I just now saw this. It's funny to me, I guess. I know a bit about the genre and I remember when Outsider artists were being given cigarettes and blankets in exchange for 40+ paintings at a time. Many were still alive then. Traylor wasn't of course, but his work was affordable still. Though, even back then, dealers were selling that work for 1000x or more than they were getting the work for. If they paid five dollars, they were selling the work for $500 or so. Five dollars would be a lot to pay, as they were buying out their entire sheds. Artists like Mose Tolliver for instance. I don't know what his work goes for now--he's passed since and many pieces signed "Mose" by his kids aren't originals, but I bet even those are going for many thousands now.
Something that the article got wrong is that Carl Hammer was not the first to sell Traylor's work on the open market, but whatever. He's one of the first dealers to sell Outsider art in general, but not the first. It may have been Phyllis Kind Gallery, but I'm not sure. She was one of the first to show any Outsider artist in a gallery setting, like Rameriz, Wolfli, Darger, and Zinelli. I think she was doing that in the 70s. She had a gallery in Chicago in the 60s that she moved to NY.
I have a painting by Richard Burnside. I should see if it's worth anything. I knew this genre was getting popular in the early 2000s, but this is getting crazy now. There have been so many unscrupulous dealings in the Outsider art world, you don't even want to know. It feels like all the wrong people are making tons of money off artists who never get their fair share.
Anyway, I love Traylor. I wish I had one. I love Carl Zenelli too.