Does Familiarity Breed Devaluation?

[Mister Trent]

I was trying to make a trade a little over a year ago with a dealer and he told me he didn't want the piece of art I was offering because it had been shopped to death by me. What was so bad was that I had bought the piece from the artist and had only put it in my CAF gallery and hadn't ever offered it for sale or trade before then.

Mike B.

 

Similar thing happened to me last year. I was trying to put a deal together against a high-end piece of art (a Wally Wood WEIRD SCIENCE cover). In my CAF Galleries, I had the only known surviving Russ Heath 'Dinosaur' cover from STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES (# 137). The piece had originally cost me (off the top-of-my-head) about $9,500. I'd had a number of high-profile collectors express an interest, "should I feel the need to sell" . . .

 

As the need to sell did arise, I figured on a modest mark-up in price (allowing for inflation) to a round $10,000 asking price. I offered one guy (who'd previously contacted me) the art - but, because I was looking to make a sale at the earliest opportunity, also offered the art out to a general audience. The other guy got turned-off from the offer because it wasn't exclusive enough for him (though he was willing to proceed - providing I lowered my price and took a $2,000 loss on my original purchase price).

 

A few dealer-types also offered me a low-ball offer.

 

As a point of principle, I never sell art at a loss - so I raised my cash (to complete my high-end purchase) via the sale of some other originals.

 

End-result? I got to retain my unique Heath cover - which (for Artie's benefit) remains unbelievable/unattainable.

 

I'm going to make a point of retaining this in my collection.

 

Trent -

 

I'm sorry you had that experience. I think it should remain unattainable.

 

Here's my question, was this piece on CAF at the time that this was happening?

 

- Artemis

 

It was on my CAF for a long time, to showcase my collection (not act as an on-line sales catalog).

 

It was as a result of having art on CAF that collectors had approached me with the, "If you ever need to sell . . ." spiel.

 

I think the low-ball offers usually come about when people realise your'e looking to sell something in order to buy something more desirable. They think that you're desparate enough to accept lower offers.

 

I never fall for that one.

[Jesusjon]

It was as a result of having art on CAF that collectors had approached me with the "If you ever need to sell . . ." spiel.

 

One of my pet peeves about the hobby is how when one posts a brand spankin new piece of nice art, you receive several emails with said spiel. Later on down the road, when you're finally willing to deal the piece, that interest has suddenly dried up -- either "it's not the right time" or "it would have to be the right deal"

 

They might as well include in their spiel -- "If you ever need to sell, please keep me in mind, if you can let the piece go for 20% less than you paid for it." At least then you'd have a fair assessment of their interest!

[matewan1990]

It was as a result of having art on CAF that collectors had approached me with the "If you ever need to sell . . ." spiel.

 

One of my pet peeves about the hobby is how when one posts a brand spankin new piece of nice art, you receive several emails with said spiel. Later on down the road, when you're finally willing to deal the piece, that interest has suddenly dried up -- either "it's not the right time" or "it would have to be the right deal"

 

They might as well include in their spiel -- "If you ever need to sell, please keep me in mind, if you can let the piece go for 20% less than you paid for it." At least then you'd have a fair assessment of their interest!

 

This happened to me once. I bought a piece from an artist and a collector on CAF said if I got it, he'd gladly give me $X amount for it. So, figuring I was taking out a loan to buy the art, making a little profit on one piece wouldn't be so bad and I was planning to turn right around and use the money to pay on the loan. The guy was so excited about me getting the art and he wanted it for his collection, he said. So, I went ahead and made the deal with the artist, then contacted the guy about selling the piece to him. At that point, and this is only a couple of days later, he said he'd seen another piece online that was a better image for the same price and if he bought any of them, it'd be the other one.

But, he still wanted to make a trade for the price he'd quoted me. I agreed and we made a trade. Not long after that, he marked the price up to double and sold the piece.

Oh well...

It's very common for me to get several offers when I put a nice piece up on CAF and then when I offer to sell one, the dealer or collector tries to lowball me.

And I've had more than one dealer tell me my stuff has been shopped around too much ... even when though a lot of it has been bought straight from the artists themselves.

One guy even told me he'd owned a piece of art I had in my collection, even though I bought it from the guy who had bought it from the artist when the piece was done back in the 1980s.

But, he told me my art was worthless and then offered to trade me one piece for nearly everything I had...

Mike B.

[*paull*]

I think that's just a typical case of "my stuff is great, your stuff is junk, so give me everything you have for X dollars or this single piece of mine". I've heard similar before. The key is, don't bother selling to dealers, whether it's books or OA. You'll get hosed.