Hi all,

It has been a long, long time since I was last here… and I hope that all are doing well (especially ‘misterspock' and others who helped so much with my previous quest to identify a few pieces of art I had acquired).

I will apologise in advance for the length of the posting but I wanted to cover a range of questions that people may have (but please feel free to ask about anything I may have missed).

Background:
I recently shipped over my art collection to the USA as I am now a resident of NYC. Unfortunately, while I now find myself in a nice apartment with views of the Statue of Liberty, there is no space for me to either hang or easily store my artwork. I am thus looking to sell the majority of my collection (all but the 30 or so pieces I really can't let go). This means I want to sell 150+ pieces of art -- primarily but not exclusively interior pieces from the ‘UK Series' of adventures and ‘Imagine Magazine'.

To make it a little easier to see the nature of my problem I have created a Photobucket site where I have uploaded most of the art:

Fantasy Art Listing by John Brown | Photobucket (If it does ask for a password it is ‘acaeum')

Alongside in this, I also have a large (200+) collection of ‘trannies' (high-quality, full colour, generally A4-sized transparent advertising media) which were used by TSR to create all of their product adverts from the mid-80's to mid-90's, (pretty much every front cover you can imagine), plus a random assortment of non-TSR fantasy artwork (SLA Industries product art [not displayed as not yet scanned], a few ‘Magic' card pieces) a full set of Imagine and Polyhedron UK magazines etc.

Problems:
Due to its nature, randomness and quantity I very much doubt that anyone would want to buy the whole lot. I also don't want to end up with half of it gathering dust in my spare bedroom having sold a few of the more desirable pieces.

I did consider the possibility of taking a booth at Gen Con Indy and selling it piecemeal there but those were fully booked some time ago.

Also, due to the quantity of art involved and due to the size (and framed weight) of a number of the pieces, I have no interest in going the ‘Ebay' route. The time it would take to sell the collection, let alone the hassle of shipping it properly, would be a right pain and its eclectic nature is also an issue (some of the Imagine interior pieces would only be of interest to the most avid of collectors).  

In the old days I would have probably discussed this with one of the UK traders and come to some sort of commission-based agreement. They could have sold the art at the shows I used to be involved with and a few pieces would have gone at the Gen Con UK auction (I am sure the trannies would have flown off a trade stand at a few quid a piece   ). Obviously, that is not possible now.

Advice:
What is the best way of selling the collection? Any suggestions would be gratefully received as for now I am a little stumped.

For example, does anyone know of a gallery or shop/trader that might be interested in a commission-based solution, who might be worth approaching to buy it all or who might already be booked to attend Gen Con Indy (or other decent-sized show) and fancies topping up their stock for the event?

Aside from the above -- if anyone would like to take up the challenge and hazard a guess at the value of the collection on Photobucket then that might make my placing this post in this particular forum a little more valid… and I promise not to quote you .  

Finally, one of the folders on Photobucket contains some pictures which I am currently unable to identify -- ‘TSR Art/Unknown TSR Art'. While I believe most are from Imagine Magazine, I am unable to confirm as my copies are in one of the boxes I have yet to open. Any help with identifying these would be really handy.

Big thanks in advance for any help you can give and I hope you like what you see.

John

PS It is probably worth mentioning that, to my knowledge the UK series artwork I have collected is pretty much all that is left of this particular ‘sub-genre'. The rest were all destroyed or discarded, I believe. (I do know that when TSR Ltd was closed down following the company being bought by WotC, everything bar the gaming stock in the UK warehouse was thrown away… art, framed pictures, product advertising material, product maps, product proof copies etc…). I do know of around 20 items which did survive (mainly from ‘Eye of the Serpent' (UK5) and ‘Dark Clouds Gather' (UK7)) but not of any others. I would be interested in finding out if anyone knows of any other UK Series pieces that managed to escape this wanton destruction

Hi John-

I can access your Photobucket using the password but it says the folder is empty?

I'm sure others will chime in but perhaps The Collector's Trove (Paul Stormberg) might be able to help or at least offer advice. Are the pieces originals or prints?

I'm interested to see what happens with your collection as I'm a big fan of fantasy art myself. Depending on who it goes to or how you sell it I would likely be interested in some items.

Good luck to you, let us know what you decide.

Walter

Hi,

All of the art is original.

The colour pieces are generally acrylic paint on art board, the interior art is mainly pen/ink or acrylic paint on art board, the two Gen Con UK pieces are painted directly onto canvas, the three 'De-Leuw' pieces are collages - paint, ink, paper on an art board back.

The interior art is generally 1:1 scale - what you see in the product is the size of the original art. The two Gen Con pieces are around 4 ft on their longest edge, the three De-Leuw pictures are around 3 ft.

J

shott wrote in With apologies for the odd questions (and length)...:Advice:
What is the best way of selling the collection? Any suggestions would be gratefully received as for now I am a little stumped.

For example, does anyone know of a gallery or shop/trader that might be interested in a commission-based solution, who might be worth approaching to buy it all or who might already be booked to attend Gen Con Indy (or other decent-sized show) and fancies topping up their stock for the event?

Like anything you want to sell, you can sell it quicker for less, or slower for more.  While you don't like eBay, that is the best way to maximize a return on all sales.  It would take a lot of time.  It would also involve a fair amount of work on your part, but, the more you sell, the faster you'll become as you learn packing tricks and tips.  However, there is one thing that is difficult to learn if you don't already know it, and that is the discipline it takes to list items thoroughly, pack items properly, and ship things quickly.  If you are not disciplined, get a reseller.

I bought a huge collection once (3 minivan loads), and I am still selling from that lot eight years later.  I usually have 50 to 150 items for sale at a time, and every week I sell an item or two.  I slowly lower the price over time on items I have for sale.

The Collector's Trove resells items from D&D collections from time to time, usually books and documents, but sometimes miniatures.  I have no idea what he charges or whether he would be interested.  Most resellers take 50%.

If I was in your shoes and still didn't want to spend a lot of time on this quandary, I'd sell what I could on these forums over the next couple of weeks, then pick the ten to twenty most valuable pieces and sell them myself, and then send the rest off to a re-seller.  You should have little trouble finding a re-seller in or near NYC. Wait until January to sell the pieces you kept to sell yourself as items sell for more during that time of the year.  And make sure you let people on these forums that they are available on eBay.  And that's what I would do.  

15-50% is the typical range for eBay Trading Assistants, but that can include some or all of the eBay/PayPal fees involved.  Where you might see rates at the higher end of the spectrum is, when someone like The Collector's Trove is involved, since their reputation tends to draw higher sales prices.  Of course it's open to negotiation as well, depending on the potential value of the collection.

Hey John - I sent you a PM re: your classified post. I can help load the pictures somewhere online if you don't have time. Shoot me a message and we'll talk.
Thanks!
Justin