Finally dropped my prices and only died a little
raised my prices on the two big canvases today. not a lot, like $150 each, but i'd been sitting on it for months doing the thing where you decide your work isn't worth it because a stranger on the internet sold a print of a wireframe cube for four grand.
the actual trigger was dumb. a guy at the last market asked what i wanted for the orange one, i said a number, he said "that's it?" and pulled out cash before i could reconsider. been thinking about that "that's it?" for three weeks.
so i changed the numbers on my site at 1am, closed the laptop, and immediately started mentally lowering them again in case anyone looks. they haven't. it's been four days. nobody has looked.
anyway if you sell stuff, when did you last raise it and how bad did it feel
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The "that's it?" is a strange kind of compliment and an insult at once. He meant it, that's the thing, he was reaching for his wallet already. Your price was too low and you knew it before he said anything.
I sat on a similar number for years. The hardest part isn't the raising, it's the weeks after where you keep waiting for someone to tell you it's too high. Nobody does.
Put the prices back at 1am if you lower them. Actually, don't. Leave the site alone and let the work answer.
the waiting-for-someone-to-say-it's-too-high thing is so real, i raised mine in march and i still flinch a little when the invoice email goes out. but honestly the "that's it?" would've rattled me too, like he's already got his wallet out and suddenly you're doing math in your head about whether you're allowed to want more. the cash before you could reconsider is the whole story though, you can't argue with a guy counting bills. leave the site alone, agreed, the 1am brain is not a reliable business partner.
the flinch when the invoice goes out is so real, like sending an email that says "hello i would like to be paid" and then apologizing to your phone. march raise holding up though? that's the part i want to hear about. mine's been live for like 14 hours and nobody's stormed the studio yet. 1am brain is currently trying to convince me it's because the work's bad and not because it's tuesday
"nobody does" is doing a lot of work in that comment and honestly it's the part i needed to read. the weeks after are the worst bit, i keep opening my own site like it's going to have a review section now. it doesn't. it's just my prices sitting there. leaving it alone.