The rich history of paintings and artefacts has been a point of interest for many individuals for the last few decades. Historians worldwide are constantly looking at historic pieces of art and vintage jewellery. Some of these pieces can range anywhere between $3000 to $30,000. Ideally, the traditional ways of selling paintings and other art pieces were via an art auction in a large venue. Today, thanks to technology, most of the bids happen online on authorised websites like Ozbid Auctions, for example. Auction houses that have been around for twenty plus years are also hopping on the bandwagon of organising their trade online. This way, they can reach a larger audience worldwide instead of focusing on their city or country.
Online art sales are estimated to cross $6.2 billion in the next two years with a steady incline in growth rate. Due to the increase in competition and the number of online bidders, the demand for online exhibitions has risen. It has led to an increase in traction for e-commerce. There are many individuals new to the world of bidding on art online. This article will briefly lay out some tips to keep in mind while slowly getting into the world of auctioning.
Bidding tips for beginners to make safe investment choices:
There is a lot of competition with online art auction websites. Most of them have exclusive deals on their paintings and jewellery, while others have members-exclusive shows with the rarest of items. A first-time bidder can get perplexed with such a vast array of options made available to them. Following tips can help resolve this issue and find hidden gems:
The authenticity of the website:
Beware! There are many fraudulent websites online that lure naive individuals into their traps. They then steal the hard-earned money from them and vanish without a trace. Do not fall prey to such tactics. Instead, visit the various auctioning websites to check their qualifications and see if they adhere to the government’s online auction laws. There are chances that online bidding can lack security and make way for thefts. Reputable auctioneers will showcase the legitimacy of their working methods. They will have specialists working on identifying the pieces’ authenticity and their roots of origin. They also set up cyber-security teams to protect frauds and system hacking.
Plan a strategy:
Investing thousands of dollars on a piece of jewellery or a classic painting for the first time can be exciting and simultaneously scary. First-time bidders must always have a bidding strategy in place while browsing the art auction website. The first strategy is more convenient, which is to bid and forget. In this strategy, the bigger can enter the highest value they are willing to spend on the selected art piece. The system will consider this entry and bid with competitors accordingly. The second strategy most bidders go for is last-minute bidding. Here the bidder waits for their counterparts to place their respective bids and see the art piece valuation at the end. If it reaches a value they can afford, they will bid a few dollars higher than the final value to win the bid.
Research about the items:
While investing invaluable products, it is always better to understand the painting or jewellery beforehand. Look at the online auctioning brochure and see what exclusive artefacts will be present for bidding. Look them up online and read about it, and understand their significance. It will help make a conscious decision if the item has real-time value or not.
Author: Siddhi Chothani
