Pretty good advice. I would really like a spot print as well, but less than £3k is possible on ebay maybe, but it would be a lucky buy. I have been looking to get one over the last 6 months or so, but the one I really want is too large for any of my walls and I've not been 100% sure re some of the others I have seen and been able to afford.

I bought an Opium from Eyestorm in 2000 so know it's the real deal. Some friends of mine bought a Valium from some people in Derbyshire through ebay who were selling fakes. They bought it, took it to Eyestorm who checked it out and even spoke to the printers to ask about the stock they were printed on. Eyestorm have a way to tell so only buy through them. My friends took the print back to the people who they bought it from who handed them back their money without challenge. My friends eventually bought a Valium that had belonged to one of the directors of Eyestorm.

Cant agree with mose enough, between the chap in california pumping them out on his wallpaper printing press and the lot down south, there is too much chance in buying a hirst without cast iron prov, and you need to wonder why someone would let a genuine hirst go for half of its true value from a reputable source? I have been looking at these pieces for a while now and have to agree that eyestorm HAS to be the way to go to ensure its good. Its amazing what paying that little bit extra now for a verified genuine print will be worth in 30 years time.

Andipa have an exhibition of Hirst prints at the moment. They're all for sale. www.andipamodern.com

They can be quite flexible if you go through their resale system, where they buy back prints from the original owners, check and certify the pieces and resell, dont accept the first quote they give you, you may be able to talk them down some.

Slightly turning that round, the price for a good opium - £4-5K

just to add to this,
i had a californian version of valium which was submitted to eyestorm for authentication, & was subsequently revealed to be a copy, however be under no delusion as to how good these copies are, it came with a reciept, a coa, & the actual print was almost impossible to tell from the official version. a friend of mine has the real mccoy, & it litraly is identical, apart from two things.
be very very careful about this, or you'll stand to lose a lot of money.(i did'nt btw, the guy refunded in full, plus exes, after complaint was made).

I have an Opium with a reissued Eyestorm COA direct from them (which is an absolute must as already discussed). I paid £4,600. However, although I love it I would agree with BlackRatPress about if you can afford it (and not many of us can!!) then go for an etching rather than a Lambda print.

My name isn't Abromavitch. Sadly.

Opium is an edition of 500 (signed) released by Eyestorm. I believe.

The signatures on the Valiums have been know to vanish because of the pen Hirst used to sign some of them.

Theres a small one for sale on the bay

It's true, some of the signatures on Valium do fade. I've got one hanging on my wall and have been watching the signature gradually disappear over the years.

That's pathetic really. Is it a problem on the Opium print?