would say in that instance the autograph price was worth it because my daughter remembers the interaction which is what most people want with autographs. IMO.

 

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6 hours ago, WoWitHurts said:

What does creators being paid to be at con have to do with it? People want something from them that is unique to them. I am sure there are times they give it away for free. I bet If I bumped into someone outside a con and asked them to sign a napkin or whatever they would. I don't understand what the appeal is to having someone's signature  on a witnessed slab. If you are there and you witness it why do you need another person to "verify" it? Just so a company will put a yellow label on it? 

exactly

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9 hours ago, austinhg said:

I was actually just commenting about how I saw the photo of his booth from that convention over in the Event board, but didn't reply fast enough. The prices hurt my eyes... a lot. $150 for a graded modern comic is pretty dang high.

I've met him a few times, and while I've never had any bad experiences with him, or his wife for that matter, I've always been kind of curious how they equate his body of work to the prices that he charges. I get that he co-created the Walking Dead that's cool and all, but most of the books he's worked on he's only been on for a handful of issues here and there. Am I missing something? 

Good, I'm glad you saw what I was talking about and I wasn't embellishing the amount. That was the first time meeting him and he doesn't make it west too often, so I was excited to get my early runs that he did signed by him. Needless to say the sticker shock is what got me.  Others had mentioned Frank Miller, and he's a legend in the industry so I would expect to pay that amount...as well as Stan Lee. IMHO, Tony Moore doesn't have the same lineage in the industry to see those kind of prices, even if they are The Walking Dead's 1-6. Sorry, just how I feel. 

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7 hours ago, Bowchigabowwow said:

Good, I'm glad you saw what I was talking about and I wasn't embellishing the amount. That was the first time meeting him and he doesn't make it west too often, so I was excited to get my early runs that he did signed by him. Needless to say the sticker shock is what got me.  Others had mentioned Frank Miller, and he's a legend in the industry so I would expect to pay that amount...as well as Stan Lee. IMHO, Tony Moore doesn't have the same lineage in the industry to see those kind of prices, even if they are The Walking Dead's 1-6. Sorry, just how I feel. 

Tony Moore would not be charging that if no one was biting. Clearly there is a demand or he hates his work on TWD and doesn't want to sign any of it so he puts a crazy high price on it but the former is more likely imo. 

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21 hours ago, newshane said:

I can make money one day if it has a yellow label on it. That's the difference.

Also, what if I can't be "there" in person to have an item signed? Yellow label gives me a fair bit of assurance that I haven't been ripped off.

 

Not really. You can make money on it if it has a yellow label and the grade is high enough and it's a book that people actually pay a premium for when it's signed.

Automatically equating SS label with big $$ profits is one of the biggest myths we face when it comes to slabbing signed books - it's mind-blowingly frustrating that CGC hasn't done more to educate & inform creators that this simply isn't the case.

When I work shows for CGC, I'd venture a guess and say that the majority of the books submitted for SS by non-dealers are, technically, not worth it - with slabbing & signing fees, a sale would result in a loss. And in the vast majority of those cases the person submitting the book simply doesn't care - they're slabbing for any of the other multitude of reasons that people get book CGC'ed.

Heck, I have a sneaking suspicion that if I looked critically at the 1000+ CGC books I have in my own collection, I'd find a ton of slabs that I personally love, but that were never cost-effective to actually do. And I'm totally fine with that.

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1 hour ago, mschmidt said:

Not really. You can make money on it if it has a yellow label and the grade is high enough and it's a book that people actually pay a premium for when it's signed.

Automatically equating SS label with big $$ profits is one of the biggest myths we face when it comes to slabbing signed books - it's mind-blowingly frustrating that CGC hasn't done more to educate & inform creators that this simply isn't the case.

When I work shows for CGC, I'd venture a guess and say that the majority of the books submitted for SS by non-dealers are, technically, not worth it - with slabbing & signing fees, a sale would result in a loss. And in the vast majority of those cases the person submitting the book simply doesn't care - they're slabbing for any of the other multitude of reasons that people get book CGC'ed.

Heck, I have a sneaking suspicion that if I looked critically at the 1000+ CGC books I have in my own collection, I'd find a ton of slabs that I personally love, but that were never cost-effective to actually do. And I'm totally fine with that.

Well...of course! :)

I'd be willing to bet that any yellow label would bring more money than an unwitnessed signature...given the same book, grade, and signature on both. That was my point.

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1 hour ago, mschmidt said:

When I work shows for CGC, I'd venture a guess and say that the majority of the books submitted for SS by non-dealers are, technically, not worth it - with slabbing & signing fees, a sale would result in a loss. And in the vast majority of those cases the person submitting the book simply doesn't care - they're slabbing for any of the other multitude of reasons that people get book CGC'ed.

This couldn't be more true.

I assure you that I'm not making money off of the Batgirl and Birds of Prey issues that were signed saying "Thanks Austin, You rock!" I got them graded because I like the slab. 

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On 11/15/2017 at 8:01 AM, WoWitHurts said:

Tony Moore would not be charging that if no one was biting. Clearly there is a demand or he hates his work on TWD and doesn't want to sign any of it so he puts a crazy high price on it but the former is more likely imo. 

Or maybe he's trying to pocket some of your profit from that Walking Dead 1 CGC SS 9.8 that you'll potentially flip on e-bay??

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6 hours ago, A-DONIS said:

Or maybe he's trying to pocket some of your profit from that Walking Dead 1 CGC SS 9.8 that you'll potentially flip on e-bay??

That's why I put it out there for discussion. Granted, yes....he may be trying to pocket some of the profit from flippers and he wouldn't know what's flipped or what's kept by a fan of his art or the book. I don't mind it when artists charge after the first one on multiples of the same book (that I could see as a sign of a flipper) which I'm fine with, but what I do mind is the amount that is charged on key issues. Stan Lee is already charging $120 per sig, what would be the amount he could charge on a AF15 or ASM1 or FF1.....or McFarlane on ASM#300 or Claremont on any key book he was a part of? Before I get backlash, yes I do understand anyone is free to charge any amount they feel and yes and as a consumer I do choose or not choose what to have signed, it would just make me less of a fan when I feel it's more about the greed and not the fans IMO.

Edited by Bowchigabowwow
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2 hours ago, Bowchigabowwow said:

That's why I put it out there for discussion. Granted, yes....he may be trying to pocket some of the profit from flippers and he wouldn't know what's flipped or what's kept by a fan of his art or the book. I don't mind it when artists charge after the first one on multiples of the same book (that I could see as a sign of a flipper) which I'm fine with, but what I do mind is the amount that is charged on key issues. Stan Lee is already charging $120 per sig, what would be the amount he could charge on a AF15 or ASM11 or FF1.....or McFarlane on ASM#300 or Claremont on any key book he was a part of? Before I get backlash, yes I do understand anyone is free to charge any amount they feel and yes and as a consumer I do choose or not choose what to have signed, it would just make me less of a fan when I feel it's more about the greed and not the fans IMO.

I agree that $150 is a little high for for signatures.  Some top celebrities don't even charge that much, granted, they're also paid for their appearance.  

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2 hours ago, Bowchigabowwow said:

That's why I put it out there for discussion. Granted, yes....he may be trying to pocket some of the profit from flippers and he wouldn't know what's flipped or what's kept by a fan of his art or the book. I don't mind it when artists charge after the first one on multiples of the same book (that I could see as a sign of a flipper) which I'm fine with, but what I do mind is the amount that is charged on key issues. Stan Lee is already charging $120 per sig, what would be the amount he could charge on a AF15 or ASM11 or FF1.....or McFarlane on ASM#300 or Claremont on any key book he was a part of? Before I get backlash, yes I do understand anyone is free to charge any amount they feel and yes and as a consumer I do choose or not choose what to have signed, it would just make me less of a fan when I feel it's more about the greed and not the fans IMO.

Why do you think it is about greed? Charging what the market will bare is good business. vis-a-vis The market usually sets the price, too high no one is buying and too low you go out of business or in this case get a hand injury from signing too many sigs. for someone making 200k+ annually that $120 seems less of a big deal. Some people miss out because they are priced out of the market.  I would love to see my favorite baseball team right behind home plate but it isn't ever going to happen because either I can't afford it or I am unwilling to pay that kind of money for it. 

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18 minutes ago, WoWitHurts said:

Why do you think it is about greed? Charging what the market will bare is good business. vis-a-vis The market usually sets the price, too high no one is buying and too low you go out of business or in this case get a hand injury from signing too many sigs. for someone making 200k+ annually that $120 seems less of a big deal. Some people miss out because they are priced out of the market.  I would love to see my favorite baseball team right behind home plate but it isn't ever going to happen because either I can't afford it or I am unwilling to pay that kind of money for it. 

But you pay for cheaper seats and still get the same outcome...... ^^

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2 hours ago, WoWitHurts said:

Why do you think it is about greed? Charging what the market will bare is good business. vis-a-vis The market usually sets the price, too high no one is buying and too low you go out of business or in this case get a hand injury from signing too many sigs. for someone making 200k+ annually that $120 seems less of a big deal. Some people miss out because they are priced out of the market.  I would love to see my favorite baseball team right behind home plate but it isn't ever going to happen because either I can't afford it or I am unwilling to pay that kind of money for it. 

It is good when you can get the market to take its clothes off.

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Guys the simple way to handle this is as follows.  If the artist charges a fee to sign pay it or boycott it and urge others to boycott.  It is a problem because we allow it to be a problem.  Eventually Creators and or celebrities will either get the idea and change their stance or they won't.  Changing the economic dynamic by changing how much money someone is or is not making is usually the easiest ways to force a solution.  Don't pay for their autograph, don't buy their new products, don't buy commissions or artwork from them.  Eventually the lack of money will change their mind and if it doesn't they will just stop attending cons and creating comics.  Sure it might hurt for a while, but once the creators/publishers/promoters/dealers get the idea things will even out.   Does anybody here remember the crash in the 90's.  When it happened creators, dealers, publishers, and promoters realized what they did and things changed for a while.  Todd Mcfarlane said it best on secret history of comics "we took advantage of our fan base and that is something you should never want to do".  Now I know that he does private CGC signings but the fee is reasonable and the same across the board and he still does free public signings for non CGC stuff.  He did 3 2 hour signings at NYCC. 

The other solution is if you don't want to sacrafice and start a movement simply pay what they are asking and move on and as time goes by the price will keep raising.  Every collector has free will to choose what path they will walk but they need to choose it and stick to it without regret.

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