I’ve recently come across Artfinder.com, a London-based site where artists sell their original work. I’ve been looking around for a place to sell the larger work that doesn’t really fit into my DPW gallery, and I’m thinking that this could be quite a good place to try. It looks quite reasonable (once you get past the annoying ‘sign up now’ popups) but I can’t find much feedback from artists who sell there.
Has anyone on DPW tried selling through this site? How was your experience? Does the site look like a good place to sell to more experienced eyes?
Fairly informative thread about it on Wet Canvas. To even look at the site, you have to join or log on with Facebook, which I don’t like, so I didn’t look.
I’ve been selling on Artfinder for a year now and I like it very much. I’ve sold 6 pieces and I’m showing the same art as on DPW which is twice as much as on DPW. I don’t post nearly as much as I need to (I’ve had a rough year), hopefully I will be more consistent and more prolific from now on. They also have a Forum for discussions such as this with help and complaining (HA!). No charge to post but there is a 40% commission.
@Connie_McLennan Thanks for linking that thread, just the kind of thing I was looking for. You don’t actually have to join to look at the site- that is just a pop-up, you can close it and continue browsing. I do find it annoying, but almost all sites have something like that these days.
@purplehaze I took a look at your gallery, beautiful paintings! That sounds pretty positive. The website says 30% commission plus VAT from what I can see, maybe it’s changed recently… Seeing as there’s no listing cost, though, I may as well apply and see if they like me or not. Nothing to lose!
Yes, it seemed like a close-able pop-up, but I was not able to close it in my Safari berowser. Maybe just a glitch, or it’s not completely compatible with Safari.
I don’t know how much promotion they do, what their costs are, or how they compare to others, but to me, 30 or 40% commission seems pretty high for an online gallery with no brick-and-mortar expenses.
Hi, I joined Artfinder a month ago and quickly sold an original for quite a lot more than when it was on DPW.
I see someone else replied to you that the commission rate is 40%. In fact it is 30%.
I have noticed that a lot of people look initially and then the number of viewers of my shop fall away although the number of people loving it keeps going ever upwards! Suspect that is the norm as more and more people join the site. The number joining might land up killing it off as people will find sales will become nil as their work gets buried.
To be honest, Artfinder does accept some art that is perhaps not at all good at one end and very good at the other. I know some people feel that the lower bar is not discriminatory enough.
I did set up an Artfinder profile, loaded paintings but when I realized all the terms and conditions (I know I should have read 1st), I was scared away by the return policy. It’s been a while but it was something like 14 days, they could return for any reason and artfinder could debit if they decided to for their reasons and if it was damaged because the buyer didn’t package correctly…artfinder not responsible. Just too much lack of control over transactions.
I find this to be true on ebay, amazon too. I love DPW but abstracts just don’t sell here. I sell them on ebay ok although cheaply. They don’t sell well online for ME at all, but sell much better when you can see them.
Did the percentage go up? I sell on Artfinder too and I pay 30%. I hope it’s not 40%.
I sold 2 so far since Feb. 2016. I might have been able to sell more but I didn’t put as much energy in it as I do here.
Lately, I’ve been using it more though. I think it’s fine but the percentage they take is high.
Sorry, I must have seen the short version of this thread first. I now see the corrections of the percentage Artfinder takes.
I hope they don’t raise it, it’s high enough already.
I think you are right. I noticed viewers dropped off and even watchers disappeared. I think the problem is so much art is accepted in an indiscriminate way that quite quickly your gallery gets buried deeper and deeper into the site with little chance of getting enough viewers from which a buyer might emerge.
I’m seriously thinking of leaving Artfinder. The overheads are too high and the adding of Free Post days erodes any potential earning even further.
Some of the art really should not be there.
A couple of weeks ago they were appealing for recent art graduates to join the site. That’s potentially many thousands of new works burying yours! Art graduates are just starting out and need to find their style and move gradually through the stages of becoming an artist. Should they be gulled into paying such fees? Should they not be working away in the outside world away from college until they find their metier and price level first…and, of course, whether their work deserves to find a buyer?
Artfinder needs to be reminded that its charges are because they are working for the artist - not adding to the difficulty of selling.
After a quick look at artprism, I see some major deficiencies. 1) No way to browse artists by name (so no way to shop for a specific artist if you don’t know whether or not he/she is even there.) 2) No way to shop by country. I would like to see if any artists I know are using it, but there’s no way to tell other than searching for random individual names. 3) Only 2 pages of oil paintings, three of any type at all, no one I know, and hardly anyone in the U.S. 4) Wonky controls for shopping by price or size—couldn’t get them to work at all. I can’t imagine this site having a lot of traffic from the U.S.
I signed up for artfinder and was a member for almost a year. I found with their “add artwork” interface it was very tedious and from what i remember the framework of their uploader was also very specific. for example when I would upload an 8x10 the dimensions had to be put in the right order based on what the orientation you uploaded was. (very tedious). I spent a lot of time loading my inventory in there never to make a sale.
I think at the time i uploaded 50+ works so it took me a long time.
I mention all of this because it may not be worth your time living in the US. I would get at most maybe 5-10 views a week on a piece that on ebay or DPW i would get in a day. I don’t know for a fact if we are filtered out as americans on backpaged in the index, but for sure the website was put together very well, but you probably have to be in the UK to make it work for you. The only reason i bothered is because my 8x10s do not cost much to send international first class mail to the UK from here in California. I do wish i had all that time back though, i could have gotten a lot of painting done.
i could search by artist by typing artist’s name in the search box.They don’t seem to have a list of artists to look through though.Not an important feature to consider in my opinion
2)I could filter artworks by country by clicking on advanced search options so i think they are covered there too.
3)I suppose they don’t appear to have a massive collection of oil paintings because they are fairly new in the market.The fact that they are a juried platform means that they will only display quality works though.
4)Didn’t find their controls wonky however i don’t imagine them having large traffic from US considering that they are new.
I like the website because its very similar to Riseart ,taking very talented artists on-board and displaying quality artworks.I also like the fact that they charge only 20% commission. Newbloodart has good collection too but the artwork upload procedure is very tricky to handle as everything gets filtered by the owner.
The only art marketplace charging low commission at the moment is etsy.com however it doesn’t market artists at all.
@artlover_always, our art marketplace, DailyPaintworks.com, only charges a 3% commission on our auctions and charges no commissions on all other sales, including immediate sales through PayPal.
Yes, I used it for about a year and then pulled the plug. I would have quit sooner but I promised myself to give it a year. I sold a couple of paintings. The pricing I used took into account their high commission charges (ie I raised my prices) and I felt uncomfortable about that, but needs must. Note the 30% commission is on shipping costs as well as the art work so tbh the total probably is nearer 40%. Basically, I quit because of the endless e-mails I got from them pestering me to do more marketing, to show off my paintings in staged settings with the latest “interior design” backgrounds etc and I felt like I was just there to provide wiindow dressing for someone’s aspirational home. Also if I was doing all the marketing what was I paying them for?? I know this is not the right attitude, but it is how I felt.
Art finder is not interested in art. That is my experience. You get only as much exposure from them as you can drum up by attracting ‘likes’ so it was also very bad for my morale, as you end up painting to attract likes if you’re not careful. I think that is why sites like that often end up with lots of same-y art.
I prefer DPW as they let me be and i have never been bullied-by-email to post more paintings or take better photos etc. Also, there is terrific flexibility with this site.
And there are many other sites like Artfinder unfortunately.
I agree with your points about DPW. There IS art traffic here and lots of art interest of course.
I also am grateful for how long DPW has endured, developed and hasn’t kept raising the price. My art does not get buried here, everyone has a shot on the front page when posting. All in all, I still love DPW.
