The "In Jokes" of listing art on ebay

I read the blog of a guy whom I don't really like, because he works in an entertainment field that interests me, and after he finishes blathering on for the first paragraph of his blog, he usually gets down to the nitty gritty. (I find his blog "voice" to be absolutely cringe-making, and I feel so embarrassed for him, but his pretentiousness doesn't seem to get in the way of his real work (maybe those people dont' read his blog)).

Anyway, he had a rant today about people who sell art for astronomical sums on Ebay. And he said he found 7 pages worth of art, each one listed at $21,000,000. (And the shipping? $1,000.) Then he went on and on about some other art there, making snarky comments about how much money people wanted. He also went on to make a snarky comment about "Oh, or they'll take best offer."

So, I went to Ebay, did what he did (Type art into the search field and select art from the category field, then sort by highest price first) and lo and behold yes, there are 7 pages worth of art listed for the ridiculous price of $21,000,000. After that, you get another 7 pages of art listed at $12,000,000. And each one of those is also listed at "Or best offer."

I clicked on a couple of these paintings. As far as an artist named Tommervik is concerned, he comes right out and says, "These paintings aren't worth $12,000,000. Make me your best offer."

As for the people who list their works for $21,000,000 they don't say that, but if you check their feedback, everything they've ever sold is in the $300 to $100 range.

So this other blogger who'd been making fun of these artists asking so much, didn't do his due diligence. They aren't expecting to get that much money...

My assumption is that they want to make sure their name comes up at the top of any list of "art search" so they put a high price on their work. And the knowledgeable Ebay art buyer knows that he/she can offer much less. It just must be some kind of game the Ebay sellers play to make sure they are found by any "search" for art. They could presumably do it the same way, only charging a penny for their artwork, but that would be counter productive. You always get more money if you make the buyer "beat you down" than if you're waiting for several buyer to bid the price up.

Having said that, here are photos of works from an artist named Tommervik, who is offering more than a dozen paintings there. I'm a Star Trek fan, but the presentation does nothing for me. All of his work, appears, to me, to be a little samey.