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eddy pula
16-Jun-2012, 09:55
Hi all, I'm holding a print sale next week on my blog, been printing up a bit of everything from the past 3 months, 35mm, medium formats and 4x5, check out this testimonial
http://karapture.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/i-give-to-you-a-testimonial-the-joey-harrison/
prints are gonna be sold fairly cheaply (my business partner says 'stupid cheap at a loss you moron') $20 for 8x10 rc prints, probably double that for 11x14 fiber but all prints will be shipped with a mystery gift, will it be another print? Random darkroom equipment, things I find on floor? Save up your pennies and find out next week!
Thanks
Eddy Pula

eddy pula
16-Jun-2012, 09:57
I have to go pick up some mailers at staples and price out US and international shipping rates (which will be extra) any ideas on the price, I already have a print going to the UK, I once paid $150 do ship a porfolio to france for a contest, never heard back from them ; ( I'm hoping the shipping will be like 5-10 bucks, what are your experiences?

cdholden
16-Jun-2012, 10:01
Flat or rolled?
Just prints or are they matted?
Size, weight and destination all factor into the end results. Narrow down the variables and you'll get a better idea of what to expect.
Good luck with the sale!

eddy pula
16-Jun-2012, 11:01
good call cd, I was gonna get a whole bunch of like 12x17 mailers (or whatver is bigger than 11x14, the biggest thing I'll be shipping is 11x14) no matte, maybe some extra cardboard so it won't bend and I'll slip in an extra print or something else flat, but the whole thing won't weigh more than a few ounces

vinny
16-Jun-2012, 11:31
good call cd, I was gonna get a whole bunch of like 12x17 mailers (or whatver is bigger than 11x14, the biggest thing I'll be shipping is 11x14) no matte, maybe some extra cardboard so it won't bend and I'll slip in an extra print or something else flat, but the whole thing won't weigh more than a few ounces

"won't bend". I like that.

cdholden
16-Jun-2012, 11:56
Most buyers will like that too. I hate finding nice photos in tubes, not to mention manila envelopes marked "photos - do not bend". It seems these are used for postal origami practice.

Kuzano
16-Jun-2012, 15:46
Hi all, I'm holding a print sale next week on my blog, been printing up a bit of everything from the past 3 months, 35mm, medium formats and 4x5, check out this testimonial
http://karapture.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/i-give-to-you-a-testimonial-the-joey-harrison/
prints are gonna be sold fairly cheaply (my business partner says 'stupid cheap at a loss you moron') $20 for 8x10 rc prints, probably double that for 11x14 fiber but all prints will be shipped with a mystery gift, will it be another print? Random darkroom equipment, things I find on floor? Save up your pennies and find out next week!
Thanks
Eddy Pula

Eddy, Eddy, Eddy.... Listen to your partner.

Potential buyers will not respect (and pay real money) for your images if you do not show respect for your own work.

After 40 years in business marketing, I learned from the very beginning, and it paid off until retirement... the phrase "The Law of Perceived Value." It's not vague at all. You telegraph the value of your work by what you charge for it. Artists and Photographers are at the top of heap for undervaluing and giving away their work.

The reason Galleries get much more money for artistic or fine art work is primarily because they do what artist will not do. They put a substantial value on the work they hang and sell. The 40-50 per cent that galleries get for the work they sell is fully justified by the fact that they often sell work for 3-4 times what an "artist" will ask. (Or for that matter, get, until they build a portfolio and a following of customers.)

welly
16-Jun-2012, 17:06
Hi all, I'm holding a print sale next week on my blog, been printing up a bit of everything from the past 3 months, 35mm, medium formats and 4x5, check out this testimonial
http://karapture.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/i-give-to-you-a-testimonial-the-joey-harrison/
prints are gonna be sold fairly cheaply (my business partner says 'stupid cheap at a loss you moron') $20 for 8x10 rc prints, probably double that for 11x14 fiber but all prints will be shipped with a mystery gift, will it be another print? Random darkroom equipment, things I find on floor? Save up your pennies and find out next week!
Thanks
Eddy Pula

I'll be keen to buy a print, but at least cover your costs chap!

Mike Anderson
17-Jun-2012, 11:39
FWIW you can get all the shipping products you need at uline.com. They're a great company to do business with the only problem is that they only sell things in quantity.

eddy pula
17-Jun-2012, 12:42
Kuzano, I hear where you are coming from but personally I reject that notion, part of the reason I want to sell unframed unmatted prints is that thats the reason you can't buy a photograph for under 1000 dollars, a great photographer Jess Dugan broke it down for me one day, the frame costs $200 and my print has to be worth atleast that much, and the gallery takes half, so a beautiful fiber 16x20 HAS to cost $800 (at thats about as cheap as they run in Boston at real galleries) for the artist to make $200, and it didn't sell so she gave it to me for a bunch of 11x14's! Well I don't have no gallery and I have low overhead, don't think I don't understand where you are coming from but I'm aiming towards the T-shirt, softcover book demographic, You'd buy a t-shirt of a cool no name band for $20, not $200, I'm a cool no name band right now, I will jack the prices up as soon as possible but all I want to do right now is get my name out there, some prints on some cool peoples walls, and approximately $500 for gas and tri-x, hey its an experiment anyways.
Thanks for all the input though, I'm not so arrogant to think I know everything, or even really anything, I just know one way of figuring things out, trying!

Jim Jones
17-Jun-2012, 14:06
Eddie, I'm with you. There are businessmen, there are photographers, and there are a few who are both. I'm a photographer who is about to raise the price of 10x14 digital prints archivally matted and framed from $40 to maybe $45 at the local arts & crafts show. I'm not rich, but am appreciated by friends, neighbors, and strangers who can't afford to pay much more. That beats being merely rich.

Kirk Gittings
17-Jun-2012, 14:25
Personally I price my prints for what the commercial art market will bear for my work. At this moment that is $850 for a 16x20 inkjet based on a recent museum purchase. Then when I decide to give a friend a price break (or a gift) or donate one to a worthy cause, the advertised market value gives people an idea of the real monetary value of the gift or discount. I frankly don't care if my work is hanging on allot of walls and don't price my work to make it "accessible". There is plenty of "accessibility" for my work-i.e. opportunities for people to see my work in magazines, shows or books etc. If you want to own it however, it should reflect a special commitment and price is one way to achieve that.

eddy pula
17-Jun-2012, 14:38
Kirk, that is interesting... I recently sold some pictures to a luxury hotel magazine, $400 for 4 pictures, I have a portfolio review at the best gallery in Boston next Wednesday trying to get into the Drawing Project, a flat file archive of artists (I don't know if anybody but me looks through those things, heck I steal the handling gloves every time! but its something for a resume), I already got turned down from a show this summer, too much b&w already they said... I had a ton of color stuff that I could of brought but what are you gonna do? I wanted to print, get away from uncalibrated monitors and back to the only real thing in photography, silver gelatin prints goddamit! Plus every time I turn around another box of old prints hits me in the head, consider it a spring cleaning tag sale of Eddy Pula originals, that's why its buy on get one free! Why the heck should all these b&w people pictures live underneath my bed and in my basement, if I have 30-40 prints hanging in cool artists houses and I make $500, how can that be a bad thing?

mdm
17-Jun-2012, 15:17
Bottom line, reputation sells prints. Much more important than the price of your prints now, is that they be used to enhance your reputation and future earning potential (or at least someones). Thats why people still buy Adams and Weston prints, both are long dead, but their reputation still works. If cheap prints get your name out and improve your reputation, they will pay long term. Junk prints are only going to ruin your reputation. Even cheap prints should be the best you can do.

eddy pula
17-Jun-2012, 16:55
MDM, very true, I know my way around an enlarger, I'm no master, but I've been printing black and white for about 10 years and only the nerdiest anal printers ever complain about my work and even then its a quibble here or there. The only thing I'm worried about is the fiber prints wrinkling, that's why most of the new prints are RC. Also I really should replace my blotter book, been through a couple hundred prints by now, but I just hate shelling out dough for stupid sheet like that. Somebody tried to trick me into hauling away their 30x40 heat press.... I have no room and my back hurts enough as it is.

Pawlowski6132
17-Jun-2012, 17:18
Why do people charge more for lager prints? I've never understood that.

Corran
17-Jun-2012, 19:39
Uh well does 16x20 paper cost more than 8x10 paper??

eddy pula
17-Jun-2012, 21:03
I didn't want to say anything to Pawlowski, but as a loyal customer of Hunts photographic, the last 10 years have been tough, when I started out you could buy paper and film at a reasonable price, now its $100 dollars for 50 sheets of 11x14 fiber glossy illafrord, I know I could save like $15 bucks online, but they have a store in my hometown I've been going to since I was 14 and they still carry all the darkroom chemicals I need, and I must be like one of 4 dudes who still buy it. I thank the photo gods every day that I can buy powder d76 at 9 oclock in the morning on any tuesday and talk to the staff about my super obscure developing problems. Dude its expensive to make silver prints, the equipment couldn't be cheaper but the materials are going through the roof!

Eric Rose
18-Jun-2012, 07:47
Love your blog Eddy!

eddy pula
18-Jun-2012, 09:39
thanks dude! I try, I remember trying to write about my own photo's in college and I just couldn't though I could wax poetic about Winogrand, Weegee and Arbus. Now I can't shut up!

eddy pula
19-Jun-2012, 11:02
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these are just examples of the kind of prints and mystery gifts I'll be selling this week on my blog, won't you please come check it out! Will probably be official by the end of the day, now I'm gonna swim some laps on a lake to clear my mind of jpegs and pay pal account jibber jabber
http://karapture.wordpress.com/

eddy pula
19-Jun-2012, 16:49
Ok so I think its all where it needs to be, its official, check out my cyber flea market on fine art documentary silver prints!
http://karapture.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/fast-eddys-silver-sale-on-old-cotton-rag/
Thanks for stopping by!