Why Pricing Your Art is Not Like Real Estate

It's time for a different approach.

I've been answering a lot of questions about pricing during my "Sell a Piece of Art this Week" challenge, which has me realizing just how much, we as Artists and especially those of us mentoring our fellow Artists, aren't having this conversation enough.

First, let's make this clear: no one can tell you the price of YOUR ART. Nope, not even someone with years of experience selling work. They can guide you, advise you, yes and if they're a gallery they can tell you the price they believe it should be and then you'll agree together if proceeding with the collaboration is a good fit. But you, and only you are the one to make the final call. Why? 

Because there is NO ONE FORMULA for an industry that is as nuanced, unique, and subjective as Art.

So when I heard an established Artist advise an emerging Artist: to price their Art by looking out into the marketplace, using the analogy of how we price homes in a Real Estate Market by comparison, I knew it's time to start talking about this more (which I did on last week's podcast episode).

Art is NOT Real Estate, especially original work. We do not look at Comps (Comparables are the homes you look at in your neighborhood that sold within the last 3 months that you can use as a guide for pricing your property) when pricing our Art because we have zero idea about the behind the scenes for example; the time involved with creating the piece, the cost of making the piece, the overhead of the business, the skill level and experience of the Artist and how dedicated their Collectors are.

"Rising tides lift all ships" How are we choosing to lead and advise our industry. What lopsided collaborations are we continuing to agree to. Are our words and actions the rising tide, or are we perpetuating the myth of struggle and continuing to undervalue the gift and work of the Artist.