Urban Art Association

I'm considering selling a couple of prints with the upcoming Phillips - October Editions and Works on Paper auction. Does anyone have any thoughts (good or bad) about dealing with Phillips? I'd be trying to sell a Banksy and Peter Blake print.

I have zero experience of auctions and wonder if i'm over my head. Any help would be great.

One other thing, I get confused with all the figures/percentages going around. Hypothetically, if something sells for £1000, hammer price, the auction fees would make it £1250 (25%), paid by the buyer? And of that £1000 hammer price, what would I then get from them? Again, sorry for the questions, I am new to this!

Cheers

 One way is to phone Phillips and ask them about fees plus if there are any catalogue and storage fees if the item does not sell.

Has anyone ever used Artsy to consign work - any good? Considering a few originals to submit.

Cant see anywhere about replies to it. Will it just email me when someone does?

Yeh I got those. Will just wait now then

Take a work to auction if you have a bunch of rich friends you can contact prior to inform them that your rare hard to find item is coming up for sale, so please go and bid against each other.

If your item that your selling is in fact rare, hasn't come up to the show very often or you think now is the time that the market will set a new sales record on a particular work, then yes, send it to the show.

Galleries use auction selling prices to determine the secondary market value of all works. If your work has sold recently, just contact a gallery as most will offer 10% - 15% under the last auction hammer (Which is about the same fee you get hit by with an auction house) This way you will get your funds more quickly and should be an easy transaction if your dealing with a legitimate dealer.

If your a gambler, send it to the show, you may come ahead a few bucks, but, it is a risk as you may come up short.

Most galleries will takes works on consignment at a price set by the seller, so if you are looking to get top dollar for any work, consignment or private sales is the only way to go. This route may take slightly longer, depending on the work, but when working with the right gallery, it can be extremely fruitful for all parties involved.

I have someone than can get works with almost any houses including Christies / Sothebys at no fee no matter the value if the works gets accepted, but I have to like you first before giving out this contact

How do Auction houses calculate estimated values on works?
Any details? 

Is there a industry standard or is each house different? 

Thanks 

Stick your finger in the air and take a guess. Normally within 25-50% of what it actually sells for.

Often there are no set rules. Also people do not have to accept the auction house valuation and can set their own reserve but that also means paying the fees if the item does not reach the reserve.

If it is for modern art by today's living artists the estimate can be worked out by the auction house based on market value and desirability plus the provenance of the item for example a Warhol print once owned or part of the collection or a prominent person or collector can be more desirable than the same Warhol print owned by Joe Nobody.

For antique paintings and art a lot if to do with provenance, specially African statues etc. For paintings, the auction house experts can easily undervalue a painting by thousands if not more and attribute it to a lesser artist. Some say these type of mistakes have been deliberate at times.

Basically you have to do your own research and get independant values from credible people who deal in that particular art and make sure you are happy with the reserve.

This is interesting. I am curious to what you think of my previous reply to another poster. Frame it in "how to determine actual value" instead of the auction house trying to get more bidders. Thanks. I look forward to your reply
 

Very helpful as well.

It seems hard to trust the professional opinion of gallery people and auction house reps. How can you find credible people in this space? (for advice) How do you do your own research personally if you don't mind sharing. Do you use services like artprice.com or artnet, artsy? Im curious to how to get the most value from these services. 
 

You shouldn’t trust them, and you can’t expect to find credible people in the auction-house world. They are involved in a scam of the highest order where opacity and malfeasance are simply normal. If just about any other business were run this way, it would be regulated. The only reason the art market isn’t is because the people it routinely rips off can, for the most part at least, afford their losses.

Tread carefully.

I would strongly recommend Don Thompson’s book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark for an insight into the dysfunction at the heart of the art auction world. Essential reading for anyone thinking of playing that game. You wouldn’t want to discover afterwards that you were the stooge.

Yes, it's quite an eye-opener. A few years old now, but still highly relevant, especially as his predictions about the decline of the dealer/gallery are starting to play out.

Essentially, because art has no real or intrinsic value, pricing is always based on other often intangible factors, like perceived scarcity (often deliberately manufactured), what people think they can get away with, and what someone else is rumoured to have paid for something similar last week. As sfnyc said above, auction estimates are usually designed to draw a crowd rather than to reflect the actual expected selling price, because nothing is better for artificially boosting auction prices than having a lot of people bidding. And once a couple of unremarkable mid-range lots go for two or three times their estimates, the major lots that follow inevitably will too.

It only takes two people (or even one and a willing chandelier) with too much money or massively over-inflated egos bidding against each other in a hyped up auction environment to set absurd new benchmarks for individual artists or entire genres that the rest of the market is then essentially obliged to follow.