NY Times - Peter Lik's Astounding Success and Marketing

[icebear]

He is (very) successfully exploiting his niche in the art market. So what the heck is wrong with that? If a buyer hands over whatever amount of money it's his/her own decision, isn't it.:bang:

A for resale value ... anything like coins or stamps or toy trains or paintings, there is a so called book value and finally there is a real value when a buyer actually hands over the money to buy that item from you. Like always there can be a huge discrepancy. There is no guarantee anywhere that value can only go up ... am I missing something here ?

 

[Huss]

Lik's making money. No-one is making anyone buy anything. If his customers are willing to drop big coin without performing any due diligence, then whose fault is that?

Everyone everywhere tries to sell everything for the most money.

 

[shadowfox]

Let's be honest... is there a photograph in the world that would make your wife think that 6.5 million is a deal?

The point is not that the photo is a deal at 6.5 mil.
The point is: If the photo sells for that much, it probably should *at least* impress her.

 

[panerai]

Never heard of him, so I checked out his images.

Some are nice. Can leave the others. Too many LSD inspired images

DON

 

[NazgulKing]

The thing that bothers me the most about this Lik guy and what he's doing, (and comparing him to Kinkade like I did in my first response), is that they are both taking advantage of folks who don't understand fine art and how the fine art world works.

I grew up "between the coasts" here in the Midwest, in a community where no one knew who Cartier-Bresson was, or Avedon, or Warhol, or most not even Picasso. They didn't understand how fine art is priced and what makes a painting or photograph valuable. So they get taken in by the sales pitches of fraudsters like Lik and Kinkade and they believe that the photo or painting they are buying is an investment and is going to increase in value, when in reality, it isn't.

I remember back in the 1990's, I was home for a visit and a guy I grew up with was all excited to show me the paintings he had purchased (all Kinkade's) and he explained to me how they were an investment for his kids college tuitions, how he was going to be able to sell them for double what he paid for them because the price had already gone up at the shop where they were purchased (sound familiar Mr. Lik). I didn't have the heart to tell him he would have had just as much success had he invested in Beanie Babies.

So if Lik just hung his photos in his shops and didn't try to promote them as investments (which they aren't), I would be less critical of his whole operation.

Most people are satisfied with mere smartphone photos and point and shoots. Are we expecting too much of people at all?

 

[asilda]

He figured out how to make his business work. It's always a fine line between being a real artists and pushing your product to sell. There are definitely some things to learn from him, regardless of how his photos look.