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Jim Lee's marathon sketches
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314 posts in this topic

45 minutes ago, Rick2you2 said:

Anyone who writes these off on their taxes is making a mistake which they may get called out on. The only portion which could be written off is the difference between the fair market value of the piece and the price paid. If Lee's market price is now the same as these sales prices, no write-off is permitted. On the other hand, the IRS has to catch it.

The guy that won several of these owns a company that focuses on creative ways to save on taxes.   Im sure he will come up with creative tax treatment for these 2...

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50 minutes ago, delekkerste said:

Right.

And it would be hard to argue that the prices realized aren't FMV.

But, even more than that, the proceeds are going to Jim Lee, who will, in turn, funnel 95% (IIRC) to charity.  What people are paying for the art isn't even going directly to a recognized charity.

Bottom line:  NO ONE SHOULD BE TRYING TO DEDUCT ANY PORTION OF THESE PURCHASES FROM THEIR TAXES. :makepoint: 

I did scratch my head and wonder, if US tax law is anything like the UK, how anyone would deduct any portion of these purchases from their taxable income if they weren’t paying directly to a registered charity. Thanks for clarifying. 

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Update - if Jim pulls out the big guns for the last 10, this should reach 1 Million raised. This is amazing.

$526,857.78 TOTAL JIM LEE ART

$259,182.44 TOTAL OTHER ARTIST CONTRIBUTIONS

$786,040.22 GRAND TOTAL OF AUCTIONS

$746,738.21 TOTAL RAISED FOR COMIC SHOPS!

$10,537.16 - AVERAGE AUCTION RESULT (JIM LEE ART)

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Book Industry Charitable Foundation  (BINC) may be 501(c)(3) but the Charity Navigator website doesn't rate them.  The information on CharityNavigator.org seems to indicate the $$$ raised by Jim Lee would end up being a very, very high percentage of their overall assets. 

From what I heard about non-profits, they maintain "reserves" so whatever the funds are raised, maybe not all of it will be disbursed to book stores or comic shops. 

I hope Jim Lee can get on the board and at least see (or influence) what happens to the funds (e.g. prioritize disbursements to comic shops over book stores).  In general, comic shops need all the help they can get.

 

Edited by Will_K
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5 hours ago, Will_K said:

Book Industry Charitable Foundation  (BINC) may be 501(c)(3) but the Charity Navigator website doesn't rate them.  The information on CharityNavigator.org seems to indicate the $$$ raised by Jim Lee would end up being a very, very high percentage of their overall assets. 

From what I heard about non-profits, they maintain "reserves" so whatever the funds are raised, maybe not all of it will be disbursed to book stores or comic shops. 

I hope Jim Lee can get on the board and at least see (or influence) what happens to the funds (e.g. prioritize disbursements to comic shops over book stores).  In general, comic shops need all the help they can get.

 

I expect he absolutely will have a say in it, but it still wouldn't help the purchasers. Following up on Gene's comment, the funds would have to go directly to BINC to qualify, assuming there is any charitable portion over the value of his work.

Curiously,Jim may be getting an indirect benefit on the theory that a rising tide lifts all boats (No, I do not think that was his intention). Since the competition for his work has resulted in huge dollars being realized, a seller can argue the value of his work has been reset to a higher level. 

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6 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

I expect he absolutely will have a say in it, but it still wouldn't help the purchasers. Following up on Gene's comment, the funds would have to go directly to BINC to qualify, assuming there is any charitable portion over the value of his work.

Curiously,Jim may be getting an indirect benefit on the theory that a rising tide lifts all boats (No, I do not think that was his intention). Since the competition for his work has resulted in huge dollars being realized, a seller can argue the value of his work has been reset to a higher level. 

2 things, if he is raising money and donating it to the charity, does he also get a tax break? Second thing, we also don’t know how much they will actually donate to the stores, as mentioned previously, some charities are better at giving most of the money raised than others. There are a lot of stories of charities giving less than 70% of each dollar raised, the rest going to overhead. 

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10 hours ago, JadeGiant said:

Looks like the last 10 pieces will be in traditional pencil/ink format and the heavy hitter content. The $1,000,000 mark for this fundraiser event is in sight

Unless they add more pieces they will be $100,000 to $150,000 short.

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13 hours ago, Brian Peck said:

Unless they add more pieces they will be $100,000 to $150,000 short.

By adding more pieces, do you mean from other artists? There are more artists that were announced that have not added art yet and there have been a lot of unannounced artist that have had pieces pop up on Jim Lee's eBay page. 

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47 minutes ago, Rick2you2 said:

He probably has a lot more free time on his hands these days.

An off-hand reference to the 2020 DC Implosion (vs the 1978 DC Implosion) ? 

There's a sad irony.  The marathon sketches are supposed to benefit comic shops.  And yet supposedly a key piece of the implosion is to emphasize book stores over comic shops.  And digital over floppies.

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I don’t know why it got bumped recently on twitter but I did see some very heartwarming footage of Jim Lee sneaking artwork to people on his 50th birthday. I take my hat off to him. Watching his twitch stream one sees how much of a natural teacher he his and how much he loves the medium. The auction 60 have been incredible. He’s a GOAT for shizzle. 
 

Now, please finish my commission 🙏🏿 🤣

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1 hour ago, Will_K said:

An off-hand reference to the 2020 DC Implosion (vs the 1978 DC Implosion) ? 

There's a sad irony.  The marathon sketches are supposed to benefit comic shops.  And yet supposedly a key piece of the implosion is to emphasize book stores over comic shops.  And digital over floppies.

There are some real problems with the current distribution model. A floppy is a pretty expensive way to spend 10-15 minutes, tops, when video games and streaming services are in competition for that dollar. By engaging more general stores, they may get people to buy who wouldn’t ordinarily go to comic stores. Think of those Archie digests in the supermarket checkout lanes. Then, there is the high cost of printing. I don’t know the costs of manufacture (Voodou might have a better handle on it), but I suspect it is high in comparison to the total wholesale price. That’s a reason you will see more graphic novels In the future—cheaper to issue on a per page basis. Of course, they also require a higher price, thereby potentially reducing demand. So, that might help explain the reduction in future publication of issues—improved quality. This Implosion may be viewed as more of a tourniquet to protect tomorrow. 

Edited by Rick2you2
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5 minutes ago, Rick2you2 said:

I don’t know the costs of manufacture (Voodou might have a better handle on it),

I believe the market figures these things out just fine over time. What we end up with, if comics are even found to be viable by the market, may not include the stuff we grew up with (Big Two superheroes). So what? How many people are still mourning the death of the western on TV? But we've still got TV...right? Good enough for me. I look forward to what comes next from creative people that don't just write or draw but also know how to market product to the folks that will spend money on it. That is me. And my wallet has been open and is still open. Not a great example of what I've just written about, but releasing this week...this looks interesting...

The Big Hoax by Carlos Trillo; Roberto Mandrafinahttps://www.instocktrades.com/TP/Titan/BIG-HOAX-HC/JAN202007

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