Posted by Dave Bull at 12:43 PM, October 19, 2008
At last! Today I reached a major milestone ... the moment that every craftsman/artist waits for ever since he first puts his products on the market. Yes, today for the first time, the 'after market' price on some of my prints has topped my original sale price!
I just received a copy of the most recent catalogue from 'Yamada Shoten', one of the largest book/print dealers here in Tokyo, and found this item on page 34:
It's a complete set of my 'Small Print Collection' - the print set I issued in 2006. My original price was 20,000 yen for the set of ten prints (around $200), and they have listed it at 30,000 ... Woo-hoo! A 50% premium on my prices, and in only two years ... and I'm still alive! :-)
And now, a message from reality.
This is clearly a mistake. If they had done even the tiniest bit of research, they would have found that I still sell that set ... and still for the original price of 20,000 yen. But don't you go and tell them!
But it is very interesting to see this valuation; these people handle hundreds of prints daily, buying and selling all over the place. They know what stuff is 'worth'. So it's interesting to see that they must have looked at this set, flipped through it, thought about it a bit, and then put the 30,000 label on ...
Thanks guys!
Congrats, Dave! I still wish society would get over the hang up of waiting until you die to fork over more cash for your work. I guess that is why, as an artist, one must be the ultimate Buddhist and give up the quest for cash as that can interfere with one's original intent. Examples like the following still drive me nuts, though. An Australian artist sells a painting to a bank to hang in the lobby for 1,500.00 and the bank goes belly up after a few years. The painting makes its way into the gallery dealership stream and after changing hands a couple of times it sets a record for the price of a few million a year or so ago. True story. Where was the artist in all this? Cold in the grave is my guess.
Dave,
This is indeed good. I hope all who did not get this special collection will now be lined up at your door to do so! If there is one thing we know about sales is that we know nothing. I have just given up second guessing what people want and I do what I want as I suspect most artists do.
Good job on making the "grade". We collectors all send our congratulations!
Congratulations, Dave..............another milestone! We are all thrilled for you.
As far as I am concerned, it's all very simple:
I'm going to buy all the remaining stock of your "Small Print Collection" series, and then sell it with an easily earned 33% profit! :-)
So, how are your health problems, lately?
Problems? Hey, I can't even remember the last time I had a day off work for any kind of health-related thing. My 'medical report' is about the same length as Obama's!
I'm going to buy all the remaining stock ...
Great! Where should I ship them, Jacques? :-)
The other funny thing about this is that the Small Print Collection bombed actually. For years I had repeatedly been hearing from people "I'd love to be able to buy some of the prints you send as New Year cards!"
So when the opportunity came to put out that series (while I was working on the large scroll print) I thought there really might be quite a good demand for it - what with many years of 'pent up' demand, and the least expensive price I had ever put on a set of prints. So I ordered 250 of the special custom boxes from the case maker. I didn't print up 250 of each print, but prepared a batch of 100 copies of each design to start with.
Hah!
So far, I've shipped out 67 sets, and that includes eight 'comp' sets (to staff, family members, National Library, etc.). At that rate, it's going to take me a very long time to chew through that pile of cases!
Why can't I get a living wage?
All of my heart and talent and vision
is worthless
Yes I have rice
I have no more
Stick to it Dave
Your such a lucky man!
