Raised a bronze price 12% after thirty years and lost two regulars in a week

Raised my bronze prices 12% this spring. First real increase in about three years. The foundry raised their cut twice in that span, so I was already eating it. Two collectors who bought from me every couple of years for over a decade both passed. One said "maybe next year." The other just didn't answer.

I know that's the math working the way it's supposed to. I still lay awake doing it over. Sixty-seven hours in a piece I sold for $4,800 last year. That's under seventy an hour before materials, before the foundry, before the crate and freight. Raising it to $5,400 should feel like nothing. It felt like I was the one being unreasonable.

I keep a ledger from my apprenticeship days. First bronze I ever had cast, the foundry charged me $180. I sold it for $900 and thought I was rich. Same foundry, same size piece now runs me $3,100. Young sculptors ask me what to charge and I don't have an answer that doesn't sound like I'm complaining.

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Dimitra Vasilakis·1h

I feel this one. The math never lies and it still keeps you up. Thirty years is a long time to be afraid of a number.

We have the same problem on my side of it. Two years ago I finally raised my big pieces 15% after a decade of holding. Lost one regular who'd bought every year since 2009. He didn't even say anything, just stopped calling. That silence is worse than the "maybe next year." At least that one's a conversation.

But here's the thing I've landed on after all these years. The people who stay get it. The ones who go were buying the bargain, not the work. And a piece you can't afford to make anymore isn't a piece you can keep making just to keep them happy. You're forty-five years into this trade, you've paid the foundry's increases, you've earned the right to charge what the hours actually cost.

The two that left will tell their friends about how expensive you got. The ten that stay will tell theirs about the work. Which do you think brings better people to your door?

Sleep will come back eventually. It always does. The bronze won't get cheaper in the meantime.

Roman PetrakOP·41m

Appreciate that. You're right about who stays. I've been telling myself the same thing, it just takes a while to feel it.

The silent one is the one that gets me too. No warning, no conversation, just gone. At least "maybe next year" is a fight you can have. The other one you're just sitting there wondering if you could've said something different.

Fifteen percent after a decade though, that's braver than my twelve. How long did it take before you stopped second-guessing it?

Tomáš Havel·1h

Thirty years and you're worried about twelve percent. The foundry raised their cut twice in that same span and nobody lost sleep over that. You're the only one in the chain who apologizes for the math.

I know losing them stings. But the ones who said "maybe next year" after a decade of buying from you weren't collecting your work, they were collecting a price. That's not the same thing, and it never was.

My first raise after the revolution took me a year to work up to. Lost two regulars then too. One of them came back three years later and paid double what he'd refused, because the work hadn't stopped being his and the price had just stopped being a bargain. The other one I never heard from again and I stopped checking.

You priced the piece at what it costs you to make it and stay alive. That's not a betrayal, it's the only honest number you've got. Seventy an hour before materials is already a charity rate. Five-forty is still a charity rate, just a slightly less ashamed one.

The ones who stay were never going anywhere. Sleep if you can.

Roman PetrakOP·1h

You're not wrong about the foundry. They don't lose sleep over it and I shouldn't either. But it's different when it's a face on the other end of the check. The foundry's a bill. Those two were people I'd had coffee with.

The one who came back after three years and paid double, that part I needed to hear. Tells me the work held up. That's the real test, isn't it. If it holds, they come back. If it doesn't, no price was going to save it anyway.