Odd Interaction with Art Rep 2 2

[The Voord]

13 minutes ago, Peter L said:

I have an update.  I now have the artwork.

I wrote to him and I told him I was interested and asked how much.  I wasn't given a number and when he asked how much I wanted to pay I made an offer.  Then I was told it was sold.  So if this was a trick by the art dealer to boost the price, I would think he would have given me a number to start out with or not said it was sold.  When I got that email that it was sold , my first thought was to not respond because it was already sold, and my second thought was to respond with an F U.  So then if this was a trick, I think most people would have not responded but given up.

The dealer at one point said the artist is making the dealer do something weird in handling this.   At another point the dealer said he had me confused with another potential buyer and he thought he sent me a range.  

After I got the message it was sold, I responded and said I didn't know this was an auction and I was never given a price.  

My offer was based on other covers that this artist did that the dealer had for sale.  The artist is not a top superstar but you might have heard of his name.  To my knowledge he has not done any top tier titles but I know he did one of the lesser titles for a major publisher.  I might be wrong but I actively still read comics and follow Previews and look at CAF and CBR every day and I can't answer that.  This was for a variant cover of a #1 issue (one of five?) for a non major character for a smaller publisher.   It is not something I normally would collect, and don't usually collect his work, but it is a nice piece and it is the best work I have seen of his.  

The agent responded later that he thought he sent me a price and said he might have gotten me confused with another buyer and asked me to make a bid again.  I responded send me a price and I'll pay.  He gave me a range of prices.  I responded send me a price and I'll pay.  So he sent me a price the middle of the range.  This was going on for over a day.  Then I went home and didn't check my email.  In the next few hours when I was eating dinner, he emailed me repeatedly asking if he can call me, asking if I agree to the price, if it was ok, he needed to know right away etc.  

The price was a little higher than his other works which were often just a few figures and pen and ink, but he put much more effort into this piece so I was ok with that price.  When I commented that this procedure was strange, he said the artist is having him do something strange.  So maybe it was the artist.  Maybe it was the dealer.  Maybe the dealer was confused as he was packing up from a convention.  

There is more weirdness to the story regarding the payment and how I couldn't get ahold of the dealer for the next day as we agreed, but I'm as bored typing this as I'm sure you are reading this.  

The art did arrive in an itoya portfolio with a signed print of the work on one side and the art on the other.  It looks very nice.  I've never had a dealer do that before.  So I think it is a happy ending.  But it does make me appreciate the other art dealers more in how professional and hassle free they are.

Sh*t happens.  Glad it worked out okay for you.  Your initial posts were a bit scant on full info, which led to speculation on possible scenarios (at least from my POV).

[Rick2you2]

7 hours ago, Peter L said:

I have an update.  I now have the artwork.

I wrote to him and I told him I was interested and asked how much.  I wasn't given a number and when he asked how much I wanted to pay I made an offer.  Then I was told it was sold.  So if this was a trick by the art dealer to boost the price, I would think he would have given me a number to start out with or not said it was sold.  When I got that email that it was sold , my first thought was to not respond because it was already sold, and my second thought was to respond with an F U.  So then if this was a trick, I think most people would have not responded but given up.

The dealer at one point said the artist is making the dealer do something weird in handling this.   At another point the dealer said he had me confused with another potential buyer and he thought he sent me a range.  

After I got the message it was sold, I responded and said I didn't know this was an auction and I was never given a price.  

My offer was based on other covers that this artist did that the dealer had for sale.  The artist is not a top superstar but you might have heard of his name.  To my knowledge he has not done any top tier titles but I know he did one of the lesser titles for a major publisher.  I might be wrong but I actively still read comics and follow Previews and look at CAF and CBR every day and I can't answer that.  This was for a variant cover of a #1 issue (one of five?) for a non major character for a smaller publisher.   It is not something I normally would collect, and don't usually collect his work, but it is a nice piece and it is the best work I have seen of his.  

The agent responded later that he thought he sent me a price and said he might have gotten me confused with another buyer and asked me to make a bid again.  I responded send me a price and I'll pay.  He gave me a range of prices.  I responded send me a price and I'll pay.  So he sent me a price the middle of the range.  This was going on for over a day.  Then I went home and didn't check my email.  In the next few hours when I was eating dinner, he emailed me repeatedly asking if he can call me, asking if I agree to the price, if it was ok, he needed to know right away etc.  

The price was a little higher than his other works which were often just a few figures and pen and ink, but he put much more effort into this piece so I was ok with that price.  When I commented that this procedure was strange, he said the artist is having him do something strange.  So maybe it was the artist.  Maybe it was the dealer.  Maybe the dealer was confused as he was packing up from a convention.  

There is more weirdness to the story regarding the payment and how I couldn't get ahold of the dealer for the next day as we agreed, but I'm as bored typing this as I'm sure you are reading this.  

The art did arrive in an itoya portfolio with a signed print of the work on one side and the art on the other.  It looks very nice.  I've never had a dealer do that before.  So I think it is a happy ending.  But it does make me appreciate the other art dealers more in how professional and hassle free they are.

It sounds like either the artist, or confusion between the artist and dealer. 

Either way, a good deal. 

[ESeffinga]

The whole thing still sounds sketchy to me, and for what seems like a lot of effort to buy a piece of work it sounds like few would be falling over themselves to buy, and from someone calling themselves a dealer. 

Based on what you’ve written, my assumption would be that the guy gambledand lost. Tried to get you to play games to go high on a piece, and then realized they’d overplayed their hand. Whether this was driven by the artist, the dealer, or the dealer’s brother doesn’t ultimately matter.

Glad you got the art you wanted, and seems like it was at a price you were comfortable with. Win win.

[JadeGiant]

Glad it worked out for you and you received the art at a price you were comfortable.

 

I have to ask, do you plan to post this art on CAF?

[pemart1966]

On 8/13/2018 at 7:27 PM, The Voord said:

Depends on whether or not you made a strong offer.  What you wanted to pay and what the dealer was hoping to achieve might be poles apart? Not saying it's applicable to you, but I do know that low-ball offers can be a big turn-off in negotiations that can often kill exploratory talks cold stone dead (a general observation).  Did you ask for a ball-park figure when pitching your offer?

I find that the term "low ball offers" is sometimes a matter of perception.

Sure, there are scenarios when someone puts forward said type of offer hoping to get lucky -owner needs to sell/owner's not really au current as to what he has etc but I've seen the situation, more than once, where a seller has an over inflated/unrealistically high value attached to a piece for what ever reason.  Someone comes along and offers the seller what would be perceived by most as fair market value for a piece and the seller then gets his knickers in a knot claiming that the offerer is lowballing him thereby insulting him/insulting the art/is ignorant etc etc and then reacts by ignoring the offerer without one ounce of communication.

The guy making the offer is then puzzled as to why his FMV offer hasn't even been acknowledged by the owner.

It is sometimes a two way street.

 

Edited August 31, 2018 by pemart1966

[The Voord]

18 hours ago, pemart1966 said:

I find that the term "low ball offers" is sometimes a matter of perception.

Sure, there are scenarios when someone puts forward said type of offer hoping to get lucky -owner needs to sell/owner's not really au current as to what he has etc but I've seen the situation, more than once, where a seller has an over inflated/unrealistically high value attached to a piece for what ever reason.  Someone comes along and offers the seller what would be perceived by most as fair market value for a piece and the seller then gets his knickers in a knot claiming that the offerer is lowballing him thereby insulting him/insulting the art/is ignorant etc etc and then reacts by ignoring the offerer without one ounce of communication.

The guy making the offer is then puzzled as to why his FMV offer hasn't even been acknowledged by the owner.

It is sometimes a two way street.

 

. . . or dead end street.