it essentially has been said that they are charging higher prices to keep flippers from buying .. So we are paying flip prices up front to the artist instead of joe-dumb-ass sitting in his basement F5'ing all day long to try and make a quick buck .. Now I think Audrey 100% deserves the money more than any damn flipper .. BUT part of the fun in this hobby is "getting in on the ground floor".. You get in and buy something really nice like this for a typical market price and then when the prices go up we all feel good about ourselves and our investment in some beautiful art. BUUUTTTT .. with the prices already being so high AND the 24hr time release the market will be insanely flooded with this image and I THINK that the value will never go up .. It may even drop a little. Because no matter what there will be flippers still buying at $500 and then when they cant sell it they will drop the price to get out from under it and recoup something and when they sell it at $400 that factors into the market value and now billy-bob-new-collector thinks that these are only worth $400 and starts low-balling people at $350 .. and thats not even taking into account how the 24hr edition will effect the value of the larger framed prints ..
Although i see the logic behind what Audrey and company are doing .. i think it's a bad idea .. Even a collector wants to know that their money is well spent and the only way to know that is if you know you could sell your collection for at least near what you have invested in it and because of all the different factors from price and the 24hr window I think this one will be in the red as far as long term values go.
There is a reason why some print houses (like Mondo) do not do open editions (24hr window is damn near an open edition) and they have consistently kept their prices relatively low. They may not make as much money up front and flippers will day dream of all the money they will make when Mondo does a drop, but .. their fan base is constantly growing because they maintain the limited nature and affordability of their prints. Which is what a lot of us low-brow collectors want.
And in this case I think Audrey and Co. is essentially cutting off a large chunk of their fanbase by trying to play these games to combat flippers and take that money and put it in their own pockets and thats fine, please dont take that as a personal attack I wish there were no flippers and all true artist (leave that up for debate on who is a true artist or not
) would reap the rewards of all their efforts!! I think the artist 100% deserve as much money as they can get from their art .. But at some point the inflated prices will shrink the fanbase and may hurt the long term collectible and sales of future prints.
Thats just my $.02 .. take it as you will
PS I do love this new print ..
