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Comment by andrewcooke | Hacker News Reader

why does art sumo work with a single piece of art a month? [from the site http://www.artsumo.com/ it seems that they send you a picture of one piece of art per month, which you can buy]

that seems like it's modeled on companies that sell socks, or nappies (diapers), or the like. but you (i? everyone?) don't buy art like that. it's not a regular purchase, and you need to look through a lot of examples to find something you really like.

am i completely mis-understanding how people buy art in the states? (i'm not bullshitting here - about half the art we own was bought over the internet, most recently from http://puntoarte.cl/, so i would have thought i am - apart from location - the target demographic).

maybe it's more like small impulse buys? what prices?

(incidentally, i don't claim puntoarte is a great place for art - i think you could improve it significantly with curation - but that doesn't alter the basic argument, i hope)

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Hey Andrew - Art Sumo works by sending out weekly emails of original art from around the world. You can purchase the painting contained in the email if you get to it first.

About the question of why this format, we decided to go with this to 1 - let people passively stay connected with art from different cultures and 2 - to create a sense of excitement to see each painting 3 - it replicates a gallery experience more closely where you examine paintings in this manner and 4 - when the paintings are directly marketed like this, the paintings sell.

Sure others are selling socks and diapers in this manner (via regular updates groupon style) as well. You can also buy those products using different channels as well (like art).

ah, thanks. with "get it first", things makes more sense (i was assuming people had different offers and you somehow rotated though a set, but with your approach i guess you can focus on more attractive pieces and set higher values).

Oddly enough, most people in the states do not buy art online. At the very least, not original art.

Art.com has a strong presence in reproductions and posters but most original art is bought in direct contact with the artist or literally on the street.

The higher end art market is the galleries of course, but due to their structure, they're in the business of trying to pick winners and selling at very high prices. They don't see a wider market below people who can drop $10k on a piece.

yeah, i can understand that, and i don't think it's so odd - you want to see it and, sometimes, know the artist too. but that doesn't exclude online marketplaces as long as they are local (i didn't explain completely, but the site i used as an example has artists local to me).

and i guess that also explains sumo's approach? choosing a particularly good item and then having a first-to-buy approach gives both a carrot (attractive to many) and stick (limited availability) to overcome the remote factor.

thanks for the replies. i was curious how it could work and now it makes more sense.

'yeah, i can understand that, and i don't think it's so odd - you want to see it and, sometimes, know the artist too. but that doesn't exclude online marketplaces as long as they are local (i didn't explain completely, but the site i used as an example has artists local to me).'

I'm very glad you said this. It's exactly what we're going for at Artsicle.com. Supporting your local artists by renting their artwork. If you like it, buy it. I'm sorry to say, we're not shipping outside the U.S. right now ;)

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