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Liquid Chicken
Jan 25, 2005

GOOP

Turbinosamente posted:

Have any of you gotten stuck with a collection you didn't want? I recently unearthed a collection of hat pins given to me by a relative like 15 years ago and stuck in the back of a closet. Did a bunch of research and come to find out the vast majority of what I have are fakes, even all four of the ceramic holders for them are likely repros too. I'm tempted to just donate the whole lot, as the few that might be authentic originals are so common they're hardly worth noting.

At least I'll have the space for the extra boxes of paperweights I was looking for, just disappointed that the hatpin collection still means nothing to me after all these years.

Oh yea. After my maternal grandmother passed away several years back I inherited a poo poo load of little metal pencil sharpeners in all sorts of forms. Peppermill, old fashioned movie projector, lantern, cars, airplane, and so much more!

These little things. https://www.findthisbest.com/best-pencil-sharpeners/antique They are now space fillers on various shelves around the house.

However when my wife's mother passed away back in 2008 it was worse as we inherited a full house of odds and ends and assorted collectibles. We were able to sell off the 25 pairs of salt and pepper shakers fairly quickly at a yard sale, but no one want any "Precious Moments" or "Snow Babies" crapola. Even worse was the horde of loving gaudy rear end "Capodimonte Porcelain" purchased off of QVC and the Home Shopping Channel. I gave some to relatives (forced them to take some more like it), keep a few pieces as they were my wife's mother's favorites. I couldn't sell one piece at rock bottom prices at a yard sale. I wound up giving up 50 some pieces of this poo poo to a local thrift store. That's really the best thing to do when you don't want to deal with dead relative's poo poo collections. Unless it has real sentimental or market value, pass that poo poo on! Off to Salvation Army or Goodwill it goes!

What is Capodimonte Porcelain you say? This poo poo - http://www.capodimonte-porcelain.com/en/9-centerpieces It's fragile, expensive to buy new, no resale value unless you have a very early rare piece, and gently caress there's some sharp edges. To make it worse, the wife's mother was a chain-smoking fall down drunk. Everything was covered in a sticky brownish layer of dust fused with nicotine. Some pieces had chips and others have pieces glued back together. In hindsight, I would have used them for target practice - gun, sling shot, doesn't matter. gently caress old granny decorations.

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Poo In An Alleyway
Feb 12, 2016



Liquid Chicken posted:

What is Capodimonte Porcelain you say? This poo poo - http://www.capodimonte-porcelain.com/en/9-centerpieces

Weirdly I have a vague recollection of these and I kinda like the look of them

Killingyouguy!
Sep 8, 2014

I haven't inherited any collections but I did once give a friend a rubber duck and she loved it and then suddenly all her friends also started giving her rubber ducks and then suddenly she started buying rubber ducks

Poo In An Alleyway
Feb 12, 2016



Killingyouguy! posted:

I haven't inherited any collections but I did once give a friend a rubber duck and she loved it and then suddenly all her friends also started giving her rubber ducks and then suddenly she started buying rubber ducks

Opposite happened to my husband who brought a rubber duck to work for his desk as a decoration. Then everyone started buying him rubber ducks as gifts (including me), and now he hates rubber ducks.

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.

DC to Daylight posted:

By any chance is the town in question Truth or Consequences, New Mexico?

It's possible they also have a bunch of statues there (I only stopped at the McDonalds) but I am referring to Hatch New Mexico.

bird with big dick
Oct 21, 2015

I would have given you good money for those Snow Babies.

DC to Daylight
Feb 13, 2012

Rick posted:

It's possible they also have a bunch of statues there (I only stopped at the McDonalds) but I am referring to Hatch New Mexico.



I was just riffing off the fact that a town that named itself after a radio show in order to win an inane contest seems like the kind of place that old advertisements would go to die... I appreciate the clarification though.

Rick
Feb 23, 2004
When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.
Oh good I feel less bad for taking four months to reply.

rojay
Sep 2, 2000

I used to collect comics. I bought most of them in the mid to late 1980s, and almost none of them are worth anything substantial. Except because I got to know the woman who owned the comic store near my school, I was given the opportunity to buy the first four issues of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She actually had to convince me, because I wasn't interested in them as reading material, but boy howdy am I glad she liked me enough to sell them to me. I do wish I'd kept the first one in better condition, but it's not too bad, and 2, 3 and 4 are pristine.

I also had the first issue of Black Panther, and the Avengers issue where Kang the Conqueror was introduced, but when my son was a kid I framed those and gave them to him along with the first issue Bill Simciewiz (sp?) did for Thor and I think the first issue of Teen Titans. I had a lot of the X-men books from that time, too, and some of the earliest issues in moderately good condition, but as popular as all of the other books were/are, the TMNT first printings are worth a lot more because they only printed 3,000 or so copies on the first run. And now it's what it is. Earlier this year I was just looking on a lark to see what they were worth and a mint condition, first printing of #1 sold for $250,000 at auction.

Once my erection subsided I realized that my copy isn't mint, and it's not graded, and I still turned down $4,500 in cash from a comic store owner because I figure it's probably worth twice that. Problem being it's only worth twice that if I get it graded, for which one must pay and which I am led to understand can take more than a year. Oh well.

I also collect cookbooks. I used to buy a couple of new cookbooks a month and I'd pick up three or four used, too. I probably have 500 or so now, most of which are not all that interesting. These days I borrow them from the library. The books I have run the gamut from "kitsch" (Junior League and neighborhood cookbooks) to art pieces like Grant Achatz's Alinea cookbook, with a lot of regional books in between - books on specific areas of Italy, China, Spain, Thailand or France mainly. I decided recently that I needed to do something productive with them and so I started writing "reviews" of some of my favorites in a weekly column I write. It's always nice to combine a hobby with a paying gig.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

rojay posted:

I used to collect comics.

I didn't think CGC was too terribly backed up for comic book grading turnaround times? Trading card grading is one that's absolutely hosed with all the major companies. I did have a moment of weakness and sent in a comic to be graded earlier this year and it only took a few months and even came back earlier than expected. Granted it was the complete opposite of yours: a poo poo ball modern comic worth nothing and I only slabbed it because I liked the cover. Maybe I'll get lucky and people will care about the character featured (doubt it).

FWIW when I looked into comic grading deeper I stumbled across an article that looked at the historical values for key issues across several grades and there was an interesting trend where the 9.0s and up stayed pretty constant at top dollar, but over time the 6s and 7s saw the most growth in their worth. The author concluded that as the higher grades become unattainable for most collectors, they begin to turn to lower "good enough grades" and the price rises as the supply dries up the farther you get from the comics release date. Or something like that, it's been a while since I was researching graded comics and whether to get into them.

But this is here nor there, there's not really a reason to grade the TMNT books unless you are intending to sell them. I'm reminded of an older guy at my comic shop that was picking up a whole box of graded comics. Apparently he was steadily getting his best and most valuable comics graded as a nest egg for his kids to sell after he's gone. It wasn't crap either it was all important and desirable keys too.

kreeningsons
Jan 2, 2007

Does anyone have insurance for their collection? I don't know if this is the appropriate thread, but there doesn't seem to be a better one.

I don't have a ton of stuff, but i do have some rare records and vintage clothes, plus vintage furniture -- between all of them it's probably $10-15k worth? For example a vintage lamp from the 1980s that regularly sells at auction (not ebay) for $500-$1k, a rare military jacket that sells at auction for between $250-$500. It adds up quickly. I talked to an insurance agent while setting up a homeowners insurance and they said to insure vintage items I would have to get them appraised, which sounds like a hassle for what is ultimately a bunch of odds and ends and not a single, huge impressive collection of one type. Otherwise, my things are covered at replacement value with a $1k cap on collectibles, and I don't know how the insurance company would determine replacement value for a lamp that hasn't been in production for 40 years.

The Locator
Sep 12, 2004

Out here, everything hurts.





kreeningsons posted:

Does anyone have insurance for their collection? I don't know if this is the appropriate thread, but there doesn't seem to be a better one.

I don't have a ton of stuff, but i do have some rare records and vintage clothes, plus vintage furniture -- between all of them it's probably $10-15k worth? For example a vintage lamp from the 1980s that regularly sells at auction (not ebay) for $500-$1k, a rare military jacket that sells at auction for between $250-$500. It adds up quickly. I talked to an insurance agent while setting up a homeowners insurance and they said to insure vintage items I would have to get them appraised, which sounds like a hassle for what is ultimately a bunch of odds and ends and not a single, huge impressive collection of one type. Otherwise, my things are covered at replacement value with a $1k cap on collectibles, and I don't know how the insurance company would determine replacement value for a lamp that hasn't been in production for 40 years.

Your insurance agent is odd.

You should be able to just get a generic value rider and the agent should be able to tell you how to document it and assess the value without hiring anyone.

Edit: My policy has a $50,000 rider for 'other property'. As long as I have a record of what the property is, whether it be computers, books, models, modeling supplies, that rider is supposed to cover it.

The Locator fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Sep 3, 2022

rojay
Sep 2, 2000

Turbinosamente posted:

I didn't think CGC was too terribly backed up for comic book grading turnaround times?

Apparently it's almost a year, but I don't know. There is also apparently an "expedited" grading process if the book is valuable enough, but it costs more.

And yeah, I'm going to sell them.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

rojay posted:

Apparently it's almost a year, but I don't know. There is also apparently an "expedited" grading process if the book is valuable enough, but it costs more.

And yeah, I'm going to sell them.

Been ruminating on this some, and I am no expert on graded comics, but I'd personally research a bit and crunch numbers or seek out advice from a trusted comics shop or try asking in the general Q and A thread in BSS.

It's a question of whether sinking more money into the comics nets you a higher return while selling. If a comic is worth 1000 raw and I spend 400 grading it, I'd want to be reasonably sure I could get more than 1400 selling it at the grade I got. So I'd be comparing the cost of grading (both expedited and not) to raw and graded comics in similar condition to my own. Can I make a lot more money by spending some money?

The other consideration is the time of course. How healthy is the market? Tmnt is pretty perennial at this point, but how likely is the market to go down in a year? Is there a new show or movie on the horizion to renew interest in the franchise? Or do you just wanna flip em now as is avoid the work and aggravation and be done with it?

rojay
Sep 2, 2000

Turbinosamente posted:

Been ruminating on this some, and I am no expert on graded comics, but I'd personally research a bit and crunch numbers or seek out advice from a trusted comics shop or try asking in the general Q and A thread in BSS.

It's a question of whether sinking more money into the comics nets you a higher return while selling. If a comic is worth 1000 raw and I spend 400 grading it, I'd want to be reasonably sure I could get more than 1400 selling it at the grade I got. So I'd be comparing the cost of grading (both expedited and not) to raw and graded comics in similar condition to my own. Can I make a lot more money by spending some money?

The other consideration is the time of course. How healthy is the market? Tmnt is pretty perennial at this point, but how likely is the market to go down in a year? Is there a new show or movie on the horizion to renew interest in the franchise? Or do you just wanna flip em now as is avoid the work and aggravation and be done with it?

I appreciate it, and that's what I thought as well.

I went to two comic shops in my hometown, and it's a long story but the owner of the second offered me $5,000 for the four comics. He stressed that he'd give me cash, and I just couldn't do it. I know the #1 is not a six-figure book, but even if it grades at 7 or 8, auction prices are still at least triple that just for that one issue and 2, 3 and 4 are in outstanding condition. Funny thing is that when I went to the second shop, I called in advance and set up the meeting. One of the guys who works at the first shop I took them to was there. I mean, I get it, dude's in business and he seems like a good guy but I didn't feel like negotiating from that sort of starting position was going to end well for anyone. One guy at the first shop did say he'd send it for grading if it were his. They thought un-graded I could get around $15k.

I did do some more research, particularly because the comics were printed on really cheap paper and it's yellowed over time. I found contradictory information on whether that will affect the grade. It could just be my bias, but the information I found most credible said it shouldn't affect the value much if at all, because essentially unless you kept the books in a vacuum, the pages were *going* to be yellowed.

Fortunately I don't need the money *that* badly, and I reached out to the auction house that's sold a couple of 9.8 graded copies of first edition #1 for six figures. They were interested, but I have procrastinated taking pictures to send them.

I also posted some questions on a comics-centered forum and at least one person said that even at the time they were released they were going for more than the face price. I guess they were skeptical that I really had a first edition, which is understandable. I know I was a good customer of the little shop where I bought them, and nobody knew that a 3,000 copy run of a self-published parody of Frank Miller's Daredevil was going to blow up, but I'm really grateful to the owner of the shop who convinced me to buy them.

Thanks again for the response. I haven't collected for a long time and I'm not sure grading was even a widespread thing in the late 80's-early 90's, so I don't really have a lot of context for this stuff.

Edit: to answer your question, apparently there is a new TMNT movie in the works.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
Oh no problem, I've been doing a lot of introspection on collecting myself and happened to have a brief flirtation with graded comics and cards. You've definitely done more research than I would have, and yeah sounds like grading is the way to go for you. If nothing else so you dont have a jackass claiming "it's not first edition, gimme a refund!!!1!!" when you sell. The other reason for grading companies to exist is to be third party authentication of collectible goods after all. I wouldn't bother with restoration services either and just have it graded as is. They likely know it's printed on cheap paper that yellows easily and probably account for it? I'm pretty sure comics grading sprung up as a thing during the late 90s comic boom too.

Killingyouguy!
Sep 8, 2014

I have some old 80s comics I got from this weird dollar store that are from some real small-time publisher and I have no idea why this dollar store had them for sale in the 2010s

I don't exactly want them but they're too weird to not care where they end up

pzy
Feb 20, 2004

Da Boom!
Definitely post some pics of the first TMNT if you can, just a few pictures can inform a hard ceiling to any potential grade

As far as the page quality, that's generally a different qualifier on the CGC slab, on a "white" to "brittle" scale with a lot of that era falling in "White to off-white" - no one shopping for graded books under 9.6 really gives a poo poo about white vs off-white pages though.

One other issue with the first TMNT is the huge black border. Black ink picks up nicks and scratches like nothing else, especially along the spine. CGC takes off massive points for color-breaking ticks like that.

Depending on the condition and how you've been storing it, it might even be worth it to send to a comic book presser. They will meticulously go over the book and literally use a hot press to flatten pages to remove creases. It can make a 8.0 book into a 9.6, but is highly dependent on the starting condition.

Josh Avery is generally regarded as one of the best: https://www.averycomicpressing.com

pzy fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Sep 15, 2022

rojay
Sep 2, 2000

Thank you all very much. I'll take some pictures of the first issue when I have some time later this afternoon. I did not know the grade could change that dramatically, but the creases are really the big issue apart from the color of the interior pages. I've been told it was between a 7 and an 8.5 by guys at the comic shops. If pressing could get it to a 9, it would be worth the cost.

Gin
Aug 29, 2004
and Tonic
Spend the money to get them all pressed then graded. Then auction them with Heritage Auctions.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
I thought people didn't like pressed comics in a "yeah it looks good but it's forever tainted by restoration so it's worth less" kinda way, but I know jack poo poo about this and should probably shut up.

Dumb random question, do you guys still have vestiges of old collections around that you lost interest in and stopped pursuing, or did you make a clean break and sell it all when you decided you were done? I'm needing to clean crap out and having trouble with sentimental attachments to stuff.

Snowy
Oct 6, 2010

A man whose blood
Is very snow-broth;
One who never feels
The wanton stings and
Motions of the sense



Turbinosamente posted:

Dumb random question, do you guys still have vestiges of old collections around that you lost interest in and stopped pursuing

Good lord yes, I certainly do. Especially half realized hobbies. Maybe someday I’ll use all my watch tools, who knows.

quote:

I'm needing to clean crap out and having trouble with sentimental attachments to stuff.

I had to cut back on stuff during a few moves to smaller apartments after having lived in a relatively big place for many years. It was tough having to cut back on some of those things but I found that taking pictures of the things I was was getting rid of made it easier. It’s a little silly but the pictures trigger the same memories that made me sentimental enough to hold on to the things in the first place.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

Snowy posted:

Good lord yes, I certainly do. Especially half realized hobbies. Maybe someday I’ll use all my watch tools, who knows.

I had to cut back on stuff during a few moves to smaller apartments after having lived in a relatively big place for many years. It was tough having to cut back on some of those things but I found that taking pictures of the things I was was getting rid of made it easier. It’s a little silly but the pictures trigger the same memories that made me sentimental enough to hold on to the things in the first place.

I have heard of the photo thing before, and it was super helpful for disposing of some old art work of mine on the verge of falling apart due to age, but I dunno what the roadblock is when it comes to collectibles. If I stumble across old photos for ebay listings on my computer, I can't delete them fast enough, for example. Guess I don't want the reminder of what I gave up in this specific set of circumstances.

fermun
Nov 4, 2009
I collect Soviet space-themed lapel pins












I have somewhere around 100-150 more that I've been too lazy to organize into a display case and instead keep in my desk drawer and pull out and look at every week or two

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

fermun posted:

I collect Soviet space-themed lapel pins
....
I have somewhere around 100-150 more that I've been too lazy to organize into a display case and instead keep in my desk drawer and pull out and look at every week or two

Neat, I imagine they're suddenly very hard to get a hold of now. I got a few soviet pins myself but nowhere near as many as you! Thanks to buying lots off of Ebay I got a wider variety besides the badass space pins and more town heraldry than I know what to do with. I think the Christmas ones are my personal favorite, great imagery and I find the loophole they exploit interesting. Although I've always wondered if I've wound up on a list somewhere for ebaying them from Russia and former Soviet Bloc countries.

best bale
Jul 4, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 30 minutes!
Lipstick Apathy

Turbinosamente posted:

Neat, I imagine they're suddenly very hard to get a hold of now. I got a few soviet pins myself but nowhere near as many as you! Thanks to buying lots off of Ebay I got a wider variety besides the badass space pins and more town heraldry than I know what to do with. I think the Christmas ones are my personal favorite, great imagery and I find the loophole they exploit interesting. Although I've always wondered if I've wound up on a list somewhere for ebaying them from Russia and former Soviet Bloc countries.

:justpost:

If there’s a list, I’m already on it for my love of (previously) cheap and plentiful Soviet-era watches

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

best bale posted:

:justpost:

If there’s a list, I’m already on it for my love of (previously) cheap and plentiful Soviet-era watches

When I get home from work I'll take pics. Though very technically they aren't Christmas pins, they're New Year's pins, even though there's Santa, snowflakes, and pine trees on them. The little loophole of writing "Happy New Year" on them instead of "Merry Christmas" gets around the no religion laws of communism. Even the Soviets can't stop the irrepressible march of time it seems.

Edit: because it's semi relevant, everything I know about the soviet space program I learned from this guy's website.

Turbinosamente fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Nov 30, 2022

deoju
Jul 11, 2004

All the pieces matter.
Nap Ghost
Those space pins are rad.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
My pins are packed tightly on my boards so excuse some random pins in and around my Christmas themed Soviet ones.



The totality of my space pins (and other random secular holidays), but Santa snuck in on the middle right, his sleigh being towed by a rocket.


There are three around the big rhinestone tree in the middle, My favorite of this group is the upper left sparse looking pine tree in front of the moon. The others were random lot fodder.


These two I gave to my mom for her Christmas tree pin collection. Kinda wish I'd kept the one with the colored text on the left, but this collection isn't leaving the family so no worries there.


This I'm not sure if this is actually meant to be Christmas. It was sold to me as a holiday pin, but idk. Those leaves are the colors of the Olympics logo, maybe it has to do with that?


And for the hell of it here's a random Soviet pin with a collie on it. Nothing to to do with Christmas, just illustrates the point that these pins were made on the cheap to commemorate every single event, thing, or achievement you can think of because it was quite popular in the U.S.S.R. to collect these pins and have them displayed on a banner in the home. I'm just a sucker for geometric designs in general, and these tend to be decent enough examples of that despite being obviously cheaply made.

fermun
Nov 4, 2009

fermun posted:

I collect Soviet space-themed lapel pins












I have somewhere around 100-150 more that I've been too lazy to organize into a display case and instead keep in my desk drawer and pull out and look at every week or two

here's the ones that were in my desk drawer, sorry for the poor lighting, the flash tended to ruin being able to see some pins and my room just doesn't have good enough lighting to get good pics of some of them in a batch. If you really want to see any of them in detail, let me know


















two of this batch due to the hologram








Turbinosamente posted:

Neat, I imagine they're suddenly very hard to get a hold of now. I got a few soviet pins myself but nowhere near as many as you! Thanks to buying lots off of Ebay I got a wider variety besides the badass space pins and more town heraldry than I know what to do with. I think the Christmas ones are my personal favorite, great imagery and I find the loophole they exploit interesting. Although I've always wondered if I've wound up on a list somewhere for ebaying them from Russia and former Soviet Bloc countries.
The two places they primarily come from are Ukraine and Israel, generally it's from people's grandparents estates after they die and they just want to get rid of anything Soviet-related. Finding sellers from Russia itself is actually a lot more rare, but they tend to have the much more rare and valuable pins that were probably smaller-run productions. Since the war in Ukraine, both Russian and Ukrainian sellers have more or less stopped so the prices have increased by roughly 5x and the ones you can actually buy are basically all from Israel now, but the Russian sellers that are still selling are selling a lot of super rare ones now but you can't buy them from the US.

fermun fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Dec 1, 2022

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
Ha! found the Christmas one in your new batch fermun! Real sweet collection, I should have bought more of at least the probes while they were plentiful. Good to know that I'm not the only one who lives in a black hole and had to resort to flash for photos. Nor do I blame you for having a bunch in a drawer because the clasps are so stupid small, I remember it was such a pain to pin them to my display.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
Dumb question to necro the thread: does any one here collect art?

shame on an IGA
Apr 8, 2005

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

Turbinosamente posted:

Dumb question to necro the thread: does any one here collect art?

The market for any big name stuff is insane. I was about one drink away from buying a Warhol in ~2005. It was a print of Jagger from 79 I think signed by jagger and Warhol. $20k back then, which was all my savings basically. Prints from that series are going for about $300k now and when Jagger dies who knows. That was sort of the investment thought, that I’d have to hold it until he died and then cash in. And get to enjoy it in the meantime. But I didn’t do it. Probably a mistake but oh well. It might have even been counterfeit, the price seemed too low but I think the market was just different. It was in a gallery so I hope it wasn’t counterfeit

I have plenty of art but nothing by anyone particularly well known. I framed a map of Paris from an 1890s tour guide that’s kinda neat. I buy prints at auction if they go for short money. I have a Harold Tishler enamel over copper bowl that I think is neat. Some PNW Indian art.

Oh yeah, I have an enormous collection of William Findley paintings. He was an artist who developed tunnel vision later in life and started painting abstracts. I have one framed that I think is really nice but most of them are stored in a box. I don’t think he’s a known artist really.

I have a huge mural of St Cecilia that used to hang in a church. I had it put on a stretcher. I like it a lot. Not fine art but the artist was pretty talented.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

BigFactory posted:

The market for any big name stuff is insane.

Without a doubt, which is why every blog article has as like its third top tip to go stalk up and coming artists on instagram, graduate shows, local gallerys, and maybe museum charity auctions.

Cutting out a bunch of introspection I started collecting soft vinyl figures, and while fun, I started wondering if I should start shooting for the one off custom pieces. Then I got to thinking what if I went the full monty and started collecting original art period? If nothing else it'd get me involved in the arts again and I would get to see some cool stuff even if I can't necessarily afford the big works. Which is why I asked here as I figured some goons would be into it and it'd be better info than the wasteland that is the art collecting subreddit. I'm just gathering perspective for now.

For the record the biggest name piece I got is a lithograph called Moonfall by George Stavrinos which ain't much. After that it's mostly craft fair level work. It seems like you have to spend money to make money on big name 'investment grade' art like that Warhol print and my speculation skills are piss poor. At this point I'll settle for stuff that has enough aesthetic appeal that my heirs can sell it at all after I am gone, never mind a profit.

And lmao black jesus goku certainly is a thing, reminds me that there is a little museum around dedicated specifically to thrift store art. I think it's in the northeastern US?

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

Turbinosamente posted:

Without a doubt, which is why every blog article has as like its third top tip to go stalk up and coming artists on instagram, graduate shows, local gallerys, and maybe museum charity auctions.

Cutting out a bunch of introspection I started collecting soft vinyl figures, and while fun, I started wondering if I should start shooting for the one off custom pieces. Then I got to thinking what if I went the full monty and started collecting original art period? If nothing else it'd get me involved in the arts again and I would get to see some cool stuff even if I can't necessarily afford the big works. Which is why I asked here as I figured some goons would be into it and it'd be better info than the wasteland that is the art collecting subreddit. I'm just gathering perspective for now.

For the record the biggest name piece I got is a lithograph called Moonfall by George Stavrinos which ain't much. After that it's mostly craft fair level work. It seems like you have to spend money to make money on big name 'investment grade' art like that Warhol print and my speculation skills are piss poor. At this point I'll settle for stuff that has enough aesthetic appeal that my heirs can sell it at all after I am gone, never mind a profit.

And lmao black jesus goku certainly is a thing, reminds me that there is a little museum around dedicated specifically to thrift store art. I think it's in the northeastern US?

Find a gallery in your area and talk to folks. You might find something neat. Auctions and estate sales too. Art is more fun to have than figurines imo

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

BigFactory posted:

Find a gallery in your area and talk to folks. You might find something neat. Auctions and estate sales too. Art is more fun to have than figurines imo

You're right, I should start going to galleries again both here and my old college stomping grounds the next city over and get back into the swing of things. Usually the estate sales are pretty poo poo around locally though, and I don't hold out much hope that an auction would have better things, but I've never been to one.

Also, I haven't been in the designer toy collecting space for very long, but it is a weird in-between area. I've been sticking to the smaller independent sofubi designers where it could be argued that it is art, but closer to the craft arts over fine art. Maybe even the same grey area as illustration or industrial design sometimes falls into? The indie artists don't often have large production runs of their figures but it is still a production; they're not 100% escaping the commercialism aspect of it. Or I'm just an idiot too used to stacking colorful poo poo on the shelf. At least I stuck to my ground rules for them and didn't overbuy this time: I'm in a couple discords for designer toys and oh my there is a lot of 'churn and burn' in the buy/sell/trade channels in there with peeps that got in too deep. Often they got too many cheap blind box figures and need space for more.

DC to Daylight
Feb 13, 2012

Turbinosamente posted:

...it could be argued that it is art, but closer to the craft arts over fine art. Maybe even the same grey area as illustration or industrial design sometimes falls into?

I'm definitely not trying to pick on you, but I think this is an interesting sentiment that many people share.

Rhetorically - what is the difference between craft art and fine art? Quality? Subject matter? Skills used? Materials? Why draw a line and where?

BigFactory
Sep 17, 2002

DC to Daylight posted:

I'm definitely not trying to pick on you, but I think this is an interesting sentiment that many people share.

Rhetorically - what is the difference between craft art and fine art? Quality? Subject matter? Skills used? Materials? Why draw a line and where?

I don’t know that there’s really a meaningful distinction unless someone is being a snob about it. I’d never put a toy on my shelf as art, but plenty of people do and to them it’s art if they want it to be. Like is a mass produced poster not art but a print that’s 1/1000 is art or is that not art either and it needs to be an original oil on canvas? Just call it all art imo. you don’t have to like it all.

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Literally A Person
Jan 1, 1970

Smugworth Wuz Here
Well I don't know art but I know what I like. So what I like is art. *frames big titty anime figurine*

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