Where Do I Start?

Starting Points

How to think about budget.

A budget isn't a ceiling on how good the piece can be. It just picks which markets we hunt in, and there are real pieces at every one of these numbers.

BudgetWhat It Gets YouWhat We Actually Paid

Under $3,000

A signed, numbered edition print with a real market behind it. This is also the band where your first piece costs you nothing in fees.

Hiroshi Nagai giclée, Tokyo auction · $1,822

Hiroshi Nagai print, Paris gallery · $2,180

$3,000 to $10,000

Signed postwar prints, a gallery original, or your first serious watch

Ellsworth Kelly lithograph, Zurich · $5,016

Ed Ruscha silkscreen, Italy · $7,276

Rolex Submariner, private sale · $8,300

$10,000 to $50,000

Larger editions and original paintings at auction

Sol LeWitt linocut, Zurich · $10,190

Hiroshi Nagai original, Tokyo · $26,064

$50,000 and above

Grail watches and blue-chip works

Royal Oak Day-Date “The Owl” · $51,250

You don't need a museum budget for any of this. You need to know where to look, and that part is our job.

In Practice

What a first purchase actually looks like.

A First Watch, August 2026

“I was most worried about making sure I got a good deal. The price ranges were all over the place, and I wanted to make sure I got a good deal while ensuring authenticity and good condition.”

That is the most common worry we hear, and it is a reasonable one. The same Omega Speedmaster reference can be listed at wildly different prices depending on condition, service history, and how badly the seller wants out. Without a way to read those differences, every listing looks roughly the same.

We settled on the reference first, then watched the market instead of taking the first listing that looked fine. The price came down $519 before we moved. All in, with shipping, tax, and import duties, it landed at $2,563, and the reference, dial, and seller history were confirmed before any money changed hands.

“The prompt communication, helping me think through my decision, and then checking off all the boxes of ensuring authenticity and condition.”

Div S., New York. His first watch.

Under our fee structure this search was free, because it was his first piece and it came in under $3,000. You can see the full record on our acquisitions page.

Jacob Levinger, founder of Prosper Street Curators

Who You'd Be Working With

I'm Jacob. I spent the last decade working at startups here in San Francisco, and collecting art and watches started as the thing I did on the side. I learned the market the slow, expensive way, friends started asking me to handle their purchases, and that became this firm.

The honest version of the mission: I think a lot more people would fall in love with art and watches the way I have if someone just showed them where to begin. Helping that happen matters more to me than what any one purchase pays, and it's why the fees look the way they do.

More About Me

Our Process

How it works.

Our process is simple: figure out what you love and why, agree on a plan, and then we handle the hunting, vetting, and buying.

01. Discovery

We start with a conversation about what you’re drawn to and why. What catches your eye, what you already own, and what you want a piece to do for the space it lives in.

02. Strategy

Then we get concrete: budget, timeline, and a short list of pieces or references that actually fit. You sign off on everything before we go hunting.

03. Sourcing

We track the piece down across auction houses and vetted secondary markets, checking condition, provenance, and price history so you know exactly what you’re bidding on.

04. Acquisition & Delivery

We handle the bidding, the paperwork, and the logistics, and see the piece safely to your door. Your name stays out of the market the whole way.

Every step above runs on the same set of rules. We work for buyers only, we take one fee from one source and that source is you, and nothing gets recommended that we haven't checked. We wrote all of it down.

Read Our Standards of Practice

Why Flat Fees

Most advisors earn more when you spend more.

Most art advisors charge a commission, usually around 10% of the purchase price. It's the industry default, and it means the person advising you earns more every time they point you toward something pricier. Others bill hourly, often a few hundred dollars an hour, or ask for a monthly retainer that runs whether or not you buy anything.

We charge a flat fee agreed before any work starts, so what we make is the same whether you spend $2,000 or $9,000. Your money never routes through us either. You pay the seller or the auction house directly for the piece, and we invoice our work on its own, because an advisor should never sit between you and your money.

We also take nothing from the other side of the deal. No commission from a gallery, no finder's fee from a seller, no inventory of our own to steer you toward. The rest of what we hold ourselves to is written down in our standards of practice.

What It Costs

One fee, agreed before we start.

Your first piece, under $3,000

Free

Acquisitions under $3,000

$100 flat

$3,000 to $10,000

$250 flat

$10,000 to $50,000

$500 flat

$50,000 and above

2%$1,000 minimum

That first row is not a typo. If you're new to this and your first piece is under $3,000, we do the search, the vetting, and the buying for nothing. You just pay the seller for the piece. One per client, and we take on a few of these each month.

For auctions, you can lock in a flat fee before the sale, so a bidding war never inflates what you owe us. If a price lands exactly on one of these lines, you pay the lower fee. Outside costs like a formal appraisal are passed straight through at what they cost us, and never without asking you first.

Full Pricing Details

Frequently Asked

Common questions

Buyers only. Our fee is charged when a purchase actually completes, and it covers the search, the vetting, the negotiation, and delivery. We never take money from sellers, so our only incentive is finding you the right piece at the right price.

Simple and agreed upfront. If it’s your first piece and it’s under $3,000, our work is free (one per client, and we take on a few of these each month). After that it’s a flat $100 under $3,000, $250 from $3,000 to $10,000, $500 from $10,000 to $50,000, and 2% with a $1,000 minimum above $50,000. For auctions, where bidding can run away from everyone, you can lock in a flat fee before the sale so a bidding war never inflates what you owe us. Third-party costs like appraisals are passed through at cost.

No. You pay the auction house, gallery, or seller directly, and our fee is invoiced separately. Unless we explicitly agree otherwise for a specific purchase, like a sale that requires a registered bidder, the funds for the piece never touch our hands. We’re an advisor, not a middleman, and we like the incentives that way.

Established auction houses, vetted secondary platforms, and dealers we trust. We hold no inventory of our own, so we’re never trying to sell you something we need to move. Every recommendation is just our honest read on the piece.

By buying through channels that stake their reputation on it. The major auction houses and established platforms employ specialists who authenticate, condition-grade, and guarantee every piece before it’s listed. We stick to those channels and review the documentation ourselves before you commit to anything.

Yes. We bid and negotiate on your behalf, so your name never enters the room. That keeps things private, and it avoids the price bump that tends to appear when a seller knows exactly who’s asking.

Honestly? That’s great. Prosper Street Curators was founded to help more people find their passion and end up owning the pieces that bring them real joy. If we talk and you decide to go another way, we wish you nothing but luck, and the door stays open if you ever want to chat more or change your mind.

Next: What We've Been Buying