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Originally Posted by SideShowJoe
Agreed glad you and u are in agreement! I got people with pitchforks coming at me when I said same thing but it's true this are just digital prints, it's not like they did each individual one they are absolutely making killing on all of these it's not even funny... I think many are niave and just think just because they put the price out there that it's realistic but In all honesty it's lies...lies I tell you!!
Edit: Hahaha just saw they are selling a few batman framed prints as well as superman and soon they will sell few wonder woman when they get ours back Hahaha! Oh sideshow boy how you make my day and make me laugh...
Sarah
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Yeah, there used to be debates about this back in the Aspen print thread, back when I first started telling people just how cheap it was to produce Aspen's 13x19 prints. A lot of people had a hard time believing just how cheap it really was.
Printing technology and pricing has changed pretty dramatically over the years but I have updated my printer on a pretty regular basis so I have been right there with all of those changes in quality and pricing. For the last 6-7 years, I have known first hand what it costs to produce these kinds of quality prints. I have had the same Epson rep for an extremely long time and he has been amazing in regards to keeping me updated on all the upcoming changes and new technology. I actually just spoke with him a couple weeks back. He's trying to get me to update to the new Surecolor P9000 with the new Epson UltraChrome HDX inks. HDX inks have a print permanence rating of up to 200 years for color prints, and over 400 years for black and white prints, which is basically twice the permanence of previous Epson inks. It also has increased Dmax, a wider color gamut, and reduced metamerism or to put it in layman's terms, the prints are going to look noticeably better and last twice as long.
And not to toot my own horn, but I guarantee I have far more knowledge and experience with papers than Aspen and Sideshow combined. I have personally tried almost every paper on the market (both for normal non digital darkroom printing and digital printing) and am constantly looking for new papers to try out. I used to send Frank Mastromauro emails begging him to try out some of the Awagami digital Japanese Washi papers, to create a line of really cool limited edition Turner prints. Unfortunately, he never showed any interest in changing things up paper wise. Its a shame as had he done some black and which sketch prints on some of those papers, which is what I was trying to get him to do, they truly would have been stunning and would have rocked a lot of Aspen/Turner print collectors minds.
The only thing I can't personally confirm when it comes to the pricing of these prints is just how much the artist is getting paid, but as I stated before, if Sideshow was smart they would make it part of the initial statue contract. And even tho I can't personally confirm exactly what the artist is getting paid, I know from the price of prints at shows that its not a lot of money. If it was, there is no way that companies like Aspen or Elysium Treasures could sell EBAS or J. Scott Campbell prints for $10-$15 a pop.
The only other thing that could severely effect the pricing on these prints is if Sideshow was using a lab or 3rd party to print them. That would definitely take a chunk out of the profit column, but I don't buy for a second that Sideshow is actually going this route. With the skilled artists that they have working at the company, there would be absolutely no reason to outsource the printing. With the difference in profits you would be talking about, It would be FAR smarter for Sideshow to just go out and hire a digital printing expert. Even with his salary factored in, they would wind up making FAR more money on these prints than going the outsourcing/3rd party route. If Sideshow is outsourcing, than its without question one of the single worst business decisions Sideshow has ever made and again, I for one am just not buying that they went this route. It just makes absolutely zero sense.
Oh crap, I made another really long post so I will go ahead and wrap it up here. Ill simply end this by stating again that having a digital print line like this, that has this level of pricing, is literally like having your own money printing press. No other collectible market comes even close to matching the profit margins seen with digital prints.
