oh god i’d heard about the “i won’t commission artists who undercharge for their art” post and now it’s making its rounds on my dash.
please understand that this concept does not actually help anyone. the sensible thing to do if an artist is undercharging is to tip them for what you think their work it worth, and be sure to let them know that. even if this doesn’t cause them to actually change their base prices, at least YOU’RE paying for what it’s worth, and THEY’RE getting business instead of nothing.
by essentially boycotting artists who are already unsure of the value of their own work (and are thus underpricing) you’re not sending any positive message. no one is going to up their commission prices when nobody is buying them. the only thing the artist gets out of it is that people don’t want to buy their art for some reason, and people who’s products aren’t selling aren’t going to say “oh i guess it was because i wasn’t charging enough, i’ll pump up the prices!”
if you want to support a commission artist, please do it by actually SUPPORTING THEM WITH COMMISSIONS rather than by choosing to take your business elsewhere because their prices were too low.
THANK YOU
I agree wholeheartedly. I think artists don’t get the confidence to charge more until they make sales, once they make sales and hear people saying things like, “Really? Just $5? That’s it?” They start thinking, “Hey… maybe I can charge a little bit more.”
It’s hard to figure out what to charge for things. It’s hard to figure out what your time is worth. You get worried about saying a price and it being too high, so yes, sometimes we undercharge, because you at least want it to sell. It’s like the clocks and woodburning I do. My mind always calculates how much the wood or clock costs, so I think, “well charging this much is a profit because I paid this much for the wood.” But I forget to add in the time it took to actually DO the work. Because part of me feels like, “Wow I’m making good profit because of how much I paid for the wood,” so I don’t factor in time. And then when I do factor in time I feel like, “… no one is going to buy it at that price,” or even, “well time wise it didn’t take THAT long…” when if I break it down, it did. Yes I sit and watch 30 Rock while I woodburn and having crafting days with my wifey and have fun with it, but if it takes an entire season to finish one big piece… that’s a LOT of time.
And you know what? Sometimes, artists are right. I mean it’s great that there’s people who want to support us, but there are times where you even get the, “Wow it’s just $5? That’s great! I’ll think about it.” You don’t make the sale, even if you’re under charging for it, so you think, “Why would I ever increase the price I can’t even make a sale for $5.”
What does help, immensely, is people actually buying your work and telling you, “Wow this is great,” and even, “You should charge more,” or even, crazy thought, giving the artist more. I’ve had this happen before. I had a $5 Eva coaster at Detour one year and the guy gave me like $8 and told me to keep it, because it was worth more than $5. I made a friend a clock and some coasters for Christmas and it normally would’ve been about $25 and she gave me $40. Because she thought my time and my art was worth more, and even said, “I would give you more if I could.” Or I’ve put my big woodblocks in art shows and I had one go for almost $100, which was about $40 more than I would charge at my table. But after that, I got the confidence to charge more at my table. And it worked! Some guy bought two big pieces and commissioned one.
You have to build up the artist’s confidence first, and you won’t do that by not supporting them. Because like this post says, the artist isn’t going to be like, “Oh wow I’m not making sales because I’m not charging enough because all of these people see that my work is worth more.” No. It’ll have the opposite effect. I’ve seen this happen, I’ve seen artists not go back to cons because they think it’s not worth it, I’ve seen friends just quit trying because they feel like they aren’t going anywhere. So no, the idea of not buying something because “it’s too low” isn’t good. It’s got good intentions, but no.
