Why are people selling their art so cheaply?

The Business of Selling Art Other Business Stuff
53

Nan,

I’ve had plenty of auctions that I started at a dollar go up to 50, 80, 100, a couple past 200 dollars, so I’m happy with everything the way it is now. It’s all been averaging out nicely for me, and DPW is a great place to sell in my opinion. It’s the other people on this thread who are obsessed with price and mercilessly complaining about it.

As to bargain hunters, all I can say is that my experience here has put me in touch with people who have become regular buyers, some of them shelling out considerable sums when they see a piece they really like and the bidding gets going. The people I’m encountering don’t fit into that mythical bargain hunter mold, but maybe someone else’s experience has been different, I’ll give you that.

Regarding the idea of someone using a minimum bid of say 10 bucks, as per your example, what makes you think that will guarantee a buyer and the ten bucks? It may very well be that no one thinks it’s worth even that, and it still goes unsold, right? That’s where the sheer craziness of some of these arguments comes in: Everyone just raise your prices to $100 minimum, and the buyers will come out of the woodwork, falling over themselves in a race to reward us for “respecting” ourselves and our art like all the 'experts" who write for art blogs tell us they will. Hell, that’s magical thinking if ever there was such a thing, and it completely ignores the hard facts of economics 101: When you present a product that people like, they’ll throw money at you. Present them with something they deem so-so, and you won’t be able to give it away.

As artists we have to be real with ourselves and admit that sometimes we produce crap. And sometimes we produce something that may be great, but not to this audience. And sometimes we get lucky and present the right piece at the right time to the right audience and they then give us money and we feel good. That’s why it’s important to put something out there every day, as a way of increasing your chances of winning.

I just wish people would get that.

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54

I understand David. And for what it’s worth, I’d pay $10 for your work! :slight_smile:

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55

I’m another one who paints small an my paintings usually start at $15.00. I’m 75, retired and use my painting money for supplies and to add to my present income. Nothing wrong with it. I generally paint a 5 x 7 in about an hour while watching tv or listening to the radio. Of course, I have several larger paintings on stretched canvas and their prices are much higher but still reasonable. I have no goal at my age except to enjoy my retirement and certainly will not be the next great “find”. I’m happy with my painting and with the money coming in from them.

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56

I like the idea of a totally free market where the artist sets the price and conditions of the sale. When I am in the studio, I just paint for myself, trying to improve my skills and explore various images, but when it comes to selling on line, I get a lot of feedback from seeing what sells (often this is very surprising to me) and from the number of views. I set a price that I can live with for my small paintings but offer them at less than that for a short auction in order to encourage people to have a look at my work. I never set the price at auction at a level that I would feel bad or lose money if it actually sold for the reserve price.

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57

A plumber doesn’t work on your plumbing as an auction either. If you don’t like the low bids on your art, then either set a higher starting price or go with a fixed price. Problem solved.

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58

Comparing plumbers to art doesn’t make sense. It’s the difference between needing something and wanting something. If my toilet isn’t flushing I need someone to fix it. I can look around for a plumber who works cheaply but ultimately I’m under pressure to get the work done. On the other hand a piece of art, regardless of how much pleasure it will give me, is not a necessity.

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59

People sell art here cheaply for various reasons. But the bottom line is they will not make enough money to live on just doing that.

Consider a hypothetical artist.
He paints a small painting every single day, producing 365 paintings per year.
He sells them on DPW for $50 each.
He sells 2/3rd of what he produces, i.e., 243 paintings per year.
He will have a gross income of $12,150.

You can tinker around with the assumptions.
For example, if the artist paints every day and sells half of the paintings for $100, the gross will be $18,300.

60

Trish,

Funny you mention that, because I was thinking earlier today about something Connie pointed out (I think it was her, at least), that for the early “daily painters”, these small works were meant to supplement income, not provide the whole of it.

Duane Keiser was already a working artist regularly selling large works through galleries when people he knew mentioned they would love a painting, but couldn’t afford gallery prices. So he started doing small ones for 100 bucks in addition to what he was already doing.

From an interview I heard with Karin Jurick, she was hoping to maybe make some extra cash after the '08 economic downturn, so she could keep her frame store up and running without laying off anyone.

Carol Marine was away from painting for many years after some early disappointing experiences with the art world and got back in the game kind of on a whim, throwing the paintings up on eBay with no expectations as to what might happen.

Others use the whole thing as a way get some exposure and get their name out there.

Point being, none of the above were looking to make small daily paintings their only means of support. A good thing, too, since, as you pointed out, you have to tinker with the numbers in a highly optimistic way before you get to a point where it could be viable.

Just the long way of saying I agree with you :slightly_smiling_face:

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61

Ditto David. I have to agree also.

62

I read the whole thread and wow! Long. :slight_smile: And about to get longer!

This art biz is taking time uh because I don’t know someone famous who would tweet about me or invite me on their talk-show.

My intent is to be able to do the thing I love to do, to grow as an artist and to make something worthy of being bought and enjoyed by someone else and in so doing-make money. Then I’d be able to do it more and more and I don’t huge need piles of art here anyway and it really isn’t ‘born’ until it’s out in the world after all… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I tried many many things attempting to achieve this. I rode the wave on ebay. I sold doing cheap auctions when auctions were still more popular and you could be found there, when they weren’t yet weighed down by fake low quality prints from China being passed off as originals…until I landed here on DPW when they opened this site up to everyone. At that time, auctions still seemed more visited and I sold but usually only got 1 or 2 bids. So I didn’t start out very low for that reason.

In my spare time I pursued my passion. I read everything I could on the subject of art by the artists I really loved and studied the body of art as they produced it to define what I loved about each…like Carol Marine, Brian Burt, Karin Jurick, Duane Keiser, Shawn Kenney, Michael Naples, and many many others… And a lot of them wrote in various posts and in email when I asked–just paint small and often, you will improve, and just do what you love.

And I found it to be true. YES! I am not the only bread winner in the house and I no longer have to work full time so maybe it’s going quicker for me. But somehow, the tidbits I received from lots of different people and the time I did spend painting small and as often as possible is resulting in better paintings and better money. Like baking a cake, I put the ingredients in, slopped it in a pan and when it was baked, it was delicious!

Now, I’m not saying my art is delicious, some is still slop! But I’m happy to be improving, painting more often and as a result, selling more. It takes time and some work too, but it will be worth it. Because if what makes us get up in the morning isn’t art, why would we bother with it at all?

If we keep working on it, we can get there. It wasn’t much different for the artists who have arrived. They had middles too like where most of us are now. And knowing me, I may never arrive. Income may go up, sure, but I will probably never be satisfied with my current state of ability. There’s something in my mind’s eye that I still struggle to paint…better. And there’s so much more beauty I find every day that begs to be painted!

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63

That’s fine as long as you’re doing what you want and not just what you think will sell

64

I am retired and the reason I put my paintings up at such low prices is they are only meant to supplement my social security and a small pension. I’m not looking to become the next Grandma Moses - just looking to make some extra money.

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65

I just went on the active bidding auction page and out of 37 paintings 10 of them were going at $5 or less and another 3-4 for under $12. So sad.

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66

Right now I am amazed at how few auctions are be bid on at all!

67

I started looking at auctions on DPW back in October. Quite consistently until April there were about 90 active auctions whenever I looked. In April it started to slow down. Last night there were under 20 auctions listed. Is the market flooded with paintings? Are buyers buying somewhere else? Is this part of an annual pattern?

68

Yes, the number of sales and active auctions (those with bids) are very seasonal. As we have been seeing, summer time is the slowest for both, however, like clockwork, sales jump right back up at the end of summer, peaking before the holidays, only to fall again thereafter. While it may not be welcomed, it does make sense.

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69

That is also my experience. 2 weeks ago, like magic sales started again on other site. If I had posted new work on DPW, it may have also…but I found the abstracts do not sell on DPW, the realism, still life work does.

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70

Sunny…do you post your abstracts somewhere else? I also find DPW 's sales are more for realism.

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71

Yes, I do sell a lot of abstracts. I have 2 IDs on ebay (yuck), but they sell there. And I would like to do some shows next season.

It was a slow summer but I was busy painting walls (ha), and has just started to pick up again. One of the ID’s:
http://www.ebay.com/usr/sunnyavocadoart

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72

Thank you Sunny. All the very best with your work.

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