Layaway Plan on DPW

The Business of Selling Art Other Business Stuff
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Does anyone on DPW do layaway? That is allowing someone to pay for a piece of artwork little by little? Any advice or tips for doing this?

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No, I don’t do it. I once considered it for commissions but rejected the idea.
My thoughts were:

  1. How would I enforce the payment plan? If the client had the painting, they have the painting - I can’t make ‘em pay me or return it (an added factor for me is that most of my customers are in the USA and I am not)
  2. I am not a credit agency
  3. If the customer needed time to pay I am more than happy to hold on to their painting whilst they save up for it :smiley:
  4. I don’t charge very much, frankly. I see people in the supermarket queue in front of me who pay more for their weekly groceries than I charge for my work.

Others’ will have different views I’m sure, these are just mine, for what they’re worth.

On a related topic, I do not ‘donate’ paintings any more either. The number of requests I got for such donations got silly once and I stopped. I couldn’t think of another profession whose members would be asked to donate their time and skills for free as a matter of course.

I might gift a painting, of my own choice, but that’s different :blush:

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I have let ppl pay with instalment for more expensive pieces. On PayPal, there’s a setting for this! So they can pay the invoice partially. I ship it when the whole invoice has been paid. Just make sure you determine the time they have to pay.

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Thank you both for your thoughts on layaway. I watched an art marketing webinar and they recommended layaway as an option. When I do commission paintings, I require 1/3 up front before I even start, 1/3 halfway through the painting and the final price + tax & shipping at the end before I even ship it.

I thought layaway could work something like that. I would accept a deposit, non-refundable, to hold the painting for a period of time, say 2 weeks. Then accept payments (to be determined) monthly until it is paid entirely. Then I would ship the painting. I would have the buyer sign a contract up front.

Does that sound reasonable?
I will look into the PayPal layaway plan. Thanks for mentioning it. I did not know about that plan.

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