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Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#61

Post by [deleted] »

danenania wrote: post #52
RickS wrote: post #32

Edit: huge props to the team for shipping a fix for this in minutes. --- I want to love this idea, but I struggle to get past the lack of full price when browsing. It says "$48 • 24 months" and expects me to intuit that the product costs $1152. Or rather, I worry that it expects me not to intuit that. Breaking the absolute price into a series of less frightening numbers to obscure the magnitude of a purchase feels sl…

"I want to love this idea, but I struggle to get past the lack of full price when browsing. It says "$48 • 24 months" and expects me to intuit that the product costs $1152." This seems like kind of a nitpick when lots of expensive things (not just cell phone plans) are priced this way. Apartment leases, car leases, internet/cable service, and insurance all come to mind. Saas subscriptions also commonly frame pricing…

[deleted]

Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#62

Post by RickS »

JohnFriel wrote: post #51
RickS wrote: post #32

Edit: huge props to the team for shipping a fix for this in minutes. --- I want to love this idea, but I struggle to get past the lack of full price when browsing. It says "$48 • 24 months" and expects me to intuit that the product costs $1152. Or rather, I worry that it expects me not to intuit that. Breaking the absolute price into a series of less frightening numbers to obscure the magnitude of a purchase feels sl…

Edit: Roger that, we're showing the full price now. -- This is super helpful, thank you! The last thing we want to do is to deceive people. There's a lot of information we want to convey in those little artwork thumbnails and we've been struggling with how to cram it all in. We thought that two prices in that small space would be confusing –– but I think you're right that it was a mistake and we need to find a way to…

Wow. Seriously impressive turnaround time, and thanks for listening!

Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#63

Post by travisjungroth »

JohnFriel wrote: post #6
travisjungroth wrote: post #2

Someone in YC made Artix! (I kid)

What's that?

The failed startup Paul Graham did before the one that took off. It was putting art galleries online. Obviously you’re different, but it was close enough to make me laugh. Someone replied to me with the story.

Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#64

Post by changdizzle »

gangstertim wrote: post #20

Congrats on your launch! The site looks great—and it strikes a chord with me, because I'm working on an art marketplace as well (albeit for prints, not originals). Given we have adjacent, not competitive platforms, let me know if you'd ever like to do some co-marketing! Our product is www.vsual.co A few things I noticed when looking at your site: - I like the detail views you have on your pieces, but a the higher res…

Checked out the site - looks awesome! Is there any way to filter? It's cool at first glance looking through the whole selection on the site but could see it getting tedious the 2nd time+.

Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#66

Post by my_green_book »

itcrowd wrote: post #39

I like the idea of making art more accessible by spacing out the payment. Congratulations on the launch! I won't comment on the art for sale, because I think it is too much in the eye of the beholder but I will give some feedback on your website and concept. - Why fixed installments? Why not say "this piece costs 300$ buy now, or pay 10 installments of 35$ or 20x20$" (forget the numbers, just an example). - why are t…

The cut is too high for the platform. I guess you take this number from Google/Apple store's commission.

The difference is software on Google's store has infinite leverage and takes almost 0 to scale sales. Every piece of art takes lots of work and cannot scale in the same way. Art works do not scale like software.

With this cut, I feel your platform is taking advantage of artists (they do not know where to sell) rather than helping them.

Even auction commission is only between 12 & 25%.

Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#67

Post by pavlov »

I like it, and will definitely come back to see new works over time. I occassionally buy art and enjoy browsing the well-known auction sites for thrills (you never know if the next lot is a masterpiece or overpriced trash).

A few suggestions:

1) Structured artist bios. Right now it's all over the place: some of your artists have a single paragraph, some a wall of text listing everything they ever did and attended.

As a buyer, I'm looking for the usual reassuring signals: this artist went to school X, exhibited at gallery Y that I've heard about, and their work was purchased for collection Z that sounds fancy... Maybe make it easier for artists to highlight those and even search by those criteria?

2) Generated preview images showing size of the work next to a human. I think Sotheby's uses these on their site. It's super helpful to be able to see the work on a simulated gallery wall next to a person.

If you need a beta tester, I'd be happy to help. My email is in the profile.

Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#68

Post by werber »

I’m struggling between considering these home decor or investment pieces. It doesn’t seem like any (that I’ve checked) are coming up on artnet, so when you say unknown do you mean like even to the art world? Also when filtering for large items in getting things as small as 6x8”.

Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#69

Post by Tarrosion »

I like this idea! Any plans to expand to types of art which are not paintings? e.g. I love colorful geometric glass art, and to the extent I collect art [I have definitely noticed the "I should buy some art" urge growing as my age and salary grow], that's where I expect to spend my dollars.

Re: Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

#70

Post by smhinsey »

I'm fine buying prints or other similar things online but with original art, you need to see it in context and detail. I would love some sort of pseudo-VR style experience to actually get a sense for texture and depth. For example, this one taken at random* is almost $5k and on my 4k laptop screen the zoomed in version isn't particularly crisp and I only have the one fixed zoom level. I can imagine paying in that ballpark for art but not under these circumstances. I can appreciate that there might be issues with having too high res an image available, etc., but still... Maybe you could mitigate this with similar return policies to the online mattress places. As is, the risk of spending a lot and ending up with something that isn't quite what you expect is just too high for the big ticket items.

* https://artinres.com/artworks/rebecca-kaufman-pre-experience

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