Art Auctions
Articles and Advice

An intro to art auctions

Whether you're looking for art that defines you and your home, or you'd like to make an art investment, art auctions are a must. To cultivate your interest in buying and selling, you'll need to learn about the different categories of auctions and what you need to do before attending one.

Investing in art is a great way to save money for a rainy day or pass down something substantial to future generations! Once purchased and affixed to a wall, an art investment painting will require little maintenance in order to appreciate in value. It's hard to predict trends, but one thing is for certain, no matter what the country's economic situation may be, people's love and appreciation of art and attendance at art auctions have not diminished. However, one should understand a few rules of the game, such as bidding practices and categories.

To some, art auctions seem like senseless gambling. To others, it's an exciting game resulting in an opportunity to buy original art. While the danger of being overcharged is always there, unexpected surprises can be positive too. Take, for instance, those people who discover that the painting they've had on their wall for forty years just so happens to be worth millions of dollars! Before attending an auction, there are a couple things to consider, such as categories and bidding tips.

One category is the estate sale. You can often find great bargains here since purchases are made directly and most of the items from a deceased person's estate must go. Recently, a woman in Canada found out that the painting she had selected from her grandmother's estate sale, when she was ten years old, was actually a $300,000 original painting! Now you see why they sometimes refer to art as "treasure."

Another category is consignment sales. These art auctions have a fixed minimum price and simply will not sell if you have a problem with it. It's not as good a place to wheel and deal as the estate sale.

Secondly, consignment art auctions sales operate under strict guidelines and set minimum prices. As an informed buyer, you'll want to check out the commission on these before you buy. For example, Swahn Galleries & Design operates on a 40% commission!

At consignment art auctions, artists showcase fine art for sale in a gallery atmosphere without the pressure and high stakes of a bidding war type auction. Many people enjoy this because it reminds them of a Sunday stroll through a local museum. Only, in this case, if you find it, you like it, then you can buy it too! Sometimes the consignment fees may be high or the commission isn't fair, although generally it's not a bad place to dig.

A third category is the art auction house. These established buyers and sellers at fine art auctions wheel and deal pieces for a living. They're the middle man connecting art lovers and artists. Patrons attend these swanky events in big cities around the world, dressing up, sipping wine and schmoozing with fellow art lovers. In addition to perhaps finding a famous oil painting for sale, some rare works and getting a great selection, you'll love the social aspect.

Lastly, you can participate in an art auction online. At iCollect.com, you will see a list of all the upcoming eBay auctions. If you're fortunate enough to live in a big city, like New York or Paris, you'll have no trouble finding a local auction to partake in! For everyone else, the online auction is a cost efficient solution with a wide selection. On your home computer, you'll be entering bids on your keyboard, while the auctioneer reads them aloud in real time off a computer screen.

Before attending art auctions, it's a good idea to plan in advance. Be sure you know the day and time - and attend the preview events! At the preview, you can be first in line to see which items will be bid on. If you're going to an online auction, be sure that you've not only signed up to the website you'll be watching on, but also that you registered as a bidder for that particular auction as well. Find out about auctioneer commissions. Bring a note pad and decide on a maximum offer before you engage in bidding because it's rather easy to get swept away with the tide once the real bargaining begins!

Before the art auctions begin, have a game plan in mind. How much are you willing to spend in total? Do not get caught up in the enthusiasm! Check web catalogs to get a basic idea on artist prices or styles that you've been eying. While many of these auction results lists or catalogs may be inaccurate, it will give you at least the ballpark figure.

Art auctions can be a blast! To get the most of your experience, bring a spouse along or go with a group of good friends. It can be a riot to share your interests and play "show and tell" at the end of the night. Who paid $1 million for the Matisse? Who got the deal on the watercolor art? It's a wonderful social gathering idea, especially when the auction houses provide snacks and wine, as they sometimes do.

Top Tips For Successful Art Auction Listings

art statue Why is it that some artists seem to make easy money on eBay while others struggle to break even? Seller A and seller B could be selling paintings of the same calibre, yet seller A turns a good profit year in year out and has Powerseller status, while seller B struggles to even make a profit at all. Often it has a lot to do with the look of their auction listings.

I have been selling my original artwork on eBay for 5 years now and boy was I green when I started off. I didn't own a digital camera - I used an ordinary camera with film ... you know that old stuff ... I would take photos of my artwork, then tramp into town, wait three days for the film to be developed, then scan the prints into my computer. The quality of my photos were obviously pretty poor in those days.

I didn't know anything about HTML, templates, how and when to list to get optimum benefit from my auctions. It's a wonder I even got off the ground! But get off the ground I did - though dogged persistence and a willingness to learn, I went from selling paintings for a couple of pounds/dollars, to earning a good full time living. These days I am a Powerseller and often get hundreds for my paintings.

So, here are my top tips to make your art auctions stand out and promote you from part - time pin money earner to top seller;

1; Think about KISS .... Keep It Simple Stupid! A listing that has lots of different colours, fonts, animated pictures, text in capitals can be very confusing for the reader. Don't bombard people with too much information.

2; Be factual in your description. If your item has a fault - list it. This way a buyer knows exactly what he/she is getting and there will be no negative feedback later. I have sold paintings that had repairs where they had had small rips in them. I was honest in the fact that the paintings weren't perfect, but my buyers were perfectly happy because they knew beforehand what they were buying.

3; Never be negative. Recently one artist who was struggling to sell anything at all (despite being a very good artist) complained how eBay just wasn't working for him. After looking at his auctions I could see why! His listings were basic to say the least, but he could have gotten away with that. What was stopping any chance of him selling were the words at the end of his auction;

"The artist is unwilling to offer this item at a lower starting price as to do so would be insulting."

Potential buyers might look at this statement and think "well I wouldn't want to insult anyone" or "well if you feel insulted, why list it?" and click away ... to someone else's paintings. Comments like this are far too negative.

4; When selling art, a picture paints a thousand words, as the saying goes. Try to make your pictures as high quality as possible. Include side views of your canvasses and possibly a room view. Don't clutter your listing with pictures of other artwork you have for sale - it's just confusing. If you have an eBay store, you will get automatic 'cross promotion' for several other items at the end of your auction anyway.

5; Don't undersell yourself / under price your work. Who takes 5 to 10 pounds / dollars as an opening bid price seriously? Only very well known, well established artists with large fan bases can get away with starting a listing so low. Until you are established, don't risk selling your art for pennies. You'll not even cover your listing fees, never mind make a profit.

6; Utilise keywords effectively. I saw a pencil drawing of a mum and baby Koala in a tree listed as "A mother's Love Original Pencil Drawing" Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that anyone will search "a", "mothers", or "love". Well maybe love .... but not in the context of an original drawing of an animal. The seller was wasting a lot of keyword space there. Better would have been something like "Original Contemporary Drawing Sketch Koala Bear Bears" Doesn't mean much as a sentence in itself, but it is packed with keywords, people might use to find that type of item.

7; Offer excellent customer service. I have always prided myself on the number of positive feedbacks I have attained over the years. On various eBay IDs I have well over 1000 unique positive feedbacks. This is money in the bank! A happy customer will come back again and again, and it is much easier to sell to an existing customer than to gain a new one. Keep your buyers happy and they will reward you with loyalty and repeat purchases.

8; Have a 'ME' page. With art buying, people like to know who they are buying from. They like to 'get to know' the artist. If you can offer a small biography and artists statement on your me page, your potential buyer can feel like they already know you. I have a bio, a photo of myself with my artwork and a recent article that appeared in a regional arts and culture magazine. This allows buyers to see a friendly face - yours - and to feel like they know a little about you and 'where you're at' before they buy.

I hope these tips help you a with your eBay art career. There's loads more I could add, but eBay is a real learning curve. Often success comes simply though experience and trying different thing until you find something that works for you. The above tips, however, will get you off to a good start to becoming a successful eBay art seller.

A wide variety of auctions available online or offline

There are many choices available today if you are a contemporary art collector. Whether online or offline, depending on your budget and preferences, there are a lot of places where you can buy contemporary art

If you are a serious contemporary art collector, pay a visit to your local fine art auction house. They usually have a schedule of the list of contemporary art to be auctioned on any day as well as some background information on the art pieces being auctioned.

If you do not have the budget or can't find an art auction house near your neighbourhood, get online and there are also many sites offering a wide range contemporary art auctions.

There are many art galleries who have taken their art pieces online to help people decide whether a particular style of contemporary art suits them. Just search for art galleries on google bring up nearly 1000 different art galleries from around the world showing their contemporary art collections.

Another place I like to visit is online auction sites like ebay.com and bidz.com. They have a wide variety of contemporary art to choose from and their prices does varies from one seller to another but generally, it is pretty cheap.

I know many new artists use ebay and other auction sites as a way to get their contemporary art seen by many people. Since their art is still unknown, many art galleries may not be willing to place their art pieces on sale in their galleries.

However, I do advise caution on online art auction sites since there are many fakes art pieces on auctions. Some sellers are honest and acknowledged it is an imitation. However I brought some contemporary art pieces which were not what the seller claims it is.

If you are a serious art collector or collect art for investment but do not have sufficient knowledge, I would advise getting a art appraiser to help you.

This is particularly so for expensive contemporary art collections as you do not want the risk of buying a fake art work. The extra cost is worth it.

The internet has opened a whole new way of buying contemporary art, letting people choose and compare various contemporary art collection from different artists, new or famous in the comfort of their homes.

You are also able to buy contemporary art from other countries and cultures easily. Distance and language barriers are not a factor in today's world.