I would like to begin my post with an apology to artist Mike James. I made some assumptions and accusations without knowing the full facts and I am truly sorry for not doing more investigation before writing out my original post regarding his artwork.
Back in June I wrote up a post titled "You Sketch It... I Sketch It" about the "You Sketch It" cards that Topps was including in random packs of the 2010 Topps Baseball release. The cool thing about these “You Sketch It” cards is that artists, both established and aspiring, were able to create their own personal sketch cards and submit them to Topps to possibly be included in future releases. These cards were also being used by artists to sell their work using a dedicated medium (the Topps sketch cards), often people were jumping on the Stras band wagon and attempting to make big bucks with their sketches. Tonight’s post is about how things are not always as they seem.
In my post I pinpointed three specific sketch cards, a Strasburg, Ichiro and Abraham Lincoln card being auctioned for a price that I felt was a bit high. Imagine my surprise when the artist who created these cards contacted me regarding my post.
The artist is none other then Canadian artist Mike James. If you are a hockey collector you may recognize his name, he worked with In The Game and created the 2003-04 Be A Player Memorabilia “Brush With Greatness” insert set and the corresponding contest where collectors could win a Mike James one-of-a-kind hand pained jersey for specific players.
Since August Mike and I have had an on-going conversation, definitely a highlight for any collector and we discussed a number of points that I included in my original post.
First, regarding the prices, Mike let me know that he actually was not intending on selling the cards at that $60-75 price points but was actually garnishing interest in his work which worked out well. He was commissioned to create additional custom cards and eventually sold off the original three sketch cards at a much lower price.
Second, I brought up the $12.00 shipping cost, which many eBay buyers would agree is a high price. I never took in to consideration that these cards are coming from Canada, not the U.S. Mike wanted to make sure that each card was not only shipped securely but also offered the protection of tracking with his orders and this is what brought the price up. Considering that we are dealing with 1/1 custom sketch cards being sent internationally, tracking is definitely something that is needed to protect both the artist and the collector.
I want to thank Mike for taking the time to contact me and for being as personal as he has been. I made the incorrect assumption that he was just trying to make money on Strasburg and the “You Sketch It” phenomenon and that was unfair of me.
I conducted an interview with Mike and will be posting that up soon as Part II to this post. He has sent me some images of examples of his work and I will be including those images with Part II.
Since Topps began inserting the “You Sketch It” cards in the 2010 Topps Baseball release my interest has been perked. As a trained artist I see this as a way to join together two segments of my life, art and collecting. I have done my share of sports drawings even creating personal sketch cards for some of my fellow collectors, the most recent being a Cal Ripken Jr sketch card for Beardy and a Nomar Garciaparra for Chris at On Card Autos.
I have been watching some of the “You Sketch It” auctions and it seems like most of the attention has been focused on original Stephen Strasburg sketch cards. Surprisingly these “homemade” sketch cards are actually bringing in some bids with one recent Strasburg card selling for $26.00. Now let me state for the fact, a number of these “You Sketch It” Strasburg cards that are selling in the $15-25 range are cards sketched by established artist Jay Pangan. The name may sound familiar; Pangan has been creating sketch cards for both Topps and Breygent for a couple of years.
But why is it that some people hope to cash in on this surge? I was watching an auction for a wonderfully drawn Abraham Lincoln card; it hit $10.50 (take in to account the shipping is $12.00 on its own). The card never hit its reserve and failed to sell. Now consider, the artist never signed the card and he/she is not listed in the auction so essentially you are purchasing this card based solely on the artwork of an unknown artist. The seller, determined to make big money on the sketch cards, puts up 2 new cards, a Strasburg and an Ichiro. So as not to have to worry about the pesky reserve not being met they instead list the cards with a simple BIN. The Strasburg at $75 and Ichiro at $60, plus the $12 shipping charge on top of that. Again, no artist signed the card and no name is listed. That is an awful large price for an unknown, especially when you consider you can get a Strasburg sketch card by established artist Ted Dastick Jr, another sketch artist that has done work for Topps, Breygent and 5FINITY Productions, for $25 and free shipping.
Don’t get me wrong, the cards that are being put up are beautifully detailed and no doubt created by an artist with experience in working with human anatomy. The details are exact, the shading is excellent and there is texture and depth to the work, but without knowledge of who created the piece the value is limited. To put in perspective, if you had a card sketched by me and a card sketched by Brian Kong where both cards are exactly the same down to the minutest detail, my card would have minimal value where Brian Kong’s card would be selling for a decent price. Why? I am an unknown artist and Brian Kong is established. With art you are paying for the artist, not the artwork in most cases.
I have been thinking and I want to work on some sketch cards, not for sale but for personal collections. I want to share with my fellow collectors. The problem is that I have only pulled 1 “You Sketch It” cards so far and I am in need of additional cards. Currently I use dummy cards and I only have a couple left, so I am putting out a call to the community. If you have additional “You Sketch It” cards and are willing to part with them, I would appreciate the sharing. Please contact me at jumper48 at gmail dot com (the Contact Me link is also on the side bar).
If you do send cards, please let me know if you have a favorite player or team and I will see if I can create a sketch card for you as a personal thank you.
