Hello, after I published my last painting on Gather, some of you asked to know of my experience of trying to sell my paintings on Ebay. So for those that are interested, here is my little story.
I have been learning to paint in the medium of watercolour for about the last 15 months. Over that time I have amassed quite a considerable amount of paintings, at first I would give them away to friends and family, but although it may seem odd, I feel very attached to what I have painted, almost like they are my children, but the comforting aspect is that they hang on peoples walls for all to see.
Anyway, I thought it would be a good idea if I could sell a few on Ebay and make a tiny profit so I could buy more painting materials, thus making my hobby self sufficient, well thats what i hoped for.
So back in October I set up a Ebay account and put my paintings up for sale. Everyday that first week, I couldn't wait to get home from work and jump straight on to the computer and see if any one had bid. The first couple of days nothing, then eventually two people were bidding on the same painting, I was very excited. The painting was of two Budgies, it finally went for $8.50 + $7.50 p&P, so a grand total of $15.50 (Australian). I felt very pleased , but as the weeks wore on, I found I would be constantly re listing paintings, I then managed to sell a painting of a flamingo to a young lady in the U.S.A for a small sum of $5.00, the amount wasn't much, but it felt good to sell one to another country.
I managed to sell a couple more to some people here in Australia, one woman was even kind enough to give me double the price she won on the auction, as she said she felt bad getting a lovely painting so cheap, which I thought was wonderful.
Then my problems began, I got my first invoice from ebay, it was costing me more in fees, than i was actually making in return, so i was actually running at a loss, time to call in Donald Trump. Then I had my best ever price reached on a painting, the final price was $15.50 for a painting of a tigers eye, I felt happy, that was short lived.
As the winning bidder never paid for the painting, I sent him email after email, I finally got in touch with ebay, and I had to wait a further eight days, for settlement of dispute, all i got back was my insertion fees, and as far as I know nothing was done to the buyer.
Over the next couple of months i hardly sold anything, I did a lovely painting on A3 paper of a Birman temple cat, it sold for $1.50, it broke my heart to send it off, the time it took me to paint it. I sold two more paintings to the same person, he only paid $1 for each painting, my heart was heavy.
So the next few paintings I put up I increased the starting price to about $5.00, but alas I sold nothing.
I went to the library and got out a book called "The complete idiots guide to selling on ebay" I read it fanatically, and realised I could open a Ebay on line store, and for the first thirty days I get it for free.
So that is what I have done, its been enjoyable making the store and each weekend i do a few more fine tuning and tweaking, but unfortunately as yet I have sold NOTHING. I think I will keep it open for at least three months and then assess the situation, I have been trying to look around to see if there is any other websites I can sell my paintings on, but I am still looking. I like to publish my paintings on Gather as there are a few loyal viewers who always give me wonderful comments and constructive comments which I really appreciate, and find really helpful, so to you all if you are reading this many many thanks from the bottom of my heart.
Oh one last thing about Ebay, you may or may not know if you have a account with them, it all runs on feedback, if you buy or sell, you give and receive feedback, so people can tell if you are reliable to deal with. Well apart from people not paying for goods, actually trying to get people to leave feed back is a task in its own. My rating should be a lot higher than it is, but people don't bother to leave feedback for me, so I am for ever emailing them to give them a gentle reminder, that it helps my status as a seller if they leave feed back. So in all I have mixed feelings about my ebay experience , but also I guess it is early days still. Please feel free to browse my ebay store, just type in "artyfac" in the search bar and it will take you there. Many thanks, I hope this was not to boring to read, take care and all the best David.
Since I wrote this article, I have managed to sell 2 paintings, which really cheered me up, but it is still crawling along at a snails pace, I am really wondering wether Ebay is the right way to go, to sell my works. Any way please feel free to check out my store, I am more than happy if you just browse, at least it is getting a look at, just simply type in, www.stores.ebay.com.au/Artyfac
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Comments: 12
You should also give an assessment of how much you need to sell inorder to break free with the costs, because without knowing that, I thik ebay could be tons of time and frustration invested with little return.
So what do we do? I wonder myself about starting a store and trying seriously again. Your tread here could possibly become the door opener for people like us because people might be interested and run to ebay to get those bargain prizes hehehe and we could learn valuabel things through the replies you get.
First and most important I think we (at least I) need to find a way not to be hurt that much when our "babies" are rejected even when we nrealy give them away.
Secondly, I think seriously we need to raise our prices for many reasons. By keeping them low we further ruin ebay and feed the expectations that art is nearly for free and that our work and efforts is worth nothing.
We then would need fewer sells to break even. That is what some friends adviced me last year when I struggled to put prices on some items that I were to display for sale. They said "Better to sell one at 450 NKR or 3 for 150Nkr" because then the buyer too would feel that he or she put something worth while on her wall, I would keep up the notion that originals ARE worth more than massproduced copies and I would not come in the situation that I would have to keep up having the same prices. We were also a group at the local exhibition in november who decided halfway into it that we would rather give away as Christmas presents or donate for charity our works than reduce prices to bargain basement ones to sell in the climate that developed due to it also selling candy and other market stuff.
WE do need to understand the best ways to label and present our work on ebay - that has some kind of impact.
If necessary we need to buy more on ebay than sell (which is what I have done) to get those first feedbacks. LOl I got myself some books, some artist equiptment and quite a fewlovely ACEOs so I supported other artists as well by bidding and buying. I now have a star and it even changed colour.
Then I think we seriously need to consider what our goals are. IF we go for the long run then other business ventures get the advice that they should not plan financially for green numbers the first two years because building up a store and acostumer platform takes time and initial costs are high. I think that applies for us too. So I am in the process of deciding how much I find reasonable to invest in my future as a selling artist. That answer will determine how much I will be willing to pay online galleries, for extra exposure on ebay etc etc. How much am I willing to possibly lose? is also an important question because I might NOT take off.
If we only want to sell a work now and then I seriously thing money and effords will be better spent on taking the rounds and offering shops, hairdressers and cafes commision to have them on their walls.
Any way, You have here an offer to "hold hands" as we venture out again to let our babies hopefully see the world. It is terrible to go into ebay and see no bid, no bids no bids or even worse, no hits since last time. It does not help to be a grown up or to know the factual reasons why. It still fells like getting personal rejections because art IS so personal.
Trine
Now I only need to find out how to put items in the shop without auctioning them first. Do we need to auction them first? My shop's name is "Original Paintings from Norway". Do you like it?
Any advice will be appreciated.
I'm at Americanframe.com, boundlessgallery.com, finerworks.com, et al. Anyway, go there and search for Cecilia Price. Boundless Gallery has sold 2 for me, and I've sold several, one out of a restaurant I'm showing at, and some right out of this house! Not one went for less than $100 and these are unframed pieces. It's worth a look.
One thing you are doing is not charging enough for your beautiful works.
Somebody gave me that same book about ebay, but somehow, I just don't want to do that. Seems like it cheapens the work to me, no offense to others. I might go there and try with some small pieces. My friend said one thing that made sense: She said that at ebay, people go there to buy things. Hmmmmm She said she thought that at places like boundlessgallery, sometimes people were just looking to compare themselves to others.
Perk up! Try to get a local place to show some of your framed works, and give them a little if they sell them. This is working for me.
Cecilia (Cia) Price
If I could give you some advice from my experiences without coming off as critical, I would say this:
1) your work is quite good and is worth much more than $15-20, especially the larger pieces. I would add a zero to these numbers, if I were you. Sometimes people don't buy stuff, because it seems too good to be true.
2) Just opening a store will not garner much in the way of sales, you have to put stuff on auction to bring people to the store. Most of my sales result from stuff I put on auction, not from the store. I have recently been doing some "Featured Plus" listings for the extra $20. If you listed your paintings as "Buy It Now" for $200 or $300, with the "Make me an offer" option, you may get $100 for the piece, which would offset the $24 or $25 that you spent on the listing. I sell pretty large pieces, listing them for $1200, and then accept offers for $800 or $900. I also do No Reserve, low starting price auctions, but we'll get to that later.
3) Your titles are not as good as they could be. Take "Spectacular Art a naked lady painted in watercolour!". This paint is highly marketable; people like nudes, but "Nude" is not in your title! "ORIGINAL ART Watercolor NUDE Painting" is a better title. No one is going to search for the word "Spectacular". I have a theory that, tragically, adjectives are going to almost disappear from culture because Internet usage negates their usefulness. Nobody searches for beautiful or great; they search for the noun of the thing, or sometimes the adjectives "big" or "small", but that's about it.
Also, use every single character available in the title, if possible; if you have characters remaining, use the work color or something. Notice that I made some words CAPS, that breaks up the listing, and makes it easier to read when people are scanning. Stalk other successful artists on Ebay and look at their titles.
You might think "why should I put 'Art' or 'painting' in the title, when they will be in that section of Ebay?" Because your items will also show up in the major search engines like Google, where people will be using the words "painting" and "art"; (and "watercolor")
4) $1 auctions, no reserve. I'm the last person to sell my paintings for $1; I don't want to devalue my work, but I saw another very successful artist doing this (at close of auction the paintings reach $400-$800), so I figured what the heck? I have a big inventory of work, so I chose a "sacrificial lamb" and went for it. With a day left (I think there will be a lot of action, the last hour, on this type of listing), there are 21 bids; the piece is up to $127.50, and I have 5 watchers. I feel that there will be a flurry of bids a the end, and it will get up to a palpable selling price. One more important detail, I spent the extra $20 and made it a "Featured Plus!" listing; I think I needed that extra exposure to get enough bids. We'll see how it goes over the next 24 hours.
Daveey, I hope that you receive this advice with the good intentions that I have in giving it, that is to be helpful. When I see your work, I know it is extremely marketable and very well-done. Face it, there is a lot of mediocre art on ebay, so I like to help and encourage artists that sell work that is good like yours.
I disagree with the theory that people are looking for garage sale art on ebay. I research the buying background of my customers and often find them buying art for several thousands of dollars. Good luck! -warrenkeating.gather.com Ebay store: www.keatingart.com