selling art online
Tim
I have been selling my art on eBay (.co.uk) for the last two years.
The last six months has seen a remarkable increase in the amount of
art listed, hence saturation and a huge drop in sale price.
Does anyone know any good (UK/European) places to sell contemprary
work on-line?
I've seen sites that represent a handful of artists - I'm just not
sure where to start.
Kind regards
Gary Oblock
Tim --
I had a look at what were the current offerings on eBay for bronze sculpture
(which is what I do). The low priced pieces looked like the cheap work of
offshore foundries for the most part. Perhaps what is happening to you is a
similar thing. The only way to combat junk art is by producing quality art and
marketing your art as such. I personally don't think there are any quality sites
out there that sell a lot art. Have you tried a targeted sales pitches with your
eBay items?
You don't drive a used Hugo so why hang the used Hugo of the art world on your wall?
Read what the critics say about my art. You won't suffer the humiliation of having a
colleague say "didn't I see that on eBay for 29.95?"
-- Gary Oblock
--
Bronze Dreams
Santa Clara, CA
http://www.bronzedreams.com
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Electric Nachos
Gary Oblock wrote in message <418551DB...@earthlink.net>...
> -- Gary Oblock
>
>--
> Bronze Dreams
> Santa Clara, CA
> http://www.bronzedreams.com
I didn't see it mentioned on your website, but why do you choose "bronze" to
sculpt with? Personally, I think the metal is too shiny - the light
reflections creates distracting shapes.
Why do people work with metal anyway? Isn't that unnecessarily hard? (no pun
intended) Why not just stick with the clay (again, no pun intended).
Clay is cool. (damn with the puns!)
Gary Oblock
E.N. --
Clay breaks but bronze endures. Furthermore, bronze is beautiful to behold.
It's sheen is more of a problem for photography than viewing in person. If
need be the surface can be made to diffuse light with the minimal application
of a sandblaster. I have a relief (not shown on my site) with a plain flat
background and sandblasting made it much more interesting.
-- Gary
--
Bronze Dreams
Santa Clara, CA
http://www.bronzedreams.com
Electric Nachos
Gary Oblock wrote in message <41856D9D...@earthlink.net>...
>Electric Nachos wrote:
>
>> Gary Oblock wrote in message <418551DB...@earthlink.net>...
>>
>> > -- Gary Oblock
>> >
>> >--
>> > Bronze Dreams
>> > Santa Clara, CA
>> > http://www.bronzedreams.com
>>
>> I didn't see it mentioned on your website, but why do you choose "bronze"
to
>> sculpt with? Personally, I think the metal is too shiny - the light
>> reflections creates distracting shapes.
>>
>> Why do people work with metal anyway? Isn't that unnecessarily hard? (no
pun
>> intended) Why not just stick with the clay (again, no pun intended).
>>
>> Clay is cool. (damn with the puns!)
>
>E.N. --
>
>Clay breaks but bronze endures.
Good point!
>Furthermore, bronze is beautiful to behold.
>It's sheen is more of a problem for photography than viewing in person. If
>need be the surface can be made to diffuse light with the minimal
application
>of a sandblaster.
Well that would nice - easy on the eyes and stuff.
>I have a relief (not shown on my site) with a plain flat
>background and sandblasting made it much more interesting.
I once saw a sculpture made of (bronze?? copper??) - its surface was rather
dull, and starting to tarnish... But it was nice to see the green surface
amid the brown - like earth.
Keep up with the good work. I still think metals are too 'hard' to work
with. Lol
Lauri Levanto
Electric Nachos wrote:
The pieces are often modelled in clay or vax.
Clay can be fired to terracotta, see the Chinese terracotta army.
A permanent casting must be made in
plaster (not so permanent, and a bit "cheap")
concrete
metal
glass, I believed. After struggling 2 years I understan
it is a very limited possibility but fine when it fits.
-lauri
Bjorn
> Tim wrote:
>
> > Hi group,
> >
> > I have been selling my art on eBay (.co.uk) for the last two years.
> > The last six months has seen a remarkable increase in the amount of
> > art listed, hence saturation and a huge drop in sale price.
> >
> > Does anyone know any good (UK/European) places to sell contemprary
> > work on-line?
> >
> > I've seen sites that represent a handful of artists - I'm just not
> > sure where to start.
> >
> > Kind regards
>
> Tim --
>
> I had a look at what were the current offerings on eBay for bronze sculpture
> (which is what I do). The low priced pieces looked like the cheap work of
> offshore foundries for the most part. Perhaps what is happening to you is a
> similar thing. The only way to combat junk art is by producing quality art and
> marketing your art as such. I personally don't think there are any quality sites
> out there that sell a lot art. Have you tried a targeted sales pitches with your
> eBay items?
>
> You don't drive a used Hugo so why hang the used Hugo of the art world on your wall?
> Read what the critics say about my art. You won't suffer the humiliation of having a
> colleague say "didn't I see that on eBay for 29.95?"
>
> -- Gary Oblock
Yes, there are a lot of cheap/lower standard works listed which sell
for less and I guess this tempts some people from buying better
quality work. There are also more high-quality works available, so
you're stuck even if your work is excellent. Perhaps this means that
there's always been a lot of art talent out there - it just took the
artists a while to find that they could sell easily on eBay.
I've noticed that there are some artists who become renowned on eBay
and their work fetches a higher price, such as Rumney on eBay.co.uk.
I'm wondering how much of a difference you can make by how you
advertise your eBay listing. I normally just state the facts - i.e.
that it is an original piece, title, dimensions, medium and supply a
few photographs. Should I be more forward and praise the work for it's
quality? Would this make a difference, or would people just think you
were vain?
Tim
Michael Blackburn
Hello there - like Tim I've been selling my art on eBay UK for over
two years now - everything from paintings to altered books and more
offbeat material - and I've noticed the drastic changes too.
Obviously, the more people start selling, the harder it gets to sell.
As a result there's more 'professionalisation' of the whole business
of selling - including art. That's why you see a proliferation of
online 'galleries', as well as just more individuals listing their
work.
When you look at the listings, the first items you see are all
Featured Plus - and that goes on for pages before you get to the less
expensively advertised pieces!
All of which makes it more difficult for those of us working on our
own with small budgets. A year ago I would reckon on selling 80% of my
items on the first listing. Now that's down to 40 - 50% or less.
There are ways of getting the odds in your favour and I think
persistence pays. I've tried lots of fairly traditional advertising
techniques myself to improve sales - in the end, it's the image that
gets people mainly, then the feeling that they get from reading about
it. Even if you don't always know why one painting sells and another
doesn't, it's always worth increasing your odds by employing tried and
tested techniques.
As for other sites - at the moment eBay is king and most other auction
sites are a dead loss for art. I'm trying CQout, who don't charge you
for listing. At least (after you've paid the small join-up fee) you
can list items as if they were hanging in a gallery indefinitely. To
date I've been getting lots of viewings but no buyers.
I'm still convinced that eBay has untapped potential as a source of
cheap advertising and promotion. Perhaps we should also be looking for
ways to exploit that.
Cheers,
Michael
*******
Michael Blackburn at Art Zero
http://www.artzero.org.uk/
*******
Tim
Thanks for your words Michael.
I think that aBay is being greedy with the Featured Plus thing - it's
rediculous to pay £10 just to appear in a section. What if you were
just starting out painting and you were happy to take £20 profit - you
would loose £12 just from the listing fee, so you end up not listing
it in the Featured Plus section and not making as much money.
That raises an interesting question. Is is actually worth £10 to be in
Featured Plus? I might paint two identical works and list one in the
Featured Plus section and the other as normal and then see which one
makes the most profit.
Hmm - I'd like to be able to get hold of eBay statistics to work out
what's best.