"You should put your prices up" - said by people who don't have to sell my work
Had someone at a craft fair last weekend tell me I'm underselling myself. Very nice lady, bought a small 8x10 of a barn scene, paid $65. Then she stood there and told me I should be charging triple for everything because my work is "gallery quality."
And I'm thinking... you just paid $65. You're not wrong exactly, but also you're not the one sitting at a table for six hours hoping to cover the booth fee.
I've slowly raised prices over the last couple years. A 16x20 that was $150 in 2022 is $225 now. And I do get that people who love to give pricing advice usually mean well. But the ones who actually pay are the ones who tell me "I love this but can you do $50?" and I have to decide if I want to eat the loss or let it walk.
There's a sweet spot somewhere between "paying myself $3 an hour" and "pricing myself into an empty booth." I haven't nailed it. Anyone else feel like pricing is the hardest thing to get right, no matter how good the work gets?
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The funny thing about that advice is it usually comes from people who've never had to watch a stack of unsold work grow at the end of a market. "You're worth more" is easy to say when you're not the one who has to pack it all back into the car.
Your prices aren't arbitrary, they're the number where the work actually moves. That's not underselling, that's reading the room. And you're still raising them slowly, which is more than a lot of makers do. They'd rather complain about undercharging than risk a quiet table.
The lady meant well, I'm sure. But the price she paid is the real answer to her own advice.
The thing nobody says out loud is that "gallery quality" pricing only works if you've got a gallery doing the selling. Someone's got to pay for that white cube overhead and the opening night wine and the 50% commission, and it's not the artist. At a craft fair you're doing every part of it yourself, production, transport, setup, small talk, card reader, packing up in the dark. That labour is invisible to people who only see the object on the table.
I've had the same conversation at print fairs. Someone picks up an etching that took two days to prepare, print, dry, sign, and says "you could sell this for so much more in a gallery." And they're probably right. But I'm not in a gallery right now, I'm here, and I need to move these so I can afford the next plate.
Your price is what the work costs to leave your hands at a given moment in a given context. That's honest.
Yes, exactly. The print fair comparison hits home. People see a finished piece and have no idea about the setup and tear down and the hours of sitting there hoping someone stops. I've had people pick up an 11x14 and ask if I do commissions, then balk at a number that's basically minimum wage once you account for materials and time.
And I get it, we're all working within what people will pay at a given venue. That's just how it works. But the "you should charge more" crowd never seems to factor in that I'd also like to actually sell things 😅
That's exactly it. The lady was lovely and I don't think she meant anything bad by it, but there's a difference between what something could sell for in a gallery and what it'll sell for out of a pop-up tent. I'd love to get those prices someday but I'm not there yet and pretending otherwise just means hauling more unsold paintings home.