Sanity check please - was I 'devaluing her art' or is this seller a headcase?

No they don’t benefit, they just don’t understand the implications of the figures they enter. I think some online retailers do not ship abroad very often, particularly in big countries like USA and Canada where most of their customers and domestic. Consequently they do not always understand that different countries have different rules on tax paid for receipt of goods.

The issue is in how they handle this. I had one American retailer who used the same paperwork from a previous transaction which stung me for vat and tax in more than i actually paid for the item. I dropped them a polite note to let them know for future customers and they were so lovely about it, saying I was their only UK customer and they didn’t realise. They sent me something to say sorry marked as a gift and zero value, and all subsequent orders have been spot on. They do annual releases of their products and I get a little handwritten note with my parcel saying they look out for my order every year, and thanks for being a great supporter. That’s how a small online craft seller gets and keeps loyal customers!

You don't have to be mad to be an artist... but it helps, huh?

The value, it's more now on what someone will pay

I mean, has she any knowledge at all of art? Pretty much the point of art as a commercial endeavour is not that you charge what is costs to make. It's what someone is willing to pay. Otherwise, the Mona Lisa would be cheap as chips

Customs duty is based on value, not cost. I think she's basically being vain in a very arty way. What is the value of a painting is basically determined by what someone is prepared to pay for it. However, in this artist's mind, she can set the value of her work. As far as she is concerned, she has sold you a painting worth £450 (or whatever) at a discount. In her mind it is still "worth" £450.

I suspect she's struggling to sell any of her paintings, hence the sale. From her perspective, this doesn't mean that she's overvalued her work, it means that the rest of the world doesn't properly appreciate the true value of her work. By questioning her valuation, you have struck directly at her sense of worth, which may well be pretty fragile.

I see this a lot with people trying to sell their knitting too. I'm sure it did cost you £20 of wool and took you 15 hours to knit a scarf, but that doesn't mean anyone has to pay you £200 for it.

And then customs would add a charge because it’s clearly been underpriced to avoid paying the required charge.

@babaisyou

I mean I’m not sure, but I think it’s based on the commercial value. Otherwise the artist could sell the painting abroad for £5 to a ‘friend’ to avoid paying the required tax.

No. Customs is based on the price paid by the buyer. It's very clear from a quick search online that this is the rule.

"It's based on price paid or payable by the buyer to the seller for the goods when they are sold for export to the UK." - from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/prepare-to-work-out-the-customs-value-of-your-imported-goods

Customs value is the price the buyer paid for the goods, not what they are 'worth' - so she should have stated it as what you paid.

That's simply the rule, nothing to do with emotions or anything else. She should have stated the price paid.

Having said that - as an artist, I can understand why she is hypersensitive about work being devalued - because it often is.

90% of the time, artists undersell themselves, usually quite significantly.

People really do not understand how much time and money go into making art, and I would imagine that at under £500 for two pieces, you were getting a very good deal.

I think her reaction was wrong, unreasonable and totally out of proportion. But the underlying issue that triggered her is very much a thing.

@PoochiesPinkEars and @Elber great reviews 😂

I could paint a picture, sell it for a fiver but claim it's worth millions. It's only worth what anyone will pay for it, and in this case it was £260, not £400+. She's an idiot. No wonder she's claiming poverty, sounds like she'll only get 1/2 sales out of each customer with the attitude she has.

Review:
The UK government must be delighted by this artists policy of (when faced with a choice of what to put on the customs ticket) declaring the original asking price not the actual price she sold it for. This policy earned their coffers an additional £50 on the alternative option of listing the price I actually paid on my chosen item.
But this is true integrity at work as at least the customs office are in no doubt as to the real value of the item in the package they processed.
I was less delighted admittedly, but I did get a free lecture with my surprise tax bill so I'm now just grateful to be not only poorer but enlightened too. 🙏

It's not right. If your offer of £250k was accepted on a house marketed at £300k you wouldn't expect to pay stamp duty on £300k.

This is so smart. I never thought about it this way but that obviously makes sense. Thank you!

Loads of artists on Instagram and threads are batshit when it comes to people not buying or respecting their "art" sufficiently and how hard it is to make a living. They all coo over each other and say "there there, our lives are sooo hard". Id rather not sell something, than sell it because someone felt sorry for me tbh. Id want someone to buy my stuff because they liked it (said as someone who used to have a small handmade business and i shut it down rather than moan to potential customers about it being too hard. I wasnt cut out for selling.)

That's the thing about self employment. You have to work harder than you would if you were employed. Don't choose that then moan because nobody will buy your overpriced tat.

Id leave a brief, factual review about what happened and that because of her you're now £50 out of pocket. Id also report her to customs for the false declaration with no hesitation at all.

@catPA

I do think there is a bit of grey area. I think customs is based on the value of the goods, not the cost. So I think the seller can put on her declaration what she believes to be the value. But her intention should have been made clear to you.

Oh my word, the cheese has well and truly slipped off her cracker...😮
Sorry you've had your fingers burned with this one OP... I'd be leaving a review!
Absolutely bonkers.
Think she might be in the throes of a Michelangelo Complex... 🤔but honestly, what a pretentious plonker! 😂

Interesting- as I had paid customs on stuff I got on sales from abroad, and each time they stated original value on the forms, not the reduced.

@catPA

I’m wondering if you could leave a review in equally ‘flowery’ wording, but making other customers aware.

Something like :
”I was so incredibly grateful to receive such an exquisite masterpiece. My home and - indeed - life is now transformed by this artist’s exceptional talent. The plight of artists in these difficult times is heartbreaking. I felt humbled to purchase this item on sale, and felt the artist’s subsequent decision to still value this piece at its original price to customs was so meaningful. Let us all stand and say ‘art has no price, art comes from the soul’ as we hand over an additional £50 to customs.”

Tell us the account OP. Am v curious.

I was self employed selling ceramics for a few years and I would never have spoken to a customer like that, never mind a repeat customer who spent hundreds of pounds.
I used to buy frequently from the USA and actually it was far more common
( yes, I know it was wrong ) to put a lesser value on the customs form to reduce high custom charges.
I would bend over backwards for my customers - she is batshit crazy and arrogant in the extreme. Who does she think she is, Da Vinci?
Yes, I bloody would leave a review. As a potential customer, another £100 or so on top of the purchase price would give me pause for thought at the very least.
I

Yanbu. The real value of any item is the price a willing purchaser will pay. The piece originally priced at £450 clearly didn't sell at that price so wasn't worth that much. It only sold when reduced to £280 so that is its real value and she unfairly inflated the value on the customs paperwork. Would customs accept your transaction receipt as proof of the real value?

I don't think it would be unreasonable to write on an otherwise complimentary review "be cautious if ordering from outside Canada you may find unexoectedly high import taxes are charged because the artist may declare a much higher value of goods than the actual price you paid, thus increasing your costs"

Artists hey? I have known them.

Maybe she thinks the package will get lost and she can claim the inflated price as compensation.

Definitely leave a factual review.