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Old 01-19-2016, 02:01 PM   #4401
benhernandez
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Originally Posted by DRL View Post
Not a print but still Aspen related. I was able to pick up the Aspen Black Armor Statue on Boxing Day at a great price. Many thanks to Franks and his team for putting up with my dumb questions after receiving her! I really love Dene Mason's work... Wish we could see more from him!

Some quick iPhone pics:







Nice Pick up DRL!!!!
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Old 01-19-2016, 07:05 PM   #4402
DRL
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Originally Posted by benhernandez View Post
Nice Pick up DRL!!!!
Thanks man!

So glad you reviewed the 11x17 prints... I wanted to grab some for the purpose of putting up on my wall while keeping my prints in their folders. Now I see that this is an inexpensive way of displaying some Aspen stuff without worrying about effecting the print.
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Old 01-22-2016, 07:15 PM   #4403
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Originally Posted by benhernandez View Post
Wow, It's been a while since I've posted anything on this thread or even been on the forum. Look's like I have missed a lot.

I'm a little shocked to what's being going on this thread. My intention when I first started this thread was to share the wonderful art that Aspen was creating and releasing in print format just in case some of us knew or din't know of their existence and wanted to see if we could locate them. That and to show of our own personal collection. It was never meant for it to be a place of attack on any one or any company. But I know it happens. I am puzzled by the words that some people have used or the comments that have been said. Let's remember where this thread is located at, it's on a statue forum for collectors. For some one to be upset for multiple releases of an item that is limited edition is kind of crazy, especially in the world of collectibles.

How many times has a Darth Vader action figure been produced and released, yes I know what you might be thinking, it's not limited so it doesn't count. So point taken, lets talk about Sideshow then, they just re-released new C-3PO and R2-D2 Premium Formats. The first released had a simple base and had an edition size of 200. The second released had a Dirtier R2 and it had a sand base with no edition size mentioned. The new ones has a base that represents the floor of the Millennium Falcon with an edition size of 5000. I don't think I ever saw any collector get upset because of the new releases. Did it kill the price on the original release? Or how about the second release? No I see them go for $900-$2K it all depends on which release it was. What about the different color X-men Angel Comiquette? or the Modern Batman? Or the Red Son Superman? or the Red Son Wonder Woman?

Ok, lets talk prints, Adam Hughes, J Scott Campbell, Alex Sinclair, Frank Frazetta, Joe Kubert, are just a few names of other artist who have released prints of the same image in different sizes, or with a different color scheme, no edition number, border, signature. Look at Alex Sinclair, Releases 11x17 Prints with an edition print of 50 and then releases 10 13x19 with a double or triple the price.

Again it's not new. What I find horrible is that some of you guys are willing to judge one's character based on the decisions that a company must make to reach new fans. Statement that Mr. Turner would never do anything like this to its fans is ridiculous. If you really believe that, you are not Aspen or Turner Fans. Did none of you ever encounter Mini Prints? or how about the OP (Online Proof) Edition Prints. Some were reused images that had a new border on them. Those were released while Mr. Turner was still alive and they have his signature, Aspen is not doing any thing different than they have done in the past.

What I find funny is that supposedly "Aspen doesn't care about their fans". That is a wrong statement, they fixed the issues with the Kianni Bases, they got involved in the Faux Bronze fiasco even though they had nothing to do with it and that was all Statue Forum and the painter Dano and tried to get the statues finished and shipped to the buyers that were still owed. They come on forums and talk to us and listen to us complain, rant and rave about their products. What sucks is that just a few of many fans are complaining.

I know it sucks that some of the prints are not worth what they use to be, I am sure I have spent more money than any of you on obtaining their prints since I started my collection at the beginning of 2008 and Mr. Turner passed away in the middle of 2008. But I am not sad or angry because of it. I collected them for the love of the art and for what Mr. Turner stood for, not for an investment. If I wanted an investment I would have bought stocks and mutual funds, not art, especially not prints.

Art is only as worth as one is willing to pay for it. Most of us chose to pay the high prices that we did after Mr. Turners death because we wanted to. No one made us, Aspen's eBay auctions always started at $25, on some a I got good deals, on others not so much. I once paid the $600 for a print that I wanted badly. Should I blame you guys for raising the price so high during the bidding process? No, it was my choice and my choice alone.

Has anyone seen what the new 11x17 prints look like? I have, I actually got one, and they do not compare well to the 13x19 prints they lack a WOW factor, I am not worried at all about them affecting the value of my prints. To me they look like large postcards, that you can pin up to a wall with pins or tape. See below for the pictures. As well as one of the many prints that I have multiple copies of but in different borders that I am proud to have. As you will see these new prints seem to be geared towards the art collectors that preffer to spend little amounts of money versus high end product.

Like I stated at the beginning, my intent of this thread was to share the wonderful work of art that Mr. Turner and Aspen Comics produced with people that may have not known about them or already knew about them but were not aware of what prints existed out there.

If any of you really want to jump ship send me a list of the prints you got and I may offer you some good money. I have a few Turner prints that I am missing that I would love to get my hands on.
Ben, I understand why you started the thread (it used to be my go to place and probably my only reason for coming to this site initially) so perhaps it is time to start a separate one that accurately reflects what has happened so you can keep this one separate. For now though I shall respond to your comments here.

You say that those of us who are annoyed by the recent undertakings are crazy. Well, that is insulting in my books and your arguments to me don't stand up to scrutiny (the same as Franks do not) - simply put:

To justify Aspen's actions by citing the poor choices of others is, in my books, not only absurd it is ignorant of the facts. And whether this be a statue forum or otherwise is besides the point.

Perhaps one day another company will renege on its unwritten agreement with its customers by not sticking to the 'limited edition promise' and perhaps they will cite Aspen's behaviour as a good reason to justify their own...ad infinitum right?


In supporting the action that Frank and Aspen as a whole has taken are you in fact condoning that it is ok to sell someone a limited edition print and then keep on reprinting it?

Here are some other things which you have neglected to comment on which have been pointed out in the past:

1) Aspen sold DC / Marvel prints as limited edition when they are in fact open = illegal

2) We are annoyed not ignorant - we are well aware that Aspen sold OP editions whilst Mike was still alive. I collected their prints right from the get go and online proof prints were fairly well accepted but reprinting again with the anniversary and then again with open editions. come on.

4) Strangely Aspen decided to get rid of most of their no 1 prints prior to releasing all these extra reprints. A bit of a kick to those fans who stumped up ridiculous amounts when they could've got the art at much better prices. If Frank was as keen to share the art as he says he would have released the reprints earlier. Strange timing don't you think?

4) You can cite the Kiani base situation but that is irrelevant to this situation. They did a great job fixing that but boy have they messed up on the prints side of things.

If they were so good at customer service now don't you think they would do something to quell the supposedly minor number of collectors that are causing a noise? Surely that would be a good course of action for them and wouldn't cost them much right? Well I asked Frank if he would do the honourable thing and buy back the prints at the price I bought them off him (I could then buy the art at a mere fraction of the cost ina slightly different format). Funnily enough he didn't respond to that particular comment. He merely went on about how it was important to get new fans.

Your opinion is your opinion. We all have our own but to try and label us crazy is downright insulting.

Everyone buys for their own reasons - the art, investment, both or some other reason. They are all valid reasons but one thing is for sure some people paid a lot of money for those prints prints which are now worth a LOT less than before for the pure and simple reason that Aspen broke the promise to keep the prints limited - end of story.
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Old 05-29-2016, 08:51 PM   #4404
OrangeCrush
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Quote:
Originally Posted by benhernandez View Post
Wow, It's been a while since I've posted anything on this thread or even been on the forum. Look's like I have missed a lot.

I'm a little shocked to what's being going on this thread. My intention when I first started this thread was to share the wonderful art that Aspen was creating and releasing in print format just in case some of us knew or din't know of their existence and wanted to see if we could locate them. That and to show of our own personal collection. It was never meant for it to be a place of attack on any one or any company. But I know it happens. I am puzzled by the words that some people have used or the comments that have been said. Let's remember where this thread is located at, it's on a statue forum for collectors. For some one to be upset for multiple releases of an item that is limited edition is kind of crazy, especially in the world of collectibles.

How many times has a Darth Vader action figure been produced and released, yes I know what you might be thinking, it's not limited so it doesn't count. So point taken, lets talk about Sideshow then, they just re-released new C-3PO and R2-D2 Premium Formats. The first released had a simple base and had an edition size of 200. The second released had a Dirtier R2 and it had a sand base with no edition size mentioned. The new ones has a base that represents the floor of the Millennium Falcon with an edition size of 5000. I don't think I ever saw any collector get upset because of the new releases. Did it kill the price on the original release? Or how about the second release? No I see them go for $900-$2K it all depends on which release it was. What about the different color X-men Angel Comiquette? or the Modern Batman? Or the Red Son Superman? or the Red Son Wonder Woman?

Ok, lets talk prints, Adam Hughes, J Scott Campbell, Alex Sinclair, Frank Frazetta, Joe Kubert, are just a few names of other artist who have released prints of the same image in different sizes, or with a different color scheme, no edition number, border, signature. Look at Alex Sinclair, Releases 11x17 Prints with an edition print of 50 and then releases 10 13x19 with a double or triple the price.

Again it's not new. What I find horrible is that some of you guys are willing to judge one's character based on the decisions that a company must make to reach new fans. Statement that Mr. Turner would never do anything like this to its fans is ridiculous. If you really believe that, you are not Aspen or Turner Fans. Did none of you ever encounter Mini Prints? or how about the OP (Online Proof) Edition Prints. Some were reused images that had a new border on them. Those were released while Mr. Turner was still alive and they have his signature, Aspen is not doing any thing different than they have done in the past.

What I find funny is that supposedly "Aspen doesn't care about their fans". That is a wrong statement, they fixed the issues with the Kianni Bases, they got involved in the Faux Bronze fiasco even though they had nothing to do with it and that was all Statue Forum and the painter Dano and tried to get the statues finished and shipped to the buyers that were still owed. They come on forums and talk to us and listen to us complain, rant and rave about their products. What sucks is that just a few of many fans are complaining.

I know it sucks that some of the prints are not worth what they use to be, I am sure I have spent more money than any of you on obtaining their prints since I started my collection at the beginning of 2008 and Mr. Turner passed away in the middle of 2008. But I am not sad or angry because of it. I collected them for the love of the art and for what Mr. Turner stood for, not for an investment. If I wanted an investment I would have bought stocks and mutual funds, not art, especially not prints.

Art is only as worth as one is willing to pay for it. Most of us chose to pay the high prices that we did after Mr. Turners death because we wanted to. No one made us, Aspen's eBay auctions always started at $25, on some a I got good deals, on others not so much. I once paid the $600 for a print that I wanted badly. Should I blame you guys for raising the price so high during the bidding process? No, it was my choice and my choice alone.

Has anyone seen what the new 11x17 prints look like? I have, I actually got one, and they do not compare well to the 13x19 prints they lack a WOW factor, I am not worried at all about them affecting the value of my prints. To me they look like large postcards, that you can pin up to a wall with pins or tape. See below for the pictures. As well as one of the many prints that I have multiple copies of but in different borders that I am proud to have. As you will see these new prints seem to be geared towards the art collectors that preffer to spend little amounts of money versus high end product.

Like I stated at the beginning, my intent of this thread was to share the wonderful work of art that Mr. Turner and Aspen Comics produced with people that may have not known about them or already knew about them but were not aware of what prints existed out there.

If any of you really want to jump ship send me a list of the prints you got and I may offer you some good money. I have a few Turner prints that I am missing that I would love to get my hands on.
Honestly, the sheer amount of ignorance in this post literally astounds me, especially coming from someone that deems themselves a serious collector. Its very clear from this post that you have very little knowledge of the print market.

First and foremost, all of those other artists that you mentioned that released prints in different sizes, those are called different editions. A significant number of artists, including many of my favorites, release multiple editions. In fact, I do it myself. All of my limited edition prints are available in both 16x20 and 20x24 and I have offered those 2 sizes since producing my very first limited edition print. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so as its considered perfectly legitimate in the world of limited edition prints. You can release an 8x10, 11x17, 16x20, 20x24 and so on and so forth. Again, those are considered separate editions and do not violate the original limited edition in any way. This just shows how little you truly understand in regards to the limited edition print market. For example, this statement:

Quote:
Look at Alex Sinclair, Releases 11x17 Prints with an edition print of 50 and then releases 10 13x19 with a double or triple the price.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with what Alex did or with releasing multiple sizes/editions. Most artists that release multiple editions usually do so at the same time, that way collectors know exactly how many editions will be made and it also allows the collector to best choose which size they want, but not all of them do so. Some wait and release different sizes later on. Again, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that practice. Its 100% accepted in the limited edition prints market and does not violate any of the previous limited editions.

Of course, this is NOT what Aspen did. For roughly 10 years, Aspen had a set way of selling thier prints. They released a regular 13x19 print and maybe an OP print somewhere down the line. THATS IT!!! No additional prints were produced period, which is why the value of Aspen's prints rose so high. Basically, the price model for the ENTIRE Aspen print market, as well as people's expectations, were based off of this release model. To then, on the drop of a dime, sell all of the #1 prints for incredibly high prices (I saw some go for as much as $800 and I purchased at least 20 that were priced between $300-$450), and then once those were sold off instantly do a complete 180 on the companies roughly 10 year policy regarding the releasing of prints by releasing a MASSIVE amount of reprints (more than 80 in the first year alone) is nothing short of a betrayal of everything people had come to expect from Aspen and especially to those that just spent large sums of money on #1 prints and "last one" prints. And if you can't see that then your either blind or you have let your feelings for Aspen and the people who work there get in the way of your common sense.

Looking back, its actually very easy to see that Frank was nothing short of METICULOUS in his planning, at least in regards to milking collectors for every last penny that he could. I have to give him props in this regard. He set collectors like myself up perfectly and this is exactly what he did:

1 - He sold off the #1 prints and he did this first so he could get as much money as possible for them. He likely made $150,000+ on #1 prints
2 - He got people used to the idea of a price hike by releasing a small number of prints at $49.99 instead of $39.99
3 - Once the #1 prints were sold off he rid Aspen of any remaining prints. This is where we saw the infamous "last one" prints
4 - Lastly, he raised the price to $59.99 and started issuing a massive amount of reprints (again over 80 in the first year alone).

That is exactly what Frank did and in return Aspen got as much money as possible for its remaining prints and would receive $59.99 (a 50% rise in price) on all of the reprints that he knew a LOT of people would want to buy. From a business standpoint, its the absolute best method he could have possibly conceived for making as much money as possible. The fact that it completely screwed over everyone who had ever purchased an Aspen limited edition print and especially those that had just spent loads of money on #1 prints and "last one" prints was irrelevant to him. All he cared about was the $$$. And lets not forget Aspen's entire methodology for releasing new Marvel/DC prints. He released them one at a time and he did this because he wound up making a LOT more money in the long run. He would sell one print, then every few weeks he would release another. I saw it happen time and time again and the results were always the same. Its basic supply and demand. By severely limiting supply, he ensured ridiculously high prices for the first 15-20 prints that sold. The first 4-5 prints that sold would sell in the $300 range. The next 4-5 prints that sold would sell in the $250 range and the next 4-5 prints he released would sell in the 200-225 range and so on and so forth until the price finally settled in the $70-80 range by the time he had sold 30 or so prints. Again, I saw this happen time and time again and even brought it up to Frank in multiple emails. His excuse was that his contract with DC/Marvel didn't allow him to sell DC/Marvel prints through the Aspen store, which may in fact be true but it doesn't mean you sell prints in the manner that Frank did. Frank could have easily started a single eBay auction that had 30-40 copies available and sold the prints for a set price. That way everyone who wanted one was able to buy one right away, as opposed to having to wait 4-6 months like most people did, and everyone would pay the same price. Most retailers don't have a problem with people paying the same price for thier products, but Aspen sure did as they knew full well that they could make a WHOLE lot more selling prints one at a time. Of course, this is why he never used that method even tho I brought it up to him many times. To this day, Aspen is the only print company/artist I have ever seen sell prints in such a manner and I have been collecting limited edition prints for roughly 25 years now. Again, Aspen is the only one I have even seen use such duplicitous sales methods and by itself this may not seem like much, but it speaks WORLDS about Frank and Aspen when you add it in with everything else that occurred over the last few years.

And as others have already mentioned, there is the whole issue surrounding the Marvel/DC prints being open editions, not limited editions. Aspen openly sold open edition prints as limited edition prints knowing FULL WELL what they were doing, which is nothing short of fraud. Yes, you heard me correctly, FRAUD. It took me over 16 months of emailing Aspen to finally get them to address that issue. 16 MONTHS!!! I can usually get an answer from a CS rep regarding a product in as little as 2 days. It took me a year and a half to get Aspen to publicly come out and address the Marvel/DC issue and I had spoken with practically everyone in the company regarding the matter. Each and every one assured me that they were limited editions, even tho none of them could give me specific edition sizes for specific prints. Erick even went as far as telling me they all had edition sizes of 50 or less, which is why I was ok spending the money I did on them. Of course, we now know that was all BS, that they were in fact open editions and Aspen was printing them up at will before each new comic con. In all honesty, the reason why Frank finally came out and addressed the issue is because it started spreading like a wildfire. I had brought it up on multiple occasions in this thread and it got more and more people questioning what the hell was going on with those prints. By the time Frank openly addressed the issue, there were a LOT of people on this forum complaining. I have no doubt had I been the only one complaining, like when I first started questioning Aspen regarding this matter, they would have continued to string me along for as long as possible. If you call that quality customer service...well, then you clearly have some pretty low standards.

And lets not forget the "Last One" auctions. I can't even count how many times I saw a "Last One" auction only to see another copy go up for sale like 6-8 weeks later. And lets not forget the Aspen invented "table copy", which comically were prints Aspen said were set out at shows to show people what prints were for sale. Sorry Ben, but there is no such thing as a table copy in the world of limited edition prints. Any prints created and sold above and beyond the stated edition size, plus a few artist proofs, are a VIOLATION of that limited edition. Honestly, I literally laughed when I saw "table copies" being sold by Aspen on eBay. I pictured Frank drinking a couple beers and a big light bulb appearing above his head, figuring out yet another way to sell even more prints to people, lol. Each and every table copy sold was a violation of that limited edition print, period. That is a fact and can be verified by the actual laws in place that protect people against violations of limited editions. They state very clearly that you are only allowed the stated edition number plus a small number of artist proofs, nothing more and nothing less. This was actually the 2nd way that Aspen wound up breaking the law. The first being the Marvel/DC prints being sold as limited editions.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that I was already so sick of everything dealing with Aspen/Frank/and Aspen's print BS and the fact that I made a killing on the silver market in those years, which made my Aspen print losses seem petty by comparison, I would have driven down to Ohio and opened suit against Aspen in open court and make no mistake about it, I would have won as I still have all my eBay receipts for the Marvel/DC prints that I won on eBay that CLEARLY show they were listed as limited edition prints. Had I known those were open editions, I never would have spent more than $50 on them, yet I actually wound up spending around $125-200 on most of them. I figure I lost around $3500 alone just from this one thing alone. Did Frank offer to refund me the money, even tho they were CLEARLY 100% in the wrong on this? Nope. He just ignores those aspects of your emails when you email him. Everyone that purchased Marvel/DC prints under the guise that they were limited should have been given the ability to return the prints if they wanted. Of course, that never happened as Frank doesn't give a rat's behind about making things right. Money is the only thing Frank cares about. Its all he understands and its all he cares about. His actions over the last few years have proven that unequivocally. If you think differently then you go ahead and ask him to accept returns on the Marvel/DC prints and see what sort of response you get. He doesn't give a crap about the people he ripped off with those prints. All he cares about is getting new fans, to replace all the ones that he stabbed in the back. I even suggested issuing some free prints to people, to at least partially make up for all the BS especially with the Marvel/DC prints. Issuing some free prints would have cost Aspen next to nothing, and yet he wouldn't even agree to that. IMO, that more than anything speaks to Franks mindset when it comes to these issues. He wasn't even willing to spend a couple hundred bucks on some free prints to appease some of Aspens biggest and longest running supporters. Thats just pure greed, plain and simple.

I will agree, Aspen USED to be a company with great customer service. Then again, Aspen used to be a lot of things they aren't anymore. They also used to be a company that actually respected limited editions and they also used to be a company run by Michael Turner and they also used to be a company where you were assured to get your money's worth. Things change and if Aspen has shown us anything these last few years, its that its clearly not always for the better. What Aspen did over the course of those couple of years was not only unethical, it was nothing short of illegal and looking back, I really wish I would have sued Aspen in open court because at least then there would be a public record of the BS they pulled and maybe a few articles written about it that might have stopped others from investing in such a morally bankrupt company and make no mistake about it, Aspen with Frank in charge is a morally bankrupt company.

As I have stated many times in this thread, most states actually now have laws protecting people against this very thing. I even wrote frank an email quoting those laws. I used to think it had to be a piece of art that was $500 or more, but it was actually my looking up the law to post to Frank that taught me that it only has to be $100 or more. So if you buy a limited edition print from an artist for $100 or more and they violate that limited edition, you can sue the artist in open court and Aspen is unquestionably guilty of violating its limited editions. And as others have already stated, bringing up other companies wrong doing's and failures as a way to justify Aspen's wrong doings is just ridiculous at best and it shows you have severe logic issues. Honestly, there is so much wrong with this post I could literally go on for days writing about it.

As for coming into this thread and criticizing others for the posts they have made concerning the RAMPANT abuse that Aspen portrayed over these last few years because you were the one that started this thread and this isn't what you intended...well, that's nothing short of laughable. I am not sure which planet your living on these days, but the planet I live on, when a company f'cks you over as hard as Aspen did...well, people not only have a right to talk about it, they damn well should talk about it. Not only for thier sake, but also so others don't get suckered as well. As for your intentions when you started this thread, this thread is an Aspen print thread which means the posts made in this thread are going to be a direct reflection of Aspen prints and the Aspen print market. So when the entire Aspen print market went to sh*t, it was directly reflected in this thread. To expect anything different is just completely unrealistic. If you want to get pissed off and blame someone...well, you can blame Frank while your asking him about the Marvel/DC returns.

My advice, if you want an Aspen print thread where everyone just blows sunshine up each other's a*s, including Franks, all while ignoring the realities of the current Aspen print market, just go ahead and start a new one. You can name it "The New and Less Improved Aspen Print Thread" and you can sit around with whoever else wants to join and laugh about how much money everyone has lost in the market and how worthless the prints have become. And you have my word, I won't step foot in it and I am pretty sure most of the other members that have moved on from Aspen will stay away as well. You can have your fairy tale thread back and again you can all sit around and laugh about how worthless all of your Aspen prints are now. I am sure it will be a lot of fun!

Honestly, all this thread has shown me is that you know very little about the limited edition print market, not even enough to know what constitutes different editions. Thats like being stuck on the letter A when trying to learn the alphabet. And this thread has also shown me that you have more respect for a morally bankrupt company, one that literally broke the law and screwed over its biggest fans and supporters, than you do your fellow collectors. Well, I for one don't regret a single post I have made in this thread and I wouldn't take a single post back even if I could. In fact, I continue to make posts about Aspen on other print collecting forums, warning people about the actions the company has taken in the past and I will continue to make posts long into the future if I think it will help steep people clear from supporting the company. And again, if you want to blame someone for this thread going in the direction it has gone....well, you can blame the same person who turned the entire Aspen print market into a bad joke. A little hint, his name starts with an F and its not the members of this forum.

As for you not worrying about the value of your prints, I honestly don't even know how to respond to that statement. Just out of curiosity, at what point price wise will you start to worry? When they are down to $5-$10 a pop? When they are being given away for free? They have already lost roughly 65-75% of thier value, but your not worried about thier value? Well, either you purchased your prints for dirt cheap, hence haven't lost any money even tho the value is down 65-75%, or your just really bad at understanding math. And the 11x17's don't have to be equal in quality to hurt the value of the 13x19 prints. This is just another example of how little you understand in regards to the print market. If someone is interested in buying a particular Michael Turner print and they wind up buying the 11x17 open edition....well, that just makes it that much less likely they will ever wind up buying the 13x19 version. That is simply common sense. The open edition 11x17 prints will lower overall demand for the 13x19 versions, especially since many of those are still hard to find and still more expensive than the open editions. That is a fact, whether you want to admit it or not. Thier quality compared to the 13x19 versions is pretty much irrelevant. It is important to note that technically, there was nothing wrong with Aspen creating 11x17 open editions for Aspens prints. Those are technically different editions as they are a different print size altogether. What makes it so disgusting and the reason why so many people view it as a terrible thing is because the 11x17's came on the heels of everything else that had already occurred. The Apsen print market was already severely damaged value wise and Aspen had already screwed over its 13x19 collectors in pretty much every way conceivable. Coming out with open edition 11x17 prints was like the final FU from Frank and the final way in which he could legitimately damage the value of the 13x19 limited editions. It was like rubbing salt in everyone's wound as releasing those only ensured that values would continue to drop on the limited editions. It was perfectly legal, but it was still a big FU to all of Aspen's 13x19 collectors.

Now if you ask Frank about it, he will go on and on about how he felt other collectors should have the ability to buy that artwork as well, which is why he decided to release reprints and 11x17 open editions. Well, here is a big tip for those out there looking to sell prints, if that is how you feel then DON'T PRODUCE LIMITED EDITION PRINTS, PERIOD. Produce open edition prints, that way everyone who wants a copy can buy a copy. The whole point of limited editions is they are limited and thus not everyone that wants a copy can buy a copy. Thats just the reality of the market and the bottom line is that Frank was perfectly ok with that reality as long as he had new Michael Turner prints to produce, yet as soon as that well started to run dry, Frank had a change of heart and suddenly wanted all collectors to be able to buy and appreciate that artwork. It had nothing to do with trying to make lots more money off of the same artwork. Its just Frank being a thoughtful and caring guy to all those fans out there that wanted Aspen artwork yet couldn't afford to buy the limited editions. The funny thing is, while Frank was explaining this whole mentality to me, about how he felt more people should have access to Aspen's limited edition artwork, he was actually taking the exact opposite approach by producing eBay only prints that were limited to just 10 prints. So basically, on the one hand he is explaining how he feels more collectors should have access to Aspen's limited edition artwork yet on the other hand he was producing Aspen's most limited prints to date, again limited to just 10 copies. Its all hypocritical BS and if you buy any of it, I have some great swampland to sell you down in Florida. This was about money, nothing more and nothing less. The Turner well was running dry, a fact that Frank himself admitted to when people started complaining about the lack of new print releases, and Frank needed to find a way to keep that well running. He found his solution in selling the #1 prints and producing reprints, anniversary prints, table copies, and open edition 11x17 prints. Its really as simple as that.

As for your offer, I spent well over $25,000 on Aspen prints in a roughly 2 year period. If I could get even 75% of what I paid I would sell every last one right now and wash my hands of Aspen forever. I would go on enjoying Michael's artwork through the internet. Unfortunately, jumping ship for me would mean losing at least $15,000 given the current value of Aspen's prints which just isn't worth it. And you offering to buy a couple that you still need isn't going to help my situation one bit. If you have around $18,000 sitting around and you want to buy my entire collection, which includes a LOT of #1 prints and most of the harder to find prints, consider it a done deal. Ill even throw in the 10 Itoya Profolio Professional portfolios free of charge. The portfolio's alone cost almost $1000, but again thier yours free of charge if you buy the entire collection. Hell, I'll even drive them to your house free of charge, if you live in the US, to ensure they arrive in pristine condition. You just let me know when your ready to buy and well get it all worked out!
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Old 07-16-2016, 12:09 AM   #4405
turner
Sey hallo to my lille fren!
 
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 124
Extremely excited for the Suicide Squad cover coming out. I will finally get to see the Michael Turner Original artwork I own in color and printed by Aspen Comics

here's a little preview

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