ExTSR wrote:Asking on behalf of the owner (who is not me)...

How much would you guess that the Original Cover Art for Rahasia (actually slightly different, before TSR production got a hold of it) would bring at open auction amongst well-informed game collectors like yourselves?

How about the interior art originals?


(Would you rather let SouthwickSW buy 'em and resell 'em at a profit?)  

Heh.  At the risk of sounding glib, we're D&D appraisers (if we're even that!), not art appraisers.  It's really tough to say what it's worth.  It's a very nice piece, regardless of the ties to our hobby.

In my opinion, it would go for less than the Keith Parkinson GDQ1-7 (current with a BIN of $9000), if it were a painting, just the "popularity contest" factor.  Is the artist well known?  That'll help too.

What medium is the piece?  It's hard to tell from the Acaeum photo, and I don't own the module.  Prints/drawings would sell for significantly less than large full-color oil paintings.  I can't see it going significantly less than $1000, if the "big guns" display any interest.  I'm not sure that being a major D&D collector necessarily equates to being a major D&D art collector, though...it may be a different set of folks entirely.

Interior originals?  Probably sub-$500, but again it depends on the familiarity of the artist, the quality of the piece.  Maybe well below, maybe crazy-high, one never knows.  I might take a stab at something if it stays in my price range...but that's unlikely.  

Deadlord39 wrote: If someone has $1,500 to spend, does he spend it on cover art for Rahasia or a tourney Ghost Tower? For the vast majority of people here, there is no debate.

It'd definitely be the Rahasia cover.  

I just noticed yesterday the Nobleknight finally sold the Roslof Dungeon! cover...it was listed at $2000. I think it was still there last week or the week before. It had been up on the website for a number of months.

What is the size of the cover art?

I think the cover art could Ebay for around 3K if the work is large enough and isn't too- "slightly different".

I'd bid near that amount and guess that some other Art collectors would as well. I paid slightly more for B-9 and although this is a drawing, it's a very cool drawing

Not Caldwells best stuff (available on his site).


Rahasia is one of the better early Covers. I'd pay/bid about what I said...
(assuming it's in good shape and a good sized image...)

scribe wrote:Early first edition cover originals are few and far in between.

An important factor, imho. Elmore/Caldwell/Easley/Parkinson items are out there by the dozen... very nice stuff, great detail, but a lot of quantity too, which affects the perception and hence the demand.

Art from the prior period, before TSR "upgraded" their art, may be less slick but has its own appeal and is certainly rarer. Witness the continued popularity of Erol Otus, frex. Unique style, that.

In 2 weeks we'll see how the Bell artwork for the original Greyhawk booklet 'Mr. Pumpkinhead' Bugbear fares at GenCon... bold, primitive strokes, not polished at all, plain ol' black & white (well, grayscale really), but unique and historic.

Darlene's art is much better than that, as art. And much of it is nearly as historic.

Besides the, I believe, one ink of an unused piece of art for the Monster Manual auctioned here by the burntwire brothers, I have never seen any Erol Otus pieces for sale.  I imagine there would be a bidding frenzy on any of his originals that saw publication in a TSR product.  I'd shoot the moon for the cover to A4, or even any of the interior art he did for it.

Those Otus myconid drawings are just awesome.  Mushroom men sound ridiculous until you see the way Otus drew them.
Trampier inks and pencils would be awesome as well... I can't imagine how much Emirikol the Chaotic would go for at auction.  
Does anyone remember how much the DCS Paladin in Hell from the PHB went for?

scribe wrote: Quality of the work isn't as much a factor as the profile of item they adorn, me thinks.

These are very true words - I mean it is really nostalgia driving this.

For example, if someone was to sell the old PHB cover picture it would go for a goodly price, but not because of its artistic merit.

Ah, this is where saturation plays into the overall price of items along with some more thoughts on nostalgia and novelty.

There is only so much cash out there guys are willing to dedicate to Darlene and Sutherland for that matter. In spite of the fact of rarity of early 1e stuff, you can easily and continuously dedicate a lot of cash continually towards opportunities to buy this stuff.
Lets say Sutherland's estate finally pulls together his portfolio and puts them up for auction in a dedicated manner. (I am assuming there was more than 4 or so pieces that made it to market). Well, I don't think the DMG cover value would be impacted in a downward manner at all. But some of the ink interiors pieces would not sustain a high 3 figure price much less experience a four figure spike ala Paladin in Hell. Maybe the Paladin value would flatten out as a result?

Same thing for Darlene. Maybe she has quite a few interiors in pencil, etc. Not all are worth several hundred dollars. Maybe if only a single piece in existence if it is recognizable enough but not so if there are several in circulation. For example, I would really like to own a Darlene original and would pay goodly within reason to do so. But if I could chose, I would prefer that others do the spending and I will be patient for a bargain.

Take Roslof for example. Quite a bit of his stuff survived the purge somehow and it all remained in his hands, by and large. I think he still has quite a bit of his inks left. I have had a terrible time motivating him to document and sell but that is a different story. But you can fairly readily find his inks around. So saturation sort of helps temper their value when nostalgia isn't taking over.

Nostalgia is a very important factor to me with Paladin in Hell. Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $800 for the Paladin in Hell. And clearly I will never own this piece as I am certain guys would pay more than that amount for it. This is mostly because it doesn't really mean a lot to me as I didn't really play the game enough to actually had looked at the DMG interior so frequently. I am guessing this is why guys connect so readily to this piece as it isn't nearly as fluid as Otus and Trampy inks from the same publications, imho.

So finally I get around to the novelty of this sale which is what I think will drive it's initial pricing. To me, if Darlene were to ask me how much I am willing to spend on the Rahasia pencil, I would offer no more than $1,200. Like Paladin in Hell, I am certain I will not own this. I just think the newness of availability would create a bidding frenzy that I feel won't be matched if the buyer would need to resell the item shortly down the road. In other words, I don't believe $3k now can be realized in open market again for some time by anyone other than Darlene. Unless, of course, they have access to the spell 'Burntwire's Aura of Preciousness'.
To me, a Frazetta pencil is worth a few thousand dollars, not anything attached to TSR.