Well, now I have problems. Someone wants to buy....
Lawrence E. Rondot
we had an "artsy fartsy" art fair. Several people around the office
suggested that I enter my table and some photographs (one of the photos
even won 1st). Now the Dean of the Fine & Performing Arts dept wants to
buy the sofa table for their office.
Well, being a nice guy, I asked my wife. She told me go for the cash and
make her a new one. OK. Now for the problem. How do I price it?
I have less than $100 in materials, and 4 months of off and on part time work
in it (maybe 75 hrs total including several screw ups). BTW No problem with
copyrights on the design, I designed it to fit our sofa and answering machine.
I intend to hit the high end furniture stores tonight to get an idea what
they have that is remotely similar. What else should I do to set the price
and still be fair to myself and to the buyer?
Larry Rondot RON...@IPFWVM.Bitnet
IBM Systems Programmer & BITNET Techrep RON...@SMTPLINK.IPFW.INDIANA.EDU
Indiana Purdue University Fort Wayne AT&T: (219) 481-6203
2101 Coliseum Blvd East
Fort Wayne Indiana 46805-1499 USA =* Standard Disclaimers *=
James J. DuPrie
@@ suggested that I enter my table and some photographs (one of the photos
@@ even won 1st). Now the Dean of the Fine & Performing Arts dept wants to
@@ buy the sofa table for their office.
@@
@@ Well, being a nice guy, I asked my wife. She told me go for the cash and
@@ make her a new one. OK. Now for the problem. How do I price it?
@@
@@ they have that is remotely similar. What else should I do to set the price
@@ and still be fair to myself and to the buyer?
Well, I'd say it depends on what you want to bill your work as. If its "art",
you can probably get an obscene price for it. If it's "custom made furniture",
you can probably get a slightly less obscene price for it. If its a nice
table that serves its pupose, you can probably charge a little more than the
equivalent table would cost in a store - after all, you already know they
want to buy it...
Me, I'd tell them to make a bid, and see how I felt about it.
That way, no one feels like they've been ripped of...
JD
Dave Brower, DBMS hack, [510] 748-3418
commercial rates. 75 hours at, oh, say, $35 (burdened) is $2975.
Hmmm, three grand for a table seems a tad steep.
Well, if it's *really* Art, then maybe you can try for that much!
Don't sell youself cheap, I guess, is my point. You aren't doing this
as a commercial enterprise, so you don't need to comp ete with anybody
on price. You won't have it to look at, and it will take you a long
while to replace it with a new original.
-dB
--
Brower's law of system analysis: "The closer you look, the worse it gets."
Adam Goldberg
>OK, I have a problem. I made a sofa table for my wife last year. Last week
>we had an "artsy fartsy" art fair. Several people around the office
>suggested that I enter my table and some photographs (one of the photos
>even won 1st). Now the Dean of the Fine & Performing Arts dept wants to
>buy the sofa table for their office.
>Well, being a nice guy, I asked my wife. She told me go for the cash and
>make her a new one. OK. Now for the problem. How do I price it?
>I have less than $100 in materials, and 4 months of off and on part time work
>in it (maybe 75 hrs total including several screw ups). BTW No problem with
>copyrights on the design, I designed it to fit our sofa and answering machine.
>I intend to hit the high end furniture stores tonight to get an idea what
>they have that is remotely similar. What else should I do to set the price
>and still be fair to myself and to the buyer?
100 + [ (75hrs * 20) * (.25 pleasure)] = $425 cost, not including
pleasure or overhead.
Add in the cost of your tools, time-value-of-money, light, heat, etc.
Of course, this figure goes up if you (1) charge more than $20/hour,
and (2) if you enjoy what you're doing less than I figured for
example.
I think you'd be on the mark for $500-$700, don't you? It won 1st
prize, right?
--
Adam G.
ad...@microware.com, or ...!uunet!mcrware!adamg
The above is not to be construed in any way as the official or unofficial
statements of Microware, or any Microware employees.
Quoc Tuan Pham
>In <WOODWORK%9308091...@IPFWVM.BITNET> "Lawrence E. Rondot" <RON...@IPFWVM.BITNET> writes:
>>OK, I have a problem. I made a sofa table for my wife last year. Last week
>>we had an "artsy fartsy" art fair. Several people around the office
>>suggested that I enter my table and some photographs (one of the photos
>>even won 1st). Now the Dean of the Fine & Performing Arts dept wants to
>>buy the sofa table for their office.
...
>>I have less than $100 in materials, and 4 months of off and on part time work
...
>I think you'd be on the mark for $500-$700, don't you? It won 1st
>prize, right?
Recently the National Art Gallery of Canada paid $1.5 million dollars
for an abstract painting consisting of a swath or red paint on a white
background. A few years ago they paid a similar amount for another
painting consisting of three stripes, one red and two blue. So why
don't you ask these fine arts guys how much they want to pay? Maybe you could
become a millionaire :-).
Since your won the first prize, I'm interested to know more about
the design and construction. Could you post more details? By the
way, the above is only a joke, not meant to disparage your work.
I think there is a discussion of pricing artwork in the book
"The Art and Creation of Wood Sculptures" by Cecil Carstensten
(Dover Publications).
Pete Lancashire
>OK, I have a problem. I made a sofa table for my wife last year. Last week
>we had an "artsy fartsy" art fair. Several people around the office
>suggested that I enter my table and some photographs (one of the photos
>even won 1st). Now the Dean of the Fine & Performing Arts dept wants to
>buy the sofa table for their office.
>Well, being a nice guy, I asked my wife. She told me go for the cash and
>make her a new one. OK. Now for the problem. How do I price it?
Call a custom funiture maker. Give him the details and ask "how much ?"
>I have less than $100 in materials, and 4 months of off and on part time work
>in it (maybe 75 hrs total including several screw ups). BTW No problem with
>copyrights on the design, I designed it to fit our sofa and answering machine.
The cost of your materials show have nothing to do with it. It good old
what the market will pay. BUT if you feel you design is so unique, then
do copyright it, and if it is unique in construction or detail, where
no one else can or will duplicate it then you can charge more for
artistic lic.
>I intend to hit the high end furniture stores tonight to get an idea what
>they have that is remotely similar. What else should I do to set the price
>and still be fair to myself and to the buyer?
Remember custom vs production, look at what a custom auto paint job vs a
Earl Schribe job goes for. A piece of funiture is no different.
About the 75 hours, if you were to make anohter one how many hours would
it take ? Then find out how much local funiture makers get per hour, or
even what a good carpenter / kitchen cab. shop gets.
You may be supprised how much your table is worth, but again will the
market pay that much.
-pete
--------------------------------------------
----- Pete Lancashire pe...@sequent.com ----
-------- Kid in spirit. Big Brother --------
-- Adopt ? ME ? I'm single !, Am I going ---
------------- crazy ? HELP -:) -------------
--------------------------------------------
Jeff Roberts
>OK, I have a problem. I made a sofa table for my wife last year. Last week
>we had an "artsy fartsy" art fair. Several people around the office
>suggested that I enter my table and some photographs (one of the photos
>even won 1st). Now the Dean of the Fine & Performing Arts dept wants to
>
>Well, being a nice guy, I asked my wife. She told me go for the cash and
>make her a new one. OK. Now for the problem. How do I price it?
>
>in it (maybe 75 hrs total including several screw ups). BTW No problem with
>
>I intend to hit the high end furniture stores tonight to get an idea what
>they have that is remotely similar. What else should I do to set the price
>and still be fair to myself and to the buyer?
>
>IBM Systems Programmer & BITNET Techrep RON...@SMTPLINK.IPFW.INDIANA.EDU
>Indiana Purdue University Fort Wayne AT&T: (219) 481-6203
>2101 Coliseum Blvd East
>Fort Wayne Indiana 46805-1499 USA =* Standard Disclaimers *=
My wife and I have a rule of thumb system: For small nik-nacky stuff we
calculate material x 8, for furniture it would be materials x 4 or 5. This
gives you a ball park figure from which you will have to adjust accordingly..
Did you do something to the project which cost you time above and beyond
what you normally would do? Add to the base figure. Did you do an extra
fast finish job that didn't come out so smooth? Deduct from the base figure..
Is the extra effort you put into the project obvious to the customer? They
always notice how smooth the finish is but could care less (read usually won't
pay for) a superb fitting mortise chopped out by hand..
The furniture store is a good place to get your bearings. I found the stores
usually charge what I would charge for a coffee table, but they use
pressboard,
veneering, hardware to hold legs together and lots of other short cuts where I
would use solid wood and mostly traditional joinery. I've always felt I was
paid fairly for the work I performed using this system. Some of our friends
don't think so. Let me put it another way: sometimes you are overpaid,
sometimes underpaid, it all works out in the end..
Jeff Roberts JROBERTS@UTDALLA
Scott Whetzel
Whenever someone asks you to sell your work you have the upper hand.
Since you will need to replace it, I would think the price is going to be
pushed a little higher. What is your time worth to you?