NOS Cheyenne sold on eBay – $190

After being involved with the Exidy Cheyenne sideart project for about five minutes, I tend to take notice of artwork for the arcade game when it becomes available. Last week on eBay someone listed a NOS piece of Cheyenne side artwork as well as a control panel overlay (Auction No. 140247294909). Sunday was the final day for bidding and final price came in at $190!

I will admit, I was a little surprised that this Cheyenne artwork didn’t go for a little more money. I was expecting the low $200 range but with economic strains on every other aspect of life, maybe hobbies have taken a hit. If we look back at the eBay results from a month ago on the NOS arcade artwork from the Quarter Arcade Warehouse Raid, sideart on more popular games was reaching $200 or more by itself.

In this case, I would say that Cheyenne has a limited popularity and following, maybe more so recently because of the Cheyenne reproduction sideart project that Brian Jones is currently working on. But when you add in an unapplied control panel overlay, and do an estimated 70/30 split on value, that would mean that at a final price of $190 that would mean that the sideart would be valued at about $135 and the overlay at about $55. That isn’t really that much, which is why I was thinking more like the $230 range, about $165 for the set of sideart and $65 for the overlay. Granted, I don’t know if Richard Ford or ‘Vectorcade’ were involved this time around, maybe they just drove the prices of the other arcade artwork higher than they actually were.

The beauty in the detail of the Cheyenne sideart

Speaking from an artistic standpoint, this Cheyenne artwork should be more collectible. If you look at the fine detail, composition, and illustration style as well as subject matter, this is a pretty cool piece.

Cowboys are as American as gangsters and McDonalds, but look closer at the fine detail of the illustration. The broken lines in the hair, the detail of the horses face, the use of negative space to imply the lasso and the monotone use in the background circle with the profiles of crooks on a wanted poster.

Plus, my favorite part may have been how Exidy chose to match the black in the background to the cabinet implying that the illustration was the only art on the cabinet, and the characters defining the shape of the artwork. I am sure they couldn’t put the artwork on the cabinet cut to shape for fear of kids picking it off, but this was the next best solution. Granted, having a solid black background on a piece of arcade artwork wouldn’t be as desirable collecting wise as a fully rendered desert scene, but this works for its original purposes.

We’ll see, I happen to hear about another set of Cheyenne sideart that may be coming up for sale in the next couple of weeks, or it may go to a private collector. Who knows, but I think that ‘bigmeat’ on eBay got a pretty decent deal. Sets of unapplied Cheyenne artwork aren’t impossible to find, this is the second this year that has come up for sale, and there is an image of a set of Cheyenne sideart from Arcade Mission as well from who knows when.

Update on Cheyenne sideart reproductions

Didn’t feel like this needed a separate post, but I checked in today on progress on the Cheyenne sideart. Back in late April, Brian Jones did some color matching on the Cheyenne sideart, printed out a test piece and sent one to the parties involved in the reproductions.

That piece of artwork was approved and is ready to roll. However, there was only the one side of the Cheyenne sideart, so a scan of the other side will need to be made in order to reproduce a set of artwork. A horizontal flip of the image might be possible if not for the ‘Reward’ and ‘Wanted’ text in the background circle.

Anyone out there have a piece of NOS Cheyenne sideart that hasn’t come forward yet but could help contribute to the reproduction project?

Here are some similar arcade posts

• Cheyenne Sideart Update, Sort Of
• Short update on the Cheyenne artwork project
• Cheyenne Reproduction Artwork Update
• Cheyenne Sideart Scan Arrives!
• Gunsmoke Sideart / Stickers Update

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