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Remarques?

Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 8:28 pm
by jflotx512
I had a quick question? What makes a Remarque valuable? Does the value of the edition go up or how does that work? For example; if someone had a Remarque done to, lets say, "Salem's Lot" first edition, or "The Shining" first edition. Does that hurt the value of the book? And last question? For a Remarque, can any artist do one to another book if they never had any collaboration with that book?
Thank everyone

Re: Remarques?

Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 10:24 pm
by Mr. Rabbit Trick
I don't know of any serious collector who has had a "remarque" done in their 1st editions of "Salem's Lot" or "The Shining". Maybe that answers your question. IMO it would devalue the book.

A "remarque" by an illustrator who has no connection with the book is just wrong. If you really want a "remarque", get it on a seperate sheet and place it in the book.

Re: Remarques?

Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 11:17 pm
by jimimck
I don't have any personally, but I know of collectors who have remarques from artists that have nothing to do with the book itself, but this is quite rare.

IMO, remarques are for personal enjoyment, and thus some may enhance the value of a particular book if many others agree to the added enjoyment, but other remarques may only be special to one person.

If you are ever considering getting one done in a book of yours, get it under the assumption you are the only person who is ever going to enjoy it, and then you can't go wrong.

Re: Remarques?

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 8:23 am
by TheCollector
jimimck wrote:I don't have any personally, but I know of collectors who have remarques from artists that have nothing to do with the book itself, but this is quite rare.

IMO, remarques are for personal enjoyment, and thus some may enhance the value of a particular book if many others agree to the added enjoyment, but other remarques may only be special to one person.

If you are ever considering getting one done in a book of yours, get it under the assumption you are the only person who is ever going to enjoy it, and then you can't go wrong.
Well, I can agree with some of that, but let's face it - remarques have been the iphone/ipad of King collecting. It's gone from basically a non existent market to artists cranking out anywhere from a few to literally hundreds in the case of illustrators like Chadbourne. Multiply that by anywhere from $100-$500 per remarque it's clear that many collectors put value into the remarques....otherwise they wouldn't keep selling.

Resale & profit on remarques on the secondary market is also driven by supply and demand. Certain illustrators command higher prices, others are more reasonable, but value is there. I agree that making sure the illustrator actually participated in illustrating the book is a wise move, & would be more valuable (generally) than using an illustrator that didn't participate in the book.

That being Said if you can get Michael Whelan to do a full color remarque in your reprint of The Stand, I have a feeling it'll still fetch quite a bit :mrgreen:

Re: Remarques?

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:13 am
by jhanic
I personally consider the entire remarque craze a fad. I don't think (but I could be wrong) that it has "legs" to add value in the long run for most collectors. I have to admit that I do have a few, but only ones that mean something to me.

John

Re: Remarques?

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:39 pm
by Mr. Rabbit Trick
I agree that it a bit of a fad. I would say there are only about a dozen people who are interested in them, and a lot of them sell their books soon after getting them.

Re: Remarques?

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:57 am
by TheCollector
Mr. Rabbit Trick wrote:I agree that it a bit of a fad. I would say there are only about a dozen people who are interested in them, and a lot of them sell their books soon after getting them.
I have to respectfully disagree. Take a look at CD's offer of remarques in The Shining.

100 remarques - 1st illustrator - sold out within the day
100 remarques - 2nd illustrator - sold out within a day or so
100 remarques - 3rd illustrator - sold out in a week or so (seems like they hit the saturation point there)

There have to be more than a dozen people interested to snatch up 300 copies that quickly & on top of that remarques have been offered for a few years now, it's getting to be quite a long fad. Do I think we're reaching a saturation point? Yeah I do, so I expect some scaling back but I think these remarque offers are here to stay in some form or another.

What makes the remarques valuable is that it's original art that's one of a kind that people are interested in. (although some are close variants, like the rats series or the Colorado Kid remarques). The same as any other original art.

As far as aftermarket value goes, it all depends on the artist, subject, and how many were done but more often then not you're probably recouping 75-90% of the cost. Meaning there is a slight loss of value, but I think that's because of the huge number of remarques that are out there. The less scarce something is the lower the price will be, simple economics there.