First of all, welcome to this Dojo; I do think you'll find it helpful and friendly here, even after you finished your quest for a birthday present...
And I must add, a great idea for a gift!
A security advise: if your husband is such an enormous fan, he might come here, too, reading your post; so, you might want to edit your post that he can't deduce he's the lucky guy to receive a "surpise" present for birthday.
There is a great difference between "Original Art" on the one hand and "Convention or Commisioned Art" on the other.
Original Art is something that has been used for publishing (e.g. covers, promotional pieces, comic book pages) and is much more elaborate, thus a bit more pricey. Sensei's cover art sells for 600 - 900 $ (I think) for example, depending on how many characters are shown and level of complexity.
Commisioned Art or Convention Art is between 100 - 250 $, mostly depicting only one or two characters with a little background. Commisioned Art would be the slightly more expensive variant, since it is done to fit specific requests on the purchaser's side (could be colored, for example).
I don't know how urgently you are looking for a piece, but following are a few informations about how to accquire art by Stan Sakai:
The best way would be to purchase it from Sensei himself, since he does not do postal orders. That would mean meeting him at a convention in the nearer future, where he usually brings his portfolio with said art. In case you can't (or don't want to) attend a convention yourself, you might be able to find a reliable person here to act as in-between.
Make sure to specify well before and clearly what you want to purchase (size, colored/bw, which characters...), of course when dealing with a middleman, but especially if you want to commission a piece. Plus plan some time for a commision to be finished; Sensei's got a busy schedule, so he might not be able to add new commisions very soon.
There is no particular dealer I know of other than the usual places: some of his pieces surface on ebay occasionally, but be vary of sharks there: some try to sell sketches (not very elaborate, mostly personalized "for XY ") for 50 $ and up, which is a rip-off.
I think I've seen some pieces on
this site, too, sometimes with prices attached, so they might be willing to sell their art...
Even if not, you'll find some good examples of covers, convention art and sketches, so you'll know what to look for.
Hoping to be of service and wishing you good luck for your quest.
