On selling and/or converting. Because you only live once (long).
Weiss
Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
One of my favorite silver stories just keeps getting better with age, and today just happens to be its 3rd anniversary.
I bought this 100 oz JM bar in May of '10 from a board member. My records indicate I paid $1750 for it. So silver was $17.50 per ounce, give or take.
Then in August of 2011, I discovered the gallery website for John Squire. John's the lead guitarist of the Stone Roses (one of my favorite bands). The Roses had disentigrated in the late 1990s following a disastrous tour and spiraling out of control drug abuse. John had always been a graphic artist, and after the Roses split, he retreated to his Manchester estate and threw himself into painting full time. In the years since their disbanding, he'd become a listed artist who has shown at museums and galleries around the world. Both of my parents were artists, and I thought it would be really cool to have one of his artworks. I originally just wanted a small, hand-signed print. But after corresponding with his agent and being shown a dozen pieces from a new series he'd been working on which kind of graphically represent music and musical notes, I fell in love with a piece that at about 20" x 30" was considerably larger and considerably more expensive than I'd bargained for entitled "Fall":
Here's a still from a video where John is adjusting this exact piece on a gallery wall in Brussels:
Now I almost never sell anything from my permanent hoard. But I finally decided you only live once, and I wanted one of John's paintings more than another block of silver. Three years ago this afternoon we agreed to a purchase price of £2304 (including fees and shipping). A pound was converting to about $1.56 then, so the price was about $3600. Fortunately, silver was up. I sold that bar 09-21-11 for $3900--which just about covered the cost plus framing.
I pushed my luck and asked if John could include a personalized note for me. His agent said she couldn't make any promises, but she'd see what she could do.
I was over the moon when I opened the package from the UK to find that it had been taken to the post office and signed for by John's wife, supermodel Sophie Upton:
and John had included the personal note I'd asked for:
Little did I know, the week after I got the painting, The Stone Roses announced the unthinkable--a reunion tour they'd all sworn would never happen in a million years. The tickets for those shows broke Guinness book of records for the fastest selling concerts in UK history: 220,000 tickets in an hour.
I had our local framing specialists frame the piece in acid-free archival matting with UV protected glass in a deep shadowbox frame so that the natural rough cut paper would retain its appearance. I had them double-glaze the piece, with John's note to me and an CD insert (featuring John's artwork) framed on the back side of the piece. Between the two sides I had the framers include copies of all of the correspondence between me and John's gallery, as well as an original signed copy of the invoice with Sophie's signature.
So I did well with the purchase, the sale, and the conversion. And the pound is now up, too, by about $.05.
The piece is hanging on the wall next to me as I type--I see it every single day and I still like it as much today as I did the day I bought it.
Here's John shredding on the guitar:
Love Spreads
I bought this 100 oz JM bar in May of '10 from a board member. My records indicate I paid $1750 for it. So silver was $17.50 per ounce, give or take.
Then in August of 2011, I discovered the gallery website for John Squire. John's the lead guitarist of the Stone Roses (one of my favorite bands). The Roses had disentigrated in the late 1990s following a disastrous tour and spiraling out of control drug abuse. John had always been a graphic artist, and after the Roses split, he retreated to his Manchester estate and threw himself into painting full time. In the years since their disbanding, he'd become a listed artist who has shown at museums and galleries around the world. Both of my parents were artists, and I thought it would be really cool to have one of his artworks. I originally just wanted a small, hand-signed print. But after corresponding with his agent and being shown a dozen pieces from a new series he'd been working on which kind of graphically represent music and musical notes, I fell in love with a piece that at about 20" x 30" was considerably larger and considerably more expensive than I'd bargained for entitled "Fall":
Here's a still from a video where John is adjusting this exact piece on a gallery wall in Brussels:
Now I almost never sell anything from my permanent hoard. But I finally decided you only live once, and I wanted one of John's paintings more than another block of silver. Three years ago this afternoon we agreed to a purchase price of £2304 (including fees and shipping). A pound was converting to about $1.56 then, so the price was about $3600. Fortunately, silver was up. I sold that bar 09-21-11 for $3900--which just about covered the cost plus framing.
I pushed my luck and asked if John could include a personalized note for me. His agent said she couldn't make any promises, but she'd see what she could do.
I was over the moon when I opened the package from the UK to find that it had been taken to the post office and signed for by John's wife, supermodel Sophie Upton:
and John had included the personal note I'd asked for:
Little did I know, the week after I got the painting, The Stone Roses announced the unthinkable--a reunion tour they'd all sworn would never happen in a million years. The tickets for those shows broke Guinness book of records for the fastest selling concerts in UK history: 220,000 tickets in an hour.
I had our local framing specialists frame the piece in acid-free archival matting with UV protected glass in a deep shadowbox frame so that the natural rough cut paper would retain its appearance. I had them double-glaze the piece, with John's note to me and an CD insert (featuring John's artwork) framed on the back side of the piece. Between the two sides I had the framers include copies of all of the correspondence between me and John's gallery, as well as an original signed copy of the invoice with Sophie's signature.
So I did well with the purchase, the sale, and the conversion. And the pound is now up, too, by about $.05.
The piece is hanging on the wall next to me as I type--I see it every single day and I still like it as much today as I did the day I bought it.
Here's John shredding on the guitar:
Love Spreads
We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
--Severian the Lame
--Severian the Lame
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JC
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If I'd held that silver bar until today, I wouldn't be out any money. Even with this big drop. And that's the cool thing about metals: they don't often lose money, especially when held over the long haul.
But there is no way I could buy that same piece for the ~$1750 that bar is worth today. By the time I sold, I knew the price of silver had gone up, and used that tool to convert into something that to me at least is beautiful and interesting, and has potential to increase significantly in value. It's even likely it's already increased in value.
It's not art like the billionaires are buying at Sothebys. But it also wasn't a hundred million dollars.
--Severian the Lame
<< <i>I remember when you got that and posted it. Good stuff, always like an art story obviously, especially with the metal twist. >>
Me too. Has it really been 3 years?!?!? Thought it was cool then and cooler now.
Too many positive BST transactions with too many members to list.
Nice touch
It's all about what the people want...
<< <i>
<< <i>I remember when you got that and posted it. Good stuff, always like an art story obviously, especially with the metal twist. >>
Me too. Has it really been 3 years?!?!? Thought it was cool then and cooler now. >>
I was just thinking the same thing. Time flies doesn't it?
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