I spent seven hours at the huge Art Basel Show in Miami yesterday. I saw the obligatory canvases painted completely white (25k+), Black (65K+) and a very pretty green color priced, at a no doubt what is a steal, at $335,000.

Also on display were the white canvas with simply words like “die collector scum”, and “meat is death”. I also got to see the back doors of what appeared to be a 60′s volkswagen bus placed on the wall, a bunch of clothes on the floor and more hanging from the ceiling which looked like what happened when grandma’s clothes line broke. There was a cardboard box open flat hanging on the wall with some tape hanging from it, no price was listed, guess if you can’t afford the box you shouldn’t ask the price.

My personal favorite was (picture attached) of one of the first apple computers with a sneaker on top of it.

I did inquire about the price for all you tech guys (after all it is almost Christmas) but sad to say you had to buy the whole collection of some 50 sneakers with various items attached to them, one sneaker had a wine bottle when the foot should have been.

Of course there were the “die piggy piggy die die” (those who have seen “Mickey Blue Eyes” will understand), type of paintings, all priced in at least in the five figures most in the six.

I had a nice conversation with a dealer which was asking 2.3 Million for a very pretty oil, who told me a client had purchased a similar painting a few years ago for 2 Million and now was worth $3 Million. He also told me he was having a good show and sold a painting for over 3 million yesterday.

So after my time at Art Basel, i left empty handed but with the clear knowledge that in comparison, domains are cheap. Dirt Cheap.

Let me be clear here, domains are not just a “good buy” or a “good value” or “fairly priced in today’s market”, but they are downright cheap.

Let’s take our friend who purchased the painting for 2 million and sold it for 3 million three years later. Fair enough. Investing those funds at 8% would give you $160,000 of return a year, non-compounded, so if you hold a painting for 3 years and sell for 3 million your did alright but you would have had a return of half as much at 8%.…