any hunter thompson/tom benton collectors out there? (1 Viewer)

[mjp]

I know that using ebay is a shit way to value art...

I don't know about that. Sales on eBay are the best barometer of real world value of most things.

A lot of art might sell for more outside of eBay, but does that mean it's worth more? I'm not sure. The art world is such a bag of shit it's hard to tell which way is up.

We bought a couple of small paintings by the artist in the video below from a gallery for $4k (and felt like we were getting a bargain because his work has always been hard to come by - he would never sell it when he was alive). Then a year or two later, we bought a much larger painting by the same artist on eBay for about $400.

Thing is, I think I could easily get the gallery owner to appraise the eBay painting for six to eight thousand dollars, since that's what he charges for work that size.

So what are those paintings really worth?

 

[james]

I've been buying, selling and watching Benton's work online now for about 7 years, and there's no way in hades that someone's gonna pay more than $1000, much $10,000!.....i'm not tryin' to be a bummer or jerk or what have you, just being realistic. and I mean, yes, it SHOULD be selling for thousands and thousands, I think Benton's work is definitely worth that, but as others have mentioned, ebay is the best way to judge and value pretty much any art, book, etc...and things are selling in the $300 to $1000 range.
I just pulled the trigger on this print, which I've wanted for years...its worth double or triple what I paid, but it just wouldn't sell until the seller came down to below $500...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1971-ASPEN-...SVLqfxcgHBJBw07MqfAcw%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

[Black Swan]

I just pulled the trigger on this print, which I've wanted for years...its worth double or triple what I paid, but it just wouldn't sell until the seller came down to below $500...

Did you just pull the trigger on that print? HST would have liked that too.
With a gun, you could just take it, I bet.
Sorry, I could not resist.:)
Congrats, James!