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

They are fantastic!

Art has no intrinsic value.

Your prints have clearly struck a chord with lots of people on this thread, so it seems more than plausible that they would pay more than your initial prices.

£15? £20? £30? Who knows?

You are extremely talented and I loved looking at your attachments.

The ones of the buildings/street - are they commissioned? Do people ask you to sketch specific places etc?

voted Yanbu - and ordered a Harry the Hare before you put your prices up because he made me smile.
I love the ones of Baldock - my Dad lived there before he died, so I know it reasonably well. If only the pictures had included an old man careering around on a mobility scooter .

They look amazing, congratulations on teaching yourself something useful and developing your skills over lockdown. By contrast, I've developed my chocolate eating skills.
Good luck with it all - and I'm looking forward to Harry arriving.

@MirandaMarple

You are extremely talented and I loved looking at your attachments.

The ones of the buildings/street - are they commissioned? Do people ask you to sketch specific places etc?

No, just me and my phone taking photos which encapsulate the town I live in. We live in a very pretty town so it was easy to take nice shots and just draw from them.

A couple of people have asked me to do specific places. One I did of a church with just one of the gravestones in it (rest removed) for a memorial kind of piece. Other times it has been people expecting a commissioned drawing for £20/30 which I simply cannot do at that price.

@ElderMillennial

If it's just the prints rather than originals then I think the prices as they are, are fair. Also not sure why there is a bigger difference between A4 to A3 in current pricing but you are proposing them being £5 apart?

Seriously just costs. The profit is about the same on all the sizes - but the costs are much more for the A3 (parcel post rather than letter just as one example) and print costs are a bigger jump from A4 to A5 than from A5 to A4.

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay

voted Yanbu - and ordered a Harry the Hare before you put your prices up because he made me smile. I love the ones of Baldock - my Dad lived there before he died, so I know it reasonably well. If only the pictures had included an old man careering around on a mobility scooter .

They look amazing, congratulations on teaching yourself something useful and developing your skills over lockdown. By contrast, I've developed my chocolate eating skills.
Good luck with it all - and I'm looking forward to Harry arriving.

Thank you!

And re Baldock - what a lovely thought about your dad. I took the photos in February so town was very empty...no many people, let alone mobility scooters!

The one of the Butchers (lady in orange dress in the doorway) also has my husband in it, waiting for me to stop faffing around taking photos unfair, he is incredibly supportive

I absolutely agree taht commission should be much gigher than 20-30 quid. Honestly, people can be such stingy bastards! I was told of for charging for extra beef patties in burgers, because "I am buying 2 burgers, so it should be free and you should treat your customers better"🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
Ask any web designers about this😂

Seriously just costs. The profit is about the same on all the sizes - but the costs are much more for the A3 (parcel post rather than letter just as one example) and print costs are a bigger jump from A4 to A5 than from A5 to A4.

I don't know if that's a typo at the end but the bigger jump in price, I get, but it's not reflected in your proposed new prices. If there's still a bigger bump from A4 to A3(?) then your new prices would also reflect that maybe?

Thank you for all the feedback re prices and comments (good or bad). My drawings are not amazing "fine art". I will not be winning the Turner prize. But they are clearly good enough to sell - they touch some people and make them smile - which is all I really want. And this thread has shown me I could certainly look at increasing the price a little.

As another update, I have spoken this afternoon to one of the interior design shop owners in town (someone I know and trust hugely) and they would also like to stock my work. They are also talking about how to work collaboratively - so they could put commissions my way. And they absolutely think I need to increase my prices.

So thank you everyone. And for the Harry the Hare (and other) love.

@JulietMadeChutney

Thank you for all the feedback re prices and comments (good or bad). My drawings are not amazing "fine art". I will not be winning the Turner prize. But they are clearly good enough to sell - they touch some people and make them smile - which is all I really want. And this thread has shown me I could certainly look at increasing the price a little.

As another update, I have spoken this afternoon to one of the interior design shop owners in town (someone I know and trust hugely) and they would also like to stock my work. They are also talking about how to work collaboratively - so they could put commissions my way. And they absolutely think I need to increase my prices.

So thank you everyone. And for the Harry the Hare (and other) love.

That's great news, a fantastic way to establish yourself a little, even if it is only part time. There are some lovely little art shops that folk are inclined to spend more in because of the ~ambiance~ so it'll be a boost!

You're incredibly talented. Pricing is so tricky on Etsy...I know, I also sell art prints on there. It's quite a saturated market isn't it, and such huge variations on prices. I do commissions for £25 (A4) which is probably still too cheap, but they're not as detailed as yours and I can do one in about 2 hours. I ignore Etsy and charge p&p on top. My theory is, if they like your work they'll be willing to pay it.

If you don't want to do that, just add it to your print price. I charge £15 for A4 prints of my digital art...again not as detailed as yours. My prints are of local places, so I have extensively searched what other local artists charge as I don't want to price myself out. People have said I should sell in local shops, but wholesale prices would leave me no profit. It's very hard working out all this stuff, and if you're like me, probably have a touch of imposter syndrome!

Check out "sell like an artist community" on Facebook too.

Oh, and if you look on Notonthehighstreet you'll probably find that prices on there are MUCH higher. Not sure why.

Hope that helps a bit.

Depends how long they take too. You should be making 30 quid an hour min.

I remember your first post about these, well done for going for it.

I'm not an animal person so I'm probably not your target audience. I would only buy the building ones if the place meant something to me.

I personally feel the current prices are fine although I'd just stop selling A5 altogether as it's too small to have any purpose.

I buy a lot of prints and original pieces on a whim, once it's over £20 it's no longer a whim and becomes a considered purchase. I regularly buy originals for less than you charge for prints. OK they aren't fine art and the artist is undercharging but just as a point of reference. I think you need to build up your name and following first. Are you active as a business on social media? It's then common to sell products with your images on such as mugs, aprons etc.

Do you have the option to add mounts and frames too? Some people like to buy the finished article if they are gifting it.

I would consider doing commissions, particularly of pets as then you can significantly increase your price. You can also retain the right to sell prints of the original portrait to, make sure you include that in your conditions.

"Oh, and if you look on Notonthehighstreet you'll probably find that prices on there are MUCH higher. Not sure why."

An artist friend of mine said the cut taken by NOTHS is considerably higher than other channels.

OP, also consider loading your work to Folksy and Numonday.

@CeeceeBloomingdale

"Oh, and if you look on Notonthehighstreet you'll probably find that prices on there are MUCH higher. Not sure why."

An artist friend of mine said the cut taken by NOTHS is considerably higher than other channels.

OP, also consider loading your work to Folksy and Numonday.

I think it's 25% isn't it. Fun fact. So is Deliveroo's commission. Sometimes 30 if you are smaller and new business

Fun fact. So is Deliveroo's commission. Sometimes 30 if you are smaller and new business

Wow - that is high!

Another fun fact - when our Chinese meal was delivered last night the delivery chap said he was also delivering to 2 other houses on our street ...there are on 12 houses on our street . Obviously a Saturday before Mother's day takeaway night......

you should focus on animals. I didn’t mean to make you ouch, but you took it well. Focus where you have the talent. The dog is very good and animals are hard and what do people love, their pets. They love their pets more than a streetscene of their town (mostly) and then you get into the lucrative personalization market on etsy. But I bet the dog took a lot longer than the rest. Get 10 dogs, friends dogs, photos of dogs - do 10 pieces, put them up and sell yourself as a portrait artist of dogs and you can charge 100+ a piece and each one will get better. Streetscenes the perspective is fine, but the colours are murky and the shading depth is not there at all. You can be both, but you are ahead in one area.

Lovely work OP.
Just a quick tip. On your Etsy shop, when zoomed and saved your images are of a high enough quality to print at A4.
May I suggest that you don't have such high quality Etsy images. You don't want to lose sales because of people downloading your work.

@lighteincastlewindow

you should focus on animals. I didn’t mean to make you ouch, but you took it well. Focus where you have the talent. The dog is very good and animals are hard and what do people love, their pets. They love their pets more than a streetscene of their town (mostly) and then you get into the lucrative personalization market on etsy. But I bet the dog took a lot longer than the rest. Get 10 dogs, friends dogs, photos of dogs - do 10 pieces, put them up and sell yourself as a portrait artist of dogs and you can charge 100+ a piece and each one will get better. Streetscenes the perspective is fine, but the colours are murky and the shading depth is not there at all. You can be both, but you are ahead in one area.

It did hurt a bit. But there was some truth there (which can often hurt more).

I have definitely got way more practice at the animals - and I do prefer them - as I think I question the results less. (Well not whilst I am doing them - I nearly binned the attached hare half way through as I thought it was rubbish...stepped back at the end and thought Oh. That is OK!)

Interesting I tend to a few practice runs (of everything) before I start the final piece - including a few ink drawings of the street scenes (A4 copier paper/pental handwriting pen) and a think I prefer my black and white, rough street scenes when I am sussing composition/just mucking around (example attached). It maybe something I explore in a different way - but I think you are right - I am way ahead on the animals.

I have ordered some proper drawing pens and am going to have a play around. They do feel very stark/black and white and a bit flat so trying to work out how to add colour and depth.

I have done a few paid pet portraits already (as well as loads of free ones when I was learning) so I think it is something I could explore. Just being a bit scared of it - I feel quite vulnerable doing it. A random hare put on Etsy - it sells/it doesn't. I can just shrug my shoulders. Someone's beloved pet - they may hate the end result. I would of course adjust or redo until they are happy - but I would just hate to disappoint anyone!.

It is an amazing journey to be on. DH and I sometime laugh at where the hell this all came from.

@braceletsandbangles

Lovely work OP. Just a quick tip. On your Etsy shop, when zoomed and saved your images are of a high enough quality to print at A4. May I suggest that you don't have such high quality Etsy images. You don't want to lose sales because of people downloading your work.

A good point - but I think also people need to see what they are buying - so it is a fine balance. I like to think people are at heart honest. And I would imagine most people would not have a high enough calibre printer to get a decent print out.

I hope

I think you're definitely undercharging.

When you say you're making £200, you're not really as some of the will be overhead costs. What of the £200 is money in your pocket after those overheads (including paying yourself an hourly rate for the hours you put into your work?).

Wow! I too was told "don't bother with art" but I'm still on stick drawings
You're an inspiration to children and adults who had bad art teachers everywhere!

*A good point - but I think also people need to see what they are buying - so it is a fine balance. I like to think people are at heart honest. And I would imagine most people would not have a high enough calibre printer to get a decent print out.

I hope grin*

OP if you are putting high quality images on your Etsy shop, I'd recommend using a watermark. This will stop people downloading and printing them for free.

Other than that your work is great, I agree you could charge more but it is always a fine balance - you may just have to experiment with pricing and see what works best - it's often difficult to predict how much people will pay for art.

Good luck and what a fantastic lockdown project!

They're really good OP. I would say the answer is up to you! Etsy attracts a wide range of buyers in my opinion, it's a balance of getting a fair price for you, and not pricing people out; as great as they are, there is a lot of competition on there. You need to really work out your printing and postage costs, the time, materials etc and go from there. If you are content with making x amount then I would stick with it, if you are keen to expand and make more of a living off of it, then certainly raise the prices and see. Be mindful of the implications and extra obligations of selling through a physical shop as well, especially if the plan is to be prints rather than originals. It's an exciting opportunity, but please get some advice.