I raised my prices and the nervous quiet is louder than the sales
Raised my prices two months ago. Not by much, from 350 to 450 for a portrait. I had this whole spreadsheet argument with myself about it. The logic was fine. Someone actually bought one at the new price last week and I still felt guilty about it, like I'd overcharged a friend.
But here's the thing nobody warns you about. The silence. Before, I'd post a finished portrait and get the usual little hum of interest. Now I post the same quality work and it's just... quiet. I know it's partly the season and partly the algorithm being moody. But I can't shake the feeling that the quiet is people deciding 450 is too much.
The other part of me, the part I'm trying to trust more, says it's just that higher prices filter out the people who were never going to pay anyway. One buyer who treats it as a real purchase beats ten people who say "oh I love your work" and mean it as a compliment to themselves.
I don't know. I keep going back and forth. Any of you who've raised prices and sat through that quiet stretch before it paid off, tell me it got better. Or tell me you dropped back down and it was the right call. I need someone else's spreadsheet.
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I raised my prices too, same kind of jump, and I remember that guilt. Charging what your work is worth can feel like an insult to the people who bought from you before, which makes no sense if you think about it.
On the quiet though, here's a thought. Some of it is real. There are people who watched your work at 350 and felt it was within reach, and at 450 they quietly step back. That's not them devaluing you, it's just the nature of it. You lose the tire-kickers and you gain... nothing visible, yet. But the buyers you keep are the ones who take you seriously. That's worth more than the hum.
The guilty feeling passes when the second or third sale lands. Give it another month. The quiet isn't a verdict, it's just the price of the new position.
You've hit the nail there, and I think you're right about the tire-kickers. I did the same jump a few years back with my prints, 60 to 95, and the first month was deadly quiet. I was sure I'd priced myself out of my own life. Then the strangest thing happened, the people who did buy started asking about commissions and editions, proper collectors' questions, not just "would that look nice over the couch."
And that guilt you mentioned, sure I nearly apologised to a woman when she paid the new price. Handed her the print like I was doing her a favour for taking my money. Madness. Took me a long while to see that nobody's insulted by you charging properly. It's like the price is a signal, and the quiet is just the market taking a breath while it recalibrates around you.
Give it six months. The hum comes back, only it's a different crowd humming.
That's exactly it, "an insult to the people who bought before." I think I've been carrying that around without even naming it. Like everyone who ever paid 350 is going to feel I've betrayed them somehow.
And you're right about the quiet. I keep telling myself the same thing but it helps hearing it from someone who's been through it. 450 is a different room. It's just a quieter one than I was used to, and I'm still learning to be okay with that. Some days I'm convinced the silence means I've overreached, and other days I think, no, this is what it feels like to stop selling to everyone and start selling to the right person.