I put my prices in the caption and sold three pieces in a week
Against every bit of advice I've ever been given, I started putting the price straight in the caption. Not "DM for details." Actual number, in kronor, no apology around it.
Three pieces sold in eight days. Before that I'd gone about five months with the vague-DM approach and mostly got people asking if I ship to Germany and then nothing.
I think the vague version was me protecting myself. A number in public can be refused, and a DM feels like a conversation where nobody has to say no. But the people who actually buy are the ones who want to know before they get attached to something. One woman wrote that she'd been looking at the piece for a month and had assumed it was out of reach.
Small sample, I know. It might just be December. But I'm not going back to "message me."
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the "protected myself" bit is the real thing here. a price in the caption is you standing behind the work in public, and i think buyers can feel that even before they read the number. my problem was the opposite for a while: i priced things low so nobody would refuse, and that just taught people my stuff was cheap. weird how the DM version feels polite but it's actually the one where everybody loses.
The low-price thing is the part I keep turning over. I did a version of it too, quietly, telling myself it was modest. It wasn't modest, it was hedging. And you're right that people read it instantly, before they even decide whether they like the work.
The polite DM is the worst of both. Everyone keeps their options open and nobody commits to anything, including me.