Sonic at David Dickensons Real Deal

[Badnik Mechanic]

So I woke up today and watched the local news, and they happened to be doing a feature on a TV Show that was in my town,

Now for those who don't know, the idea is that you take you stuff to them, they value it and then they put you with a dealer who will try and buy it from you, or... you can gamble and take it to auction... or... just bugger off home. Well anyway unlike the last time when the Antiques Roadshow came to my area (a small town around a 30 min train ride away) this one was being held quite literally just up the road at a leisure centre from my house (a 10 min bus ride).

So on the bus I got with my entire STC original artwork, got off the bus and sure enough, this sight greated me.

GIANT DAVID DICKENSON!

Well anyway, I went in at around 5PM, almost everybody had gone, and the orange woman (she had way too much fake tan on) almost didn't let me go in. But the experts were all sat at this table in the dark waved me over... so over I go and I place my folder down on their table, now because I'd not been to one of these before I had no idea what to say, so the lady researcher said "What have you brought us?"

My exact words were... "Well I've got in here a lot of original comic book artwork" imediately they all jumped up and gathered around, they were very excited, but I think they were expecting it to be full of Batman, Spiderman or maybe the Beano. So when they saw Knuckles peering back at them they were all very suprised, they asked me what it was from and I told them, I think that only 2 of them had heard of the comic before. Up next comes a dealer dressed like some kind of egyptian bazaar salesman and has a look.

This is a large bulk of what I took.

Then the head researcher asked me, and this was before asking me for any details "What did you pay for them?" So I'm sat there thinking... "Oh, how interesting, you started with price and not 'tell me a bit about them' I bet you wished I'd not noticed that one eh?" So I was honest and told her around £20 each. They all went quiet... I then got asked "How did you come about them" so I told her... "I was at a convention and I met the artist, I recognised the pages from a comic I used to read so I got them, it was purely the fact that they were something I used to love as a kid." ... ... I decided to leave out the details about how I had researched them to death and had a very good idea on what I could get for them and their demand. To the people there, I sounded like I'd just bought them as an impulse thing and that I didn't know too much about it.

So again it goes quiet... Now... earlier in the day my mum and sister had gone, so they told me exactly what happened, and exactly how they did their valuations, if the stuff isn't worth anything, or if they don't know anything about it, they'll say, more or less right away. Some guy had taken in a 3ft high Terminator 2 statue, and they told him outright they couldn't value it. They couldn't value my mums things, and they told her outright, this other guy took some 100 year old manuscripts and they told him it was only worth £5 per page. Whilst it was quiet, the eqyptian dealer walked away with another dealer, unfortunately for them.... I heard them mutter some things... one of which was "I'll offer him £10 per page and see what he says"

For those of you who have not seen this show, the dealers always want a good deal, because they always then either sell it on at auction, or to a specialist buyer. So having seen these shows before, I knew that if I bargained hard enough, chances are I might have gotten £30 per page, a nice £10 profit, at 41 pages thats £410 for the lot. If you watch this show, thats not a bad result... But... for the dealers, quite often they then sell it on for nearly 3 times that much.

So I'm sat there whilst the dealer is trying conjur up an offer on them and then another researched says "Do you know who the artist is?" I tell them it's Nigel Dobbyn who did the bulk of them, and then list Roberto... somethings name (I had to check the back of the page for this and can't remember it now) and the guy who did the mutant league pages. Now the researches have called over the 'experts' to have a look. They write down the names of all the artists and then come back to double check the spelling for "Dobbyn"

The Mutant League pages I own

I'm kind excited by this point because they're taking it quite seriously now, the dealers are having a debate, the researchers are all on the laptops and the experts are studying each page very carefully and counting them all up. One other guy is marking off how many are Mutant League and how many are Knuckles.

So they start asking me more questions about the comic and if I know of a demand for them or not... so I tell them... well what you lot already know. They then all have another look at them, I'm getting A LOT longer with this whole team of experts and researchers than I think I should be. So the experts and researchers come back from the laptops and the head researcher comes to me and says.

"Well... we can't get an exact price for them, we can't find anything by this artist for sale at the moment, and he's still producing artwork. We could take 3 of them and make you an offer I think it would be best if you kept them as an investment. With artwork like this, and for the numbers of original artwork that you've got, you could easilly manipulate the market if you wanted to. Have you considered putting on an exhibition of this work? Their true value will most likely be determined based on the character. If this was the Beano or the Dandy it would be clear, they've stood the test of time. If theres still a demand for these characters in 30 years time, then you might be able to find more people who have a very keen interest and who are willing to pay a lot of money for them. But it will completely be down to if the characters are still popular and still in demand. You know a lot more about this than we do at the moment, but as with all artwork, as time goes on this might change."

Aother much younger researcher then says "Also, original artwork like this is not common anymore, since it's all done digitally theres not the same vast levels that we've had in the past. But, there will always be a demand for this, the original painted and hand drawn material is vastly superior when it comes to display, be it in a museum or a private collection. There will always be a buyer so long as it appeals to someone."

So I thanked them all for their time and left. Quite happy, they didn't need to give me a valuation because their body language and reactions were quite clear as to what they thought of it. They said that it was very good quality work, and the condition of the pages I had were definately something that a collector would be looking for. However, in terms of keeping it, I'm not sure if having just one or two would be the best way to make money if thats what you own it for, you need to have a collection of these. Because Sonic the Comic is not iconic or widely in demand like say The Beano or The Dandy, you would need a large set before you could be looking to get rid of them and see a tidy return. So the more pages you have if you're looking to sell them on, the better, as it'll appeal to not just fans, but comic artwork collectors in general, otherwise, sell smaller numbers to a collector like me (the woman actually said that, "People if they had them would be best selling them to people like you who already have a large collection, otherwise they may not get much for them as a single listing")

At least thats the impression that these people gave me. It's not going to appear on the show, lol because I didn't want to sell, I have a feeling if I wanted to sell then they would have put me in front of a camera with the eqyptian dude. But, given how I over heard his discussion with the other dealer, I can't help but feel that he would have given me a very poor offer overal, so it's best that I keep them. Also... "theres no way yer' be gerrin' that captain plunder page my boy!"

So thats the story. Sorry it doesn't have a more OMFG ending and that I'm not currently sitting with a nice fat cheque for twelvety million pounds. And no David Dickenson did not come over and have a look, I got a picture of him on my phone, but it was strictly no filming/flash photography/phones so I had to be very discrete with just that one.

P.S. David Dickenson would give Mighty. Ray the Flying Squirrel and Tails a run for their money in terms of how orange/red they are. He is much more vibrant in the flesh than he is on TV!

P.P.S.

This would be a page of the dealers/experts who are on the show...

The ones who I spoke to were... Cheryl Brown, Alison Chapman, Tim Hogarth & Mike Melody. The other people who I spoke to I can't find on the official site.

Edited August 28, 2010 by Gnasher

[Detective Shadzter]

Interesting read, good to hear what they thought of them once they got all of that long ass research done Hopefully in the future they'll be worth megabucks for ya.

[Doctor Sοnic]

I have to admit I would never of thought of bringing STC artwork to something like this. Its very interesting to hear about your experience in doing so though.

Also I find the idea of experts from David Dickinson's show looking at Sonic artwork quite amusing. Just a shame the man himself didn't have a look.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I think though that in future, it's best to take this kind of toot to places like the antiques roadshow, reason being is that they'll give you very good valuations.

This show is more like, heres some money, give it to us, now we'll sell it on.

They certainly thought there was some value to it otherwise they wouldn't have had that "£10 per page" natter, nor done the level of research that they did.

However, as Dobbyn told me and as one of the researchers said, so little original artwork is done these days, Dobbyn doesn't have the means to do this kind of original artwork anymore, only digital prints. So eventually collectors will be looking at big bulks of any comic and not just one character/company. Since there is such a thing as "Comic artwork collector" as apposed to say "Batman original artwork collector" when everything goes digital (and that day is quickly approaching), they'll be looking for large lots of one set, theres never going to be large masses of new stuff like we've had before. So with the comics of the future, we won't see their original artwork pages beause they don't exist. No matter the company or the character or even the demand, it just won't be there.

Also I find the idea of experts from David Dickinson's show looking at Sonic artwork quite amusing. Just a shame the man himself didn't have a look.

Lol I didn't tell them what comic it was from at first, not sure if they knew either until they saw one image of Sonic, that was when they got really excited. Most of my collection is Knuckles, then the mutant league, I've only got a couple with Sonic on, so when I got to a cover page of Sonic and Robotnik, that was when they went crazy and ran to the laptops and began searching. However two of the younger researchers there were really into it.

Edited August 28, 2010 by Gnasher

[gato]

That was a really good read I couldn't help but laugh at all that process to know what were they dealing with, also...

"Well... we can't get an exact price for them, we can't find anything by this artist for sale at the moment, and he's still producing artwork. We could take 3 of them and make you an offer I think it would be best if you kept them as an investment. With artwork like this, and for the numbers of original artwork that you've got, you could easilly manipulate the market if you wanted to. Have you considered putting on an exhibition of this work? Their true value will most likely be determined based on the character. If this was the Beano or the Dandy it would be clear, they've stood the test of time. If theres still a demand for these characters in 30 years time, then you might be able to find more people who have a very keen interest and who are willing to pay a lot of money for them. But it will completely be down to if the characters are still popular and still in demand. You know a lot more about this than we do at the moment, but as with all artwork, as time goes on this might change."

I know next year Knuckles turns 17, so YAY! only 13 years to know if he stands the test of time.

Edited August 28, 2010 by gato

[Jix Hedgehog]

Good stuff, my mum and dad always watch a similar show and they have a lot of old stuff they'd love to have evaluated, but no such roadshow exists in Australia.. I don't think.

At least it ended on a good note, rather than them insulting you with a low offer.. the fact that if the characters are still popular in future is very interesting

[eXtaticus]

Rare Sonic stuff + Wait 20 more years + eBay = Profit!

[SchemingMinor]

Most of my collection is Knuckles, then the mutant league, I've only got a couple with Sonic on, so when I got to a cover page of Sonic and Robotnik, that was when they went crazy and ran to the laptops and began searching. However two of the younger researchers there were really into it.

You see? If they decided to go with the series as Robotnik the Comic years ago, you wouldn't get a load of blank faces there.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Rare Sonic stuff + Wait 20 more years + eBay = Profit!

Yes and no.

It depends whose buying. Some videogame toot is able to cross the barrier between stuff that videogame maniacs will buy and stuff that can cross over into a more mainstream antiques market.

For instance, McDonalds toys, not very valuable right now for Sonic fans or mainstream, yet I bet in 30 years time, they will be of high demand for Maccy D toy collectors (if indeed they don't have them already). But something like the F4F giant statues? Not sure, for fans, certainly, but will they cross the line into the mainstream? Hard to say.

Comics and comic artwork however I think has the potential to break that barrier because of the simple fact that it's artwork and the artists in question have done other things, some might end up being quite highly sought after by fans of that artist in question, since a lot of the staff have done 2000AD and Marvel this is the potential.

But don't get me wrong, I collect this stuff because I love it and because I think it's amazing quality, selling it on would be something I'd do many many many years in the future in indeed at all.

You see? If they decided to go with the series as Robotnik the Comic years ago, you wouldn't get a load of blank faces there.

Heh. Well this was the cover that got them excited when they twigged who it was.

I have the original of that, that was the one that got them all excited, only the original does not have any of the text on it, it's just the drawing..

Edited August 29, 2010 by Gnasher

[Doctor Sοnic]

Heh. Well this was the cover that got them excited when they twigged who it was.

I have the original of that, that was the one that got them all excited, only the original does not have any of the text on it, it's just the drawing..

Now thats a cool piece of cover art. I can see why you brought the original.

Never got that issue myself though. Only got them irregularly at first.