What and why do people buy?

I recently was reading Fine Art Connoisseur and there was an article from B. Eric Rhoads, publisher and he hit on some very basic facts.

"Though it is impossible to specify exactly why an artwork sells, I do know that when you buy a piece of art, you are usually buying what author Malcolm Gladwell calls the tipping point - the accumulation of 10,000 hours of experience.  You are buying the artists personality and passion, years of mentorship, study and experimentation, thousands of failures, moments of frustration and joy, and worries about how to make a living".

"Today more than ever, we tend to get caught up in status and resale values, when we should actually focus on the fact that art is personal, reflective of the person who created it, and appropriate for the person buying it.  Unlike most non-essential purchases, artworks are forms of expression and intercommunication that live on long after the maker and the consumer".

"You are also buying what that artwork does for you.  Its stimulation of an emotion or a memory is surely worth more than its investment value, though it is nice to imagine that someday your heirs may benefit tangibly from that value."

"So what are you buying, really?  I am not sure it can be articulated definitively, but you'll know it - feel it - when it happens."