collector vs real value -- seeking price

One thing that confuses many is the difference between ‘collector value’ and ‘real value,’ since just the term ‘value’ itself has leeway. It’s also good to remember that value isn’t always the same as price, although we’d like to keep them relative. The dominant mode these days, collector value is ‘what other people are willing to pay,’ and it seems there’s someone willing to buy about anything, old and no longer produced they like special. When there’s plenty of plenty the operative component of value is rarity, how difficult it is to obtain and possess this thing. That’s about it. If it freezes in the tropics the price of bananas goes up, and since there’s only a certain number of toy firetrucks circa 1920 and earlier still around, their price goes up too. It’s a big competition out there, everyone trading up toward more and more hard to get stuff, and the eventual winner will be the one who pays most for the rarest thing of all, the Ty Cobb baseball card, the queen’s buggy whip. Well, times aren’t always good, and collecting isn’t for everyone.

In tighter times, the main measure of value is utility, and it makes the more convincing claim on how much we should want something in our lives. The whole notion of rarity in art is grossly manipulated anyway, at the top a restricted ranking of cornball trademarks. They do it in front of everybody, so there’s no reason to go through it here, but there are other terms of value they leave out. Original art in the house makes life better, improves outlook, brightens attention, just does, ask someone that owns. They’ll testify that in a world of digital fast food, original art contains mental nutrients that radiate out into the room anytime the lights are on. How is it possible to obtain this benefit, you might ask.

Any mark made on paper by someone truly trying to express themselves has more value than the mona lisa momentarily on your iphone, and it goes up from there. An expression made after years of practice and life experience is rare enough, but also comes additionally fortified with an inherent worth that gives back. A painting is not just an inanimate oddity, but becomes a contributing family member, witness and repository of memories more poignant and relivable than endless files of photos. How much should you pay for an object you may keep the rest of your life -- hard to say, but don’t listen to the dealers, for them it’s business. Instead self-educate. Buy some art, and then compare it to what you see for sale, trust yourself.