I'd like to share something with you....

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

you know how sometimes you "playback" in your mind past conversations and experiences (or is it just me?) well this happened to me driving back from town, don't know why I thought of it at that time but I thought I would share it with you. It concerns a discussion I had with a gallery owner just down the road from where I was taking part in a small event where I was trying to sell my wares, a craft fair by any other name. I wandered into his gallery and was pleased to see exhibits made from wood and up for sale, not furniture I hasten to add. So the conversation went something like this:-
Me: Nice to see you have wooden items on display.
Him: Yes we like to support artists in whatever medium they use.
Me: I'm a woodturner and I am exhibiting down the road at.. I'd be pleased if you came down and viewed some of my work.
Him:What prices are you charging?
Me: I have work priced to suit all pockets.
What is your most expensive piece priced at?
Me: I have a few, the prices range from £265 to £340 for the artistic pieces.
Mmmm....I'm not really interested in pieces less than £600.
Me: They can be £600 if you want them to be.
Him: too late now.
I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, perhaps it is charge sensible prices for your work or make your work the same cost as that sold locally.. I don't know, but I thought I would share it anyway.

[John]

This is always a dilemma
I find it difficult to price my goods, so I don't do many fairs any more.
I find if I have a working lathe on a stand things sell better at a more reasonable price.  (if you demonstrate at a fair the stand is often free or at a reduced rate.
John

[Les Symonds]

in my experience, if a shop/gallery owner really likes your work, he or she will want it and you'll sort out a price and quality structure to suit. It sounds to me like this person you're telling us about is a bit silly and doesn't really know his market.
Les

[bodrighywood]

How much is your work worth? How many times have I heard and asked myself this? If I sell something in a local gallery then I don't think I could ask the same price as in a London Gallery somehow. Now if I could get my head around what people want to buy and how much they are prepared to pay I would be able to buy my dream lathe, and a few other things LOL.

Pete

[Graham]

If his gallery doesn't sell anything for less than £600 I would suggest that....
a... He doesn't have many customers.
b... He makes most of the customers he does have feel uncomfortable.
c... He won't have been in business long and won't last long.

[Richard Findley]

John,

It's funny that you can always come up with a clever response a couple of hours after the event. I've been mulling it over since I read this at lunch time and decided that your correct response should have been: 'my apologies, you misunderstand, these are my wholesale prices, retail would of course be more in the £600 bracket!'

You are probably best off out of it though. Sounds like he could be a bit high maintainence!

Richard

[andersonec]

I think you are already charging what you call 'sensible prices' or at least 'prices to suit all pockets' you could increase them to gallery prices but how often would you then sell your pieces? turnover (with profit included) is the name of the game.
The reason he wanted them at that price is because their cut would not then be high enough, they want about about 40% (if not more) so if you wanted 2-300 squids it's not enough for him, he obviously wants to make people think his gallery is something it isn't by charging over the odds.
Gallery owners mark-up leave a lot to be desired, I know they have overheads but they want to stand around looking cool while others do the work.

Sell your stuff elsewhere.

Andy

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Thanks all for your replies and yes I didn't and won't bother putting my bits in there.