Sadly, Thomas Kinkade has figured out a great way to scam the system. He does not sell paintings. He sells prints, run off in the thousands, and then separated into variously priced "editions". This pushes the limits of ethics in the business because he has flooded the market with these prints, but priced them as though they were limited runs. The franchises that sell these prints give oh-so subtle hints that they are investments, but the sad fact is that they are run off in the thousands, touched up on an assembly line, and maybe, just maybe, lucky enough to get TK's hand brushed up against them, raising their price another few thousand dollars. For the numbers, you might as well invest in a museum poster of one of the greats.
Guess there's still a sucker born every minute, even to this day.
Bill Gates does the same thing in software.