Pricing your artwork Lets be realistic

I sold a few things there, but after about a year - I became disgusted and decidedly quit without looking back.
Afterall, they don't call it Fee-Bay for nothing...


So here is the problem with Fee-bay: as an artist you have to pay the $19.95 featured auction fee - just to be seen, and then there is your listing fee, which was based on how much you were asking for the artwork. Then, if you are lucky enough to sell the item, you pay a final value fee and then the Paypal fee and before you know it, you are lucky to be taking home two pence for all your work.


So it's working for some and more power to them. But for many of the others, there is simply something I just can't understand - and that's the constant need for these artists to list their originals - yes, ORIGINALS - at an opening bid of $1...

So there it is, after shelling out $30 to $35 for the listing, they began their auction at $1 (and I am not considering the price of their materials here, either.) I understand the need to create interest in the work, to foster bidders into a game of out-bidding each other by offering a "too good to be true" offer, and yet these paintings rarely sell at anything above $10 - if they sell at all. And if you spend any real time there looking at the artwork, you will also see that often times the art doesn't even get many views.

Why?

But it's not a question of why don't they get any interest.. It is more a question of why do you do this? Why does ANYONE do this? And you can't blame Fee-bay, there are other art auction sites where you see artists engaging in this same insanity. The legacy that they are passing on to their counterparts is tragic - it makes it nearly impossible for any artist to ask even $99 for their artwork, let alone a real price for the piece. And then you have to consider what to charge for packing and cost for shipping the item. How ridiculous does it look when you charge $1 for the artwork and $50 for the shipping. On a piece that is 30 x 40 charging $50 to ship is down right cheap - but the customer thinks you are trying to gouge them by charging a higher shipping. So the artist doesn't get a sale and he looks like a con-man in the process.

I don't deny that the advent of auction sites for art have brought more market forces to the art buying public. Art that isn't worth it's salt simply won't fetch a good price. Artists who have large market appeal will see their prices rise - it's the way it works. But the idea of any serious artist attempting to pass off their hard work for a lousy buck makes me want to scream. It also makes it harder for me to defend why I am charging hundreds more for a smaller painting.. Despite the market forces, many art buyers simply don't understand what goes into the work itself. Unfortunately, few clients understand the work that is entailed and an ignorant public then cannot go the extra mile to see why the price is high.

And how about this simple comparison - remember this the next time you price your work: Diamonds are the most plentiful of all the precious gemstone - you want rare?? Go buy a Tanzanite, an Emerald, an Imperial Topaz - and we'll talk rare. But the diamond sellers weren't stupid, they simply placed a high emotional value on the item and sold it as such. To this day no guy could ever get off buying his best girl anything less than something of such perceived value - and it had better come with a nice price tag - or its worthless in her mind. It's just a shame that artists have not been able to master this technique. Many more of us could be living as full time artists. I believe the buying public is happy to have something of value as well as having contributed their hard earned dollars directly to the artist from which they buy. Clients simply do not now how many of their dollars have supported fee-bay, and how many really good artists drop off the edge simply because they refuse to compete in the sweatshop market place.

In closing. Consider carefully the next time you place a dollar value on your piece. A simple, fair market price does everyone a favor.