To increase my prices?

[JulietMadeChutney]

I have recently started selling limited edition prints or my drawings on Etsy. So far going well - been doing it 8 weeks - average income £200 a week, sold about 9 a week.

I popped on here earlier this week (for some help with some retail advice as been approached by a local shop for them to sell them) and several people said I was undercharging. Several people IRL (not friends/family) have also said the same. So I need to try and gauge if I need to put my prices up. Often too low a price can be as off putting as too high a price.

I sell currently at
A5 - £15.00
A4 - £17.50
A3 - £25.00

Prints are Gilcee/Fine Art quality with certificate of authenticity.
Postage is included.

General consensus is I should raise prices to more like
A5 - £20
A4 - £25
A3 - £30

I have attached a couple of photos of the kind of stuff I do.

So, I know they won't be everyone's taste. But If you could pretend you did like them - or that they would be a perfect gift for your sister because she loves cows/hares/boxing- what would you be willing to pay?

First time at enabling voting.
YABU - keep your prices at £15.00 -£25.00 depending on size - I wouldn't pay more

YANBU increase to £20.00-£35.00 depending on size, I would pay this.

Any other pricing comments welcome.

Thank you

#200 per week, each week, is a good steady income - so you are doing something right.

Ignoring your time (for now) what are your costs adding up to.

Provided your costs are not adding up to more than 50% of your revenue, then I think you are probably priced about right.

No point increasing prices only to get no sales.

Have you thought, also, about wholesaling direct to retailers?
Your printer may well be able to ship direct too - saving postage.

I think your drawings are wonderful! You could definitely increase your prices.
On Etsy I’ve noticed some sellers allow you to choose between gloss and matte which I always like too.

Just a thought - what’s your social media presence like? Instagram is a great platform for showcasing art and you could potentially get some good results out of Pinterest as well.

@JulietMadeChutney

Please can you send me a link to your shop

I love your prints

Thank you

And yes you are under charging

Can you send a link or tell us your shop on etsy .the border collie drawing is fantastic I think they the best dogs in the world and would live that and would pay the higher price no bother .

@MirandaWestsNewBFF

Just a thought - what’s your social media presence like? Instagram is a great platform for showcasing art and you could potentially get some good results out of Pinterest as well.

I am trying to build it. Got and art-specific instagram and FB pages now. Just trying to post regularly. The whole marketing things is another ball-game.

Currently building a website. tedium personified Largely to direct people to the Etsy page as am not sure I want to maintain shops on both. Also it will be a place to have a price list for the commissions/pet portraits.

All this is being juggled around a p-t job, family etc. And it was a hobby I have just fallen in love with. So it is trying to get the balance between maintaining my love of drawing and selling them.

I would leave prices the same. Do you make limited prints as number? So 3/100 for example, so people know how limited.
I buy a lot of prints on Etsy and unless originals, I think you are priced correctly.
Have you tried Red Bubble? The boots etc would look great as phone covers.
Plus offer personalised pets portraits.

OP I think your work is lovely but some people are posting comments which refer to original artwork.

These are high quality prints so you don't need to cover your time with each sale. Are some very much more popular? If you are selling that many, maybe they are a bit cheap. I might follow a PP's suggestion and keep A5 at £15, then go £20/£30 for A4 and A3.

No idea how much a giclee print costs tho I guess postage on A5 would be pretty low, but say all that is £7 inc packaging then £15 gives you a reasonable profit.

I think you are very talented, you should charge more and maybe do commissions too?

@clary

OP I think your work is lovely but some people are posting comments which refer to original artwork.

These are high quality prints so you don't need to cover your time with each sale. Are some very much more popular? If you are selling that many, maybe they are a bit cheap. I might follow a PP's suggestion and keep A5 at £15, then go £20/£30 for A4 and A3.

No idea how much a giclee print costs tho I guess postage on A5 would be pretty low, but say all that is £7 inc packaging then £15 gives you a reasonable profit.

I agree with that. Originals are a different game

If it helps, I just bought an A4 townscape print very similar to yours off Instagram for £30 inc first class postage

You've had some good advice on this thread, and it's nice to see other Etsy sellers on MN, I sometimes feel like the only one

Yes you do need to charge more, and I'd also encourage you to think about whether you need to be herded towards free shipping just because Etsy encourages it. Sure it may give you a little search boost, but as you are so talented it may be worth thinking about that now before sales get really crazy so customers aren't surprised later if you change from free shipping to separate shipping costs.

You really have a talent and that's wonderful. Remember to think about whether quantities are scaleable, that is, if you sold 200 items a week, how long would it take to package them all up and would you have to take on someone to do the post run etc? And then work out what your revenue would be and consider if you'd be making enough profits after expenses and of course paying for your time. Post office, writing listings and answering customer emails all take time, and that counts as an expense too. And as you recognise, adjusting your pricing now to incorporate wholesale pricing later might be a good idea.

I wish you really well with your sales as you are clearly a talented person! I wish I could draw like that.

All my drawings are based on reference photos that are either mine or I have permission to use (either licence free or I have paid for). Other artists have access to the same photos. There is likely to be some similarities in the art world. Oh, and they are clearly different ...

I'm confused here OP

Which of the artworks are actually your work? The boxing gloves for example aren't different at all to some of the images on the internet. They're just being printed and sold by various people.

I love this one instagram.com/cities.illustrated?igshid=1q8m9p5atvf15

Unless something changed, A4 was 25, A3 was 35. They are beautiful (in my opinion😁) and I had one personalised too.

These are stunning. I would definitely pay more than you are charging for something of this quality.

This is now a little confusing. Are your prints copies of originals created by you or copies of originals created by somebody else.

Charge more and the market will decide if people will pay it.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

I love this one instagram.com/cities.illustrated?igshid=1q8m9p5atvf15

Unless something changed, A4 was 25, A3 was 35. They are beautiful (in my opinion😁) and I had one personalised too.

The flamingo?

I love that

@WorraLiberty

All my drawings are based on reference photos that are either mine or I have permission to use (either licence free or I have paid for). Other artists have access to the same photos. There is likely to be some similarities in the art world. Oh, and they are clearly different ...

I'm confused here OP

Which of the artworks are actually your work? The boxing gloves for example aren't different at all to some of the images on the internet. They're just being printed and sold by various people.

All of them are my works. My drawings...paper and charcoal and/or pastels.

But you tend to draw something - so either out in the field (landscapes) or more frequently from photos. You can use your own photos - or use "stock" photos (eg from Shutterstock) or free photos websites like Pixabay. You use the photo and draw/create your art from them. Fairly standard.

So the boxing gloves are a charcoal drawing of one of the product photos of this product www.sklum.com/uk/buy-decoration-accessories/69153-nate-leather-boxing-gloves.html?id_c=137057 (I contacted Sklum and they gave me permission to use it as a reference photo).

So all my work. But not necessarily my photos. Does that make sense.

Thank you for explaining. Yes it does make sense.

@Viviennemary

This is now a little confusing. Are your prints copies of originals created by you or copies of originals created by somebody else.

Sorry - they are 100% prints of MY drawings.

I have drawn stuff - but what I am referring to is that photos I may have based them on. I cannot draw a dog or giraffe or gloves from memory. I need something to look at. The teapot is my granny's teapot. As per my response to @WorraLiberty, the gloves are a drawing I did from a product photo (with permission from the store). The hares are from shutterstock photos (purchased - so am allowed to).

Does that make sense?

All my own original drawings, scanned and prints created.

Ahh I see yes that makes sense.

I was thinking more this wall hanging which comes up under your artwork.

Either way I think the higher prices are fine and I love the hare.

@WorraLiberty my fave is the St George's hall with Pterodactyl

I think if OP adds some personal twist to the pics, it would absolutely warrant adding bit on top of the price. Otherwise as lovely as they are, they are not really uniquely personal. But! That's not to say they are bad! Not at all! Very nice work! Very envious of the talent🙈

Sorry, to clarify I didn't mean it comes up under your name or anything, just a shop selling the wall hanging in brown.

Just as an aside, I prefer to buy things already frames and I can’t be bothered trying to find a frame that fits, paying postage on that and faffing around sorting it so you should consider getting a stack of cheap frames, in black and silver and charging more to cover the additional p&p etc