Selling Art on Ebay Part 2: Who Buys on Ebay? Pricing Considerations

In part 2 of this blog series, Selling Art on Ebay, I'll talk about the Ebay market and what you can expect when pricing your art to sell on Ebay. If you haven't read part1: Selling Art on Ebay: Should You?

Many first time Ebay artists think they'll be able to list their art on Ebay at the same prices that they would sell their work for in a gallery. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the case.

Unless you're already an established artist with collectors that value your work as an investment then it's very rare for a new, unknown artist on Ebay will command gallery prices.


Who Buys on Ebay?

People who shop on Ebay are generally looking for bargains. Whilst most shoppers know original art has value, they wouldn't be looking on Ebay if they wanted to pay gallery prices. Hence this is why selling your art on Ebay has the perception of devaluing the investment value of your artwork.

To sell your art on Ebay at gallery prices you're going to have to do alot of work convincing people that your art is worth the prices you are asking and you're going to have to attract buyers to your auctions that aren't so much looking for a bargain but looking for art that may become a great investment piece as your reputation as an artist grows (not easy to do if Ebay is your primary sales outlet).

It's more likely you are going to have to accept that starting out you are never going to sell your work on Ebay for gallery prices so you will need to set prices that are much more in tune with the average Ebay shopper's bargain hunting mindset.

This is an idea that many artists struggle with because all artists like to think their work is as valuable as any other similar artists that command high prices (even those that get higher prices on Ebay). What is often overlooked is those artists have spent many years promoting their work, building their reputation and gradually raising their prices as demand for their work grows.

Realistically, as an unknown artist on ebay, people aren't buying your work as an investment. As I said in part 1, they are buying your work because they like your subject, style or because they have an ideal place where your work on display would finish off the decor of a room.


Pricing Considerations

Knowing that people shopping on Ebay are looking for bargains, you will need to take a close look at your pricing and seriously ask yourself;

• What is the least amount of money that you would accept for each individual artwork that you list for sale?
   
• Would that price look attractive to someone searching for original art at a bargain price?

In setting your prices there is one pricing strategy that you should definitely avoid - and I can't stress this enough. Ebay from time to time will reduce their listing fee or give free listings to people who place a starting bid on their items of $1.00 or less. When you're setting your prices, never, ever have your opening bid for $1.00 or less.

I guarantee you that, if someone bids and buys your work for $1.00, it will definitely leave a bad taste in your mouth, you will believe your experience with Ebay to have been a bad one and, it will be really disheartening when you realize that the cost of posting your artwork is actually more than the price the person paid for your original art.

So take the question of what is the minimum price you would sell each individual piece of your artwork very seriously. Compare it to what other similar artists are listing their works at. If that looks like a price that is acceptable to you and looks like a price that is likely to find a buyer on Ebay then by all means go ahead and list your work with your minimum price as the opening bid on your Ebay auction.

Even if your price looks reasonable it doesn't mean that selling your art will be easy but certainly it is worth giving it a go. As I said in part 1, even though Ebay its self gets millions of visitors per day, your actual listing may only get 10 to 20 visitors for the whole time your auction is live.

If you really want to sell your art at the prices you want rather than the lowest price you would accept you're going to have to spend a lot of time promoting and marketing your auction listings, getting them seen, establishing a collector base for your art and gradually raising prices as the demand and competition in bidding for your work increases (which can take months or even years of regularly selling work on Ebay).

Hopefully this post has given you some idea of what kind of market you're selling to, got you thinking about pricing and whether you'd be willing to sell your art at prices considerably less than what you might expect to sell them for in a gallery - particularly in your early months and possibly years selling on Ebay.

Just like selling your work through gallery representation, getting higher prices on Ebay is something you have to work towards because bargain hunters usually aren't looking to spend a lot of money the first time they see your art.

Like this article? Then why not read part 3: Selling Art on Ebay - What Sells on Ebay?

Footnote: This article is based on part two of a series of Ebay videos that I created back in 2007 on my Youtube channel. The videos were ad-libbed and received much criticism for my slow delivery and monotone voice however, those that stuck with them, always commented that the information its-self was good. The above article updates the content of the video and hopefully better expresses what I was trying to say. (I've always said, at the time I had no enthusiasm for making the videos and wouldn't have made them at all if I'd actually done what I should have and scripted them properly). If you want you can watch the video here - don't say I didn't warn you and please refrain from leaving a comment... I already know!