Sideshow Premium Art Prints

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by takaboi

SS could've charged $200 for unframed prints legit signed by artist and the prints would've still sold out.

If you honestly believe that then you clearly know a lot less than you think you do about the comic print market. Had Sideshow tried charging $200 for unframed 18x24 prints....well, their Premium Print line would have ended just as fast as it began.

But saying the prints WITHOUT the signature is worth $40 tops is ridiculous lol. Maybe you'll get Cannon printer quality.

All this shows is that you know about as much about the cost of digital printing as you do the limited edition print market in general, which I'm sorry to say isn't much based on this post. An 18x24 comic print, without an authentic signature, should cost no more than 40-50 bucks + $10 for shipping. Anything more and your getting bent over your computer screen.

And for the record, Canon makes some absolutely amazing printers. I prefer Epson myself, but I have used professional labs that used Canon's large format graphic printers and they are absolutely amazing and can stand toe to toe with the best printers out there.

[AlbertR213]

I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that their print releases are primarily made to accompany a statues's release so they will always have that advantage to them and thus people will still buy them at the price they are at, whether signed by hand or not.

Should they sell their prints at $40-50? Yeah sure.
Will they? Nope....safe to say they won't.

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by AlbertR213

I would agree with you if it weren't for the fact that their print releases are primarily made to accompany a statues's release so they will always have that advantage to them and thus people will still buy them at the price they are at, whether signed by hand or not.

Should they sell their prints at $40-50? Yeah sure.
Will they? Nope....safe to say they won't.

I agree 100%. I have absolutely zero faith that Sideshow will bring down the price to a more reasonable level. They will most likely continue charging exactly what they have been, just to see if people will continue to buy them. If were lucky, we might see a 10% drop in price, lol.

The only way Sideshow is getting me to buy another print is if they lower the price to $50 ($60 shipped), or they start getting their prints signed by the artists and issue a COA guaranteeing the signature to be authentic. Anything less and my print money will be going elsewhere.

Again, Stanley Lau's Ink Ink Collectibles will be opening to the public soon enough. Those prints will be 1/3 the price and will actually have signatures. Thats where my money will be going.

[AlbertR213]

What's interesting about this is that EVERYONE who bought a print from them could get some credit...whether they cared about the signature or not.

I kind of doubt they will start sending out emails to everyone who had bought any kind of print saying they messed up and to have some credit but if they're already crediting people I would think that would be the fair thing to do.

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by AlbertR213

What's interesting about this is that EVERYONE who bought a print from them could get some credit...whether they cared about the signature or not.

I kind of doubt they will start sending out emails to everyone who had bought any kind of print saying they messed up and to have some credit but if they're already crediting people I would think that would be the fair thing to do.

If they do issue a credit, they would most likely issue it to everyone that purchased the print. Otherwise you risk pissing people off when they find out some people got a credit but they didn't. They already f'ed up with this whole signature issue. The last thing they need is for this to get any worse based on them only issuing credit to certain customers.

It would be very unwise to only issue a credit to those that openly complained.

[worstgamerever]

Originally Posted by OrangeCrush

Yeah, I completely understand your skepticism towards the industry now. Those kinds of experiences really change you as a collector, especially when you lose a significant amount of money or value with your collection. I myself am this close to giving up on the comic print industry myself. I don't know what it is about the comic industry, but for some reason the companies producing comic prints just don't have the respect for limited edition's that the other print markets have.

Up until 2008, I actually had an almost 100% complete Aspen print collection (there were like 2 prints I still needed). Unfortunately, I had a house fire in early 2008 and it wound up being a complete loss. All of my collectibles, including my Aspen print collection went up in smoke. What made the loss even worse is that Michael Turner wound up passing away on June 27th, 2008, roughly 3 months after I had the fire. The value of his prints skyrocketed after he passed away. I was insured so I did get some money for the Aspen prints that I had lost, but by the time I got the insurance money, the value of his prints had more than doubled. Some more than tripled in value. So basically the money I wound up getting for all of my Aspen prints wouldn't have gotten me even 1/3 of my collection back, if I had decided to rebuy the prints. And Michael passing away just made the loss of the prints all the worse as I was just a HUGE fan of his.

Basically, I was so devastated by the loss that I swore I would never collect again, but I have been a collector at heart since I was roughly 10 years old so it was really only a matter of time before I started collecting again. I remember very clearly the day I got sucked back in. I was browsing eBay and wound up stumbling onto this print:



I had purposely stayed away from Michael Turner and Aspen print searches on eBay, but for some reason this print came up in one of my eBay searches. I immediately fell in love with that print and before I knew it, I had pushed the buy it now button. I figured what the hell, it was just one print. Boy was I wrong on that one. Once I actually received the print and had it in hand, oh man I was hooked all over again! I immediately jumped back on eBay and started buying more Aspen prints. In particular, I really loved the Lady Mechanika prints. Then I stumbled onto my single favorite Michael Turner print:



It was selling for $300 and I just couldn't resist. I immediately purchased it and at that moment, I decided that I was going to replace my entire Michael Turner collection. I still had most of the insurance money from all of the collectibles I lost (I had lost a LOT more than just my Aspen prints) so money really wasn't an issue. It was tracking the older prints down that wound up being the most difficult part of replacing my collection as many of those prints are very difficult to find.

Anyways, that was early 2010 and at that point, the prices of Michael Turner prints were really at their highest price levels ever. As I stated earlier, signed Turner prints were selling for roughly $175 to $300+ a print and over the next 16 months I purchased every Turner print I could get my hands on, including many of the #1 prints Aspen was selling. I basically spent over $25,000 on Aspen prints over that period of time and again I purchased those prints at their peak value level. So you can imagine how pissed off I became as the value of my collection plummeted just 12 months later due to Aspen's major reprint-a-thon! Had I waited another 12-16 months before re-buying my collection, I could have saved around $12,000.

So basically I got screwed twice. First by the timing of my house fire and the value of Michael's prints going up 2-3x by the time I received my insurance money and second by Aspen's reprint 'a' thon that basically devalued my collection by roughly $12,000 just 12-16 months after I had repurchased all of the prints.

Out of all the Aspen print collectors in the world, you would be very hard pressed to find one that got screwed harder than I did by Aspen. So again, I understand perfectly your skepticism towards this market. Honestly, I am right there with you on that one!

Yeah, I just made another really long post, lol.

Mate, please don't stop with your posts. I'm not being a troll. Your posts by themselves have given me more perspective on this issue than if I spent months trawling the internet. Never seen such excellent posts on any forum. Please don't stop. Thanks.

[Canadaguy705]

Originally Posted by OrangeCrush

I agree 100%. I have absolutely zero faith that Sideshow will bring down the price to a more reasonable level. They will most likely continue charging exactly what they have been, just to see if people will continue to buy them. If were lucky, we might see a 10% drop in price, lol.

The only way Sideshow is getting me to buy another print is if they lower the price to $50 ($60 shipped), or they start getting their prints signed by the artists and issue a COA guaranteeing the signature to be authentic. Anything less and my print money will be going elsewhere.

Again, Stanley Lau's Ink Ink Collectibles will be opening to the public soon enough. Those prints will be 1/3 the price and will actually have signatures. Thats where my money will be going.

Question for you OC!!!

When Stanely Lau's Ink Collectibles opens, will he be allowed to sell the same prints as SS? Or because SS commissioned him to do them, does SS own the rights to them? Could Lau then sell the prints at a different size to get around that?

What are your thoughts?

[zalahmar]

I sent an email to Sideshow voicing my dissatisfaction with this whole thing and asked for a partial refund since I paid A LOT of money to custom frame my prints and returning them is not feasible. I did cancel my Power Girl print and got my NRD back for that one and will no longer be picking up any prints from Sideshow at least not at the current price point or until they start having these signed by the artists themselves based on the asking price. Given all that's transpired, these prints while still lovely, don't justify the cost I paid for them and would not have put such a huge investment into them had I known what I know now when I placed the orders.

[zalahmar]

Originally Posted by Canadaguy705

Question for you OC!!!

When Stanely Lau's Ink Collectibles opens, will he be allowed to sell the same prints as SS? Or because SS commissioned him to do them, does SS own the rights to them? Could Lau them sell the prints at a different size to get around that?

What are your thoughts?

Doubtful, Sideshow commissioned him to do the art and as such, they probably own it.

[takaboi]

Originally Posted by OrangeCrush

If you honestly believe that then you clearly know a lot less than you think you do about the comic print market. Had Sideshow tried charging $200 for unframed 18x24 prints....well, their Premium Print line would have ended just as fast as it began.




All this shows is that you know about as much about the cost of digital printing as you do the limited edition print market in general, which I'm sorry to say isn't much based on this post. An 18x24 comic print, without an authentic signature, should cost no more than 40-50 bucks + $10 for shipping. Anything more and your getting bent over your computer screen.

And for the record, Canon makes some absolutely amazing printers. I prefer Epson myself, but I have used professional labs that used Canon's large format graphic printers and they are absolutely amazing and can stand toe to toe with the best printers out there.

We're talking about limited editions as well right? And since we're talking about the if's---if sideshow made 200 of the doom on throne art prints and told collectors it'll be $200 each, you think it won't get sold out?
Can't speak for the whole community bro, there are those who think $200 is chump change and willing to pay premium for whatever stands "exclusive".

So my point? SS don't care if they screwed up on misinterpreting the autographs, they know so long as they keep putting out these "limited edition" prints, especially with Artgerm, it'll continue to sell out. Again, SS can lose out on some collectors, but forums speak less than 20% of the collecting community.