A few days ago I was just hanging out with my imaginary friend laughing about this lady who just bought one of my girlfriends paintings. The lady had not even picked out her couch yet and was buying a painting!! How dumb was that we laughed. Well just as we were getting our composure back along comes one of the biggy-wiggy art dealers from the Mothership. Those guys sometimes think they are so smart just because they can travel dimensionally.

     Anyway he starts going on about how I am the fool. You always buy the art first and the furniture second. I, of course was "yea right" So he got into one of his long winded monlogues. Man those guys can also talk. It's like they never shut up. Just the same he did have some points which kind of made me think twice.

     He went on to explain the situation to me. "If you buy an expensive couch and keep it for 3 or 4 years what do you think it is worth?" Well I knew that one since I just heard about someone I know who bought this $5000. couch four years ago. It was carefully dusted after every use and was only sat on in the upright position. This thing was mint. Of course like most new stuff after a couple of years it is out of style either that or they got tired of it so they put it up for sale. Not one phone call and they were only asking a fifth of what it was worth new! Eventually in a fit of desperation they decided to "give it away" in their garage sale for $200. Not one taker there either and this was a five thousand dollar couch!! Eventually someone picked it up for $50. and hauled it away. He then said "see… what kind of investment was that?" Lousy I thought… probably cost them five bucks or more every time they sat on it.

     He then went on to give me this following spiel.

"If you buy original art you like, art that really grabs you it is rare that you tire of it, in fact more often than not it grows on you more with time. Just like a good relationship or marriage. Not only that but art never goes out of style. Think about it, how many people do you know that would take a free 1960's couch over a free original 1970's Andy Warhol painting or print? What is the couch worth verses the print. Well if you know art that's a no brainer." 



     "There is something strange about good original art. It has a lot of similarities to money. If you were walking down a filthy Vancouver back alley and spotted a ten dollar bill on the ground almost no one would not quickly reach down and grab it. The same with art. If you walked by a dumpster in a back alley and spotted a piece of good original art you recognized sitting there you would grab it almost as quick if not quicker. You would not worry for a minute where it had been, just like the ten dollar bill. The second you got home you would be googling the art work to see what you scored."

     "I guarantee you that 99 percent of all consumer products will be worthless landfill in one to six years from now. Good art will easily be worth what you paid if not a thousand fold more. In fact good art is an even better gamble than buying a lottery ticket. First off you a have a better chance at making it big with art. Second is you get to enjoy the art for years either way. Not much enjoyment comes from a lottery ticket unless you win. Third if the artist hits it really big your collection of that persons art, aside from being worth a fortune could get you in the history books. There are almost no consumer products that will offer you all that and the ones that do require a budget far larger than 99.99% of the people have."

     Ok… OK… I was sold but he had more to say. "It is common knowledge among the rich to buy gold, silver, art and antiques when the economy dives. They are easy to take with you when you leave the country to safer ground and always go up in value. Sure land is a good investment or at least has been in the past but the astronomical profits have been in art. The nice thing about art is it is light and easy to store or move. Land is stuck where it is. If that new freeway misses your prime commercial property then you just got beat!! Unlike land, with art you can easily move it to a new location, location, location!!. So always remember Consumer products are always a sure bet where you are guaranteed to lose, good original art you like is also a sure bet except you guaranteed to win on at least some level"

     So yes I have to admit I saw the importance of buying art first then furniture. Course I never let on to him… those "know it alls" gloat enough as it is. Needless to say Marta and I are building our art collection every chance we get.