Artsicle lets you rent artworks before you buy them. | Hacker News Reader

Artsicle lets you rent artworks before you buy them.

artsicle.com

18 pointsuser2415 comments

It's an interesting approach, and I'm not unconvinced that the premise has some legs. At the same time, your target customer -- and your articulation of the value proposition for that customer -- seems a little unclear.

Who is your target customer, and what are their pain points re: art buying? And how does renting-before-buying solve for those pain points?

Let's assume casual or beginning collectors. You're asking them to pay up to $600 a year to rent a piece, so presumably, you're targetting people who are in the market for pieces at least in excess of that price tag. In which case, you're not yet in the super-serious collector segment -- but you're operating in what must still be the 90th percentile of all art buyers in the country.

On the higher end of the market, let's look at serious but not uber-rich collectors. What would they get out of this service? Potentially the following:

1) Provenance? Possibly, but only if you document every person who's rented, and probably only if those renters are respected collectors or institutions. Possibly a cool idea to be worked out on this dimension, but also a pitfall if you don't address it properly. I could see the rental concept's having a negative effect on provenance if not handled well.

2) Sampling / try-before-you-buy? Maybe. If a piece isn't selling for well north of $600 to begin with, the economics don't add up. You need customers who will be looking at the pieces as investments, and not necessarily as decorations. (In which case, I would suggest choosing different images and copy on your site to reflect such a mindset. The pics and copy on the site right now give off an art-as-decor kind of vibe).

My biggest critique is that you seem to be straddling a few lines between customer segments and use cases. I'm sure you have carefully considered exactly whom you're targeting and exactly what problem you're solving for that target. But it's not clear in the layout/UX of the site.

Thanks for your thoughts. The site is still very new and in many ways we are still uncovering who our exact target customer will be, as the current customers vary quite a bit in demographic and use cases.

To clarify a bit, the target customer we are currently targeting is a first time (or very new) art buyer who is unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the traditional gallery sales system. The pain points include generally very high priced work, cold salespeople, and a general fear of commitment that we see in purchasing today (ie. the rise of free returns.)

We think of our site as providing the option to "try before you buy". Essentially, lower the risk to seeing how the work will look in your space for $50/month, knowing you can return it if it is not right for you. We do not expect many customers would continue to rent if they love the work they choose, instead potentially choosing to purchase at that point. Because our work is by young emerging artists it is generally more affordable for the new collector as well.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Cool, and I wish you guys the best of luck. I'm not an uber-collector myself, but I'm somewhere between "beginner" and "serious" -- I guess we'll call it "enthusiastic" about collecting. So I'm just trying to help out as a consumer in this space, and as someone who's probably not terribly far away from your target segment.

Thanks for listening, and best wishes on the startup.

We appreciate it! And we'd love more feedback if you have it. We're working on narrowing that customer profile some more and need all the help we can get.

This makes me think of this research [0] where students on a photography course had to choose one photo they took to take home. One half was allowed to swap after a few days, the others weren't:

"Compared with experiencers whose decisions were escapable, those who were not allowed to change their minds showed a greater preference for their chosen photo two and nine days after they had made their decision."

So being able to swap your art may actually make you unhappier in the end! But it also mentions that people think they'll be happier given the choice, and will pay good money for it.

[0] http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct01/strength.aspx , under the "The price of freedom" heading

I'd be curious to know how the pieces are secured against damage. Does one need to put down a security deposit while they are in possession of a piece? If so, is it the full cost of the work or some %? If not, how else are the pieces secured against damage?

Great question. The renter agrees to a rental agreement, very similar to one you would see on Rent the Runway or Bag Borrow & Steal (fashion rental sites). The agreement states that they are responsible for any damage to the work. If the damage is reparable, such as a cracked frame, then the fee could be quite low and if it is not reparable the renter essentially buys the work.

Is this new or is there a unique angle to it that I missed? Rent-a-painting (and rent-a-sculpture etc) has existed here (Netherlands) for at least 10 years, and pretty much all of them offer 'buy if you like' options.

A variety of small galleries here in the US offer the option as well, with great success. We're hoping we can expand the number of people with access to this type of art buying to a more national, and hopefully global, community.

Compare: http://www.turningart.com

The main difference is that with Artsicle you get the original, one of a kind piece where as with TurningArt you get a reproduction of a work. It's just a different approach. On TurningArt you may find some more familiar names where as with Artsicle we're focused on emerging artists before they get their break.

+1 for turning art, an awesome service with some great people behind it. I find that product a lot more appealing than renting/shipping originals without a purchase.

I thought it was an interesting business model. Here's the BBC news coverage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12790787

Glad you like it. Let me know if you have any questions about it. I'm one of the founders (CTO).

I met the artsicle founders at a Hackers & Founders some time back, they're good guys. I'm glad to see that they've launched to the public. I wish them the best of luck.

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