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Bruce Timm head shots on AlbertMoy.com?
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I’ve been away from the game for quite some time. These head shots were like $50 at a convention when I last checked. Albert is selling these for $1,000 now? Wtf happened? Are people paying these prices? 

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2 hours ago, That_Guy said:

I’ve been away from the game for quite some time. These head shots were like $50 at a convention when I last checked. Albert is selling these for $1,000 now? Wtf happened? Are people paying these prices? 

I guess you have been gone awhile. They haven't been $50 for years and years. 

They have been selling, some more than 1k (eg Batman) 

Malvin 

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On 5/6/2021 at 9:39 PM, John E. said:

 

2. In my 8 years of collecting I had not known Albert to sell these types of headshots until Covid. True to his style, Albert pushes the limits on market price. And gets rewarded for it. 
 

Not just Albert. Felix is kind of the current master at pushing the market prices higher and higher, and it's really a testament to how good of a sales guy he is. He's the ultimate hype man, and unfortunately for those of us with smaller pockets, he's extremely good at it.

Great for him and great for his artists. Detrimental for the hobby, imo.

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All artist reps work for their respective artists.  Their job is to make as much $$$ as possible for their clients.  That's just the biz. 

And given the current trend of higher prices, there's no reason to expect reps to leave any $$$ on the table.

Even convention sketches/commissions are becoming luxury goods.

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18 minutes ago, Will_K said:

Their job is to make as much $$$ as possible for their clients. 

Not quite. The job is actually to build a relationship by building out a client's base appeal and "as much $$$" will follow...over time. We've all seen a lot of artists either misunderstood or outright mishandled by their reps. Those relationships that work aren't rare, but they are less common than those that don't. As an example, everyone had years to get all the Tradd Moore they wanted and now they don't, it's more like seconds or maybe a few minutes. That kind of means that everyone should expect higher prices next time around :) 

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1 hour ago, vodou said:

Not quite. The job is actually to build a relationship by building out a client's base appeal and "as much $$$" will follow...over time. We've all seen a lot of artists either misunderstood or outright mishandled by their reps. Those relationships that work aren't rare, but they are less common than those that don't. As an example, everyone had years to get all the Tradd Moore they wanted and now they don't, it's more like seconds or maybe a few minutes. That kind of means that everyone should expect higher prices next time around :) 

Well put.  In Tradd's case, his more recent work on big Marvel titles also mattered -- really put him and his capabilities on the map.

Re: one of the above posts, I wouldn't paint Felix as a mere hype man / great sales guy, btw.  He's proven to have exceedingly good taste in terms of who he reps. Signal to noise kinda thing.  Many collectors and speculators alike have come to trust his taste and respond accordingly.

 

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Back to Timm -- when the heck were head shots last $50?  Had to be more than a few years ago, I'd reckon. 

Artists (and their reps) have to be super aware of their secondary markets.  Only the flipper wins if commissions are underpriced in the first instance.

Edited by exitmusicblue
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16 hours ago, vodou said:

Not quite. The job is actually to build a relationship by building out a client's base appeal and "as much $$$" will follow...over time. We've all seen a lot of artists either misunderstood or outright mishandled by their reps. Those relationships that work aren't rare, but they are less common than those that don't.

Thanks.  That is something I did not take into account.  For comic art, at least, most reps don't seem like ambassadors that are trying to build relationships.  Also, given today's technology, it's easier for the artists to build those relationships on their own. 

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Something to think about: if Timm’s art is easy to forge, which is apparently the case, then why buy a head shot (or other similar drawing) at all? If the forger is good, then you are paying a heavy premium for the name, because the art is as good as Timm’s. And no one will know the difference. Seems to me that they are a waste of money.

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1 hour ago, Rick2you2 said:

Something to think about: if Timm’s art is easy to forge, which is apparently the case, then why buy a head shot (or other similar drawing) at all? If the forger is good, then you are paying a heavy premium for the name, because the art is as good as Timm’s. And no one will know the difference. Seems to me that they are a waste of money.

Call it a recreation instead of a forgery and you can be on the up and up!

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5 hours ago, Will_K said:

Thanks.  That is something I did not take into account.  For comic art, at least, most reps don't seem like ambassadors that are trying to build relationships.  Also, given today's technology, it's easier for the artists to build those relationships on their own. 

A part of their job is to take the heat when the artists raise prices, place restrictions/limits, etc. that make fans unhappy so the artist themselves don't take the heat.

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23 hours ago, Will_K said:

Thanks.  That is something I did not take into account.  For comic art, at least, most reps don't seem like ambassadors that are trying to build relationships.  Also, given today's technology, it's easier for the artists to build those relationships on their own. 

The amount of reps that are downright rude to customers is always shocking to me. Some of the big name reps at cons treat us like utter garbage, so much so that I know of many collectors who refuse to do business with their artists because of how off-putting the reps are. 

I'm always curious to know if these artists realize how their reps are viewed to the outside world. So many of the current big name guys are repped by dbags and it's always puzzling to see because you talk to the artists and they're usually very nice people and you wonder how that can mesh with their customer-facing representation.

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1 hour ago, Hockeyflow33 said:

The amount of reps that are downright rude to customers is always shocking to me. Some of the big name reps at cons treat us like utter garbage, so much so that I know of many collectors who refuse to do business with their artists because of how off-putting the reps are. 

I'm always curious to know if these artists realize how their reps are viewed to the outside world. So many of the current big name guys are repped by dbags and it's always puzzling to see because you talk to the artists and they're usually very nice people and you wonder how that can mesh with their customer-facing representation.

It's a necessary part of their job to do the dirty business stuff, turn people away, and raise prices.  Some of them are their family members / sig other who see all fans as taking advantage of the artist.  They take everything personally when art is flipped and then turn that energy on the rest of the fans for bidding/buying.  No one is going to call out some of these people by name anyways because the artist is too popular and it's their family.  So give me the professional rep who's a jerk, at least they won't hold grudges and pre judge anyone new who approaches them.

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I wouldn't say Timm is easy to forge.  But it was (is ?) common to see drawings (e.g. on ebay) that were copies of Timm originals.  They'll look close to Timm but still be a little off.

And the "Timm animated style" is also a standard for comics aimed at kids, coloring books, etc.  So there are pros that have to follow the model created by Timm.  They may not look exactly like Timm but they're close enough (and good enough) for publication.

And Timm's style has evolved over the decades.  You see it mainly in women's faces.  So even Timm can draw something that doesn't look exactly like the Timm you've grown to love.

However Timm's looser drawings and color work ??  I don't think those have been successfully imitated.  They really deserve a premium.

Edited by Will_K
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6 hours ago, Marwai said:

It's a necessary part of their job to do the dirty business stuff, turn people away, and raise prices.  Some of them are their family members / sig other who see all fans as taking advantage of the artist.  They take everything personally when art is flipped and then turn that energy on the rest of the fans for bidding/buying.  No one is going to call out some of these people by name anyways because the artist is too popular and it's their family.  So give me the professional rep who's a jerk, at least they won't hold grudges and pre judge anyone new who approaches them.

Treating people poorly should never be part of an agent/rep's job. I don't know who the family members are that you're referring too, usually the husband and wife teams are very pleasant to chat with and I'll take that every day instead of some rep conglomerate that will lie to people to get a few extra bucks. 

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10 minutes ago, Hockeyflow33 said:

Treating people poorly should never be part of an agent/rep's job. I don't know who the family members are that you're referring too, usually the husband and wife teams are very pleasant to chat with and I'll take that every day instead of some rep conglomerate that will lie to people to get a few extra bucks. 

I never said treating people poorly is part of their job.  I said it's part of their job to take the heat when doing things fans don't like on behalf of the artist.  That way you can still love the artist when they raise prices, turn down commissions, etc.  You said they are rude and off putting, but never mentioned anything about being lied to before this post.           

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