Aspiring art collectors, shred that Starry Night poster from the museum gift shop and hit the Web for original works by starving — and not-so-starving — artists at affordable prices. Like regular galleries, online outlets toss the daubers a cut of each sale. Taking a cue from T-shirt haven Threadless, some also let users vote on the works or submit their own. BYO bad wine and cheese cubes.
Custom 52 Professionals and doodlers alike submit playing-card designs; you vote them on or off the deck. Currently accepting entries for its fourth set.
Price: $13.50 per pack.
Best for: Gamblers; fledgling collectors with limited display space.
Thumbtack Press Founder Tony Bailey tapped his artsy friends to seed this site, eventually pulling in new and more-established talent. Check out Jeremiah Ketner's melon-headed poppets (1) and the cheery cars and fish bursting from Alex Noriega's faded pastel Volcano. Or click straight through to the Girls & Tentacles page.
Prices: $15 to $45 (unframed archival prints), $100 and up (framed).
Best for: Blank-walled postgraduates.
20x200 Jen Bekman, lauded curator of emerging artists, takes her Soho gallery experience online, selling carefully selected limited-edition prints. We like the wildlife drawings by 21st-century Audubonista Carrie Marill (2).
Prices: $20 (small prints), $200 (medium), $2,000 (large).
Best for: Higher-rolling art patrons who want gallery quality without gallery attitude.
Blueflip Art This community of illustrators tends toward pop surrealism — take the blinded characters of Eduardo Recife (3) or Brian Taylor's not-quite Looney Tunes.
Prices: $15 to $45 (archival giclèe prints).
Best for: Refined do-gooders: 10 percent of each sale goes to a charity of the artist's choosing.
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