Purchasing Art: An Art or A Science?

How do I know I should buy?

This question has been on the brain a lot lately. I am working on a business pivot to focus on serving a very specific clientele—the novice buyer with a lower budget. I suppose it is less of a pivot and more of a bifurcation. What I have discovered in the four years since I started Casey Monda Art Advisory is that there are very few, if any, advisors who serve both clients looking to collect blue-chip work and those who are just starting their collections with emerging talent. There is a good reason for it—it’s a bad business model. It is really hard to sustain a business when it takes the exact same amount of work to make $1,000 as $10,000. But there are a ton of people who want art but don’t have massive budgets, people! And I desperately want to work with each and every one of them.

 

 

It has taken me about a year to come up with the business plan that will make this work. But yall!!! To say I am PUMPED is an understatement! I’m physically chomping at the bit to launch my new idea and working in overdrive to get it off the ground. I’m an entrepreneur at heart; so when I’ve got the idea, getting it done needs to happen, like, yesterday. At the center of the planning, scheming, and designing, though, have been the fundamental, foundational questions that all novice collectors ask and that are hard to answer without expert guidance. Chief among them is, “How do I know I am ready to buy?”

The honest answer to this question is simple. You know when you know. How many times do you think I’ve heard, “Oh, heck, let’s just do it!” or “I have to have it!” Clients really say these things to me routinely. Very rarely do I hear, “I’m not sure about it but okay…” or “It’s pretty but I’m only buying it because you say so.”

Don’t get me wrong, I love it when clients trust me and buy something on my recommendation and expertise. But to be frank, I do very little selling and very much leading to the proverbial water. Early in my career, a mentor told me that art sells itself; and in my experience, she could not have been more right. Thankfully, this works really well for me because I hate selling and am really bad at it. (Sidebar: I did inside sales for a hot minute at Groupon when I was like 25 and I was absolutely terrible at it. Like sooo bad…)

 

 

Aaaanyway, this simple answer does not a newsletter make so allow me to expound.

Getting over the hump of purchasing your first piece is honestly the highest hurdle you are going to face (other than snotty gallerinas, but we have already covered that). There is a level of trust and confidence you have to have in yourself (and in me if we are working together) and that can only really be gained by exercising the muscle.

Often times, the first purchase for my clients comes after one of two experiences:

1. You encounter a work either in person or online and you so profoundly connect with it that there are no questions you need to ask to know that you must own it. You buy it. You live with it. Then you call me and tell me how eternally grateful you are for bringing it into your life. And a burgeoning collection is born.

OR

2. You encounter a work either in person or online and you so profoundly connect with it that there are no questions you need to ask to know that you must own it. You don’t buy it. You either pass on it or it is already sold before you can get your hot little hands on it. You live with the regret. And then you call me and tell me how badly you must have something else by that artist but nothing will ever measure up to your first love and so the search continues…and then we find something else magical.

You will notice that in both scenarios, the need to own is instinctual. If you are not used to relying on your gut to make decisions, this is a foreign feeling. When you know you know. It may not be immediate but it is deep. (Sidebar: Even if you want it so badly you don’t need to ask questions, you still should. That is the science part and partially why you have me. I’ve already answered all the questions you should be asking so all you have to do is say, “Jump!”) As I always tell my clients, we never need to force it. If it does not feel like a fit, then we have our answer. There is too much great art out there to buy something that only feels half way.

 

Ok, cool, Case. Can I call you Case? But, how do I exercise the proverbial muscle? I don’t know where to even look.

The first step to knowing when to buy is knowing what to buy. And knowing what to buy comes from looking at a lot of art. Like a lot a lot. You have to see stuff you like and stuff you despise to know what “must own” feels like. This critical step can be physically prohibitive for many people. A lot of cities do not have thriving art communities or easy, logical places to go and see good art. Traveling to major art metropoli is time-consuming and just not what many want to do with their precious PTO. And once you’re there, you still don’t really know where to go. This, this, my friends, is the problem I am going to solve with my new business venture, er, bifurcation of services.

Meet the Art I Saw and Liked database (working title). It’s all the art I love and stand behind in one easy-to-access place so new collectors can look at a lot of art at their leisure with the confidence of an expert advisor behind them. And it’s coming soon!

We are still under construction but I’m looking for feedback on functionality. In exchange for pre-launch, free, lifetime access, I would love to take 15-20 minutes of your time to ask you a few questions. Email me or comment on this post and we’ll connect.

As always, thanks for reading this far. Not much art but hopefully I’ve offered some food for thought and a cure for all your art-buying woes!