Always back a winner.
The ART NFT scene is on fire and it is attracting more artists than collector’s money can support.
This accelerates the effect of "Prices Law". Only a handful of people are responsible for the majority of the value creation. In fact 50% of the sales come from the square root of the total number of people trying to sell.
"Prices Law": the square root of the number of artists will get 50% of sales.
Applying “Prices Law” to NFT Artists would look like this;
100 NFT artists, 10 NFT artists will get 50% of the sales.
1,000 NFT artists, 31 NFT artists will get 50% of the sales.
10,000 NFT artists, 100 NFT artists will get 50% of the sales.
100,000 NFT artists, 316 NFT artists will get 50% of the sales.
1,000,000 NFT artists, 1,000 NFT artists will get 50% of the sales.
Confetti Lamarr, 2020, by Darian Zam , edition of 6 (already sold out)
Using “Prices Law” collectors can look at sales numbers to determine who is a Blue Chip artist, as well as which artists are working their way up to becoming established with a growing secondary market.
Within the art world, 'blue chip' refers to art with great value that is reliably profitable and expected to hold or increase its economic value, regardless of the general economic ups and downs.
In other words, success creates more success and as it is played out over and over a pyramid shape chart evolves where the 1% get most of the sales and the bottom 50% get the crumbs.
What’s more disturbing (if you’re not in the 1%), is Price’s Law applies at every level. Example if there are 10,000 artists, eventually 100 will make 50% of the $ in sales. Then of those 100 artists just 10 will make 50% of the remaining money.
This already exists in the Physical Art World where a living artist like Gerhard Richter can amass a total of close to a Billion in sales per year from the primary and secondary markets. Meanwhile the average income an artist makes is a mere $10,000 a year.
The great jostling to get prime position in the ART NFT world has well and truly begun with the winners taking all.
Big Bucks attract more hopeless wannabes than genuine artists with creative vision and originality. The flood of people making NFTs creates problems for collectors wanting to collect or start a collection. The sheer volume to pick from swamps the quality with shit.
It’s a twofold problem for both collectors and artists.
For artists, if you haven’t already got a huge following it’s harder to build one as you become invisible. All the money is chasing what the herd is buying. Even if the art is great you’ll be visible and find it hard to get traction.
There’s an old marketing truth that says people need to see a brand 20 times before they consider buying it. As a collector of Physical Art for nearly 40 years I often go through my art magazines (I have every issue of half a dozen different art magazines going back over 40 years) and the thing that always amazes me is the amount of times that an artist I’ve become interested in was featured previously, sometimes years earlier and gone unnoticed at the time. Luckily I’ve been early on many artists, but I could’ve been a little earlier on some and that’s where the big returns are.
For collectors of NFTs there are stats to use to find out who is selling which in the physical art world are expensive.
For instance, go to https://superrare.co/top-artists and click “all time” (thanks SuperRare for this free information!). Lots of metrics to play with to give you valuable answers as you click different timelines.
If you don’t want to believe in Prices Law, take a look at the total sales of the top 10 artists and see how fast the numbers diminish. Meanwhile 40% of artists have made less than $1,000 in lifetime sales there and 57 artists listed have made $0 in lifetime sales.
NIFTY ART COLLECTOR Golden Rule; The intrinsic value of a NFT is zero, the real value is attached to the artist. Also remember, the price of anything & everything is a collective hallucination.
For the ART NFT collector Blue Chip artists are easy to identify as they suck up all the air, all the attention, you cannot but help to hear about their new record sale price or how fast their edition sold out. However, there’s no such thing as a sure bet and you can spend a small fortune FOMOing into an artist that the dumb herd is stampeding towards. Ever seen a gif of stampeding buffalo running off a cliff? If you have the money to lose and a gambler’s FOMO, then go right ahead.
If you’re a collector, you can do as you please. If you’re also an investor, then your minimum position is not to lose money and hopefully you’ll make a profit on top of enjoying your NFTs?
Luckily for artists and collectors Prices Law is not set in stone. Instead of constantly reinforcing itself and funnelling all the money up to the 1%, Prices Law allows for some churning at the top as new artists surpass old established artists. That’s where you have to be quick, or early to pick artists who have an UPWARD TRAJECTORY. Once again following the numbers helps, but that’s after the fact. To get an earlier advantage picking artists that should take off is an art in itself, it can be very rewarding, as well as a lot of fun as you research and go on the hunt.
For my $$$, I wouldn’t buy a $10,000 NFT unless I could buy a dozen without blinking. Instead I would break up my budget to find the perfect NFTs in various price points depending on how much you want to spend? Example; 1 @ 2 ETH, 2-4 @ 1 ETH, 10 @ 0.5-1ETH and 20-40 under 0.5 ETH, then make each decision count. Create a portfolio without FOMO, always look for genuine artists with an UPWARD TRAJECTORY and acquire slowly.
Chinoiserie Bleu (Salon of Curiosities), 2000, by Darian Zam at 0.055 ETH, edition of 5 (I purchased one of these).
Major contemporary art collectors fall into several categories such as the trophy hunter who only wants the most expensive “big name artists”. It’s as if they want to hang their money on the walls to impress others.
Other collectors buy hundreds of artworks by trendy or emerging artists hoping a few go on to become very famous.
Either way don’t FOMO in and make reckless decisions. The time sensitive “NFT drops”, followed by the flipping creates an air of excitement, but ultimately that high doesn’t last long.
Meanwhile, the hunt for artists who have an upward trajectory can be so much more fun as well as rewarding.
As more artists are attracted to making NFTs, the top lists will change dramatically. If an established artist such as Mark Ryden was to start making NFTs, he will shoot to number 1 overnight. Major artists will enter the NFT ART scene into the future, spotting them early before they create new record sales or resales is a smart move. So is finding artists who are moving up the ranks whether they come from the physical art world, or within the ART NFT community. The flood of NFTs and artists is creating the need of ART NFT Consultants, curators who do not have a conflict of interest, or who are aligned with platforms & flippers.
Enjoy the hunt
My recommendation for an artist to keep an eye on is Darian Zam
https://app.rarible.com/user/0x390ee2f50ce16972e3ffc8ef2a0b47e500f5ca46/onsale
Once again, inside info, Darian Zam is a “real world” artist who recently entered the NFT scene. He has decades of creating physical art as well as art digitally. Darian clearly has the aesthetic sensibilities needed to transition into the ART NFT community and build up strong following.
Meanwhile, Darian is invisible to most and not yet verified on Rarible (WTF @raible), despite that he’s starting to get recognition, selling 37 NFTs this last week.
Several of his recent NFTs have caught the eye of collectors who bought on mass and he has sold out many editions quickly, including “Marlene revisited 2010”, which I consider to be a fine work of art.
“Pansy Girl (salon of curiosities), 2000”, by Darian Zam at 0.055 ETH
His prices are affordable 0.055 ETH for an edition of 5, “Confetti Lamarr, 2020”, (sorry already sold out) and for “Pansy Girl (salon of curiosities), 2000” at 0.055. He appears to be reworking his back catalogue of “real world”artworks, reinventing them as Crypto Art as well as creating new purely digital ART NFTs.
Darian may take off soon, or over the next year, who knows? Spend a fortune, if you like on the momentary high that being a FOMO LEMMING creates. I prefer to enjoy the slow burning satisfaction that comes from watching good artists like Darian Zam become appreciated after I already have acquired his ART NFTs.
So, I’m betting on him and it’s not expensive to acquire one now if you like his art.
Marlene Revisited, 2010, by Darian Zam. This wonderful work of art has Sold Out and unfortunately I was too slow to acquire one.