An interesting story with Topps 1/1 sketches...ARod 500 HR

[baseballguy350]

Hey all. Found this interesting and "post-worthy".

I run box and case breaks on a different site, and in a break of Stadium Club, an ARod 500th HR 1/1 sketch card was pulled.


The user who received the card made a nice $200 sale on ebay, and after the auction received an email from the supposed artist of the card.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0143455155


From the user who sold the sketch... "Paul Lempa e-mail me today. He is the artist who sketched the A-Rod card. He told me nice sale (he is an e-bay member also and was following it) and told me I sold it for about 100 times what he got paid to draw it. I dont know if he was joking or not, but those packs should be alot cheaper than what they are if Topps pays their artists so little."

I personally remember a thread asking about the artists who sketched them. According to this sale, and the email after, the artist that sketched this one was paid $2.

 

[smapdi]

If he was paid $2, he should've told them to stick that card somewhere other than a pack. But it's not a very nice drawing either, so I guess both sides did about right.

 

[Adamsince1981]

that is about a $2 effort if you ask me...

 

[scotty21690]

Paul used to be a member on the BMB...he did some amazing work

 

[fengzhang]

Often times it's about simply getting your name out there rather than the $2.

We've seen some of the sketches and, yup, Topps got what they paid for.

 

[Zambrano38]

Lempa!!

 

[scotty21690]

Cool that you posted that...

1. To show everyone how much talent Paul has, but only getting paid $2/ I'd imagine he's not taking his time on them

2. To show how awesome a hand made original of your favorite card can look

 

[markakis8]

Is the one that had painted portraits of Joba, Clemente, Ichiro, etc? He would show them off as he completed them. I know he had at least 5-6 in his sig. Maybe I am thinking of a different guy though.

 

[scotty21690]

Is the one that had painted portraits of Joba, Clemente, Ichiro, etc? He would show them off as he completed them. I know he had at least 5-6 in his sig. Maybe I am thinking of a different guy though.

Yes, that's him.

 

[Pinbreaker]

Is the one that had painted portraits of Joba, Clemente, Ichiro, etc? He would show them off as he completed them. I know he had at least 5-6 in his sig. Maybe I am thinking of a different guy though.

Same guy.. He had a website set up with all the painted balls he did as well..

 

[jaymix79]

sketch card artists only make a certain amount per card. I think it is $2 per card.... All the artists make the same.... I cannot remember how much the comic artists make but I think it is about the same... The reason they get paid so little is Topps lets them keep I think 10-20 blank sketch cards to do what they want with.... That is usually how the artists make their money on sketches.... Some artists are just looking for exposure for bigger reasons and that is why they do the sketch cards....

Hopes this helps.... Maybe cmixer can clear some things up for us...

 

[cmixer]

you bet -

All artists from all sets get paid somewhere between $1.50-5.00 per card.

It is NEVER worth the money to spend time on the artwork - that's why a few looked rushed. But I disagree that this looks like a $2 sketch - this ended up being a $200 sketch to someone.

And yes, the artists only draw for the recognition & possible future sales of their personal works. The companies use & abuse them to turn a profit - I bet they do not pay players only $1.50 to SIGN a card - and that takes a lot less effort.

Sketch cards can fetch over $1000 if done right; but they still only got paid $2.00 - - -

 

[fengzhang]

you bet -

All artists from all sets get paid somewhere between $1.50-5.00 per card.

It is NEVER worth the money to spend time on the artwork - that's why a few looked rushed. But I disagree that this looks like a $2 sketch - this ended up being a $200 sketch to someone.

And yes, the artists only draw for the recognition & possible future sales of their personal works. The companies use & abuse them to turn a profit - I bet they do not pay players only $1.50 to SIGN a card - and that takes a lot less effort.

Sketch cards can fetch over $1000 if done right; but they still only got paid $2.00 - - -

The pay is not based on effort. It's based on how much you can pay someone and get away with it. Resident physicians are paid roughly $40,000/yr for 90 hour work weeks. That's roughly $11/hr for someone with a MD. There are many college students who do research for free in someone's lab in order to get a recommendation letter and some research experience and not a single cent of pay. So, money is not always correlated with effort (in fact, I argue that it almost never is).

No athlete is going to sign for $2. They don't need the money but it's an insult that they aren't going to put up with. Paying $2 to an artist is an insult as well but something they're willing to deal with, hence you are seeing a large number of sketch cards out there.

 

[WoundedDuck]

sketch card artists only make a certain amount per card. I think it is $2 per card.... All the artists make the same.... I cannot remember how much the comic artists make but I think it is about the same... The reason they get paid so little is Topps lets them keep I think 10-20 blank sketch cards to do what they want with.... That is usually how the artists make their money on sketches.... Some artists are just looking for exposure for bigger reasons and that is why they do the sketch cards....

Hopes this helps.... Maybe cmixer can clear some things up for us...

From what I've seen this is true. I even remember Plempa selling some of his own sketch cards on ebay that Topps let him keep. So even though it's only like $2 per sketch, if you add in the revenue from selling their own sketches on the official cards, they still do ok. From what I've seen, the ones the artists sell themselves are always of much higher quality then those that make it into packs. I wonder why that is :? .

 

[ru4scuba]

The artists are idiots for giving their work away so cheaply to Topps. The card companies will continue to value their work at $2 a piece as long as there are artists willing to work for that amount.

 

[fengzhang]

sketch card artists only make a certain amount per card. I think it is $2 per card.... All the artists make the same.... I cannot remember how much the comic artists make but I think it is about the same... The reason they get paid so little is Topps lets them keep I think 10-20 blank sketch cards to do what they want with.... That is usually how the artists make their money on sketches.... Some artists are just looking for exposure for bigger reasons and that is why they do the sketch cards....

Hopes this helps.... Maybe cmixer can clear some things up for us...

From what I've seen this is true. I even remember Plempa selling some of his own sketch cards on ebay that Topps let him keep. So even though it's only like $2 per sketch, if you add in the revenue from selling their own sketches on the official cards, they still do ok. From what I've seen, the ones the artists sell themselves are always of much higher quality then those that make it into packs. I wonder why that is :? .

Probably because the artists try to emphasize the artist name in their auctions. Hence, you want a nice sketch attached to your name.

Whereas, a lot of the sketches pulled from packs are listed as "Topps Sketch Miguel Cabrera 1/1" or whatever with no mention of the artist and it doesn't even matter if it's a crappy sketch.

 

[wideright]

The artists are idiots for giving their work away so cheaply to Topps. The card companies will continue to value their work at $2 a piece as long as there are artists willing to work for that amount.

And so goes the term "starving artist."

 

[cmixer]

also, LEMPA did some creative stuff with his cards -
some artists used Light Boxes & photostatic machines to basically trace artwork -

Here's my Lempa -

 

[thenumberonemetfan]

also, LEMPA did some creative stuff with his cards -
some artists used Light Boxes & photostatic machines to basically trace artwork -

Here's my Lempa -

this guy right
http://cgi.ebay.com/2008-Topps-Stadium- ... otohosting


http://cgi.ebay.com/RYAN-HOWARD-RARE-20 ... otohosting

http://cgi.ebay.com/2008-Topps-Stadium- ... otohosting

http://cgi.ebay.com/2008-Topps-Update-H ... otohosting

 

[Leaf]

If anyone knows this artist personally, please send me his ocntact info or please have him call me... Thanks in advance... BG