For 24 hours this site will be closed in protest.
This is my 24 hour moment of silence.

When I opened this site one year ago, I dreamed of a community where people could come to discuss my favorite artist. And, although this site has far surpassed my expectations, I had no clue that it would also hurt the community as it has.

Flippers, those with no regard for Shepard's work, are among the biggest patrons of this site. They do not come for the banter or to chat. They are not here to share with us their collections, for they have none. They are here only to exploit. They are here to rip you off, and they are here to undermine you.

They make small offers to new, less-knowledgeable members, and they back out on set deals when the promise of more money comes from another direction. We should not stand for it here.

The problem though is not them, but US. The flipper would not survive without us. They rely on us paying out the ass for a brand new print.

But we could stop them. Stop buying new prints in the after market. TRADE. Pick up 2 prints when you can, and when a fellow member misses out on a print, trade them for it. Your collections will not suffer. The best part is that flippers don't want to trade. They don't want that print. To them, not selling a print is lost money, some crappy ink on a piece of paper.

Some may say that limiting prints to one per person will help. I invite you to look at 2 print prices on ebay; Bayonets and Proud Parents. Bayonets was of the last prints that was not regulated. It was also the favorite of 9 prints that came out in that time. So, many people bought more than 2 of them, so there are less people owning them, and more wanting them, AND they have been sold out longer. So naturally, the price of Bayonets should be higher. But it is not. It is, at many times half the price of a print such as Proud Parents. Why? Well, so many of the prints that were purchased were done so by flippers. They flooded the market with them. Not wanting to get stuck with them, people sold them for around $60. So by limiting prints to one per person, you make trades almost impossible, and you force people to ebay to buy from a flipper, who now wants more money for them because he wants to make up for only owning the one.

Shepard's work is not a stock, it is ART. And it should be collected because you like it, or it speaks to you, not because you can make a quick buck.

I know, of all things, that I do not have all the answers. I'm not even claiming that I have one for this. But think about it. Are we really making this a better community of art collectors, or are we making Obey prints the next currency?

This is me taking a stand for those who can not.


Peace
-Adam



I have received messages asking me what it is that I am hoping to accomplish.
I would like to add what I sent to one board member.

I understand that this will do nothing about the flipping.
This is me showing that I care about where obey giant is headed regardless of weather or not I can help. It is my protest, not my action.

Either I stand by and let it be crushed.
Or I take a stand and let it be crushed.
But at least this way, there will be no ambiguity as to where I stand.

I know this will be harmful to the site in general, but I hope you understand that I am taking a stand for what I believe. I asked many people about doing this, and even took a vote among the mods. But what it really came down to, was how much do I care?

In less than 24 hours, the site will back to normal, and nothing will have changed. But I couldn't not do it because I was scared of what people would think of me.