Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board



Message Board
Asian Art Forums

AsianArt.com Main Forum Message Index | Back | Post a New Message | Search | Private Mail | FAQ
Group: Message Board
Re: Re: Who is this person?

Posted By: Roger
Posted Date: Dec 28, 2011 (07:26 AM)

Message
Patrick - I am curious, as I just looked at this ebay link. He has a funny mixture in there of real items and fakes. And his descriptions sound like they are copied from other websites...

The prices are set up to maximize his profits. If you buy in China in the countryside or from peasants who deal in such things (in other words not in any shop) you can actually see which items are fake and which are real based on the prices as his markup seems to be pretty standardized (about 8 to 10 times). If you work the prices back based on that formula you should get the "countryside market price" of each item.

For example, he has a listing for 6 Han amber glazed carved jars excavated in one tomb at a price of 2000 USD. Now work it backwards: 2000 USD x 6.3 = 12600 RMB / 6 pots = 2100 per pot. At a ten times markup thats about 210 RMB per pot which is about what they would sell for (at most). Probably old, who knows if they are Han or not but nothing special when buying as a wholesaler. You see this stuff at furniture factories all the time and they are just not particularly valuable in China.

The Chinese Ming Dynasty blue glazed pottery figural attendant for 79 USD (487 RMB) means he probably paid between 20 to 40 RMB for it - the exact price you can buy them in bulk for at Panjiayuan (the weekend market in Beijing). So the price right away tells you something is wrong. Even the peasants are smart enough to know that a Ming figurine goes for more then 487 RMB.

Maybe I should go visit his shop sometime.. ;)

Post a Response

Responses:



Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board