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Brett Wilson
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Joined: 07 April 2010
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Posted: 31 July 2012 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | 1  

Hi, I was wondering if someone could help me. I have a J. Scott Campbell page from Gen 13 in the 90's. The page has several completed character sketches, but several unfinished sketches as well. It looks like he started the page and decided he wanted to start over, or was just messing around practicing. Anyone have an idea what something like this would be worth?

Edited to make thread title inclusive for general discussion about prices of original art~Matt


Edited by Matt Reed on 02 August 2012 at 10:09am
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Andrew W. Farago
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Posted: 01 August 2012 at 12:59am | IP Logged | 2  

Poke around eBay and Comic Art Fans for Campbell's work and see if you can find something comparable.  If he's drawn fairly complete sketches of the most popular Gen 13 characters, collectors will probably pay more than they would for a story page that doesn't have much action or any popular characters, but not as much as they'd pay for a solid, published page featuring the main cast.
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John Byrne
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Grumpy Old Guy

Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 01 August 2012 at 5:21am | IP Logged | 3  

Pricing art is usually arbitrary, and often insane. I've seen my X-MEN stuff, for instance -- all those pages I sold thirty or more years ago for $50 -- spiral up to crazy levels, then start creeping down again. Was I experiencing a sudden retroactive loss in popularity? No, the age of the collectors, like the age of people buying the comics, had shifted. People were looking for Paul Smith art!

So, pages are "worth" whatever you can get someone to pay.

(Recently I bought about eight pages, over a few short weeks, from a DAN DARE story that was a favorite from my childhood. These were REALLY expensive, but I considered them worth it. There's one more page from the same story still floating around out there, for sale, but the seller has decided it is an "iconic" page. Trust me, it isn't. But as a result of this arbitrary decision on his part, he's asking about twice as much as what I paid for an equivalent page from the same story. Result, I won't be buying that page. And I very much doubt anyone else will, either.)

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Brett Wilson
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Posted: 01 August 2012 at 11:46am | IP Logged | 4  

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it.
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Steve Ogden
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Posted: 02 August 2012 at 9:46am | IP Logged | 5  

That what Stephen Fishler and Vincent Zurzolo, co-owners of Metropolis Collectibles paid for Todd McFarlane's cover (not the whole issue, mind you but just the cover) to Amazing Spider-Man #328. That is a ridiculous amount of money to pay.  Now, I know people will say it was their money they can do with as they wish. Of course those people are correct but I believe it really boils down to "Hey look how much I spent on____________."  There is not even a "historical" significance to the ASM #328 cover. There are thousands of better covers with a greater significance for sale; I don't get this at all.

This hobby is becoming more and more a rich-mans game so to speak. It is sad, really.  It is getting to the point where it is all about money, value, worth and taking everything about our hobby out of perspective. 

I realize the proverbial horse has been beaten to death on this, but I still got to wonder if Todd received anything from this sale.


Edited by Steve Ogden on 02 August 2012 at 9:50am
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Matt Reed
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Posted: 02 August 2012 at 9:51am | IP Logged | 6  

There are about three threads right now on the price of original art, one of which has made mention of the sale you talk about, Steve.  Instead of so many threads basically talking about the same thing floating around, I moved your post here and retitled the thread to make it a general discussion (the original question was asked and answered).
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Steve Ogden
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Posted: 02 August 2012 at 9:55am | IP Logged | 7  

OK, thanks, Matt. I did a search for Todd McFarlane and all that came up was old locked discussions.
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 02 August 2012 at 9:56am | IP Logged | 8  

Should artist get some part of the subsequent sale of their work? Yes.

Is this likely to happen, in any sort of general way? No.

Why not? Because there are too many moronic "collectors" who think buying a piece for $100, and later selling it for $1000, but giving 10% to the original artist, means they have LOST $100, not MADE $800.

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Wilson Mui
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Posted: 02 August 2012 at 10:11am | IP Logged | 9  

If those two can afford it, let them spend their money as they see fit.  Since they are in the business, they seem like informed buyers.  I would imagine other considerations like publicity for their business and potential tax break payed a role.  Also, Todd McFarlane probably isn't going to be drawing Spider-Man or the Hulk for Marvel anymore.
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Andy Mokler
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Posted: 02 August 2012 at 10:58am | IP Logged | 10  

A friend of mine wanted to make the trip to the recent Heritage Auctions auction in Beverly Hills.  He collects Sanjulian art and there were multiple pieces being offered.

He is very familiar with market prices on his work and knows how much Sanjulian would charge to do a commission.  Ultimately, he didn't even bother going because the prices were all bit up to double what they "should" be before the day of the auction.

It very much seems that there are a few very rich dealers who will bid things up to far higher than their value just to try and increase that artist's "worth".  

Yet, these same people who seem to have so much money don't actually try and help the actual artist.  They're all too happy to profit from them but they don't go out and hire that artist at double or triple what they normally charge for commissions.
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Scott Silverstein
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Posted: 02 August 2012 at 11:15am | IP Logged | 11  

I agree with the comments Mr. Byrne made a few years ago....compensate the artist 10%-15% on the sale........I see the same thing with records....LPs & 45s will sell for huge amounts of money between collectors while the org artist who created the music is broke and could really use some sort of help ...
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John Byrne
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Joined: 11 May 2005
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Posted: 02 August 2012 at 11:28am | IP Logged | 12  

One of the saddest things I have noticed in fandom over the years is that many of the same people who will claim themselves to be staunch defenders of "creator's rights" ("Give Jack Kirby his artwork back!!") will throw up the barricades and start boiling the oil if anyone suggests those "creators" should get some recompense from subsequent sales of their originals ("What?? You want me to give Kirby some of the money I made from selling one of his pages???")

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