Artscapy - Built by Collectors for Collectors

[Daniel Silk]

Artscapy - Built by Collectors for Collectors.

artscapy.com/page/collectors2021?mtm_campaign=2021-ay-collectors-campaign&mtm_source=urban-art-association&mtm_medium=banner&mtm_content=collectors-campaign-2021-lp-uaa&mtm_cid=1002

“How much does it cost?
Artscapy offers a basic membership free of charge, which allows you to log up to 25 artworks in your collection managment system.
To celebrate our launch, we are offering new collectors the chance to join on our premium membership (usually £29.99/month) free forever - yes, forever! This membership allows you to add up to 150 artworks, so you will be able to keep logging your collection with us as it grows and develops over time!
To active this offer, simply sign up before 30 November 2021 and upload at least five artworks in that time.
Don't worry if you dont have five artworks to upload with us at this stage, you can still log your collection with us under the basic free membership and enjoy all our useful features!”

[artlike]

This looks pretty interesting. Anybody on there already? Decent inventory management tool actually

[timtim]

Just spent some time and uploaded a portion of my collection. It takes time but the experience was rather pleasant and seems like it could provide a number of cool monitoring tools/graphs/updates that I'm not aware anybody else is providing.
Would encourage the community to contribute and like the idea that we get free lifetime access as early contributors.

[vandamme]

I’m interested to know what data the platform is using to the value of the pieces you upload?

For example: Banksy value, values prints based on previous sales of that piece via auction, this is pretty clear on Banksy value. However on this platform there is no indication as to how art work is valued.

[axel]

Hey guys, first thank’s to Daniel for having brought the deal.
Then, I just started to use the platform, there is the bulk upload that is quite handy, I just reformatted a bit my excel and it went smoothly into the system. Still have to add picture manually and some other data but it speeded up quite a bit the process.
I think the valuation is not automatic because the appraisal field is manual. Idk if they will make this somehow automatic but atm even like this is nicely done. Will play another bit and see if I can find answers.
Prob worth to ask directly to the founder and see where this is going.

[artlike]

Nov 27, 2021 2:45:30 GMT 1 vandamme said:

I’m interested to know what data the platform is using to the value of the pieces you upload?

For example: Banksy value, values prints based on previous sales of that piece via auction, this is pretty clear on Banksy value. However on this platform there is no indication as to how art work is valued.

I've been reading up on it a bit. For the current prices of your collection they'll use private, auction, gallery and dealer sales figures where they can. But also apparently they'll launch a market place soon so will have significant data from that over time. Put my collection on there now and have a few bits I'll be selling. They plan to do some due diligence to make transactions smoother too which is cool.

[Reader]

So once you've laboured and uploaded all your content to the site, got use to its operating system, the "free" account vanishes to be replaced by an expensive subscription model with even more expensive add ons, premium access etc etc , or is this funded another way ?

[artlike]

Nov 27, 2021 11:17:00 GMT 1 Reader said:

So once you've laboured and uploaded all your content to the site, got use to its operating system, the "free" account vanishes to be replaced by an expensive subscription model with even more expensive add ons, premium access etc etc , or is this funded another way ?

My understanding is it's free forever if you sign up as per original post.

I already had a spreadsheet with all my pieces and didn't realise there was the bulk upload! Job done now

[vandamme]

Thanks, that’s good know. Also signed up.

Nov 27, 2021 11:12:09 GMT 1 artlike said:

Nov 27, 2021 2:45:30 GMT 1 vandamme said:

I’m interested to know what data the platform is using to the value of the pieces you upload?

For example: Banksy value, values prints based on previous sales of that piece via auction, this is pretty clear on Banksy value. However on this platform there is no indication as to how art work is valued.

I've been reading up on it a bit. For the current prices of your collection they'll use private, auction, gallery and dealer sales figures where they can. But also apparently they'll launch a market place soon so will have significant data from that over time. Put my collection on there now and have a few bits I'll be selling. They plan to do some due diligence to make transactions smoother too which is cool.

[artlike]

Anyone who signed up please drop me a DM with your username. Looking to grow my collector network. Cheers!

[ev001]

From what I've seen on their website (screenshot below) you can get the upgraded membership for free forever. The condition is to upload a few artworks before the end of this year so definitely worth a try. 

[laughn0w]

Been on it a while. The collection management tool is cool and very handy to track (a growing!!) collection. Adjusted the privacy settings to keep price paid etc confidential. Some good articles too on exhibitions etc.

[Alex Artscapy]

Hi everyone, this is Alex from Artscapy (AlexDS).
First thing first, thanks to Daniel for opening the thread, and thanks to everyone who is trying the platform so far. I hope you are finding it easy to use.

Then, I'd be happy to pick up your questions and probably the best way to start is to follow up on the ones already posted here and the ones that I received via email or DM.

1. Background: I'm a passionate and active collector myself, I started collecting about 10 years ago and now I do it with my wife who has a strong saying on the steering of our collection I'm always happy to have art-conversations so feel free to ping me for a chat!

2.Security: we adopt military grade encryption, making the platform extremely safe. As I always say, the problem with data hacking is more around the security of each individual user: how complicated and often the password changes.

3. Privacy: quite related to the point above, I believe, as many on this forum, that privacy is something I feel very strongly about when thinking about my collection. While using Artscapy you will see that the info needed to add an artwork in your inventory are grouped by sections. Each section has its own privacy level. In this way you are in full control of the access and visibility of the information that compose your collection. By default any sensitive data are already marked as 'private'. This means that you would need to actively make them visible. While general information like artist; title; category (and a couple of more fields) are by default visible to your friends, but of course you can change it and make it totally private.

4. Valuation: Not sure if a previous message from Artlike is referred to Artscapy, but at this stage we do not offer automated appraisals. The implication is that each collector would need to track the value of his collection and by logging the value of individual works in the section 'appraisal' the engine will make the calculations and populate the charts. Automation is something we are looking at but I can't provide at this point in time more information on timeline and on how this will look like. With this said, we are in conversation with professional art advisors and qualified valuers for this purpose. All these professionals and the services that they will offer are independent. We will however ensure the quality and fair rates, being a collector myself..

5. Marketplace: Like the info above, let's say that this wasn't public knowledge yet, but somehow it arrived here before I could say something Anyhow, the information is correct. We are releasing a marketplace which will require a certain level of due diligence as well as the need for each artwork listing to meet some requirements. Everything will be disclosed once the service is live.

6. Business model: A strong point we are making with Artscapy is to make collecting more accessible.
This is translated into offering a certain level of features for free. This is a level that I would comfortably say can help any new collector to start and grow his/her collection. Then yes, some of the features are premium and there will be a small charge on the marketplace. Reality is that we are currently offering a free lifetime subscription, which unlock all the features (present and future) as well as provide access to a lower marketplace fee. The marketplace fee is applied only to the seller side.

I hope this was helpful and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Cheers,
A.

[timtim]

Useful. Thanks for that. Don't know if this is realistic but for sure having some centralized valuation input/benchmark would be extremely helpful. I guess it would mean getting access to other databases (e.g. artprice and similar) so would probably end up being expensive, unless you manage to negotiate some sort of partnership with those data providers.

[artlike]

Nov 29, 2021 19:00:01 GMT 1 Alex Artscapy said:

Hi everyone, this is Alex from Artscapy (AlexDS).
First thing first, thanks to Daniel for opening the thread, and thanks to everyone who is trying the platform so far. I hope you are finding it easy to use.

Then, I'd be happy to pick up your questions and probably the best way to start is to follow up on the ones already posted here and the ones that I received via email or DM.

1. Background: I'm a passionate and active collector myself, I started collecting about 10 years ago and now I do it with my wife who has a strong saying on the steering of our collection I'm always happy to have art-conversations so feel free to ping me for a chat!

2.Security: we adopt military grade encryption, making the platform extremely safe. As I always say, the problem with data hacking is more around the security of each individual user: how complicated and often the password changes.

3. Privacy: quite related to the point above, I believe, as many on this forum, that privacy is something I feel very strongly about when thinking about my collection. While using Artscapy you will see that the info needed to add an artwork in your inventory are grouped by sections. Each section has its own privacy level. In this way you are in full control of the access and visibility of the information that compose your collection. By default any sensitive data are already marked as 'private'. This means that you would need to actively make them visible. While general information like artist; title; category (and a couple of more fields) are by default visible to your friends, but of course you can change it and make it totally private.

4. Valuation: Not sure if a previous message from Artlike is referred to Artscapy, but at this stage we do not offer automated appraisals. The implication is that each collector would need to track the value of his collection and by logging the value of individual works in the section 'appraisal' the engine will make the calculations and populate the charts. Automation is something we are looking at but I can't provide at this point in time more information on timeline and on how this will look like. With this said, we are in conversation with professional art advisors and qualified valuers for this purpose. All these professionals and the services that they will offer are independent. We will however ensure the quality and fair rates, being a collector myself..

5. Marketplace: Like the info above, let's say that this wasn't public knowledge yet, but somehow it arrived here before I could say something Anyhow, the information is correct. We are releasing a marketplace which will require a certain level of due diligence as well as the need for each artwork listing to meet some requirements. Everything will be disclosed once the service is live.

6. Business model: A strong point we are making with Artscapy is to make collecting more accessible.
This is translated into offering a certain level of features for free. This is a level that I would comfortably say can help any new collector to start and grow his/her collection. Then yes, some of the features are premium and there will be a small charge on the marketplace. Reality is that we are currently offering a free lifetime subscription, which unlock all the features (present and future) as well as provide access to a lower marketplace fee. The marketplace fee is applied only to the seller side.

I hope this was helpful and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Cheers,
A.

Hi Alex, thanks for the clarifications. Are there any galleries supporting/working with the site?

[Alex Artscapy]

Hi Artlike, thanks to you for the interest. Hope so far you are having a good experience on the platform.
About the galleries: Short answer is 'yes'. But to provide you with more context, quality and accessibility are key pillars for us. Therefore in this stage we are selecting the galleries that will be onboarded on Artscapy. Each gallery undergoes to our vetting process mostly focused on assessing the gallery program.
The galleries we are selecting will bring a good mix of artistic research, ranging from figurative to conceptual.

Hope this helps.

Best,
A.

[axel]

Started to use the platform last week or so. My impression is overall positive - starting adding 1 by 1 but then I used the bulk excel - imo there is some UI improvement to be done. I have noticed that in my collection there is an option to 'sell', is this active?
Is there a date for the marketplace?

[Alex Artscapy]

Hi axel, thank you for the message.
As mentioned the marketplace will open very soon, we are targeting next week. We will run a pilot with the idea to expand it over time.
Therefore functionality ‘sell’ will be activated accordingly with the go live of the marketplace same for the procedure for selling, that will be communicated on the same day.
Would be great to receive the feedbacks you mentioned, so please feel free to contact with a DM here or on Artscapy.
We are aiming to improve the platform and support of everyone is very much appreciated.

Best,
A.

[artlike]

Dec 9, 2021 8:51:38 GMT 1 Alex Artscapy said:

Hi axel, thank you for the message.
As mentioned the marketplace will open very soon, we are targeting next week. We will run a pilot with the idea to expand it over time.
Therefore functionality ‘sell’ will be activated accordingly with the go live of the marketplace same for the procedure for selling, that will be communicated on the same day.
Would be great to receive the feedbacks you mentioned, so please feel free to contact with a DM here or on Artscapy.
We are aiming to improve the platform and support of everyone is very much appreciated.

Best,
A.

After spending a bit more time on Artscapy (and hooking up with a few from here!), I like it but is it more and Instagram for higher end art or a forum? Or will it be an Ebay? Or even releases agent?? Keen to hear from the owner as I have that option!

[succionator]

let's try it to see how it is

[succionator]

5 inside...tomorrow more

[Unica]

It's a bit clunky, I'm not sure if having mandatory title fields works. For example I entered KAWS, tried to enter one of his classic prints "Presenting the Past" it's not an option. Apparently it's a mandatory field and I couldn't complete, so I stopped. It's not going to work unless you have every title by every artist entered or an option to self enter a title. 

[timtim]

If the title does not exist yet, you have the possibility to create it and enter the relevant info. It's a bit of work but I guess this is how we help and contribute as early joiners.

Of course that would be easier if it was possible to upload all the info about all the artworks of all the artists from one single database but I assume this database just simply does not exist.

Now what I wonder is how the team will reconcile the different entries. Say I entered a work from Invader and someone created the same work but by Space Invader, who is going to flag that this is the same work. Same if titles are slightly different.

[succionator]

Lo mismo pasa con dface y d*face

[artlike]

Dec 12, 2021 12:36:03 GMT 1 timtim said:

If the title does not exist yet, you have the possibility to create it and enter the relevant info. It's a bit of work but I guess this is how we help and contribute as early joiners.

Of course that would be easier if it was possible to upload all the info about all the artworks of all the artists from one single database but I assume this database just simply does not exist.

Now what I wonder is how the team will reconcile the different entries. Say I entered a work from Invader and someone created the same work but by Space Invader, who is going to flag that this is the same work. Same if titles are slightly different.

Yes I noticed that too. I guess just like the owner of this forum has his little secretaries, Artscapy will to and they'll fix any similar duplicates?
Eventually they'll all be on there as more and more serious collectors/art traders get involved

[Alex Artscapy]

Good Monday to everyone, thank you for the feedbacks and the questions.

Below the answers:
1. Mandatory fields - to make our collection management system work we require just 2 fields. There are some technical reason behind but long story short in this way the maintenance of the DB results easier.

2. Clunky add title/artist - when an artist or artwork title is not found in the DB we ask indeed to add a new record. Unica I agree with you that the current implementation is not the most intuitive (I do complain with the team as well ). Anyway, when a title/artist is not found is necessary to click 'add new' - screenshot attached.


3. Duplicate records - this is actually challenging, but we do have a way to identify alike/duplicate records (I'm not a dev, but my understanding is that is something related to bullet #1) yet we are not overwriting the records yet. This is because IMO each collector is free to manage his/her collection in the way he/she prefers. Happy to receive your feedback on this.

4. Where Artscapy is going - We started Artscapy with the idea to have a platform that can answer the collectors needs (knowledge, managing the collection, trading and discover new art) regardless the kind of art that is collected (physical or digital). As mentioned above there will be a marketplace (v soon). We do have a discussion area but is not mean to be an open forum. The discussions are handpicked by our staff and will spin mostly around art events.

Hope this helps, and please keep firing questions and feedback because these helps us to improve the platform that hopefully you find useful and with the time also easier and easier to use!

Best,
A.

[Alex Artscapy]

Hi and happy weekend to everyone!

A little update from Artscapy, even if it was already spoiled , we opened the marketplace!
We will use this period as pilot so please every feedback is very appreciated.
On the other hand I hope you will be forgiving of any little glitches and reporting them will help us to fix them.

One - among the many - cool things is that when buying from the marketplace and once the transaction is confirmed the artwork and all the associated info and documents will be automatically transferred into your collection and reflected into the stats. You will need to coordinate with the seller for logistic and shipment, which is not reflected into the pricing.
Likewise you can sell directly from your own collection into the marketplace. Just remember that every artwork undergoes a due diligence process, so you will need to be ready to submit info and documents. This is a necessary step for Artscapy to create a trusted and safe environment to buy art.

Looking forward to hear from you.

Best,
Alex

[kfroms]

Uploaded my first five artworks - seems fairly straightforward ( doing it manually at this stage )
Need to take pics of all the invoices and POAs I have flying around so thats overall a good exercise.

So far this seems a good thing!

[artlike]

Dec 20, 2021 10:59:53 GMT 1 kfroms said:

Uploaded my first five artworks - seems fairly straightforward ( doing it manually at this stage )
Need to take pics of all the invoices and POAs I have flying around so thats overall a good exercise.

So far this seems a good thing!

Yeah it's a win win in terms of taking all the pics and getting them uploaded. Great for insurance. Just need to find the time haha!

[kfroms]

Absolutely.
I have an excel sheet to track my collection and the pics are in folders but its not very organised. The Artscapy solution will definitely help!