“He’s an AMOEBA….”
“What the hell are you talking about?”, I asked the artist I was in deep conversation with.
“He’s an AMOEBA….My Dealer, he’s a simple and transparent life form…..I can see right through him.”
“I doubt it” I replied.
Then ensued the usual conversation between a group of artists, much like a gossiping knitting circle trying to gleam titbits of info such as who did what to whom, who’s owed money, who ripped off who etc, such is life in the absolutely opaque traditional art world?
Just 1 of a 1,000 stories I have. An artist told me she was invited to a dinner party at a major collector’s house. Hanging in the dining room were two huge paintings of hers that she didn’t know were sold. The collectors had bought them nearly a year earlier and for a substantial price. The next morning at the gallery the dealer started off saying “I’d have to check, I think someone is considering them at the moment?” As you can imagine it went downhill fast from there.
One old trick I teach artists who have their art scattered across galleries in different cities is to ring every so often and say “I might need this or that painting for an exhibition xxx is curating”, pure unadulterated bullshit, however you’ll be surprised how many times they hear “YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE IT, I JUST SOLD IT THIS MORNING”.
For the standard 50% gallery commission, you’re rarely told who bought your art and you have to believe the price it was sold for too..
Cosmic Toy, by rustysniper , edition of 5 , illustrated here just for its sheer beauty.
We are at the early days in the evolution of NFT Art, literally at the amoeba stage, but thankfully there’s absolute transparency.
NFTs are the most PRICE & SALES TRANSPARENT art that has ever existed.
NTFs are the most HYPER MONETISED Art that has ever existed.
The traditional art world is opaque, unregulated, secretive and what little you can find out is expensive to buy.
The NFT Art World is still in its infancy and this week two sites were launched, each giving anyone who cares to sift through them nearly infinite DATA on sales records. Something the tradition art world would never do.
Cryptoart.io is the place to go to when too much art sales data is barely enough
Don’t be fooled, the most expensive art isn’t necessarily the best ;)
DATA, DATA, DATA, DATA, DATA, DATA and some more DATA.
Here’s where it gets fun, across 5 platforms SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, MakersPlace, Async Art, and KnownOrigin artists ranked by their sales ( all 1,324 artists as of today).
Fun facts as of today.
In the traditional art world the average income an artist makes is around $10,000 a year. In the fledgling NFT ART world there are 350 artist who have sold more than $10,000 worth of NFTs. This is good!
Ironically the nearly 18 year old Fewocious is ranked number 18 with $167,528.44 in sales.
34 artists have total sales over $100,000 and 1 artist has sold over 1 million (PAK).
Sure all this data is hours of fun for those who like to snoop, but this information is gold, sorry as valuable as ETH to NFT collectors.
In my earlier post Always back a winner.I showed how sales data can be used by NFT collectors to establish who are the “Blue Chip” artists, as well as being able to track an emerging artist you may be interested in acquiring to see if they have an upward trajectory, or building a resale market?
The other brilliant ART NFT DATA site is …
Launched yesterday by Matty DCLBlogger
Huge Kudos for Matty for setting this up with all the cross referencing possible, a real and valuable achievement.
The more the NFT Art world grows the more NFT collectors will appreciate this information and hence increase their confidence to acquire NFTs.
For artists who only know the NFT Market, you don’t know how fortunate you are to have this level of transparency.
The amoeba sized NFT Art market has many potential problems ahead if it is to grow and mature then transparency at the level is a huge advantage.
This is good, this is fine & the house isn’t on fire as of right now.
One final thing, artists lets not make it an ugly contest….
"Ladies and gentlemen let the 74 annul Hunger Games begin! and may the odds be ever in your favor."
Jim, are there different benefits and disadvantages to both:
1. Buying many pieces for lower prices
2. Buying fewer pieces for higher prices
How does the scarcity (# of editions) affect your investing strategy?
Thanks, by the way, I have learned a lot from your content.