A Collector's Process
Notes on Collecting Crypto Art, Chapter 0
Introduction - A Collector's Process
I’ve been collecting Crypto Art for a few months now and in that relatively brief span I feel like I’ve made my own little dent in the rapidly expanding #CryptoArt universe. I have collected some incredible pieces from a bunch super talented Artists and have started great digital friendships with Artists, Collectors, and others in the broader Crypto Art world.
I’m honored that it’s gotten to a point where Crypto Artists in my orbit regularly come to me to ask for my “collector’s perspective” on things and so I’ve been able to lend a point of view in matters of sales strategy, markets, valuation, liquidity/minting, crypto properties, and (hopefully) just general taste.
Furthermore, I’ve been doing all of my collecting so far off the cuff, with my own intuition and without prior knowledge of the NFT, digital art, or traditional art markets (a speculation, always!) - but recently I’ve been interacting more with other notable collectors and investors who keep trying to give me notes on “the right way to do it.”
So, before I get burdened with too much proper knowledge, I want to share a few thoughts on this market without the external programming.
This is going to be a lot less galaxy brain than my prior essay here on Crypto Art, but also hopefully a lot more practical - and, dare I say, maybe even a bit actionable.
This is not a hard algorithm or rule set I must follow to collect, mostly just broad observations about my personal process and the market. These are notes on my own collecting style, every collector is different.
Some of these points may be frustrating to some artists as they are inherently selective or exclusionary, but really what is the Art of Curation if not a purely selective process anyway?
The direct honesty in this series is given here in the spirit of helpfulness. I expressly reserve the right to later contradict myself.
Thus, I present to you: Notes on Collecting Crypto Art.
Programming Note
Notes on Collecting Crypto Art was originally supposed to be a single long-form post, but it got so long that it didn’t make sense to drop it all at once.
At the time of writing this Intro post, more than half of the “chapters” are already completed and the remainder have detailed outlines.
I will release each chapter periodically over the next month or so, so do come back for updates.
Table of Contents
Notes on Collecting Crypto Art will contain at least the following chapters:
Artists
Aesthetics, Themes, Movements
Communication, Negotiation, Valuation
A Great Collection Perpetuates Itself (Conclusion, for now)
Every time I release a new post in the series, I will come back to this Intro post and update the Table of Contents with the hyperlink, so feel free to use this post as the main “entry point” into the series if you want to share it with other Artists and Collectors.
In the event that I add more to the series, I will also extend this TOC and add the links - I just don’t want to commit to the additional writing just yet!
Further Reading - Prologue?
To the extent this series has a Prologue, it is definitely my prior essay, Unholy Unions.
Notes on Collecting Crypto Art is deliberately pragmatic and tactical, but it doesn’t promise to answer questions of meaning and purpose (“Why are we even doing all this?”). For that, it is best to start with UU first.
-Colin Goltra, January 2021
Thank you so much for the insight, it is so useful to get this view from a collector! I will be sure to share it over on twitter
Well, THAT was funny. I just completed a new painting called "galaxy brain" (cue the Twilight Zone theme)