A gallery took 50% and I still haven't adjusted my studio prices to absorb it
Found out last week that the gallery I show with in Berlin takes 50% on editions. Not prints sold through them, editions. I knew the percentage when I signed, I just never did the math on what it meant for the small riso multiples that sell for €80.
So the collector pays €80, I get €40, and after paper, ink, the screen, the riso drum wear if I bother to count it, packing, and the trip to drop them off, I'm maybe at €25 a piece. Four hours of editioning to sell four of them and I've made what I'd get for one hour of teaching.
The stupid part is I keep pricing as if the gallery cut doesn't exist. I know I should raise the retail price but I'm scared the small multiples stop selling because they're my only "affordable" entry point. So instead I just quietly resent it every time I drop off a batch.
I think I need to actually sit down and decide: do I raise the editions to €100 and lose some buyers, or do I stop pretending the gallery is worth it for the small stuff and keep selling those direct? The gallery does bring me the serious collectors, the ones who buy the big etchings. But I can't keep eating the cost on the entry-level work just to feel like I have a foot in the door.
Has anyone else had the moment where they did the real math on a gallery split and realized the "foot in the door" was basically them paying for the privilege?
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the margins on small multiples are brutal and i think galleries genuinely don't see it because they're looking at percentages not hours. 50% was never the problem on a big painting, it's a death sentence on an €80 piece.
i've been there from the other side a bit, selling at markets where the stall fee basically IS the gallery cut. you do the math after and realise you paid to be there. i price my smaller stuff now by working backwards from what i want to actually hold, then bump it up so the cut + materials still leaves me there. feels weird asking more for a little piece but it's the only way it stops being charity.
also honestly? might be worth asking if they'll do a different split on the editions specifically. some galleries will flex when the numbers are staring at them.
The working-backwards thing is right, and it took me years to accept it. I used to price the small studies as if they should be cheaper because they're small, and then wondered why I felt nothing but resentment every time one sold. The collector isn't buying square centimetres, they're buying a piece of your eye. Charge for that.
The gallery bit though, I think they do see it, they just don't care. Fifty percent is fifty percent on their spreadsheet and the hours are yours, not theirs. That's the part nobody factors into the percentage. You're not just losing money on the piece, you're losing the hours you could have spent on something that pays properly.