Print pricing

One of the stickier things that artists have to deal with is pricing their work, which is something that I have been avoiding for the better part of the year. But with the pending publication of my folio and that I need some funds to invest in some equipment, I have to come to grips with this.  Which is why I got sucked up into the pricing discussion with Paul Butzi.

One of the pricing problem, which is really a sales type issue, is that you have to tell someone the price and then you get either rejection (ouch!) or acceptance (yea!) or something in between.  Hard enough to figure what to photography, make a great print and then figure out what in your psyche drove you to create that image. Thus, the use of galleries, you let them decide the asking price for you and let them get the collector’s rejection.  And hopefully, they sometimes send money.  But I and probably most of us don’t have galleries to do the ‘heavy’ lifting for our sales.

So from our years of owning a custom picture framing store, I did come up with one rule of thumb.  I want my prints to be equal to or greater than the retail price of framing. I want someone to value my print more than they value the framing that is around it. Simple, eh?

So for a nice archival double-matte, regular glass and a nice stained wood frame to go around a 8-1/2 x 11″ printed rag, the retail price is going to be between $100 and $150.00 USD.  So for me, that is the ball park that I am working with for the Editioned folio, which will be printed on 8-1/2 x 11″ rag. 

As I check around, that $100-150 range is about the average lower-end price for archival prints for a mid-career artist as myself.  The average upper-end price for this size print is about $300 for a mid-career artist. 

So this is what I am muddling about as I prepare to announce my folio pricing.  One thing that I am also considering is to limit the availability of my prints in the 8-1/2 x 11″ size to only the Editioned folios.  Individual prints may be available only on the 13 x 19″ or 17 x 22″  rag or larger sizes.

Best regards, Doug