Well, for one, nobody's going to mention price on here. It's verboten. You'll have to go to their pages for that.
Second - there'll be a wide, wide range, from under twenty to over a hundred USD. Don't presume quality based on price, though, as there are some *very* good artists that will do pieces at $50 and under. And then, others will do sales.
I'd say, go to the various pages (Thors Assassin has a good overall collection, and then there's City of Artists) on DeviantArt, find people whose styles you like, and go to their pages. Most will, if they're taking commissions, have samples and price lists.
Agreed, cost is not always a guarantee of quality. There are some great artists out there of course whose expertise is worthy of the price they command, but with a little determination and patience you can find artists who do great pieces on a more modest budget.
Keep an eye out for sales, specials and other promotions - from now until after the New Year you'll find that quite a few will start popping up as artists gather money for the Holiday Season.
If you also find an artist whose style you like, but there's no indication if they accept FanArt commissions, drop them a line. At worst they will ignore you or so no - but you might find that they'll be prepared to do something for you.
keep in mind some artists don't do comissions , preferring to work on their own projects 
Happy art hunting
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... just a single character maybe set in an alleyway background with maybe thug shadows casting on the ground in front of the character. I wouldn't think that would be ALL too difficult to do for most artists seeing some of the work being done on the internet. I suppose the only problem is time.
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Two things:
First, there is so much to consider even in a single figure piece. Does the client want it to be run of the mill, does the client want the artist's input? Is this piece going to be a cookie cutter of something the client saw... used for a logo, a screensaver, an avatar. Many clients "ask" for the those privileges, they are not implied.
Second, how does the internet come into play on the artist's skill level? We are not machines, copy places or photographers. If you want a photo-manipulation, there are some very good ones, and some really shoddy ones. Time is a problem, and we're not paid for our time, we're paid for a final finished commission. If you take that $50 commission and spread it out over 25 hours, the artist just got paid $2 an hour for their "time"...
Neither of these statements are intended by me to be a personal attack on you, just something for you to consider... there is a very good sticky at the top of this forum on how to request fan art... my main suggestion whenever these threads come up, is to always include a screenshot of the toon you want drawn, just in case the artist is feeling generous.
Good luck in getting your pieces done. Xmas is coming and I believe many of the artists here will be having a sale.
LJ
Looks like it's all been said.
So I saw a link to Deviant Art in someones signature. I go through a few links and see some AMAZING artwork. So this question goes specifically to the artists here...
How much would a piece of work cost? Say someone... an average Joe like me, wanted someone to do a piece on his character. What would you charge to do that?
An example would be something like this:
http://erikvonlehmann.deviantart.com...atman-33961965
... just a single character maybe set in an alleyway background with maybe thug shadows casting on the ground in front of the character. I wouldn't think that would be ALL too difficult to do for most artists seeing some of the work being done on the internet. I suppose the only problem is time.
So is there a general "this much" kind of response to making art? I basically want to get an image that I can make into a sig, avatar, and also use it for my background wallpaper for my computer. Using my "Masked Patriot" character as the basis.
Thoughts?