Yet Another Kinkade Thread...

[MineralMan]

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=See-All-Categories&_from=R40&_nkw=Kinkade&_sop=3

Trading is fast and furious for Kinkade stuff on ebay just now. 10,670 items are up for bidding. I sorted the list for highest price first. Read it and weep, wail, and gnash your teeth. Not everyone is a hater of Kindade "art," it seems.

He's dead. People are trying to profit from that. Perhaps it's poetic justice. I don't know.

[hedgehog]

1. The starting bid is $189,000, but the seller

will bubble wrap your purchase!

[MineralMan]

2. Hell, If I could get that much for it, I'd jump on a plane and hand

deliver it. I noticed that none of the high-end stuff is getting any bidders. If you look at the list sorted by "ending soonest," you'll see a different story. Lots of cheap prices in the bidding for whatever the heck people are bidding on.

It's a phreaking phenomenon, I tell you!

[arthritisR_US]

3. Is that the one with the poker playing animals?nt

[MineralMan]

4. I think that was a different artist.

Still, there's excellent use of light in this version. Did Kinkade secretly paint on black velvet? If so, there's a fortune to be made.

[arthritisR_US]

13. I forgot it was done on velvet! That picture

always makes me smile, they are so adorable

[pinboy3niner]

16. One of those dogs looks like...

...the Panter of Light.

I know, I know...

[hlthe2b]

5. Art is whatever one decides it is... If Kinkade's stuff makes folks happy, who am I to question.

But, I do question who would pay these kind of exorbitant prices... I'd be surprised if this kind of demand lasts--if it is demand and not just speculators "unloading".
To each his own, I guess.

[spanone]

15. +1000

[Quixote1818]

19. Well put! nt

[Warpy]

6. Well, fools and their money and all that

They'll undoubtedly cash in, those people who are smart enough to list them immediately. Later listers might break even. Six months from now, they're all going to wake up when they see the listings continue and realize what they've been bidding outrageous sums of money on are prints with a few blobs of paint here and there applied by sweatshop workers.

The market won't pick up again until most of them have hit the landfill, discarded by enchanted owners who were finally made to feel like suckers. By that time, they'll be "turn of the century kitsch" and probably sell.

[MineralMan]

7. Kinkade is the new Beanie Babies, maybe. nt

[Warpy]

18. He was that in the 90s and 00's, actually.

His artistic star, such as it was, only began to fall in earnest over the past five years or so.

I remember the piece 60 Minutes did on him in the 90s, very tongue in cheek but accurately describing his business model, showing an apartment on the Upper East Side of NYC that was encrusted with the things, several on every inch of wall space in the place.

I'm sure those people are now expecting the prices to skyrocket, not realizing that while Kinkade is dead, his printing press likely will live on for a while.

[Electric Monk]

8. 0 Bids, 0 Bids, 0 Bids, 0 Bids, 0 Bids

People can ask whatever price they want, but the real market value is what someone is willing to pay.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

9. the one of the Golden Gate has 27 bids...

but that is the only one I saw...

sP

[MineralMan]

10. Yah, I noticed that, too.

My thinking is that Kinkade was so successful at selling his work that everyone who wants it already has some. Probably a lot of them have grown weary of the saccharine qualities of it, too. It may happen that selling a Kinkade print or whatever may be like selling an Elvis painting on black velvet. The market is saturated with those, too, I suspect. I'll be watching for the Kinkades in the local garage sales.

[Opportunityknocks]

11. The Florida Highwaymen paintings are another example of this

sort of phenomenon.

Just simple Florida landscape paintings that one would find in motels and restaurants, originally selling for around $25, now bring prices in the thousands.

http://www.floridahighwaymenpaintings.com/

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. and the first one in the list looks like a sham

seems a gallery is claiming ownership of the exact same painting...even the same pictures of it...

http://bnr-art.blogspot.com/2012/01/rare-thomas-kinkade-original-painting.html

sP

[Bluenorthwest]

14. Death of the artist is the profit moment for many collectors...it is often quite creepy.

I used to get a newsletter that would point out serious health issues collected artists were enduring. 'Dali not expected to see out the year...' that sort of thing. Sick stuff.
So if you don't mind me saying, the post death instant sales are not signs of respect they are actions of art speculators, or in this case those who were attempting such a thing. An artist with expected long rage worth, well, you don't rush out with a fire sale while the corpse is still warm. It's only going up. The market glut upon expiration of the artist indicates an understanding that his prices were tied to his marketing methods. Not going to get collected at the top range. So sell it now, or forever hold the piece.

[Raine]

17. KinKade has so much stuff on the market mugs, notepad, cards, figurines etc etc

that I can't see that there will ever be such a demand for his "stuff" that they will ever be worth an enormous amount.