Had a chat with a gallery owner that changed how I price my work

I was at a small art fair last weekend and talked with this older woman who runs a gallery downtown. She saw my digital prints and asked what I charge, I said $25. She told me I was selling myself short and that my work could easily go for $80 at her place. It hit different because she broke down the math for me, like framing costs, shipping fees, and gallery cuts. I never thought about all those extra layers before. Has anyone else had a talk like that that made you bump up your prices?

2 comments

2 Comments

evan15128d ago

Did you notice a bump in sales right away after raising prices? I went through something similar with my landscape photos a couple years ago. I was charging like $15 for prints at a local market until a photographer friend basically told me I was crazy. She showed me her pricing sheet and I gradually moved my stuff up to $40-$50 range. Took a few months to feel normal, but the people who actually wanted quality prints didn't even blink at the new prices.

xena_anderson28d ago

You said "the people who actually wanted quality prints didn't even blink at the new prices" and that really hit home. When I first bumped up my prices on landscape prints from $20 to $45, I was standing at my booth like a nervous wreck, ready to apologize to anyone who looked at them. The first person who bought one at the new price just handed me the cash without a word, and I almost felt like I was getting away with something. But yeah, it took a few months of feeling like a sham before I realized the people who liked my work were happy to pay it. Now I look back and laugh at how I used to practically give them away.