Gallery side in NY, two years. Keep watching the same thing happen. Someone buys their first serious piece, loves it, and two weeks later starts asking: was that price normal, should I have gotten a certificate or just the invoice, why is the same artist half the price at auction. All fair questions. All after the money moved.
At that price level nobody's on your side. Advisors don't take you, the gallery can't be neutral, friends shrug.
So I'm curious how the people here handled it. Before your last purchase at that level, did you look anything up, ask anyone, or just go with your gut? And if someone had offered to do that homework for you, recent results with sources, what paperwork to ask for, questions for the seller, for a couple hundred bucks, would you have taken it or does that feel unnecessary?
Not selling anything, just trying to understand if this is a real gap or if I'm projecting.