A few years ago I learned that someone was selling mail art on EBay. Being the person that I am, I wanted to know a little more about this. For me, it’s always been a thing for mail-artists not to sell work, that’s what I was told from the start. Don’t sale! Not that I really care, because I don’t. I wasn’t up in arms when I saw mail-art for sale, I was simply interested in the impulse. I saw an opportunity to think through something, so I took it. I contacted a handful of people, sent some emails, and got a few quotes. In the end, I didn’t post my short essay because of a personal conflict. I didn’t want to get in the way of someone making a few dollars.
This all started because I noticed a mail-artist I had sent things to, had started to sell things I had sent them. My work was in a lot with others. From what I could tell it never seemed to sale. Outside of the two or three big mail art names, I doubt you could make any money selling these things online. The ridiculousness of it all, the lack of profitability, I found entertaining. No one cares what I make so no one has any interest in paying for it. If they won’t something, I’ll give it to them, just send me your address. The futile nature of it all was entertaining to me.
To better engage in this, a way to make it all into a more creative endeavor, I started to send the seller a lot of cards I made. For a period of time I sent a large pile cards that contained my face. These are the sorts of cards I normally send to friends for birthday messages or thank you notes. They’re meant to be silly, they’re meant to get the recipient to smile at my dumb antics. If any of my work ends up in a public space, it does so on the refrigerators of my friends. From there it probably moves directly to the trash.
This is the card I sent.
Sending cards of my face to the seller was essentially a dare. I was trying to get the seller to unload cards with my face on them. In my mind it would be funny as hell to click on a listing and see me starting back. Just yesterday, J. Tostado let me know that one of my cards was for sale on EBay in a lot with other pieces and ephemera. Guess what, he was selling one of these stupid cards with my face on them. Underneath the image was the repeated phrase, “The Surface of Reality.” Deep shit, right? He wins. The circle is complete.
No bids, yet. The first bid is set for $12.99 with a buy it price of $17.99. I think the shipping price of $6.30 seems a little low to me. Included in the lot is roughly eleven items. If all things are equal, it means that my card is worth about a dollar. A single stamp costs sixty-eight cents, which according to my calculations, my postcard has increased in value in its travels. From this standpoint, the seller is basically my art dealer, promoting my work, and increasing it in value. After sending thousands of things through the mail I have finally found the recognition I think I deserve.
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| The EBay listing information. |
1 comment:
The eBay seller and David Greenberger both are in Greenwich, NY. Is he selling off his collection? If I could sell my horde of Jon Foster mail art, I might be able to buy one, no two, dozen eggs.
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