I had already been through this discussion with two other artists while I was setting up the display of my glass pieces for the community art show. I had landed on $20 and $25 for necklaces, $25 for small standing pieces, $45\u00a0for 5 by 7 standing pieces, and $75 for 8 by 10s.<\/p>\n
Beth scanned my price list. “No,” she said. She told me to raise the prices to $75 for the 5 by 7s and $95 for the 8 by 10s.<\/p>\n
![\"glass](\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/glass-Barb-233x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I was reluctant. I want these pieces to move. I want them out in the world. I want people to buy on an impulse if they like it.<\/p>\n
After more discussion, dragging in another artist and a former gift-shop owner, I agree to raise the smallest pieces to $35 and the 5 by 7s to $50, but leave the others as they were.<\/p>\n
This is the agony of selling art. How to find the price level that matches the value of a piece\u00a0with your potential market? But without setting the price so low\u00a0that the art is devalued?<\/p>\n
A gallery would normally take about 50 percent of the purchase price, forcing artists to sell at higher prices. This display was for a community show held by the art club, so full payment goes to the artist, who only pays annual dues.<\/p>\n
People in our community, many of them retired career professionals, are said to have deep pockets but short arms. I didn’t want to price it past their reach.<\/p>\n
Visitors are more likely to splurge, but there’s no way to be sure how many of them will come to the show.<\/p>\n
I watched how people move through the show. I saw\u00a0a couple make several full circuits, discussing and pointing at various pieces. They stood\u00a0for a long time talking about one of my $50 pieces.<\/p>\n
They left\u00a0without buying it. I found\u00a0it a little difficult\u00a0not to run after them and negotiate.<\/p>\n Would they have bought it if I’d priced it at $45? Or $40?<\/p>\n By the end of the evening, I’ve sold two $20 necklaces – one to an acquaintance, one to a stranger – and two standing pieces – one to my friend Barb, the former gift shop owner, for $50, and the other one to Beth. For $35.<\/p>\n One friend has commissioned a necklace from me, and Sara wants a larger standing piece for her dining table. And it’s only Friday.<\/p>\n I was hoping to sell two pieces the whole weekend.\u00a0The dollar amount doesn’t matter.<\/p>\n People find value in\u00a0my art.\u00a0That keeps me going.<\/p>\n Today’s penny is a 2007, for the first piece of art I sold here – a canvas print of a photograph of the underside of a leaf in Bali, titled “Rain, from Below.”<\/p>\n [UPDATE: I sold another small standing piece on Sunday – Bluebird<\/a><\/em> – for $35. Grand total for the weekend: $160.]<\/p>\n “Only $25!” Beth exclaimed. “That is TOO low.” Beth used to own a gallery, so I’m inclined to take her pronouncement about pricing my fused glass as something more than mere flattery from a fellow artist. I had already been through this discussion with two other artists while I was setting up the display of … read more Art for sale<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[317],"tags":[18,35,806,284,808,809,807],"class_list":["post-7306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty","tag-18","tag-art","tag-bali","tag-glass","tag-marketing","tag-pricing","tag-sales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7306"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7329,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7306\/revisions\/7329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"glass](\"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/glass-sailing.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"