Is investment different from collecting?
• Understand what buyers really do and selling will be more effective.
• To sell art depends on client buying behavior typically exhibited, which can be influenced.
• It’s the role of marketing and salesmanship to do this influencing.
• It’s essential for an artist or gallery owner to understand what’s going on.

Investing implies there’ll be a return on the expenditure of money.
• This applies if someone invests in shares, bonds or a financial arrangement.
• There’s a value for which the investment can be redeemed at any time.
• If the value is more than an original outlay an investor gains on redemption.
• This return may be money or monetary value, but there are other kinds too. The return may also be regular financial payments, such as rent or dividends.
• Thus, investment is about making money by capital gains or rent or interest.

Most art investors seek a return of rising values or capital gains.
• Buy works of little-known artists expecting them to be better known in time.
• An artist becomes better known and popular, values are expected to rise.
• The investor has then, at least, made a book profit.
• At some point the investor will take their profit by selling the artwork.

It’s not certain an artist will become better known or their prices rise.
• So, an investor buys works by already famous artists.
• There’s an expectation that values will rise more.

The approaches are similar to a speculator or buyer of blue-chip stock.
• In either case at some point an investor sells to realize a profit or reduce loss.

An approach the art investor can use is to buy as cheaply as possible.
• If one buys (anything) very cheaply there can be an immediate profit.
• Not long ago a lady was able to buy a Sally Robinson print very cheaply. She sold it straight away to a friend and made a profit on the transaction.
• That’s exactly what an investor would do.

Investors attend, and buy from, art auctions.
• There is an expectation the works will be cheaper than elsewhere.
• They also buy direct from artists assuming they’ll pay less than elsewhere.

An item bought with no intention of making money is no investment.
• With stocks and shares, there is no choice other than to buy as investment.
• Fine things are beautiful all the time, irrespective of their monetary value.
• Van Gogh’s paintings were no different when they had no value.
• But today things have changed. The paintings haven’t changed but their monetary value has.
• That means the quality of an artwork is independent of its monetary value.

How are collectors different?
• Collectors acquire and keep things they love, even if it costs them money.
• Collectors get pleasure first and foremost from owning their possessions.
• An awareness of rising values can be part of that, as can indifference to falls.
• At the other end of the scale is corporate and government collecting.
• The latter is usually on a massive scale and costs many millions of dollars.
• Public museums and galleries never get smaller, only bigger.
• They have huge amounts of the most desirable collectibles.
• Many of these are then rarely on view, and never resold.

So, you can see collecting is a widespread phenomenon.
• In fact, it’s a perfectly natural behavior to collect objects and items of interest.
• It’s one of the major ways we make sense of things.
• By putting items into categories, we start to classify the real world.

Art collecting is, of course, a particular category of collecting.
• Paintings are common but prints, photographs and sculpture are art too.
• There’s no universally accepted definition of what an art object is.
• If a person collects what they consider art, it’s likely they have an art collection.
• Highest price paid for artworks are not by investors but collectors.

• Investors want to buy for the lowest price and will sell at the highest price.
• They wait until you reduce your prices, or die, or they want discounts.
• They want these things so they can make money.
• A collector, on the other hand, pays what is needed to get what they want.
• The psychology is quite different.

Collecting is a compulsive human need.
• People collect more of whatever it is they’re collecting than logically justified.
• Collecting art is no different.
• Collectors can keep you in business.

Make the difference between investors and collectors work for you.
• Most art buyers are collectors not investors.
• If you can nurture the idea of collecting, you’ll sell more and for a better price than if you encourage the investment angle.

Know anyone interested in starting an art career?
• Check out this link to find out more:
• http://www.amazon.com/dp/B088T7VJ76
• Best wishes in your art career in 2021.