• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

What's the floor to get in and buy a Watchmen page?
1 1

Started by thirdgreenham,

12 posts in this topic

comix4fun

comix4fun

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, thirdgreenham said:

Any old page. Are there some always available or hardly ever?  Or yes, but priced sky high?

How much would I need to spend to get a Watchmen page? :fear:

Do you care about characters? In costume? etc?
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
alxjhnsn

alxjhnsn

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

Image result for dr evil meme one million dollars

More seriously, they are scarce and expensive. My usual answer on such things follows:

 

You might want to explore the following resources

 

  • The website Comic Art Tracker can help you find art and look at current asking prices for similar pieces.
  • The OA auction archive at Heritage Auctions – This archive presents the results from all of their OA auctions.. Once you sign-up and get an id, you can search for pieces by your artist and see what they have sold for.
  • The CAF Market Data - More auction results (more than 1,000,000) are available if you join the Comic Art Fans site, pay for Market Data access, and access eBay and other auction sites as well as Heritage.
  • The Comic Art Database. It contains transaction records entered by the owners of Comic OA.
  • Dealer sites. Dealers, generally, post their art with fixed prices though there are exceptions. There is a list of dealers on CGC OA board and the Dragonberry site has a list as well. The CAF site will search the inventories of several dealers for you. [Of course, Comic Art Tracker is better.]
  • Blouin Art Info which tracks sales at major art auctions. It can turn up some Comic OA as well. Look for the “Art Prices” item on the top right of the screen
  • Jerry Weist's Comic Art Price Guide - Heritage published a third edition of it. In my opinion, it's a good history book and might be useful for comparison work, but it was out of date a year before it was printed.
  • A topic  on the CGC OA boards, A-level panel page valuations by artist/run - thoughts/additions/changes?, holds a discussion that relates to your question. It provides some "generally agreed upon" ranges for popular runs by popular artists on popular characters.
  • The Biggest OA Prices thread tracked some of the largest sales in the OA space. While that particular thread has stopped; it's probably worth reading for the discussions. Meanwhile , the information is still being updated - just with a different mechanism.

New buyers and sellers often find that OA is too hard to price. I agree that it is difficult. However, I think that there is a valid reason. Each piece is unique. Uniqueness make art sales generally and OA specifically non-linear.

 

Examples of how piece can differ in ways that impact pricing include:

Content: Consecutive pages could and do sell for radically different amounts based on their content. 

Page Layout: In general, you might say:

 Covers > 1st Page Splash > Other Splash > 1/2 splash > panel page

However, that's not always true either. The right panel page can be much more compelling than a bland splash.

Penciler vs. character: There are "A-list" artists, but not all of their books/characters have the same value. Kirby FF pages generally go for more than JIM/Thor pages which go for more than Cap pages (2nd run) which go for more than ...

Pencilers/inkers combinations - Kirby/Sinnott FF pages rank above Kirby and anyone else on FF, but a Kirby/InkerX FF page might be more or less than a Kirby/Stone Thor page. Hard to tell.

 

Finally, you should join the comic book OA community. The three main points of Internet contact are:

 

The main points of physical contact are probably:

One last comment, if you are looking to buy or sell, spend the time to learn the market. That might take 6 months, but it's worth the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
thirdgreenham

thirdgreenham

Posted
  • Author
Posted
3 hours ago, comix4fun said:

Do you care about characters? In costume? etc?
 

not really

I'm still in the early stages and haven't yet gone through my collection and pulled out cr@p that I wonder why I bought.  I'm sure I'll have lots that I'll pull out and try to sell, but my point being, most collectors just by miscellaneous stuff here and there and only later on put more thought into it and start to focus a bit more.  I'm not focused yet. doh!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
thirdgreenham

thirdgreenham

Posted
  • Author
Posted
2 hours ago, alxjhnsn said:

Image result for dr evil meme one million dollars

More seriously, they are scarce and expensive. My usual answer on such things follows:

 

You might want to explore the following resources

 

  • The website Comic Art Tracker can help you find art and look at current asking prices for similar pieces.
  • The OA auction archive at Heritage Auctions – This archive presents the results from all of their OA auctions.. Once you sign-up and get an id, you can search for pieces by your artist and see what they have sold for.
  • The CAF Market Data - More auction results (more than 1,000,000) are available if you join the Comic Art Fans site, pay for Market Data access, and access eBay and other auction sites as well as Heritage.
  • The Comic Art Database. It contains transaction records entered by the owners of Comic OA.
  • Dealer sites. Dealers, generally, post their art with fixed prices though there are exceptions. There is a list of dealers on CGC OA board and the Dragonberry site has a list as well. The CAF site will search the inventories of several dealers for you. [Of course, Comic Art Tracker is better.]
  • Blouin Art Info which tracks sales at major art auctions. It can turn up some Comic OA as well. Look for the “Art Prices” item on the top right of the screen
  • Jerry Weist's Comic Art Price Guide - Heritage published a third edition of it. In my opinion, it's a good history book and might be useful for comparison work, but it was out of date a year before it was printed.
  • A topic  on the CGC OA boards, A-level panel page valuations by artist/run - thoughts/additions/changes?, holds a discussion that relates to your question. It provides some "generally agreed upon" ranges for popular runs by popular artists on popular characters.
  • The Biggest OA Prices thread tracked some of the largest sales in the OA space. While that particular thread has stopped; it's probably worth reading for the discussions. Meanwhile , the information is still being updated - just with a different mechanism.

New buyers and sellers often find that OA is too hard to price. I agree that it is difficult. However, I think that there is a valid reason. Each piece is unique. Uniqueness make art sales generally and OA specifically non-linear.

 

Examples of how piece can differ in ways that impact pricing include:

Content: Consecutive pages could and do sell for radically different amounts based on their content. 

Page Layout: In general, you might say:

 Covers > 1st Page Splash > Other Splash > 1/2 splash > panel page

However, that's not always true either. The right panel page can be much more compelling than a bland splash.

Penciler vs. character: There are "A-list" artists, but not all of their books/characters have the same value. Kirby FF pages generally go for more than JIM/Thor pages which go for more than Cap pages (2nd run) which go for more than ...

Pencilers/inkers combinations - Kirby/Sinnott FF pages rank above Kirby and anyone else on FF, but a Kirby/InkerX FF page might be more or less than a Kirby/Stone Thor page. Hard to tell.

 

Finally, you should join the comic book OA community. The three main points of Internet contact are:

 

The main points of physical contact are probably:

One last comment, if you are looking to buy or sell, spend the time to learn the market. That might take 6 months, but it's worth the time.

Wow! Thank you so much for the thoughtfulness and effort put into your post here.  

I have a bit of knowledge on some of the sites you're mentioning, but there's so much more I didn't know about. 

I knew about Comic Art Tracker, but forgot what it was called.  I may even have a CAF page of my own.  Have to go check that out too. 

Too out of the loop these days. Thanks for reeling me back in. :applause:

-Andy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
alxjhnsn

alxjhnsn

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, thirdgreenham said:

not really

I'm still in the early stages and haven't yet gone through my collection and pulled out cr@p that I wonder why I bought.  I'm sure I'll have lots that I'll pull out and try to sell, but my point being, most collectors just by miscellaneous stuff here and there and only later on put more thought into it and start to focus a bit more.  I'm not focused yet. doh!

 

That's actually a mistake everyone in this hobby makes - buying all the bright shiny objects without considering whether or not they really make sense. A theme (or three) really helps, but it often doesn't develop until much money has been spent. [Voice of experience.]

Link to comment
Share on other sites
alxjhnsn

alxjhnsn

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, thirdgreenham said:

Wow! Thank you so much for the thoughtfulness and effort put into your post here.  

I have a bit of knowledge on some of the sites you're mentioning, but there's so much more I didn't know about. 

I knew about Comic Art Tracker, but forgot what it was called.  I may even have a CAF page of my own.  Have to go check that out too. 

Too out of the loop these days. Thanks for reeling me back in. :applause:

-Andy

You are welcome. This question comes up very often so I keep this answer at hand.

On the Felix podcast, Ron Sonnenthal mentioned me and these answers. The conversation lasted 15s (I timed it!). I'm sure everyone is impressed with my 15 seconds of fame!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Will_K

Will_K

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 6/25/2018 at 3:08 PM, alxjhnsn said:

That's actually a mistake everyone in this hobby makes - buying all the bright shiny objects without considering whether or not they really make sense.

I wouldn't say there are "mistakes".

As you get older, your tastes change.  As time goes by, new styles (e.g. Bruce Timm, Darwyn Cooke) and techniques/types of art (e.g. Alex Ross, post-Adams Sienkiewicz) emerge.  New storytellers emerge (e.g. Alan Moore, Frank Miller)

The stories have changed.  Instead of the basic story of a super criminal merely robbing banks, now you have Watchmen.

The market has changed.  Instead of checking for a few posts in CBG, now you have regular Internet auctions and a few dozen seller sites.

Collecting original art was relatively "cheap" (e.g. $20 for a page of original art, $100+ for an original cover, convention sketches for $20)

You didn't have to be focused.  You just had a lot of art that you liked.  With all the art that's available at even higher prices, now it helps to have a focus. 

And it is a slippery slope.  A very high, very long, slippery slope.

Edited by Will_K
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
1 1
Go to topic listing