Selling Art On The Internet And Your Competition
When it comes to selling art whether online or off it is always best to know what the competition really is doing.
Corruption in the art world and making a profit off of the hard work of artists is not a new subject. Artists copying the works of famous painters, including the signatures and then selling the works for a huge profit and factory hand painted art are just a few of the things your "competition" is up to that you need to watch out for.
Imitators That Undersell
At the shore in Southern California in an artsy place a few years ago there was a great artist that had a specific style of textured western style paintings. The art was great for home or office. He had a wonderful business going with customers that not only referred others to him but would also come back to buy more.
There was another artist that didn't sell much of his own original paintings that decided to copy the western style artist. His imitations were pretty good but not as professional as the original artist' were. His prices were lower which took away sales from the originator of the style.
You can find the same thing now occurring online. Spend a while each week to look at what other artists are doing to ensure that you are not being copied. When describing your art, be sure to mention that it is original and that you have painted in the same style for a number of years.
Factory Produced Original Art
There are assembly lines of people that have one part of a painting to do before sending it on the conveyor belt to the next person who adds his part. The "artists" are trained to rapidly paint a certain part of a painting. The entire painting is done within a matter of a couple minutes.
This so-called "original art" is sold at a tremendously low cost. It is a price that is so low that you cannot find paintings at wholesale for the same cost and most especially, an authentic artist would not even be able to buy the materials to create a painting for the same price.
When you next see a seemingly gorgeous piece of art that is being sold for an extremely low price, you can guess it is created by the competition as above.
The Make a Buck Off Art People
I recently read an artist on how to sell art online thinking that there were going to be tips for artists to sell their works. The article was not about helping artists, it was about exploiting artists to make a living. It went into how to find cheap art and then sell it for a profit. It outlined how to find art at auctions, tag sales, thrift shops and other places. The article went on to say how it was more profitable to get paintings that were signed as you can get more money that way.
It is simple to profit from an artist to make a great income is what the author of the article went on to write. A good thing to do when selling your own art is to emphasize that you are the person that created it and that you are making a living by selling the works that you painted.
The People That Undersell Their Own Art
I saw an artist that was trying to make a living selling his art on eBay against the fierce competition at that site. There are many listings where art is sold very cheaply. Plus he was up against sellers as above with the exception that his art was original.
He did make art sales, but I do not know how he stayed in business. There was one auction where he sold a series of three large paintings for $150 with free shipping. I did a price check, from that sale he could not have been able to pay for the canvas and supplies to do all three paintings, pay for the shipping plus the listing and selling fees at eBay. He was an artist making a "losing" with his art.
Don't fall into a trap of trying to keep up with the competition. Be aware of what your competition really is. Your real asset is that you are an authentic, talented artist - get what you are worth.
by: Leigh-Ann Lemire aka ILIA
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