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Hello and Welcome. This is your opportunity to bid ANY amount you chose for any of David Seacord's paintings (which are included within our auction pages as shown on this website).  Winning a David Seacord painting in this auction means 'you get the painting to KEEP FOREVER, and all we get is your money' ...which of course, will soon be long gone.' Such is life in this world.  Clearly, you get the better part of the deal! 

There is no registration required to place a bid in this auction, however by placing a bid you are affirming that if you win an artwork offered herein you accept full legal responsibility for the amount that you bid.

1. Here’s the auction basics in a nutshell:

a. No matter the painting under consideration, the auctioning process has two levels… an ‘offers’ level, and a ‘competitive auction level’.

b. The ‘offers’ level is defined as ‘any monetary amount offered BELOW our posted “reserve”’.

c. The ‘competitive auction’ level is ‘any monetary amount bid ABOVE our posted “reserve”’.

Explanation: In other words, directly below the website image of every piece that we are offering at auction we are posting a hypothetical monetary value (it’s the “the best offer above/greater > than $____” info).

This is a figure which we believe represents what the art should be recognized as minimally worth— to an experienced and affluent self-actualized art collector who understands the multiple distinctions of valuing original art. This posted value IS ABSOLUTELY NOT a ‘for sale price’….is our ‘Auction Reserve’, as explained below.

2. BIDS ABOVE OUR RESERVE

What happens if you bid any amount ABOVE our posted reserve is that your bid automatically triggers a public and competitive auction and the winner of that auctioning process gets the painting. If no one else outbids your bid  within 72 hours, your bid automatically wins by default. If someone does outbid you within that time period, you and they can competitively bid again and again…up to 14 days, which is the absolute end time of that artwork's auction. All the bidding rules that govern our maximum 14 day auctioning process are listed below. Please do read them.

3. BIDS BELOW OUR RESERVE

What happens if you bid ANY amount BELOW our reserve, ...respectfully..., your bid is  ‘an offer on the table only’, i.e., it is one we  will continually consider for up to 30 days (or up to the time that an ABOVE RESERVE bid supersedes it and triggers our competitive auctioning process).

Since your offer/bid is BELOW our reserve, we are free to choose to accept or not accept it at our sole discretion.

Also, for many reasons, all offers below reserve are private offers, and are NOT made public on this website. If we do choose to accept your offer, we will simply label the art as SOLD.

Explanation: Why are we doing this? The answer is because it allows us to ‘establish David's  market liquidity’.  In other words, if our reserve is ‘best offer greater than $5000’….  that means under optimal conditions in a good economy and with active bidding from knowledgable collectors we believe that the piece might normally auction for between $7500 and $10,000 or more…and the $5000 in this example is where we are suggesting that the bidding begin. Our goal by offering David’s work via this private auction procedure is to establish a record over time demonstrating David's competitive liquidity.

That said, it must also be noted and taken under consideration that we are not ‘in optimal economic times’. Therefore, we will respectfully consider all the offers that are placed before us for consideration, even if they are below our reserve.

Another reason we are doing this is to give everyone interested in a particular artwork a voice to declare their interest, and the ability to privately tell us what it would be worth to them to own the piece, and also, if they wish—to tell us ‘why’.

Our Thirty Day ‘Below Reserve’ Stipulation.

The only stipulation we place upon your ‘below reserve’ offers is that you agree that they do not expire for thirty days. This stipulation exists so that we have time to evaluate your offer fairly against other similar offers, and also to continue to invite premium ABOVE reserve bids, which of course, is our priority.

Obviously however, the longer ABOVE reserve bids fail to materialize on the pieces you may be interested in, the more seriously your BELOW reserve offers will be considered, especially as the expiration date of your offer approaches.  In other words, your below reserve offer is still a ‘bird in the hand’ (for 30 days). And being pragmatic, we may chose to accept it before it expires if it is tempting enough.

GROUP OFFERS (BELOW RESERVE)

Should you be interested in acquiring several pieces you may make an offer for them as a group. We request you indicate your collection priorities (greatest to least), and of course tell us your total budget. This additional complexity could get complicated of course, and some good luck might be needed. We do advise that if a piece is essential you should immediately bid the reserve and try to win the auction regarding it.

End of ’Nutshell’.

Here are some additional Auction Details, written before the above thumbnail overview was written. Some of it repeats in more detail the information above, some of it is information not covered in the nutshell. 

PLEASE NOTE:

1. Our 'best offer greater than (>)’ information is provided on all pictured work being offered at auction to indicate what our 'reserve' is.

3. The ABOVE RESERVE bidding increment for all artwork is $50US.

4. As ABOVE RESERVE bids are received the current high bid and its relevant timeline countdowns will be publicly displayed as part of each artwork's information metadata directly below that artwork's auction image within this website.

6. Until such time as our reserve is met, there is no time-clock running. In other words, art lovers world wide will be continually invited via promotions similar to those that may have led you here, and the auction will on-goingly endure until all work is either awarded by auction (or until BELOW RESERVE offers are accepted).   

Explaining the Auction Timeframe 

Once bidding surpasses our posted 'best offer >’ reserve level the awarding of the art to the winning bidder is non-optional.  Also, two time clocks begin to run. The first is a 72 hour clock, the second is a 14 day clock. 

The 72 hour clock indicates the window of opportunity for additional competitive bids to appear. If no additional bids are offered inside of the 72 hours, the art is awarded to the sole bidder above the reserve. 

Additionally, after the reserve 'best offer >’ posted value is met, the 14 day clock also potentially comes into play, and it definitely establishes the maximum duration of the auction.

In other words, the 72 hour clock can be reset again and again by new and higher bids, but only up to a maximum of 14 full days past the time the reserve was originally first met, as per the time stamp of the first received email containing a bid greater than our posted reserve.

If the bidding goes to the full 14 days, in order to avoid any 'ebay-type last-second chaotic bidding scenarios’, all bids received in the final last hour of the 14 day clock will be tallied solely on the amount bid, and not upon who made the very last bid, except in the highly unlikely case of two or more identical winning bids, in which case the earliest received highest bidder wins.  In other words, all bids received in the very last hour will be totally blind bids, although the website will be updated to show what the bid was at the beginning of the blind hour, and an email sent at the start of the last hour will also state the high bid prior to the last hour.

For clarity, during the last blind bidding hour, bidders are NOT limited to a single bid. They may re-consider and re-offer higher bids up to the end of the auction if they choose, however they may not offer lower bids. 

Auction Notifications and Updates

Our facilitation of this auctioning process is currently completely in-house and will be done manually,  Therefore updates may lag behind reality somewhat. Not to worry, as all your bids will have email time stamps.  For greatest simplicity, this art auction will therefore be facilitated via the continual highest bid updating of each artwork's metadata upon this website, AND via general auction status notification emails and text messages to all parties who have placed a bid for any work in this art auction. By these emails and text messages, all active bidders will be encouraged to stay abreast of this auction's active developments.

Your Bids Are Compliments!

While all bidding is obviously competitive, our commitment is that all bids and/or offers receive our full respect.  All offers/bids tell us you love David Seacord’s art and would like to own it. Thus, we receive ALL bids as the compliments they are!   By bidding you are also automatically entering a ‘very special offers' list that is only for those who have actually either already collected, or made an offer for David’s work. So... bottom line: if you love David Seacord's art, we emphatically encourage you to participate in this auction by bidding or offering whatever you can for whatever you'd most love to own.

Creative Bids

PS. Further, in light of the highly unusual times we are presently living through (and clearly understanding that currency IS still the normative bidding standard) we understand that if we are 'open to considering' the occasional creative bartering proposal it can be helpful. Such proposals must however 1. have non-inflated verifiable monetary values included in order to be considered a part of the competitive bidding, and 2. be barters of interest to David Seacord Fine Art.  Using the comment box, you may request a list of potential barters of interest. 

STEP 1 -

If you're interested in making an offer or bid for any of the artworks herein so designated as AVAILABLE, please use our "Inquire About or Offer A Winning Bid" form for that purpose.  If you are interested in any artwork that is not designated as available (I.e., art in the Legacy galleries), please use the same form to inquire about it.

STEP 2 -

Fill out the form and all required information and send it to us.

Please note: Although culturally we have all become accustomed to online commerce that is entirely digital, it is our experience that the detail-rich nature of original art acquisition agreements make this impossible to accomplish without at least some direct phone communication--- which is why the contact form requires a cell phone number (unless you only use landlines).  FYI, all person to person direct phone contact is normally pre-scheduled via text messages.

STEP 3 -

After sending us the form you will receive a welcome message and confirmation that your bid, offer, or inquiry was received.

1. a. Your ABOVE RESERVE BID will be posted asap in the metadata below the bid-upon image. It will also generate a notification to other interested parties who may wish to consider bidding.   

    b. Your Below Reserve offer will be taken under consideration, and we will give you our thoughts about it asap.

2. If you send us a ‘more information’ inquiry, you will receive a detailed reply in as timely a manner as is possible.

The first thing that will happen soon after you win the bidding on one of David Seacord's paintings is that you will receive a personal phone call from David to congratulate you on your winning bid and to thank you for becoming a collector of his work. Also during that conversation it will be decided to what address and by what method the art is to be shipped, and by which of several methods the financial transactions between you will occur.  David will also gladly answer any further questions that you may have, and you will give him your instructions as to if or how you would like the art frontally signed, and in what orientation. (This is further explained herein below.)

Please also know that when your bid is the winning bid, that because it was made without actually seeing the art piece in person with your own eyes, our contract will specify that after receipt of the painting you will have a full week after delivery to notify us and return it if it somehow does not meet your essential understandings and expectations.

While that is only fair, our experience is that the original is almost always 'a huge step above' any photography because it is NOT a photographic representation-- rather, it is THE ART ITSELF.

For perfect clarity then, what you are bidding on is 'the original artwork itself, as photographically described --as accurately as possible'. This phrasing means that both we and you understand that a perfect rendering of an original artwork to a computer screen is a technical impossibility, and that because of paint textures, color calibration, and resolution challenges on all viewing screens involved, the original itself will be subtly distinct from the screen version.

Additionally fyi, if the art is a work on 22" x 30" paper original, the painted area will be approximately 20" x 28". If the paper is 26" x 40", the painted area will be 24" x 38". In other words, there will be an unpainted 1" border that was masked off during painting, and photographically cropped for online display. This 1" margin is intended to provide both a place for the artist to frontally sign and title the painting, and normally lays under the mat in standard framing. Many times paint does leak somewhat under the masking tape edge however, and that then is a part of the original. David will repaint over any paint leaks with Titanium White if requested, however many collectors wish the original be left 'as is' because this kind of minutiae proves that it is unquestionably 'THE ORIGINAL".  If desired, we respond to requests for photography showing the margin and/or the reverse as quickly as we are able through sending text photos as long as you have provided us your cell number.  

The back of the painting will have, in David's hand in #2  pencil, A. an ID code (i.e., a series of numbers similar to a car' VIN number that is unique to that painting alone and which is to be used for insurance purposes etc), B. the Title if the piece is titled, C. the copyright date, and D. David's signature and locus sigilli mark.  If the painting is clearly directional, David may have signed and titled it in pencil on the unpainted border on the front. David rarely signs in paint upon the painting itself, considering it would artistically detract from the art. Also, if the painting is potentially multi-directional he normally only signs the front at the request of the collector, as unsigned the collector could still rotate it and enjoy viewing it in different orientations.

The painting will arrive to you inside a crystal clear protective envelope which has been rolled into a well-insured shipping tube or triangle. You may request it be shipped flat at extra cost to you. If your painting is a rollable work on paper our shipping practice is to provide complimentary shipping itself within the United States.  However, you will be assessed a surcharge to cover the level of insurance that you chose. As this is an international auction, international shipping and insurance fees will be in addition to the winning bid, and will be charged to the winning collector.

Framing the art to match your decor desires is both the creative opportunity and the fiscal responsibility of you, the collector.  This is because framing translates the art into your specific room environment and only you and your framer can properly do that.  We do recommend you use the highest quality non-reflective 'museum' glass, as we believe the difference it makes makes it worth the investment. 

Finally, if you love the art but feel that an under-glass presentation is unacceptable, there ARE options. However, they add significantly to the cost and complexity of framing, and some aspects must necessarily be done by the artist himself before shipping, and at a surcharge. Therefore, prior communication is imperative if this is your desire.

Finally, yes, a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist will be either included or sent separately. 

Thank you for your attention to all of these necessary communications! Thank you for your artistic appreciation also! 

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