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Artists and their prices
15 years ago
General
Over the last 10 years, I've told many artists whom I've personally known that they've been far undercharging for what they do. All that time ago, it was common for a furry artist to spend upwards of 8-14 hours on a single picture, and then only charge $20. At the time I was incredulous, stating 'how on earth can you only charge that much!? You're worth SO MUCH MORE!'
Now, fast forward to today, I'm very pleased to see that prices for artists have finally risen to amounts which equate to the level of talent they expend.
Yet, almost EVERY TIME I see or read an artist posting their prices here in FA, without fail there is always a poster stating: 'Awww, your prices are far too high.'
There's some problems with this. Lets get the 'showing everyone how much of a tightwad you are' out of the way for starters, because this is plainly obvious.
Telling someone that their prices are too high, does not persuade them to lower them /just for you./ What it does is make them far less likely to have anything to do with you because you're instantly marked as a whiner and by association, someone who doesn't value the artists skills.
Let me give you all a little schooling in economics. If someone produces a product, or service, and they charge too much, then they will have no customers. Thereby forcing them to either lower their prices, or go out of business. There is absolutely no need to tell this person that their prices are too high. Additionally, in the free market system, it's the goal of the seller to sell as high as they possibly can. If they sell too low, then they’re likely to run into the problem of their incomings falling short of their outgoings, for the amount of hours in the day they spend working.
I run a business myself, and it's taken more than a few years to nut out what my prices should be for various services. I can tell you all beyond a doubt that anyone that told me I was charging too much for something, 99 times out of 100 they had NO CLUE what processes, time or materials were involved to come up with the end result. Labor costs folks, and even at $150 for a commission from some of these artists that work up to 10-20 hours on a single commission, that's a steal for the dollar per hour rate at which you're getting some pretty damn good quality art. They sketch, they revise, they do what they can to make sure that you as the commissioner are happy with what they provide to you, and yet there are still some out there who have the gall to say they charge too much?
Next time you or someone you know thinks of telling an artist they charge too much, think a little more about the sheer volume of time and effort that goes into what they offer you all.
Now, fast forward to today, I'm very pleased to see that prices for artists have finally risen to amounts which equate to the level of talent they expend.
Yet, almost EVERY TIME I see or read an artist posting their prices here in FA, without fail there is always a poster stating: 'Awww, your prices are far too high.'
There's some problems with this. Lets get the 'showing everyone how much of a tightwad you are' out of the way for starters, because this is plainly obvious.
Telling someone that their prices are too high, does not persuade them to lower them /just for you./ What it does is make them far less likely to have anything to do with you because you're instantly marked as a whiner and by association, someone who doesn't value the artists skills.
Let me give you all a little schooling in economics. If someone produces a product, or service, and they charge too much, then they will have no customers. Thereby forcing them to either lower their prices, or go out of business. There is absolutely no need to tell this person that their prices are too high. Additionally, in the free market system, it's the goal of the seller to sell as high as they possibly can. If they sell too low, then they’re likely to run into the problem of their incomings falling short of their outgoings, for the amount of hours in the day they spend working.
I run a business myself, and it's taken more than a few years to nut out what my prices should be for various services. I can tell you all beyond a doubt that anyone that told me I was charging too much for something, 99 times out of 100 they had NO CLUE what processes, time or materials were involved to come up with the end result. Labor costs folks, and even at $150 for a commission from some of these artists that work up to 10-20 hours on a single commission, that's a steal for the dollar per hour rate at which you're getting some pretty damn good quality art. They sketch, they revise, they do what they can to make sure that you as the commissioner are happy with what they provide to you, and yet there are still some out there who have the gall to say they charge too much?
Next time you or someone you know thinks of telling an artist they charge too much, think a little more about the sheer volume of time and effort that goes into what they offer you all.
Of course it's artist's prerogative to charge what their time is worth to them, and I'd never argue that. Not every artist wants to work constantly if it's not going to provide gain. But given the often limited amount of capital available to the buyers and the ever-increasing number of excellent artists willing to produce, one should bear in mind that it can be easy to price oneself out of work. In that sense being told that price is a factor can be positive feedback (of course being told so in a whiny manner certainly is annoying!).