 Erin Appelbaum |
How Do I Price My Photos for Street Fair? I am currently in the process of matting my own photos and want to sell them at street fairs and such and have no clue how to price them. Please help.
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Debbie Del Tejo |
I would suggest you do some leg work before your new business venture. How much do other street fair photos go for? Visit other artists who have set up such things and ask them questions: How successful are they? Is it worth the effort? How much is the profit? Sometimes they don't want to share information because they are afraid of competition, but maybe if you go to another town, if you can, it would be more helpful. I would consider the cost of printing the photo, matting it, framing it and then the time to do all this ... the gas it took me to get back and forth ... the cost of shipping the goods to me, if any. It may be not be a business like IBM or Xerox, but you have to treat it as such so you can be successful. Who knows ... from the street fair to your own gallery!!! THINK BIG!!! Good luck!
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Mark Feldstein |
Spoken like a true professional. Sage wisdom if I ever heard it. ;>) Excellent advice, Deb, IMHO. [Hope you're doing just as great!] Mark
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daryllucarelli.com - Daryl R. Lucarelli Contact Daryl R. Lucarelli Daryl R. Lucarelli's Gallery |
Peter - I am not a professional but I have been where you are at this moment and I did a little snooping and have been doing local street fairs in my area and here is my pricing and why....the general formula to try for is take the cost of printing, matting, and framing...add them up and double it and this should be a target price...in reality it usually seem to be a little less. I also have learned to try to keep the price at a ATM mentality level... $20 $40 $60 etc and when the formula says get $110 - I stick at $95.... form my matted I will do an 8 x 10 matted to 11x14 and bagged and I mark and sell them for $30.... my competitors will charge up to $40 or $45 but they will sell less.... I also do not post this but if I have an interested patron who seems to be real curious and have a few in mind I will sell the second one at half price to get more volume....one of the things I have learned is that you need to get a amount of volume that is good enough to have turn over and allow for new images in your inventory ever month or so...keeping all this in mind I also must tell you what the photographer mentor that has been really helpful taught me and remainded me , which is VERY TRUE, is that when it the reality of it all is that the purchase of images and art is a "emotional" purchase and almost every time price is not the issue..... if they like if they want it ...they will buy it whether it is $135 framed up or $ 165 framed up....ALSO...the most important thing I learned is that when I do have someone stop and they are looking and pointing and such I ALWAYS ALWAYS start up a freindliy conversation and usually get to saying ""oh yeah this was a great day I took this"...Oh this is my favorite sunset... this images seems to be real popular as a hallway shot...etc etc..... this little bit of conversation lets them see you are a person too besides someone just trying to sell a photo that most of them think that could of took too if they were there...which we no is not the case...hope this helps...ask more if you got it... oh...lastily...another big tip I learned....except for a certain few images that just demand it....I matt everything with the same matt color and black core...everything year in year out...then when someone returns and wants another one they will match.... not a strong white, not a strong tan...just a soft off white.... and lastily...remeber this is from experience and not from expertise that I speak...and maybe all of this is only worth what you paid for with the question..... have fun mainily..
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Erin Appelbaum |
Thank you Debdie, Mark and Daryl for all your help. I have begun to sell my photos by taking them to work. I did as was suggest and add up my costs per print and just about quadrupled it. I have only two mat sizes right now, 8x10 and 11x14. Nothing framed as yet. I will when street fair season rolls around in the spring. I agree with Daryl on the amount of volume. It's time consuming building the volume. Now I have to replace what I've sold. Thanks agai to all.
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