Sobering comment on the recent price escalation of Modern IPBs

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi All

You may  recall  I  commented  recently that  prices  of    top class  Modern  IPBs  by  famous  artists  ( those  in the  40  +  age range)    seem to  have suddenly  escalated  by  at  least a factor  of  2  x  since    late  2009/ early  2010.  I have  certainly seen that  in the  works of the  handful of  artists  whose  works  I now mainly collect , and    frankly  I am  willing to pay  more  because I  think that such  artists  deserve  to earn more, especially as  they   reach their   peak   after  which   age + damaged  eyesight   + lack  of   creativity  will  soon destroy their  powers.

According to    some  very    limited   anecdotal  evidence  I  have  uncovered,   the   sudden  price   rise  seems to  have been  driven  by  a  wave  of   HK- based   Taiwan     "nouveau  riche"  buyers , and a lot  more    serious   Mailand  collectors who are  also    cash- rich  ( very  much so ).

However,   this seems  to have  backfired  because  I heard  today that the  CAC -Star House  (  Tsimshatsui)   artist-of-the-month   went  back to    Hengshui   early and  empty-handed  because  he  racked  up his prices   so much  from the  year before, and the  canny  Taiwan buyers  based  in HK   kept  all their  receipts  from  last  year and  refused to  pay the new prices.   CAC  have a  strict  discount  policy   for regular  customers so  they  cannot  agree    60%  discount  today when  before  they  agreed   30%  discount, otherwise  every    regular  customer  henceforth   wants  60%.    So  even  with   30%   regular  customer   discount    this month's  artist-of-the-month was   considered  far too expensive   at his new  prices  by the   HK-based  Taiwan  buyers

Market   economics  reign    supreme   after all  ......    

Nonetheless, I am  still    starting to pay the  artists  whose   work  I most  admire   2  x  what I paid  before because I think that's   fair

Cheers  Peter

[George]

I bet the artists you buy from appreciate you paying a little extra for their work...

I was reading a little about CAC .. Looks like quite the shop !

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi George

Yes  you  would  love to  look round a   CAC     shop.  It's THE  flagship  chain for   really good  quality  Chinese  arts.  Some of the  stone and ivory  carving  pieces  are    truly  mouth-watering . 

Cheers   Peter

[Pat - 查尚杰]

Peter

Am I mistaken or is there a shop like this (or used to be) on the Wanchai side in the building where the Chinese Visa Section is?

As to your comment on the prices of IPBs, yes I do have a feeling that the mainland buyers will eventually dry up the supplky of good bottles.  I have already noticed that lack of avaibility in other cities in China.  Before, I used to be able to buy some decent to good bottles from different shops/dealers at (what I believed where affordable prices) but that has dwindled down.  Add to that the buyers' preference (just like all of us) to hold/see/examine the bottle, and whatever is good, and by a known artist dissappears quickly.  If you think and believe that 10pct of China holds 90 pct of the wealth (I do...), we are still talking about 140 million people with high buying power!!! An amazing reality, that is!

On CAC though, it seems their margins are very high on the bottles, and maybe the culprits are really to be found there.  If they can really discount 30pct and up, as you tell us, then their starting prices are WAY too high.  Goes back to your point and mine in several other threads, the artists need to find a way to cut these middlepersons out.  On this point though, based on my experiences in other cities as to supply. it could also be that there are less 'runners'.  It would interesting to see if that assumption is correct.