The Day After. The Brutal Betrayal of the fast flip. 3 3

[grapeape]

You were hounded. "It's my grail," they assured you. You are on the fence, but finally relent. You never wished to sell it. They had to have it. You take pity and sell, and reasonably priced in light of the special circumstances. Shortly thereafter, you see the same prized possession listed for multiples of what you let it go for. Scream. Cry. Tell us. How does it feel to get stabbed in the back? Do: Let this be a catharsis rather than a place of revenge. How did it feel? You see it at auction or on a dealer's web page.

Edited May 17, 2023 by grapeape

[Ecclectica]

Ready to listen to horror stories. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Ecclectica

[F For Fake]

I have the opposite problem: every piece I've sold, and later regretted/wish I had back, apparently goes into a black hole, and I never see them again. On one hand I'm glad that they found a good home, but on the other hand there are a few I'd like back, and it apparently isn't going to happen!

[thethedew]

[comix4fun]

"Grail Today, Gone Tomorrow" has become a pretty familiar phenomenon in this hobby.

People do horrible, unethical, dishonest things to get what they want (which, sadly, includes artwork). 

I don't begrudge a person doing what they want with their property...selling it, keeping it, giving it away, whatever. 
That's so long as they didn't lie to obtain it, didn't tell the owner it was for the "walls of their kids nursery" or some such prevarication, when the plan was always to flip or sell. Or if something changes in their situation so rapidly that they have to sell the piece that they just acquired under the auspices of "permanent collection" that they contact the previous owner and talk it through, offer it back, treat them with the same respect and deference they'd want if the tables were turned. 

[batman_fan]

I had a Byrne Wonder Woman splash.  Another collector had the two pages around it and really wanted mine.  It was their grail of grails.  They pestered me for probably a year before I finally sold it for a very reasonable price.  A few months later all three pages were auctioned off.  I no longer sell to people that play that game.

[Xatari]

This should make for an interesting thread.  I'd love to learn from the collective experience of this group.

[gumbydarnit]

I had a collector contact me who was putting a book back together, of which I had a page. He said hey man let me know if you’re not open for a trade deal and I’ll have to scrap the idea of trying to the putting the book together (giving me a minor guilt trip).

I traded him the page. Fast forward just a few months, and a couple of his pages from that book were up for sale on a dealers site.

Not painful tho, because I preferred the page I that received in return. Obviously, he wasn’t as committed to putting the book back together as he claimed to be

Here’s an odd story- I bought a commission. Then a few years later I was browsing eBay and there it was up for sale - the exact same commission (a print out I presume). I sent the seller an extreme close up of mine showing the pencils and ink variations. He “didn’t know what happened”and he took the commission down. Yes, I did report the item to eBay as fraudulent. 
 

It’s a weird feeling to see a commission that you own being sold on eBay!

Edited May 18, 2023 by gumbydarnit

[batman_fan]

What they say "that is my one true grail, I doubt I can pay you FMV for it but if you could see any way to help me acquire it I would be forever in your debt."

What they really mean "I have a sucker lined up to buy it but I would like to make more off it."

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by batman_fan

[grapeape]

On 5/17/2023 at 1:07 PM, F For Fake said:

I have the opposite problem: every piece I've sold, and later regretted/wish I had back, apparently goes into a black hole, and I never see them again. On one hand I'm glad that they found a good home, but on the other hand there are a few I'd like back, and it apparently isn't going to happen!

Yes that's happened to me also.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 5/17/2023 at 3:07 PM, F For Fake said:

I have the opposite problem: every piece I've sold, and later regretted/wish I had back, apparently goes into a black hole, and I never see them again. On one hand I'm glad that they found a good home, but on the other hand there are a few I'd like back, and it apparently isn't going to happen!

I have this exact same problem. 

[cloud cloddie]

I’ve only sold one piece to someone who gave me a story about how much it meant to them. It was a random, inexpensive piece that I would’ve been surprised for someone to lie about. Made me a good offer, and have never seen it again. So I’m just assuming he’s enjoying looking at it on his wall now. 
Every other time I’ve gotten lowball offers, so it’s been easy to crush dreams. 

Edited May 18, 2023 by cloud cloddie

[Caltex98]

I never sell anything. And should I get to know that someone wants something I own I'm inclined to hold on to it just out of spite.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Caltex98
.

[Dirtcheap31]

Traded a page to acquire a page once and the guy flipped my page about a year later for about 5x what he accepted as trade value from me then had the nerve to try to get another page off me didn’t even offer that page back and he knew I really liked it… really the only page I ever truly regret letting go now I do not do trades at all to subjective and I feel one side always gives a little more 

[Twanj]

Despite having a spite business and never having sold art, I never got this.

Don't think I've gotten a sob story but if someone wanted to buy my hammer, computer, or car I would never care why, it would all come down to if I could replace it and get something better and this is for purely functional items that can be replaced, not one of a kind things with nostalgic or artistic value to me. Especially something I actively didn't want to sell. If I had a better one lined up where I was trading up, maybe.

[jjonahjameson11]

On 5/17/2023 at 6:32 PM, grapeape said:

You were hounded. "It's my grail," they assured you. You are on the fence, but finally relent. You never wished to sell it. They had to have it. You take pity and sell, and reasonably priced in light of the special circumstances. Shortly thereafter, you see the same prized possession listed for multiples of what you let it go for. Scream. Cry. Tell us. How does it feel to get stabbed in the back? Do: Let this be a catharsis rather than a place of revenge. How did it feel? You see it at auction or on a dealer's web page.

This is exactly the reason why I no longer post anything on CAF.

[Rick2you2]

On 5/17/2023 at 9:56 PM, batman_fan said:

What they say "that is my one true grail, I doubt I can pay you FMV for it but if you could see any way to help me acquire it I would be forever in your debt."

What they really mean "I have a sucker lined up to buy it but I would like to make more off it."

 

Absolutely right. If someone has a piece which I really wanted, I would pay more than FMV not less. I just bought a little piece in which I offered the seller more than he asked for precisely because I knew someone else wanted it. 

This makes me think that you ask if he will sign a contract to pay you liquidated damages if he tries to sell it within, say, 10 years of purchase. Shouldn’t be too hard to gin one up, and it may scare off the fakers. 

[G.A.tor]

I’ve had lots of interesting requests for some of my pieces of art. Heck I just got an unsolicited offer for a piece I just posted to caf. 
but I don’t sell or collect to trade/sell. So I have been blessed, so far, with being able to be a “black hole”. That said, I was forced to sell my comic collection post hurricane destruction a few years ago, so as long as, as others have stated, it’s a valid reason to sell, I’m good. But if it is a manipulation to acquire to sell, shame!

Edited May 18, 2023 by G.A.tor

[batman_fan]

I have one piece in my collection I bought off CAF.  The way I did is was to research all sales I could find for the artist.  I then offered the person that had the piece 3x the highest price paid to date for one of the artist pieces.

[Garf]

On 5/18/2023 at 12:18 AM, batman_fan said:

I had a Byrne Wonder Woman splash.  Another collector had the two pages around it and really wanted mine.  It was their grail of grails.  They pestered me for probably a year before I finally sold it for a very reasonable price.  A few months later all three pages were auctioned off.  I no longer sell to people that play that game.

*sigh* I might end up reaching out to someone for the same reason, but thankfully nowhere near the same league.

Personally I probably wouldn't even feel bad if I sold after a longer period of time, say 5 or 6 years later, tastes change, people have their price, and it took me a while to realise why I may never be truly finished with this hobby...  but then I also am not likely to have been pleading hard times or similar shenanigans. It probably doesn't need to be pointed out, but there is a distinction between being honest about offering what you can afford, when openly negotiating, and low balling.

Would there have been a period for you where enough time had passed to make this a non-issue or at least dull the impact?

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by Garf