The allure of 'limited edition'

General art-related discussion.
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rerocustom1989
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Sun May 18, 2014 6:29 pm

Hey all,
I'm struggling to understand why many of the artists and commissioning groups that seem to be popular lately all tend toward limited edition print runs. In doing so they seem to cater more toward resellers and not people who actually enjoy the pieces on their artistic merits.

Anyone have insight into why the artists/groups seem to distribute their work this way? It seems strange to sell 200 prints of an original piece, when you could have potentially 1000s of people interested in enjoying it on their walls.

As someone who is in the field of software, we seek to get our work into as many hands as possible. It's just disappointing to not see the same passion propelling this particular medium.

Anyone know the PROs of this strategy? All I seem to see are the CONs: less money made, and less people enjoying good art. Seems bad for the community in the long run.

J
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skis007
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Sun May 18, 2014 6:33 pm

The Search function is your friend.
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mrkyuss
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Sun May 18, 2014 6:46 pm

Bot?
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jrsheppa
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Sun May 18, 2014 6:50 pm

Worst thread eva
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whl10
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Sun May 18, 2014 6:59 pm

Tim!
rerocustom1989
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Sun May 18, 2014 7:06 pm

skis007 wrote:The Search function is your friend.
Doesn't seem to return anything useful as 'limited edition' is commonly found in many threads.

Anyone have links to relevant discussions?
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alittle
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Sun May 18, 2014 7:15 pm

I recommend that you collect Tim Doyle.
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skis007
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Sun May 18, 2014 7:54 pm

Flip Factor.
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Cheese318
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Sun May 18, 2014 8:13 pm

You buy an original painting because you love the artist and you want it on your wall. A lot of people do by art for the appreciation value. Now if they painted 1000-2000 of the same thing how rare would that be? I have been collecting posters for a while but I got serious in the hobby about 2 years ago. I only use to get a pearl jam poster/phish poster at a random show I attended but I than started to want the posters from all my past phish shows. That lead me to movie prints and I have been in love with this hobby ever since. I wish I had every thing Tyler Stout, Olly Moss, Aaron Horkey produced before I got into the hobby but I respect the hobby and limited edition poster aspect. If they weren't limited why would it be a collectible. Sports cards mass produced everything in the 90's and lost the appeal of the collectors. Than all of sudden autographs, #'d rookie cards and jersey patch cards reinvented the industry. Just because the software company is in the field of mass production which is how they create customer awareness plus increased revenue. Limiting the software to the public is just not the smartest business plan for a software company. I think people collect poster art for multiple reasons and the limited aspect is one of them. The chase for the poster, the glory & the defeat. And hunting down a poster for a long time to find that one true ISO in your possession would be one glorious occasion. If you filtered it down to make sure everyone got the poster than this would not be a hobby and it would lose its interest from a lot of people. Maybe you think differently but there are a number of people who don't have the posters they truly wish was in their collection but they still respect the fact it's not mass produced for the consumer because there will always be another poster
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zefarrett
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Sun May 18, 2014 8:19 pm

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rerocustom1989
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Sun May 18, 2014 8:25 pm

Cheese318:
This makes sense from a collector perspective. Paintings are original works that can never be sold more than once, but one of the things that make a 'print' an enticing medium is that you can serve a larger audience. I guess i'm just more curious from an artist perspective. Maybe it's true that some artist value only a select few enjoying their art instead of as many as possible, but if that's the case why not treat the prints like original paintings and just sell one?

It's as if they want more than one person to enjoy the piece, but don't want everyone to.
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mrkyuss
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Sun May 18, 2014 8:32 pm

Cheese318 wrote:You buy an original painting because you love the artist and you want it on your wall. A lot of people do by art for the appreciation value. Now if they painted 1000-2000 of the same thing how rare would that be? I have been collecting posters for a while but I got serious in the hobby about 2 years ago. I only use to get a pearl jam poster/phish poster at a random show I attended but I than started to want the posters from all my past phish shows. That lead me to movie prints and I have been in love with this hobby ever since. I wish I had every thing Tyler Stout, Olly Moss, Aaron Horkey produced before I got into the hobby but I respect the hobby and limited edition poster aspect. If they weren't limited why would it be a collectible. Sports cards mass produced everything in the 90's and lost the appeal of the collectors. Than all of sudden autographs, #'d rookie cards and jersey patch cards reinvented the industry. Just because the software company is in the field of mass production which is how they create customer awareness plus increased revenue. Limiting the software to the public is just not the smartest business plan for a software company. I think people collect poster art for multiple reasons and the limited aspect is one of them. The chase for the poster, the glory & the defeat. And hunting down a poster for a long time to find that one true ISO in your possession would be one glorious occasion. If you filtered it down to make sure everyone got the poster than this would not be a hobby and it would lose its interest from a lot of people. Maybe you think differently but there are a number of people who don't have the posters they truly wish was in their collection but they still respect the fact it's not mass produced for the consumer because there will always be another poster
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wneff
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Sun May 18, 2014 8:36 pm

rerocustom1989 wrote:As someone who is in the field of software, we seek to get our work into as many hands as possible. It's just disappointing to not see the same passion propelling this particular medium.
The knowledge you gained in your software profession is useless here.

Much of the world still has little or nothing to do with software, or software licensing, which is the reason why software companies want to push their product into gazillion of hands. Not to share their creative brilliance and keen social commentary. To make money from licensing fees.

See? Completely unlike screen prints.
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heythatsmybike
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Sun May 18, 2014 8:37 pm

rerocustom1989 wrote:Cheese318:
This makes sense from a collector perspective. Paintings are original works that can never be sold more than once, but one of the things that make a 'print' an enticing medium is that you can serve a larger audience. I guess i'm just more curious from an artist perspective. Maybe it's true that some artist value only a select few enjoying their art instead of as many as possible, but if that's the case why not treat the prints like original paintings and just sell one?

It's as if they want more than one person to enjoy the piece, but don't want everyone to.
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binky79
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Sun May 18, 2014 8:45 pm

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