LilCub said:

Have you looked at the Opus site? It's NOT his, but the company who is selling Prince's set, along with many others.

I'm gonna buy the Maradona Opus! only 3K quid!

Se7en said:

I'm pretty sure it isn't actually printed on silk but some kind of silk-paper - silk could even be the stock name. I'm always choosing a satin finish paper, maybe silk is like that?

The Value of Art?

At the end of the day it's up to an artist or organisation to put a price on what they wish to sell.

Do I think the OPUS book is worth $2100??? - no. But that is based on the value I place on it. I already have the book 21 Nights - which included the Indigo Nights CD (which they are kindly loading onto an ipod).

So as I see it I would be paying $2100 for a video file and a purple ipod. So to me, putting the cache of having one of only 950 ever made aside it isn't worth it.

But that doesn't exclude anyone else saying it is worth it in their eyes. Prince has a right to charge what he sees fit for his art, and then we as his consumers/fans have a choice to say "yeah that's worth it" or equally "no it's not".

Swa
[b][Edited 4/13/09 0:34am]

StephaniePlum said:

Yeah, considering the book has been such a huge success, right?

Anyone who thinks this will increase in value: get real.

BartVanHemelen said:

i think you might be underestimating the willingness of certain prince fans to pay large sums of money for immediate, guaranteed access to things they can find cheaply elsewhere.

Its ridiculous, even if i had the money i wouldnt buy it especially something that has been repacked...who cares if randee has signed.
Its all very pointless, its crazy.

listen, can care less about what price tag is appended 2 this product. if want it and can't afford it, then y bother coveting thy neighbours ass or anything that is thy neighbours. say OPPOSE THE OPUS bc morally feel 2 support a merciless killing of the alligator or xploit the spider 4 her webs is simply wrong.

what do these creatures have lesser rights than the 1's he's preached about in his lyrics or liner notes, et al.

if this jacket [the 1 he's wearing inside of RAVE...] were real wool, it would have taken 7 lambs whose lives would have began like this = within weeks of their birth, their ears would have been hole punched, their tails chopped off, and the males would have been castrated while fully conscious. xtremely high rates of morality r considered normal: 20 2 40% of lambs die b4 the age of 8 weeks; 8 million mature sheep die every year from disease, xposure, or neglect. many people believe shearing helps animals who would otherwise b 2 hot. but, in order 2 avoid losing any wool, ranchers shear sheep b4 they would naturally shed their winter coats, resulting in millions of sheep deaths from xposere 2 the cold. respect all of god's creatures.

"2 my mind, the life of the lamb is no less precious than that of a human being." Mohandas Gandhi

CHERISH THE GIFT OF LIFE & RAVE UN2 THE JOY FANTASTIC

RESPECT ALL OF GOD'S CREATURES & OPPOSE THE OPUS!!!

japanrocks said:

Bullcrap. It ain't gonna sell 950 copies in the first place, and such a thing can only increase in value if there are MORE nutters willing to pay that money. 950 copies isn't limited at all. The really collectible stuff are the things that were never meant to be collectible, but have become so because only a few copies slipped out. Ex: Undertaker CD. Was supposed to be given away FREE with a magazine, but was "destroyed".

errant said:

It would still be hugely overpriced. 950 is NOT limited.

BartVanHemelen said:

the total number of copies manufactured is only a factor up until the moment prince yanks them off the market. then we're left to compete for however many copies actually sold. if it sells few copies, then they will be that much more scarce later down the road.

i don't think there's a lot of demand for this, but on the other hand, at times over the years i have supplemented my income by selling pieces of prince merchandise from my collection. there are prince fans who will pay tons of money for virtually anything with his name on it, especially when it's out of print.

check the street price on copies of 'the truth' cd single, '10,000' or 'npg magazine.' sure, there not astronomical, but if you stashed a few of these when they came out you can make a decent return on your investment.

i'm sure you remember the old days when people would happily bid dubbed vhs tapes of live shows up over $100 on ebay.

popelife said:

Props to The Mission, yet another band that has realized a long time ago that it's about CONNECTING with the fans and not about the money.

Prince thinks that 950 x $2100 = 100,000 x $19.95. It isn't. In the first scenario, you're ripping off nearly 1,000 fans and anger 99,000, in the second you're pleasing 100,000 fans.

stanleylieber said:

I bet Prince will have got NOTHING to say about that.

stanleylieber said:

Those things are much more rare than this, and they still ain't worth a tenth of this. That's after a decade or more. And unless a miracle happens, Prince ain't gonna get more popular. I recall seeing "collectible" versions of the "" album back in the day, what are they worth now?

stanleylieber said:

$100 isn't $2100.

Shango said:

Bwahahahaha. The book will tour!

BartVanHemelen said:[quote]

stanleylieber said:

i certainly agree, i'm just saying. i'm kind of surprised you don't think there are 950 prince fans around the world who will put up this kind of money. maybe you're right.

my memory of the gold era is that there were something on the order of 20-30 folks posting regularly who were wealthy enough to follow him around all over the world.
[Edited 4/13/09 1:46am]

it's a nice colour and all..
but i'm still gonna report him to the RSPCS, Royal Society for the Protection of Cuteness & Style.
He deserves an ASBO 4 this one
anyone else notice how he was helichoppered down the thames 2wards the tower & then beat a hasty retreat?
maybe he tried stashing it with the queen's bling but rumor has it that she thought it a chavy crime against his fans. good 4 her!
orf with his head.

BartVanHemelen said:

As i write this there are nearly 4000 visitors on this site - I expect more than a quarter would like to have the book... He's just "sold" 185000 copies of the Lotusflower CDs... So looking at the numbers, 950 is limited... But then so are most peoples funds...

Rorywan said:

The benefits of missing a rib.

Se7en said:

If you're a silkworm its pretty destructive. To make just one silk tie kills 150 silkworms. Silk doesn't come from spiders webs as one poster said above, rather the cocoon of the silkworm. Silk farmers encourage them to spin their cocoon and then boil them alive to detatch the worm. They can't be detatched alive and keep the thread intact ya see.

Dsoul said:

Yummy..

ZombieKitten said:

I was thinking the F1 Champions Opus= 20,000 Pounds.

This will be the first Prince release that I will not buy. The price is very hefty, but, despite all of the complaint, his releases are usually a good value for what you get. I'm such a big fan, that I would probably pay for it if he actually gave us something that was worth $2,100. It would have to be his entire catalog on the I-Pod plus a lot of stuff from his Vault and a bunch of his videos and concert footage. It would have to include concert tickets, and other goodies.

I'm a little embarassed at this one for him. He doesn't need this after the lotusflow3r.com fiasco that has also turned out to be very disappointing so far as a website, but the CD's are wonderful.

stanleylieber said:

wait, what?

look, i don't care if he eats steamed unicorn pony fetuses and spicey ewok sausage patties these days, but don't take credit for following a principle if it's something you abandoned years ago.

anyone who was around to read the interviews and stories around the time of "animal kingdom" and his whole vegan phase know that he is a much different person now. which is fine. just own up to it, you know?

Anxiety said:

The time to put record straight was when PETA erroneously awarded him the 2006 sexiest vegetarian award with all the now outdated late-90s quotes attached.

harveya said:

185,000 copies of a $12 3-CD set, a significant number of which are in reality overseas buyers. Let's be incredibly generous and claim that there are 300,000 Prince fans world-wide. How many of those would buy a $2100 version of a book that they wouldn't buy when it was regularly priced? "But it has an iPod with a unique 40 minute video!" Not good enough.

harveya said:

I'm not saying that he doesn't have 950 fans, I'm saying that there aren't 950 fans who'd spend that money. And even if there are: I hope that they aren't hoping that this is an "investment" of sorts.

Compare it to NIN's ultra-deluxe edition of Ghosts:

http://www.ninwiki.com/Ghosts#Formats



See, this worked, because the initial package was affordable, it was valuable and it was collectible, and it just reeked of Reznor. I bet most of those things actually ended up in the hands of fans.

Prince's set however is some gaudy crap, thought up by a company. It is impersonal, it's rehashed crap that wasn't selling in the first place. It seems squarely aimed at a public that doesn't give a hoot about Prince but likes to spend ridiculous money and dumb crap, plus the occasional avid collector with more money than sense.

Let's face it: when most fans think $77 is a ridiculous price for a website subscription (and it is), $2100 is just obscene. Add to that the ultra-tacky contest where one buyer can win £21,000...

This is yet another lame stunt.

And to think that he could easily get massive publicity by releasing a Special Edition of Purple Rain.

Dsoul said:

Prince...put the record straight...

Wish could afford it....

stanleylieber said:

Maybe for really valuable stuff, like ultra-rare releases. But this?

stanleylieber said:

I don't doubt that there are some people who'll buy these things. But 950 of them? $2100 is a lot of money.

Let's look at this:

http://eil.com/fulltext/s...prodtype=1

Or this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PRI...26004r2157

I mean, that's the "51 Hours" promo, 25/30 copies in existence, and it's £275.00 . If there are 950 people in the world willing to pay $2100 for the hideous crap this thread is about, how come they're not buying this? I mean, this is a steal, plus it is an item that will go up in price since Prince doesn't seem eager to release the track.

Genesia said:

we can dream, can't we?

Anxiety said:

One of my favorite lines from the movies is when Scarlett tells Mammy she's going to ask Rhett Butler for $300 to pay the taxes on Tara and Mammy replies...

Askin' ain't gettin'!