How To Succeed In Business

Sellers: too much supply? Create your own demand!

So, I was browsing Ebay for paintings, and to grant this less than affluent girl a giggle, I sorted the search results by price, highest first. This topped the list at the spray-water-through-my-nose Buy It Now price of $12 meeellion dollars. American. “Is it a Picasso?” you ask. Nope, some guy named Anthony Falbo. According to Falbo’s About the Seller page, he’s one of today’s “Finest Contemporary Artists”, and “Through the years, many of Falbo's pieces have been collected and stored in a variety of Galleries and Museums throughout the country and in many of the wealthiest private collections all over the world.” Okay, if you say so.

Now, I’m not in any way critiquing Falbo as an artist, because that's not important, and maybe he really is very successful on a broader world stage than Ebay. But who in their right mind is going to plunk down $12 million bucks on a painting, sight unseen, Picasso or not? Interestingly, as I scrolled through the listing I read this: “Suggested Gallery Retail Price $1,000,000”. So, he’s trying to sell a painting for more than it’s worth, and openly acknowledging it? But wait, there’s more: “Make An Offer!! Serious offers only please. Any offers under $8,200.00 will bw [sic] automatically rejected. The highest offer will win this painting”. Ah-ha! Now I understand what’s going on here. The $12 million dollar Buy It Now price is just another marketing ploy. An unsuspecting Ebay browser searches for paintings, sees the astounding price tag and thinks, “Wow! This painting must be something totally incredible to be worth that much. Let me just click on the listing….Oh, wow! The artist is willing to sell for a price that I can almost afford. Hey, I’m going to make an offer because I just HAVE TO HAVE this amazing piece of art that is worth so much!” Now do you see what I mean about creating demand? We consumers think that the more something costs, the more we just have to have it, no matter how unnecessary. Expensive designer water, anyone?