Quote:
Originally Posted by built2shred
I love Turner's art... is $320 a good price for an autographed art print? or is that high? I've never really collected art prints before (other then a few SS ones which turned out to be fake autographs).
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$320 is incredibly high given the massive drop in price that's taken price in the Aspen/Turner print market over the last few years. Back in 2011, before Aspen started thier major reprint'a'thon and nobody knew the truth about the Marvel/DC prints being open editions, signed Turner prints were selling in the roughly $200 - $350 range depending on the print. DC/Marvel prints that had a Turner signature normally sold in the $200-$300 range. DC/Marvel prints that didn't have Turner's Signature sold in the area of $125-$175. A few of the more popular ones like the Supergirl print you have up sold as high as $350 when they first came out.
In regards to Aspen's DC/Marvel prints, You have to understand that Aspen has sales tactics that are very specific and are aimed at making as much money as possible on each print. I call it trickle releasing. Instead of creating a buy it now auction with 20+ prints available at a set price, which would give a large number of collectors the ability to buy the print right away and for the same price, Aspen instead slowly releases new DC/Marvel prints one at a time and they never sell then in successive auctions. They always waited 2-3 rounds of auctions before selling another copy. So basically they will sell a copy one week, then wait 2-3+ weeks to list another copy.
What this does is SEVERELY limit supply which causes prices to skyrocket out of the gate due to the demand for new prints. Normally what you would see is the first 3-5 or so prints sell in the $200-$300+ range, then the next 3-5 or so prints would sell in the $175-$225 range, and so on and so forth until the price of the print finally settled in the $100-$125 range a year or so later. Of course, this was before people found out the truth about the DC/Marvel prints. Aspen had sold Marvel/DC prints as limited edition prints for roughly 9 years. It wasn't until I hammered Aspen with email after email and a bunch of other collectors started doing the same that Frank Mastromauro came clean and admitted the truth, that the prints were in fact open edition prints. As soon as this info wen't public, the price on DC/Marvel prints plummeted.
If you follow Aspen's current auctions on eBay, you would know that most Marvel/DC prints now sell in the $25-$50 range. Just check out Aspen's completed listings for the last 2 weeks:
http://www.ebay.com/csc/aspenmlt/m.h..._sop=13&_rdc=1
They listed 5 DC/Marvel prints during thier latest round of auctions this last week. All of Aspens auctions start at $24.99. 1 print didn't even sell and the other 4 sold between the prices of $24.99 and $32.00. Sure, you can go on eBay right now and find a ton of Turner Marvel/DC prints listed in the $100-$150 price range. Thing is, none of those auctions are selling. Those prints have been relisted time and time again. Companies like Sunnyscomics and Xworldcollectibles have finally started to come down in price because they just never sell any of them. All they do is relist the same prints over and over again.
In my opinion, anyone who spends more than $50 for Turner Marvel/DC print is just wasting thier money. As for signed Marvel/DC prints, they aren't as rare as some people think. He signed a pretty decent number of them before he passed away and while those are unquestionably more valuable than the non Turner signed DC/Marvel prints, prices in the area of $300 are really laughable at best at this point in time. Marvel/DC prints that are signed by Turner should cost no more than $75-$125 tops given the current market and even that is a pretty high estimate in my book. Personally, I wouldn't spend more than $100. I have purchased 4 Turner signed DC/Marvel prints over the last 6 months and I didn't spend more than $80 on any of them and got 2 of them for $60.
Bottom line - the Aspen print market is at rock bottom. You can buy thier regular prints for as low as $15-$25 on eBay, the same ones they sell for $59.99 on the Aspen Store. I have seen multiple signed Turner prints sell as low as $35 the last few months.
Here is one that just ended for $31
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Michael-Turn...vip=true&rt=nc
Back in 2011, that print would have easily sold for $175.
Here is another one that ended at $52
http://www.ebay.com/itm/262055242387...84.m1435.l2649
Again, back in 2011, that would have easily sold for $200+.
Again, the Turner/Aspen print market really has hit rock bottom. Every month that passes I see prints selling for lesser and lesser amounts. Most serious collectors were completely disenfranchised by Aspen's reprints and total lack of respect for collectors and the overall value of thier older prints. All Aspen cares about is making money and milking Michael Turner's work for every penny they can get. Thier actions show that they could give a rats behind about the value of thier older prints. Of the 4 collectors I know personally, I am the only one that still collects and I am only buying the few remain prints I still need to complete my collection and the only reason I decided to do so is because prices are so ridiculously low now. My Aspen print collection alone has lost upwards of $15,000 in value the last 2-3 years.
Obviously price, value, and wether someone thinks a particular print is worth it is all purely subjective. So if your content to spend $300 on a signed Marvel/DC Turner print then by all means buy it. If you think its worth it than that is ultimately all that matters. Personally, I won't spend more than $50 on an Aspen print these days and that includes prints signed by Turner. My limit for signed marvel/DC prints is $75-$80. I have already lost WAY too much money on the Aspen print market and super cheap prints are easier and easier to find. I think a lot of collectors are starting to dump thier collections as they know how worthless they have become and want to get something for them before the bottom completely falls out.
So ultimately its your choice, but I think paying anywhere even close to $300 for an Aspen print these days is nothing short of insane.