[Groop] Free Sketch Selling on Ebay

J Brooks jabrooks at hotmail.com
Wed May 23 07:44:29 PDT 2007


When I met Sergio this weekend, both my wife and I were almost too 
embarrassed to ask him for a sketch for the exact reasons below.  I had to 
build up the courage to do so, and having it now hanging on my wall, makes 
me so happy. I even felt like that was enough, and did not ask Stan for one 
(a small regret, but hopefully I will see him at another convention in the 
near future).

These creators must be sick and tired of giving out these sketches out of 
the goodness of their hearts, only to see that it is not a fan asking for it 
but a salesman.  Those people are going to ruin it for the rest of us.
J


Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 19:52:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Larry Steller <mrgrooism at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Groop] Fwd: Usagi Yojimbo Dojo Announcement - Free Sketch
	Selling	on eBay
To: groop at groo.com
Message-ID: <614569.30634.qm at web37210.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I thought The Groop should know about this (and feel free to call me
silly if someone else already forwarded this to The Groop. in fact,
feel free to call me silly if no one did, too).


--- Usagi Yojimbo Dojo  <todd at usagiyojimbo.com> wrote:

 > Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 12:49:03 -0700
 > From: "Usagi Yojimbo Dojo " <todd at usagiyojimbo.com>
 > Subject: Usagi Yojimbo Dojo Announcement - Free Sketch Selling on
 > eBay
 > To: mrgrooism at yahoo.com
 >
 >
 > UYD Members,
 >
 > Many of you out there are aware of a growing problem in the Usagi
 > Yojimbo original art market appearing on eBay. Sellers profiteering
 > off of Stan Sakai's generosity by attempting to sell convention
 > sketches that Stan did for free as gifts for fans. The Dojo has been
 > keeping it's eye on the activities of online comic book retailers and
 > other exploiters of Stan's work, and have been trying to increase the
 > awareness of these unscrupulous activities.  While not illegal,
 > requesting a free sketch from Stan at conventions with the sole
 > purpose of auctioning it off on eBay is a rude and insulting gesture
 > to him and his fans. Stan himself, realizing the problem, began
 > personalizing his free sketches to deter these individuals from their
 > activities, but this has not stopped them.
 >
 > Even now, just days after Motor City Comic Con, where Stan did many
 > free sketches for fans, these "art scalpers"  have since posted their
 > auctions, often at high starting prices to guarantee a hefty profit.
 > Some have even resorted to defacing the art by attempting to hide the
 > personalization that Stan does in order to twhart these activities in
 > the first place.  Here's an example of one such case:
 >
 >
http://cgi.ebay.com/stan-sakai-original-art-usagi-yojimbo_W0QQitemZ330122485809QQihZ014QQcategoryZ972QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 >
 > In the sketch in the auction above, the personalization was sketched
 > out as "grass".  Says Stan: "It looks like this one was altered with
 > that 'pigma india ink' to cover up the personalization. The grass
 > doesn't even look like mine. I guess this isn't really a
 > counterfeit--just half a counterfeit. For the record, what I was
 > using at Motor City was the Uniball Vision fine and micro points."
 > The alteration of this sketch and nondisclosure by the seller is
 > actually in violation of eBay policy and has been reported.  This is
 > a case of pure deception.
 >
 > The same seller, comicman182, did something similar to a free sketch
 > by Sergio Aragones of Groo.  Says Stan: "Here is one by Sergio, but
 > the top of the drawing, where the person's name in the thought
 > balloon would be, is cropped off. It is from the same seller as
 > mine."
 >
 >
http://cgi.ebay.com/groo-ariginal-art-by-Sergio-Aragones_W0QQitemZ330122489428QQihZ014QQcategoryZ972QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 >
 > Other sellers, like thecomicmonster, have resorted to packaging these
 > free sketches with other Usagi merchandise.
 >
 >
http://cgi.ebay.com/USAGI-YOJIMBO-ORIGINAL-ART-BOOK-PROMO-STAN-SAKAI_W0QQitemZ250118098788QQihZ015QQcategoryZ972QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 >
 > Comicmonster is a long time scalper of free sketches and he, along
 > with others in the sketchhound community, have made a lot of money
 > off of Stan's generosity.
 >
 > Here are just some of their ended auctions:
 >
 >
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250104685294&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1
 >
 >
http://cgi.ebay.com/STAN-SAKAI-USAGI-YOJIMBO-ORIGINAL-ART-SKETCH-NICE_W0QQitemZ130101404875QQihZ003QQcategoryZ3986QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 >
 > On behalf of Mr. Sakai, we at the Usagi Yojimbo Dojo urge you to not
 > bid on such items. Please join us in battling these exploiters of not
 > only Stan's work, but others in the comic book industry.
 >
 > It's gotten to the point where Stan has at one time considered not
 > doing free sketches anymore. For more info and to discuss, check out
 > these posts at the UY DojoBoard:
 >
 >
http://usagiyojimbo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2951&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
 >
 > http://usagiyojimbo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3027
 >
 > Thank You,
 >
 > The Usagi Yojimbo Dojo
 >
 > ................................................................
 > To unsubscribe from the UYD Email Newsletters, or to change your
 > email address, go to
 > http://usagiyojimbo.com/newsletter/unsubscribe.html
 >
 > If you have any questions, please visit the Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard
 > to post them at http://www.usagiyojimbo.com/forum/
 >
 > Thanks!
 >

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