eBay app for iPhone.
It gives you a couple of letters in the winning bidders name and their number of feedback. Never linked that to anything being a private auction before, but it is obviously how it is set up on the app.
You can't see bid history or anything, just that info.

Personally I don't think that putting original art on eBay is right. I don't think it shows a great deal of respect for the artist and it certainly doesn't do the provenance of a piece any favours, which would certainly put me off as a buyer. There are plenty of other avenues one can go down. But this is just my personal opinion so feel free to disagree.

disagree totally, that's just being sniffy about Ebay

Sick to his stomach? His art's too precious too sell on ebay? lol

I don't see anything wrong with it, you can easily get burned at an auction house and get stuck with a smaller sum after all of the fees — there is a 35-40% spread now, that's HUGE. And if it doesn't sell, you have to pay a fee to get it back. To be honest some artists or specific types of works are going to find a better audience on ebay than at phillips de pury etc. For a work on paper by a "urban" artist, I think 10k usd is a very healthy sum and I don't think the seller would have done better taking it to an auction house. (Consider the several Parla works that failed to sell recently—the consignor lost money there) Some types of work (like a much larger more significant work by Parla) and other higher value items probably aren't going to find the right audience on ebay, but who knows.

Well honestly I hate ebay as a corporation, but in general I don't see anything wrong with online auctioning it's just snobbery and pride being hurt apparently.
Plus I really don't see how this hurts the provenance any more than buying from a private collector, which a lot of people do. Just get all the paperwork and all the records as common sense would dictate.

Obviously, the biggest and blue chip works don't appear on ebay, but I've seen original work by numerous artists that are much more established than Parla (and much more dear to me than Parla) on ebay and I don't get my panties in a bunch, I doubt the artists do either unless it's a shady flip situation. I think you really need to get over it. I'm continually amazed at how stuffy and touchy "edgy" street artists and there fans are. If you can't embrace the future and the digital age and how it levels the playing field, (so that you aren't subject to the fees and whims of high end auction houses) well I don't know. I don't have as much against Parla really, there decent abstract works, but what has always gotten me about the guy, is the preciousness to which (possibly he) and his fans/galleries place on his work. If it really hurts his feelings that his work might be exchanged on an electronic marketplace, I think he should find a new profession. He really should be nothing but thankful that someone was willing to bid ten thousand dineros on ebay for his work, not complain about stomach aches.


In fact urban art collectors should be thankful that they have ebay as an option, and really it's a big part of the reason for it's success. To poo-poo it now is ridiculous. A lot of the artists I collect, selling the work on ebay is not even an option, which means if I need to sell it can take months to years to get it in a proper auction and then I have to deal with the 40% spread between payout and take home. It makes you think a lot harder about buying something.

I think some artists care a lot less about the pieces they have already sold than some people would like to think...