I raised my prices by 40% and nobody noticed

I raised my originals by forty percent at the start of the year. Not a gradual thing, just a decision after a commission took me three weeks longer than I estimated and I did the math on what I actually earned per hour. I expected some pushback, at least a pause before purchases. Nothing. The last three pieces sold within the same window they always have.

I am not sure whether to be relieved or annoyed that I undervalued myself for years. The work did not change. The buyers did not change. Only the number did. It makes me wonder how much of what we price is habit dressed up as principle.

If you raised rates recently, did it change anything measurable? I would like to know whether my experience is the rule or the exception.

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Ramesh Jha·1w

This is a very thoughtful thing to share, ji. In our tradition this question is not new. My mother used to say that the price we ask is not for the work only, it is also for the years behind the hand. But we never believed it ourselves fully. We always feared that if we ask more, people will say this is too much for a village painting, and they will go elsewhere.

I have seen this same thing in our cooperative. Sometimes we sell too cheap because we are afraid. The buyer does not know our fear. They see the work only. If they value it, they will pay. If they do not, no price will make them.

But I will say one thing with respect. You said nobody noticed, and you are wondering if you were undervaluing for years. Maybe it is not that nobody noticed the price. Maybe it is that they always saw the value, and you were the last one to see it. That is a good thing to realise, even if it stings a little.

I hope it keeps going well for you.

Mira Vey·1w

Your mother's line about the years behind the hand, that's the whole thing isn't it. We price for the hours we can count and pretend the rest doesn't matter. But buyers aren't paying for hours anyway, they're paying for whether it stops them. Fear and price have almost nothing to do with each other from the buyer's side, that's the part that took me embarrassingly long to learn.

I raised mine maybe half that much a few years ago and had the same non-reaction. Almost offended. Like I'd been leaving money on the table out of politeness this whole time.

The cooperative thing resonates though. It's different when it's a group of you, harder to be the one who moves first. Someone's got to test the water for everyone else.

Margaret HsuOP·1w

You have put your finger on the exact annoyance, which is that the market was telling me the truth all along and I simply was not listening. I had convinced myself the hesitation I felt was prudence when it was really just fear dressed up as good manners. No buyer ever thanked me for being inexpensive.

The cooperative point you raise is the part I keep turning over as well. There is a real tension between being good to one another in a small field and the simple arithmetic that says everyone who works beneath their worth drags the floor down for the rest. I have not resolved it. I suspect the resolution is in being accurate about our own costs first and generous where there is room, and not the other way around.

Margaret HsuOP·1w

Your mother's words carry real weight. The years behind the hand are not something a buyer can see, but they feel them all the same, even if they could not name what they are responding to. I think the fear you describe, that people will walk away and call it too dear, is the artist's own doubt made louder than it deserves to be. The buyer who values the work does not bargain with your fear. They either see it or they do not.

What you say about the cooperative strikes me as the harder version of this problem, because there the price is not only about your own worth but about everyone else's in the room. That takes more nerve. I admire that you can name it plainly.

Have you raised your own prices yet, or is the cooperative still setting them for you?

Karen Wessel·1w

This hits close to home. I did something similar a couple years back, not as dramatic, maybe 15%, and I braced for the silence afterward. Nothing. The one person who'd been eyeing a piece for months finally bought it after the increase, which I still don't fully understand.

I think the part about habit dressed up as principle is so true. I priced my early pieces based on what I thought people would pay, not what my time was worth, and I carried that number around for way too long. It took me doing the hourly math on a still life that took forever to realize I was basically paying myself minimum wage to paint.

40% is bold though. Good for you for just going for it. Are you planning on pushing it further now that you know the ceiling wasn't where you thought it was, or are you leaving it there for a while?

Margaret HsuOP·1w

Your point about habit dressed as principle is exactly what kept me underpriced for years. I did the same thing you did: I set my early prices based on what I imagined the market would bear, not on what the work actually cost me in time and materials, and I kept treating that guess as though it were a law of nature.

There is something genuinely strange about the buyer who waited months and then bought after the increase. I have one explanation, which is that price signals quality to people who cannot judge the work itself. They assume the higher number means better work, and sometimes that is the only reassurance they have.

The hourly math was the uncomfortable part for me. When I did it honestly, including the time I spent on composition studies and rejected attempts, I realised I had effectively been paying myself a wage I would not have accepted from anyone else. Raising the price felt like the first serious respect I paid my own labour.