Trends in comic art sales for investors, hobbyists, and fans
Comic Art Trends Price Guide
Have you thought about buying original comic art but you are afraid to make a mistake and pay too much? Do you have art to sell but don't know what people are getting for similar pages? How do you know what pages are similar?
The Comic Art Trends Price Guide is designed to arm people with information about original comic book art. Stock investors can find bit-buckets of information necessary to understand the market. Home buyers have millions of homes only a google away. Just as the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has opened up the market for comic book collectors for nearly fifty years, the Comic Art Trends Price Guide is creating a much needed service to new investors, collectors, and fans-- and solid information for the experienced collector and industry professional as well.
Whether your comic art interest is casual or you need a Brinks truck every time you make a purchase, the CAT Price Guide and system for scoring comic art is a useful and entertainiong tool to keep in your utility belt.
Here's the problem statement:
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Original Art is one of a kind-- it's impossible to compare two or more pieces.
There are too few sales of comic art to see trends-- one rich collector with a childhood memory can blow up the price.
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Thousands of copies of each comic book are printed-- how can a grade be assigned when art is unique?
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Time period, artist, character... there's so many variables-- what are the truly important factors to focus on for original comic book art?
The Comic Art Trends Price Guide 2019 is the first annual edition. This year's edition is called 'Legends' because it features many of the greatest artists in industry history. The 2019 edition includes Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson, Ross Andru, Jim Aparo, John Buscema, John Byrne, Ernie Chan, Gene Colan, Alan Davis, Dick Dillin, Steve Ditko, Bill Everett, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino, Dan Jurgens, Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Frank Miller, Irv Novick, Tom Palmer, George Perez, Gordon Purcell, Fred Ray, Jerry Robinson, John Romita, Sr., Alex Ross, Joe Sinnott, Jim Steranko, Curt Swan, and Herb Trimpe.
The CAT Price Guide is a multi-year partnership with fans and professionals to thoughfully answer questions related to sharing market data and deriving meaningful grading systems. The ultimate goal is not to hurt the professionals in the industry, but rather to strengthen the original comic book art industry for everyone. The first edition of this unique guide to original comic book art catalogues thousands of pages of art by about 30 artists. Check out the images below to see examples of the visual and analytical information in the first edition of the Comic Art Trends Price Guide.
Naturally, it has to have pictures of some of the most fantastic comic art ever produced. Thanks to Heritage Auctions for permission to use their images! Each picture includes basic information such as the name(s) of the artist(s) and a description of the page. I also include info such as price and date sold. Of big value to the reader, I indicate the CAT score for each page. Looking at the provided examples in my book and social media outlets is a simple help to the reader who wants to learn how to differentiate artwork using the CAT Scale.
Each artist section begins with a summary of recent sales data through Heritage Auctions. For the 2019 guide, sales data is reviewed up through Mid 2019. The 2020 guide will have the complete 2019 info for the featured artists. Current market data for previously featured artists will show up on this website and in my facebook group "Comic Art Trends Advisors". By the way, I need your help to broaden the spectrum of market data from just Heritage Auctions to other vendors as well. Email me to find out how you can help and be credited for your artwork sales and purchases.
Each artist section is populated with tables of sales data. A separate table is included for each series title. The pages are ordered with newest sales listed first since those sales are most relevant from a current price perspective. Each page is identified by title, issue number, and location such as page 15 or "C" for Cover. Some pages came to market as a lot. Group sales or Complete Story sales are identified by Gx or CSx, where 'x' represents the number of pages. Other imporant information in the table includes the Publication Date, Sold Date, Price, Source of Sale, and sometimes a comment. The unique information only found in the CAT price guide is the CAT score. See Grading Companion for more info. One other piece of information is the CGR (Compounded Growth Rate). This statistic is useful because it directly compares sales price for a particular page that has sold more than once.
Graphs are visual tools to summarize data. Hundreds of sales can be captured in a single picture. I present three different forms of graphs in the Comic Art Trends Price Guide. Since there are so many factors that affect price and demand, it is not enough to show a bubble plot of sales. In fact, data must not only be viewed over time, but also according to grade. Here are the graphs I present for the original comic book art included in this book:
Summary data by year of sale (mean, median, minimum, and max)
Summary data by year published (includes analysis of the significant factors affecting sales price)
Summary data grouped by CAT score (mean, median, minimum, and max represented graphically)
The summary graph below depicts mean sales of pages by Alan Davis based on year sold. This graph excludes cover sales. A 3 Year Moving Average is superimposed over the graph as an aid to viewing the trend of the mean sales price. Moving averages are lagging indicators of the trend. They are not predictive in nature, but they help to balance out the one-time swings caused by outlier sales either on the high or low side.
I purposely restrict the scope of art that is included in the Comic Art Trends Price Guide. The intention of the guide is to help differentiate pages of ORIGINAL, PUBLISHED, COMIC book art. There are many exceptional forms of art that are both collectable and investment worthy. However, the universe of art is huge and I can't do justice to any of it if every beautiful form of artwork is included in this one series of books. For example, sketches and various promotional art products are excellent collectibles, but not included in the price guide. The image below illustrates many of the types of art that are excluded.
Just to pull it all together. The guide is organized by artists. Each of over thirty artists have their own section featuring sales data by title, images from many significant works, and summary statistics with trend lines to gauge the market going forward. In addition to precise sales information, the guide includes a proprietary CAT score for each listing. The CAT score is a means to objectively compare multiple pages of art. Ultimately, the Comic Art Trends Price Guide is intended to provide information that is relevant to serious comic art investors and entertaing to any comic art geek.
I believe the information in the Comic Art Trends Price Guide will empower many more people to enter the market for original published comic book art.
For a moment let me not be subtle; the Comic Art Trends Price Guide offers an objective means to grade original comic book art with an emphasis on published art. I assert that the CAT scale is a valid means to compare two pages of comic art. If an artist you are interested in is not covered in the Comic Art Trends Price Guide yet, then use the same strategies described in my book to compare the artwork you are interested in.
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