I felt it worth keeping a special note of the sales at LFCC, the London Film and Comic Con this weekend, as it involved a couple of firsts. I've brought along with me my humour comics from the 90s, and more interestingly original art. I have me with an issue's worth of Dr Strange comics, by Mark Buckingham and Gary Frank, inked by me, pages from 2099 Apocalypse by Mark & me, and 3 pages of Beano by me.
To guide me on prices I had this eBay auction going on, which was going interestingly as Hev and I set off to London:
As you can see, a Beano page by me is standing at £67, while Mark's Dr Strange page is only on £23. Oddly, the Dr Strange page had gone up as high as £78, then dropped the next day when someone withdrew the bid, saying they'd bid by mistake. So, with this in mind, I set my original art prices at £50 a page.
By the end of a very quiet Friday I had sold: 3 x Gary and 3 x Mark, all at £50 each, plus one book for £5.99. For me, £300 takings is not bad going. But when I shared this info with fellow artists, they were horrified. Though David Roach suggested the pages by Mark might be worth £75 each, David Leach was certain they'd be worth £200 each. Rich Johnston, who has seen Mark selling sketches at the Lake Como Festival in Italy for 100s, suggested most emphatically that I should be pricing Mark's pages at £500 each. And as for the Gary Frank pages I'd sold for £50 each, he insisted I take those off sale immediately as they could be worth 1000s.
So, on Saturday, I prepared to pitch the pages at higher prices, to sound people out, to not let myself undersell the artwork this time. And, lo, not a single person even enquired about the artwork! Friday had three people snapping up artwork, but nobody buying books. Saturday had no-one giving the artwork a second look.
Or, it seemed, anyone buying books. That's unfair, as I didn't do too badly by the end of the day. But, compared to last year at the same event, the traffic to our table seemed much much lower.
As you might be able to see from the photo, I'm in a nice spacious corner, with tons of display space. This is in the corner of a horseshoe-shaped space lined with my fellow artists' tables. Which means, unfortunately, that a lot of the public walk past the entrance to our area but don't actually enter it.
To counter this, I took to straying out into the main thoroughfare with my clipboard and pen and offering to caricature passing punters for free, in order to entice them to my table, and the other tables in our area. I think it worked. By the end of the day - a day which ran from 9am to 7pm - I had taken £118.93, all from book sales.
I also removed the Dr Strange page from sale on eBay, on Rich's suggestion, because he thought I'd under-described it and under-publicised it. And if it went for £23 I would feel a bloody fool (if, as it keeps being suggested, these pages are worth ten times that).
Overnight Mark himself contacted me and updated me on what his pages should sell for. He sells Dr Strange pages for $300 (or £235) each. I opted for £150. (He also says Fables pages go for £400 and Miracleman pages for £1500. I'm clearly in the wrong business).
Sunday - well this was a turnaround of fortune, and the best part is that is was all my own doing. Right from the start of Sunday (9am) I armed myself with my clipboard and pen, and went out into that passing crowd and I drew them in. Literally. I went for families with kids if I could, couples if I couldn't, and I drew one of them for free, then offered to draw the others as they came over to my table and browsed.
I'd made my first sale by 9.20. After two hours I texted Hev to tell her I'd gone over the £100 mark. Shortly after, one of the groups of parents with a kid showed an interest in the Dr Strange artwork and bought a page, for the new asking price of £150. Result!
By winding down time around 5.30, I had taken the grand total of £326.37
Which gives us final taking of:
Friday £305.99 - 6 pages art, 1 book (compared to 2022's £20)
Saturday £118.93 - all books, no art (compared to 2022's £158)
Sunday £326.37 - 1 page art, the rest books (compared to 2022's £111.50)
+ approx £100 cash across the three days
Giving us a grand total of approx £850 (compared to 2022's £293). A great result indeed. (Let us leave aside the 6 pages sold at £50 each which, if they'd sold at £150 each, would have netted £900 rather than £300)
LFCC Book Sales Breakdown:
Socks comics - 11
Tales From The Bible - 2
UT comic - 1
Remind me to thank Tony Lee once again for having me along as a guest, and let me not forget my caricaturing as a selling tool.
NB: One weekend at LFCC = 90 days on eBay (see above, £843.94 90 day total)
My Books and where to get them:
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) -
Amazon
The Book Of Esther (new pocketbook sized) -
Lulu £8.50 -
Amazon £9.96
Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
80s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon 2020s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon Christmas Movies Colouring -
Amazon
NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper
My Books and where to get them:
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) -
Amazon The Book Of Esther (new pocketbook sized) -
Lulu £8.50 -
Amazon £9.96
Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon
80s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon 2020s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon Christmas Movies Colouring -
Amazon
NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper
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