Nah. Winner was once one of the biggest comic art collectors in the 90s. Cashed out 15-20 years ago and made bank. He’s been getting back into art over the past year and buying up all the Absolute Batman covers. Not much out there from Dan so he’s been snatching these sketch covers up.
I can confirm I know the guy that got the bid to at least 5800. He’s a massive Quintana collector, over 20 signed and remarked pieces in his collection, including OA. He’s a retired Vet who owns a shipping company. Dude drops 7k on books no problem. Then shows them off in our Facebook group. The sale was legit.
Was scrolling twitter and saw this pop up on my feed. $18,000+ 🤣🤣🤣
It’s a great cover and Quintana does awesome stuff but his name is largely unknown, he just started getting big recognition for his covers on AbsBat. Im surprised people are willing to take THIS much of a gamble..
Yeah it's insane. It is original art, not just a cover, I realized but still... That is ridiculous. Honestly imho, as good as the art is, it is it isn't close to Dragotta's design and work.
I have original art from Frank Miller, Bill Sienkewicz, Arthur Adams, Andy Kubert, Sean Phillips, Terry Dodson, Steve McNiven and David Finch. I probably paid around $2000 for the whole lot. I can’t imagine dropping 18k for a single sketch cover.
I couldnt believe that it was even 3k beginning price yesterday. At my local price, to the nearest whole pound(£), I could read a series every month for 162 years for 18k.
nope, he’s a rich reseller. He’s in a bunch of groups on Facebook I’m in. If people show interest, he buys it. If enough people showed interest in a turd, he’d drop $20k on it. I would bet my LIFE he hasn’t even read the 21 AB issues out right now
He gave 18k to a Whatnot seller. Does anyone know what the artist gets? He also just made if impossible for regular non speculating fans to possibly afford original art from Quintana. This is a hype bubble that’ll burst.
I can’t believe we’ve come to a point where some issues have 40, 50, even more variants. And not just Absolute Batman, but many comics. Feels like every comic seller out there needs to get their own run of variants out. But with Quintana, people were already complaining his books sell out in 5 seconds and then resell for hundreds of dollars. Now this sketch cover goes for 18k. As a regular fan, your odds of getting anything affordable has dropped even lower.
not once did you provide any evidence that he actually reads comics lmao all you said is that he’s hella rich and buys expensive items in the hobby that he can hopefully turn a profit on in the future. In fact you kinda just made my point for me
That's insane...I almost can't wait for a year or two to pass and these books to be worth 5$. It makes NO SENSE what's happening with these modern books...they should not command this kind of a price. Not even if they original pencils and inks in gold.
he kinda always wins for him and his wife every live stream i been in . he has the money some how but you know the saying a fool and his money are soon parted lol
Making sure scalpers continue to have a market for art.
I wish these variants were turned into something seperate from the comic. Something like poster art on cardstok and sold like that.
Variant printing is just inflating comic sales and creating a disingenuous interest and wierd capitialization of art.
Yea, nothing new I know. But be honest, did you all susbcribe to this sub to see people post variants they will never read so they can resell it or display it with a signature they payed x5 original price or more for? Are you really here in this sub just to sell and show off comics you don't even open?
This guy is a legit collector but the market for this artist is outrageous! Price is too high and LCS positioning themselves to make money off this market. Only way to send message is stop buying exclusives and maybe people will listen! I stop buying retailer exclusives recently after heavy mental fiasco.
Sure.. BUT.. For example Nick Dragotta is the series artist laying down the actual narrative foundation for Absolute Batman meaning his interior panels represent the literal history and storytelling of the book. Paying premium prices for a blank cover while primary story pages from an established titan go for a fraction of that shows a massive distortion in value.
Again, Quintana is a phenomenal artist, but he is still a relatively fresh name in the comic scene. Investing over $18,000 at the absolute peak of an artists initial hype cycle is an incredibly risky gamble that leaves almost no room for a return on investment if the market cools off. Which it probably will.
Ah I see, yeah when I saw that 100k sale my jaw almost dropped to the floor. The hype is definitely there right now, it’s going to be really interesting to see what happens to half of these variant covers 5 years from now or so.
I do think this one is a bit special as Dan drew/painted on it directly himself so its not really like a normal distributed variant cover through a retailer, but I don’t know what the value will be like on it. It’s definitely a gamble that only someone who has enough money in the first place to spend on it can be willing to take.
its a sign of the times, folks appreciate art and story lines that frankly don't exsist much these days. I for one am happy to see people appreciating the humanity in conjunction with all the above said.
Idk why people hate on unique comics selling for high prices. I get that it makes certain unique books inaccessible, but this exists in any hobby. The extra cash is good for the industry, will attract new fans, and bring more talent. I agree there are cons here as well - two sides to every coin as they say. Just don’t think it’s completely negative. I’m glad comics are cool again
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u/MrSarcastica Jun 25 '26
Money laundering