and then I decided to give Ebay a try, after a dozen stories of artists that take part of their incomes out of Ebay sales and the such. picked 2 watercolors on paper, Flourish and Totem #1, normally priced at $100, and set the starting bid price at $50, plus $20 for shipping and handling.
my sincere opinion is that the auctions won't be succeeded. I'm not a well known artist, and I don't have how to compete with several other paintings being offered by shameful prices like $10, $6,99 and even $0,99 - with free shipping. yes, people will bid and those prices will raise, but if there's no many offers and you have to send your piece away for $1 ?? and pay for the shipping? and pay for the Ebay fees? frankly, it does not sound to me a very clever way to make money.
I understand the effort that many artists (myself included) have been doing in order to make art more affordable and accessible to the general public. but for selling themselves for that low they are not only undervaluing them, they are also doing a deservice to the art community in general, something that is very close to the Walmart business model. if you really want to sell your art for such low prices, you need to produce a lot of art in order to meet your needs. you have to be almost an art machine. almost one step of making souless, empty works in order to attend the demand.
I don't know, but something tells me that Ebay auctions are not for me. anyway, I don't lose much in trying, who knows how the story unfolds...
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talking about sales, I'm seriously thinking about discontinuing the production of open edition prints. after my last sales I realized that it's a lot of work for not a very significant profit, what makes me think that letting RedBubble and Imagekind take care of all the dirty job might be a good decision.
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