Where can I sell my original comic art?
There are a lot of places where you can sell your art (basically the same places where you can buy art), with specificities that will match your needs or not:
- Auction houses: They will take care of everything for you - advertise for the sale, collect the money, package and ship for you. But you'll have to wait for the auction to be closed before getting your money, plus auction houses will charge you seller's fees. And also... "Buyer's Premium" is a clever way of disguising more fees. For example, a 15% seller's fee + a 25% buyer's premium = 40% difference between what the buyer pays and what you receive. See our auction houses comparison table and try to pick one that is active and sells the kind of art you want to sell.
- Dealers: They will pay immediately but will give you the lowest price from all the places to sell comic art, so that they can sell it later with margin. Some dealers may also take your art on consignment: They work with you to determine a reasonable sale price, they display it on their website, and if it sells, they take a 10-20% fee and pay you the rest.
- Marketplaces:
- ComicArtFans and 2DGalleries have "art for sale" sections allowing you to sell your art directly to other collectors at fixed price with no fee (but you need to have a premium account - $75/year for ComicArtFans and €79/year for 2DGalleries), the drawback being that you have to handle the payment and shipping by yourself, with no guarantee about the buyer.
- eBay is the most known marketplace to sell your original comic art, either at fixed price (BIN - Buy It Now) or at auction. There is a seller fee and you still have to handle the shipping by yourself but eBay collects the money for you and has a seller protection policy.
- Catawiki is another marketplace that allows you to auction your art. The buyer pays Catawiki and Catawiki will pay the seller only when the buyer confirms that he received the art. Catawiki charges a commission fee (incl. VAT) on the winning bid.
- Direct to collectors: you could also consider advertising about your comic art for sale directly on specialized boards or Facebook groups.
- Connectible is the first social community platform for collectors, on the app you can buy, sell and trade original comic art. Click here and download now.
As you can see, there are several considerations to take into consideration before selling your original art:
- Is it premium / highly sought after art or not? If the answer is yes, you may consider selling it at auction to get the best visibility and optimize your final price. Hopefully it will offset auction fees.
- If you don't want to bother with payment and shipping, marketplaces and social networks are definitely not for you. Instead, consider contacting an auction house or a dealer.
- If you need money from the sale quickly, auctions can be a problem... It usually takes a few months after you contacted the auction house to see your art listed in one of their auctions, and at least 30 days after the auction closes to receive payment. Some auction houses may offer an advance payment for higher-end consignments. And eBay requires the buyer to send payment quickly, usually via PayPal.
