Post by Randle-El on Sept 8, 2016 14:10:44 GMT -5
The vast majority of my signed books are from creators who sign for free, but I do have a small handful from creators who charged. That latter group will not likely get repeat business from me though, whereas the ones who sign for free I've been back to. That's not out of any spite or bitterness -- it's just that when you're paying money, you have to weigh the personal value of an autographed book versus the expense, and for me 1 or 2 (or however many a single signing fee will cover) books by that creator is enough for me if I'm going to have to pay.
I think one other thing to consider about charging for sketches or autographs that wasn't an issue back in the day -- these days people are putting stuff on eBay left and right. It's to the point where some individuals are really abusing the system -- bringing stacks and stacks of books to sign, sometimes even multiples of the same issue. Or they bring copies for slabbing that are clearly being signed to increase secondary market value. I think some creators seem to be charging more these days to deter the more extreme forms of this behavior. I think the other part of it is that some of these books are being signed for nothing, then being flipped on eBay for a lot of money -- none of which goes to the creator. So I don't blame creators for introducing a signing fee when they see their autographs are worth so much. If money is going to be changing hands for their autographs, it's only fair that they get in on the action.
At Baltimore Comic Con this year, I paid for a sketch from Barry Kitson. While in line, I was talking to some of the other attendees who had gotten artwork from Barry before. Apparently, he used to sketch for free -- and not just black and white quicky head sketches, but detailed, fully inked and colored sketches, sometimes full figures. You just had to wait in line as he did the sketch, which could easily be a few hours. But he stopped doing that a few years ago because he found out that a lot of these free sketches were being flipped on eBay. He still does freebies, and nice ones at that, but now he uses a stopwatch to make sure he's only spending five minutes on each freebie piece, which are usually just quick head sketches.
This is why we can't have nice things.
I think one other thing to consider about charging for sketches or autographs that wasn't an issue back in the day -- these days people are putting stuff on eBay left and right. It's to the point where some individuals are really abusing the system -- bringing stacks and stacks of books to sign, sometimes even multiples of the same issue. Or they bring copies for slabbing that are clearly being signed to increase secondary market value. I think some creators seem to be charging more these days to deter the more extreme forms of this behavior. I think the other part of it is that some of these books are being signed for nothing, then being flipped on eBay for a lot of money -- none of which goes to the creator. So I don't blame creators for introducing a signing fee when they see their autographs are worth so much. If money is going to be changing hands for their autographs, it's only fair that they get in on the action.
At Baltimore Comic Con this year, I paid for a sketch from Barry Kitson. While in line, I was talking to some of the other attendees who had gotten artwork from Barry before. Apparently, he used to sketch for free -- and not just black and white quicky head sketches, but detailed, fully inked and colored sketches, sometimes full figures. You just had to wait in line as he did the sketch, which could easily be a few hours. But he stopped doing that a few years ago because he found out that a lot of these free sketches were being flipped on eBay. He still does freebies, and nice ones at that, but now he uses a stopwatch to make sure he's only spending five minutes on each freebie piece, which are usually just quick head sketches.
This is why we can't have nice things.