Online Art Auction
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An online art auction enables persons from all over the world to bid on art pieces viewable through the power of the Internet. Granted, the tension of an in-house auction may be lacking where almost everyone can get caught up in the excitement of an auction, particularly when a number of people are bidding. Few of us haven't witnessed an auction in a movie or a TV show and watched as the tension mounts as the various hands or paddles are raised to up the ante on the item being presented. There is great disappointment for some, shock and awe for others at the prices being presented, and joy for others who secure an item whose true value is known only to the buyer. The great auction houses of the country, Christies and Sotheby's have auctions that feature artistic objects worth millions and tens of millions of dollars and one can bid on them online if desired. But there are also auctions that happen on eBay and other websites for much more affordable pieces and they are the subject of this lens.
Go to any online artistic piece auction websites and one can view the many auctions going on even as you read this article. Each piece is portrayed on the screen with the name of the artist, the current bid, the estimate, and how much time is left before the bidding is over. On this page the view of the artistic piece is small, but there is a button to view it full screen. In most cases a person can view all the artistic work, or view just the artwork being sold by a particular artist or can browse what has been sold recently. Photography, prints, works on paper, sculpture and paintings are all offered on various online art auction websites.
How is artistic work valued? In other words, suppose a work of an artist from an unknown craftsman comes up for the first time at an online art auction and the bidding begin. Since the artist in unknown, he or she may not be able to feel comfortable setting a beginning price. Frankly, the bottom line for any artistic piece, unless it is being bought strictly for investment purposes, is what kind of emotion the piece evokes within the prospective buyer. Sometimes an entire collection of an artist's work raises such strong emotion in a buyer that all of an artist's work regarding a particular subject has to be purchased buy a buyer. Everyone can relate to just absolutely having to have a certain something, be it a car, a house, a piece of clothing, a golf club, etc. Jesus talked a about a man who so much wanted God (depicted as a great pearl) that he did something remarkable: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls who, when had found one pearl of great price, went out and sold all he had and bought it." (Matthew 13: 45, 46)
Many websites that offer an online art auction enables the buyer to look at a history works that have been sold by the artist and perhaps very similar works by other artists. Of course, many other things come into play in evaluating an art piece such as the condition of the piece. An online art auction site that doesn't disclose important details such as that shouldn't be considered legitimate. And there is a whole boatload of condition phraseology that is used to describe various physical condition of an art object and if those terms are used, one should understand the language used. Terms such as craquelure, foxing, patina, skinning and verso are all terms used to describe conditions of various art mediums.
Once a potential bidder has developed a financial profile with the website offering art pieces, he or she will be given an online name to keep their real name anonymous. Then the hunt for something that reaches that emotional touchstone can begin on an online art auction site. It is possible to begin the bidding with what is known as a maximum bid, which means the highest bid one is willing to pay. Then the website will automatically keep bidding on that buyer's behalf until that ceiling is reached. One of the pieces of information that an online art auction site will provide is an estimate range thought to be where bidding will be. Studying other pieces by the same artist and similar pieces by other artists can help to get an inkling of what your chosen piece might go for in terms of a bid.
While the more exclusive online art auction websites have fewer items on which to bid, eBay has over three hundred thousand articles for sale or auction. There are items of values under a dollar all the way to tens of thousands of dollars. Digital artistic work, folk artist's work and primitives, collages, textile artistic work and many other types of media are available on eBay under the heading of art. Fair or not, buying art pieces on eBay can be very dangerous for the uninitiated because claims made by buyers are not researched by eBay. The fact is, anything can be said and it is a caveat emptor situation. Therefore before bidding for anything, one should carefully read everything possible about bidding and buying art online and start with stuff really cheap, just to get an idea of how the process works.
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