People calling door to door selling Art work

Ciara.smilie

In the last two days, we have had two people calling to the door selling paintings by various other people. The first day my mum had no money in the house so didn't buy but when another guy called two days later, mum saw two that really caught her eye so bought them. I have to say they are beautiful pictures, but we can't help wondering whether or not she was had.

The guy started off saying the two together would cost her €180. She stuck firm telling him she only had €100, and eventually after making two calls to his 'supervisor' said 'ok ok, if i give up my commission i can give them both to you for €100. and since i've had such a good day today i am willing to do that for you'.

Has anyone else had people calling to their door with Art work in the past few days? Have you bought? What do you make of the whole thing?

abouttobebanned

I've bought two paintings (in waterford) from foreign students. The paintings were fantastic and you'd pay in and around the same (maybe more) for them in art shops (I've checked - friend of mine owns a framing studio). It's the Irish way to always think that we're being had by people...but more often than not, we really aren't.

Drummerboy08

I just don't trust anyone who calls to my door selling stuff. More often or not its a ploy to see who and what is in the house.

Ciara.smilie

Yeah well Mum got two beautiful paintings for €50 each, so I reckon thats a pretty good price. This guy was saying that they had been in waterford alright. My uncle owns a framing studio in Waterford, so id say we will get him to frame them, although this student was saying that they do offer a framing service and someone would call out to us to recommend what frame would go best, but we dont know how much that will cost.

Kinky Slinky

Are they real or are they just prints ?

abouttobebanned

The ones I got were real anyway.

Ciara.smilie

Yeah they are real

MagicMarker

Tbh, handing €100 to someone standing at my front door seems pretty stupid regardless of what they're selling.

Ciara.smilie

Well the guy had been in the house for about an hour at this stage. But yeah i get your point. but its not like we didnt get anything in return

abouttobebanned

MagicMarker wrote: »

Tbh, handing €100 to someone standing at my front door seems pretty stupid regardless of what they're selling.

Absolute nonsense. Some people don't have the means to open a shop, especially in this day and age, and door to door is often the only way they can sell things.

djk1000

I know that there are third world sweat shops that churn out oil paintings for pennies, they are sold in tourist spots by "artists" on the street, these "artists" take photos of the area and send them off, they get multiple copies of oil paintings back. Maybe this is the same thing.

But if you like the painting and you'll get years of enjoyment from it, then I wouldn't call it a scam. It's also very possible that the paintings are genuine.

abouttobebanned

Scaller clearly has an opinion here, but hasn't the words to compose it.

St Senan

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

I just don't trust anyone who calls to my door selling stuff. More often or not its a ploy to see who and what is in the house.

+1

St Senan

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Scaller clearly has an opinion here, but hasn't the words to compose it.

Drummerboy08 and MagicMarker have already said what i was thinking of saying i thought that was simple for people to work out.

More often these people going around door to door selling paintings, chimney guards, facia and soffets, carpet, furniture and looking to powerwash your paving. Its unlikely they will have ID and probably dont dont pay a penny in taxes. What i dont like is the way people are calling around door to door in the early morning with these recyclable bags and tags for old clothes. I have 1 guy caught on CCTV camera pushing a tag through my door and looking into my wifes car and then walking around the side of the house. Unlucky for him he met our not to pleasnt dog.

St Senan

MagicMarker wrote: »

Tbh, handing €100 to someone standing at my front door seems pretty stupid regardless of what they're selling.

+1

Cantona's Collars

If the person calling is genuine it's fairly easy to work it out,appropriate attire,photo id and an office contact number as well as their own.
With the downturn in the economy there are loads of people going door to door offering their services and wares,just take the time to ask a few questions and suss them out,if they are genuine they will have nothing to hide and will be relaxed.Don't tar everybody with the one brush and assume everyone that knocks your door is a criminal,even so use your judgement and you should be fine.
It's the ones that have nothing you want but insist on not looking you in the eye and are more interested in whats behind you in your home are the folk I don't like,if they're genuine they'l accept that your not interested and move on instead of trying to worm their way into your home.

allthedoyles

We don't open the door to strangers and always talk to them through the window .

If we want something we buy it , and personally we don't trust door sales-people

johndoe99

3 months back (Waterford), my uncle was on his way back from the local betting shop down the road, and saw 2 men, one was standing on the street outside his house while the other had his hand and most of his arm in the letter box, when he confronted them they legged it and one of them dropped a bag (which he later found hand drawn photos), he gave chase but being elderly he could not keep up, he found out from the neighbours that they were students selling the photos.

Not saying that all these students are up to no-good, but as "Drummerboy08" said mostly its a ploy to see whose in your home.

Gone West

they are either really good prints (most likely)
Or are done only half by hand, the top half, the easiest strokes, or similar.
Or they use crafters pick, or similar which is a commercial product which makes prints look like paintings, dimension comes from this and from a "canvas"-esque material which also has dimension.

I knew a foreign girl who used to sell those "paintings", and she had to split her profit with her supervisor/the company rep who supplies the "art".
If they are Israeli, they are 100% fake. This, is certain. Have a google... "Israel fake Chinese paintings Australia".... Seriously, this is old.
She did legitimately have to phone him to sell below a certain price, but she said that 10 euro was what the original cost was to her boss.

Also, cop on, if they have office ID, you know for sure that they are some agent from some place spewing out massive quantities of these prints that look like photos. There is a tiny chance that they are a legitimate friend of a struggling artist, but if they have ID, you know for sure that they are not.

Nobody is painting 100 hours into a painting (not even in China) for 100 eur (and you KNOW that 90 eur is profit). You got ripped off, but if you like it, who cares.

Nice idea, but its an old scam that just recently arrived to Wex I'd say

baronflyguy

Not sure if this is the same company or not but I'm living in Waterford city and I bought 3 canvas oil paintings from an Isreali guy back in Oct 2007. I made the cheques payable to Art4All.
http://www.art4all.eu/
I'm very happy with them and everyone who comes to my house admires them.

Myself and my housemate had a great chat with the guy who sold the paintings. I found him fairly sound. He came back 2 months later and framed the paintings for me. So the first time they visit they just sell the canvas oil paintings then if you want you can get them to come back to do the framing at a later date or get the framing done yourself. My housemate got the framing done himself but I opted to get the framing done by art4all. They had really good frames to suit the selection of paintings they sell.

Just my 2 cents.

Ciara.smilie

Just looking at that website art4all, and yep some of the pics on there are the same as the ones that this guy was selling. Although I cant find the ones that we bought.

Gone West

baronflyguy wrote: »

Not sure if this is the same company or not but I'm living in Waterford city and I bought 3 canvas oil paintings from an Isreali guy back in Oct 2007. I made the cheques payable to Art4All.
http://www.art4all.eu/
I'm very happy with them and everyone who comes to my house admires them.

Myself and my housemate had a great chat with the guy who sold the paintings. I found him fairly sound. He came back 2 months later and framed the paintings for me. So the first time they visit they just sell the canvas oil paintings then if you want you can get them to come back to do the framing at a later date or get the framing done yourself. My housemate got the framing done himself but I opted to get the framing done by art4all. They had really good frames to suit the selection of paintings they sell.

Just my 2 cents.

Its cool that you like your paintings, but don't you feel ripped off?
They bought them for 10$ approx each, and sold to you for how much? More than likely 100$ or more. Do you not feel cheated?

baronflyguy

el judìo wrote: »

Its cool that you like your paintings, but don't you feel ripped off?
They bought them for 10$ approx each, and sold to you for how much? More than likely 100$ or more. Do you not feel cheated?

Well in all fairness i would feel cheated everyday if I had to think like that about anything because ....

for example

I pay about 470 euros a year for motor tax where I dont see the return because I have to pay toll fees on new roads and my car gets ruined driving on badly damaged secondary country back roads caused by the bad cold spell last christmas.

I pay 160 euros TV Licence fee to pay the fat cats in RTE their wage for TV and Radio I dont listen to or watch.

If they bought the oil canvases for €10 then can you show me a link where I can buy it for that price including postage and shipping and custom import taxes?

You are probably wearing a pair of jeans that cost 5 euros to make but cost you 70 euros in the shops.

I understand the basic form of business commerce where someone has to make the product then price needs to be added for the owner of the business, the distributer, the seller etc. The business needs to make profit in order for it to survive and expand and hire employees, rates need to paid (transport, wages, etc) ...I could go on.

If you ever watch the Dragons Den you often hear them saying the cost of the product is 1/2 the price of the Recommended Retail Price. You would be a bad business person if you didn't make a profit.

to sum up no I don't feel cheated, i saw the canvases the first night and got the chap to call back the 2nd night to let him know if I would buy it, so I thought about it overnight and art to me is what I think of it. I have often seen art that to me is pure muck but had huge price tag. Not my cup of tea but someone elses. The quality of the product was fine and i know if I got a print version i could have got it for little or nothing. I suppose canvas oil painting is a personal thing whether you like it or not (or can afford it).

Gone West

baronflyguy wrote: »

...I could go on.
...
If you ever watch the Dragons Den you often hear them saying the cost of the product is 1/2 the price of the Recommended Retail Price. You would be a bad business person if you didn't make a profit.
.

Yes, but they are making 1000% profit... They are bringing these in in check in luggage in batches of 100s and not declaring them as worth anything. Have a look online.
Its a nice way for folks to pay for their round the world trip after their military service. Not a lot more. I'm sorry if I touched a nerve, I see you pointed out 2 other instances where you got ripped off as examples.

It IS cute that you like your art, but the reality is that a computer probably painted the vast majority of it in China, with some workers finishing it off with some strokes.

The guys are selling door to door, if this was such a great deal you would be able to buy these in Ikea or lidl.

I don't watch the dragons den (thought you didn't either:P) as I am not living in Ireland. But my point is that those "paintings" should cost you 25$, 200% profit, not 150$ at 1500% profit.

baronflyguy

el judìo wrote: »

Yes, but they are making 1000% profit... They are bringing these in in check in luggage in batches of 100s and not declaring them as worth anything. Have a look online.
Its a nice way for folks to pay for their round the world trip after their military service. Not a lot more. I'm sorry if I touched a nerve, I see you pointed out 2 other instances where you got ripped off as examples.

It IS cute that you like your art, but the reality is that a computer probably painted the vast majority of it in China, with some workers finishing it off with some strokes.

The guys are selling door to door, if this was such a great deal you would be able to buy these in Ikea or lidl.

I don't watch the dragons den (thought you didn't either:P) as I am not living in Ireland. But my point is that those "paintings" should cost you 25$, 200% profit, not 150$ at 1500% profit.

I enjoy watching the Dragons Den if it is on TV, dont remember saying I didnt. No you haven't hit a nerve, I am just replying to your comment

I'm not saying you are wrong or anything, more than likely it is quite possible you are correct but again I ask the question where can I buy the same oil canvas for 10 dollar from the luxury of my home?
If I go shopping and dismiss buying everything because someone is making a huge mark up then I would buy nothing, majority of the time I dont really have much choice. If I go to Aldi or Lidl I end up paying less but the product quality is normally inferior to the dearer product. Fine some of the time I suppose if quality is not what you want.

dtw

Fuzzy wrote: »

Yes, but they are making 1000% profit... They are bringing these in in check in luggage in batches of 100s and not declaring them as worth anything. Have a look online.
Its a nice way for folks to pay for their round the world trip after their military service. Not a lot more. I'm sorry if I touched a nerve, I see you pointed out 2 other instances where you got ripped off as examples.

It IS cute that you like your art, but the reality is that a computer probably painted the vast majority of it in China, with some workers finishing it off with some strokes.

The guys are selling door to door, if this was such a great deal you would be able to buy these in Ikea or lidl.

I don't watch the dragons den (thought you didn't either:P) as I am not living in Ireland. But my point is that those "paintings" should cost you 25$, 200% profit, not 150$ at 1500% profit.

I agree totally with Fuzzy. I turned away one of these so called 'art students' today, also in Wexford. I used to work in the art business and once I told him that, he got shy all of a sudden. These are made for $3 in China and distributed worldwide to central agents who create a pyramid style scheme which is proving to be big business. The prints seem real because of the type of paper they are printed on and yes there may be a brush-stroke or two added for effect.

To those who've bought from them I'm glad that you like your prints but this is a scam and it is fraudulent business. I guess as long as there are people buying them, there'll be fake students from a made up university in Israel selling them.

oldyouth

Had a caller in the Barntown area yesterday from a young foreign lady. By God she would not take no for an answer when I said I wasn't interested and wouldn't look at the pictures. 'We are different to the other callers' was all she kept repeating and something about art students. I normally tell them politely that I am not interested but I had to just shut the door on this one.