Post #145914 by aquarj on Thu, Mar 10, 2005 1:47 PM

Almost everything after the first post on this thread was pretty surprising to me, since it sounded pretty harmless. This thread makes me think of a feeling I've experienced, which might be relevant.

Aside from tiki stuff, I've also been sort of collecting original art from a bunch of so-called lowbrow artists, probably for about 8 or 10 years now. Art makes me a happier man, and it's purely selfish - each purchase has been strictly for what it does for me (and my wife) - not to share, to show-off, or really with any thought of other people in mind at all. But I often suffer from a kind of buyer's remorse or embarrassment at the dollar figures on these items, maybe partly because I know they are purely self-gratifying purchases. Maybe there's a whole mess of psychology underneath all that, I don't know. But I do know that I hate hate hate talking about the prices paid on the art I love. There have been cases where someone really wanted to know a dollar amount, so I told them, and then that's all they could talk about. There's not a fantastic painting hanging on the wall anymore; there's a big dollar sign. Not only is this boorish conversation in general, but it also ends up detracting from my own pleasure with the object. So most of the time I really try to avoid those kinds of discussions. And so I interpreted the desire for discretion in the original post here as possibly being parallel to this feeling I've experienced. No clue if it really does relate, but I thought it might add some insight.

I think you can't really blame someone for uncontrolled marveling when they learn about the dollar figures on other people's "frills" purchases, especially if they're not conditioned to that "market". In fact, I'd confess to doing some of the same kind of marveling at $600 Tiki Bob mug auctions on ebay and so on. But then I think you also can't blame someone for wanting to take a "serious collector" discussion to an invite-only place where extraneous posts would be almost nil. Aside from kidding about cloak and dagger stuff, I just don't understand where the condemnation comes from. Even here on TC, we have the public forum, and the private messages. When someone sends a PM, is that elitist because they excluded the rest of us? If I email some friends a picture of a tiki I found, is it unreasonable if I prefer not to have it posted online for whatever reason?

-Randy