Gallery Retail Pricing?

Hello all,

I have a photograph taken at Torrey Pines State Beach that was juried into the Best of Nature Show at the Ordover Gallery in the San Diego History Museum. First time - and I am excited but not sure what retail price to charge.

The gallery is taking 50% of the sale and my cost to print, mount, frame, etc will be roughly $260. I would like to make enough back to cover that plus an additional $200 or so to help me fund this crazy hobby of nature photography. However, with the gallery taking 50% do I take want I want which is cost $260 + "profit" $200 = $460 and multiply it by 2 as the gallery is suggesting making the total retail price = $920? Is there any "formula" or I am doing the right thing by kind of winging it?

Thought I would ask in this forum since a bunch of you have some experience in this area.

Thanks

Sorry I can't help on your question, but you reminded me that I recently chose not to enter a photo contest because winners had to bear their own costs for printing, framing, mounting, shipping, etc. That stuff adds up!

That deal with the gallery is fairly typical. Some galleries will do the matting and framing and some do not. The 40% to 50% seems to be the same regardless. Your formula is correct.

Photo pricing can be all over the place, with some photographers charging really low prices hoping to drive volume and others at the higher end. There is no correct price. If you have a website and sell on it, your web pricing should match the gallery pricing. You do not want to undercut the gallery. Take a look around at some of your favorite photographers and see what they charge would be my best guess to get a feel for what the market will bear. Of course, the more established and recognized the tog, the more they "should" be able to charge.

First of all, congrats on getting juried into the show. I'll have to check it out when the show opens. It's always great seeing the work of local photographers.

One thing to keep in mind... State Parks are quite restrictive about profiting from photography without proper permits. It is a lot different than National Parks, which are fair game. Chances are that it will be a non issue, but I figured I'd give you a heads up.

Thanks all.

You first intuitions were right, you want to at least double your money so if you cut your costs it's even better. You might as well try to sell it too though the gallery will try so take your friends and family to go see it.

David,

I would echo Harley's comment about not undercutting the gallery. And just to clarify Steve's advice in doubling your price - sure, you need to price appropriately to make sure you're getting your cost + profit back. But don't double it because you're matching the 50% gallery take, You should offer the same retail price on your website or elsewhere as the gallery retail price. They're taking the 50% commision as your fee to being able to be hung in their gallery. You can't offer a framed print on your website for $400 and then bump it to $800 just for the gallery. What if a patron decided to visit your website and figure out they can save 50%? How will the gallery ever sell anything, and thus, your work won't sell either. You need to decide on a price point and stick with it.

Fortunately for you, you only list print pricing on your site, so that's a good thing. That leaves you open for charging whatever the heck you want for a nicely matted and framed Gallery piece.

Your material costs seem high, but maybe that's because you have to farm it out? If you can mat and assemble the frame, glass/acrylic, etc yourself you can save some bucks. Otherwise paying someone else to mat/frame... (they've got higher margins than you're trying to get with the gallery!) gets pretty expensive.

anyway, just some thoughts to chew on. Congrats on the award and selection for the gallery. Best of luck.

Lon

I'd research how much they sell at the gallery then try to cut your overhead accordingly so you can be within the ballpark.

"Fortunately for you, you only list print pricing on your site, so that's a good thing. That leaves you open for charging whatever the heck you want for a nicely matted and framed Gallery piece."

You nailed it with this line Lon.

I decided to make my plan simple. Put a price I feel is fair (covers my cost, covers the gallery and makes me a little profit) on my framed photograph and if it sells it sells and if it doesn't I have something for my wall.

Thanks all for lending me your knowledge and experience in this area - has helped me a lot.

Are they requiring it framed? There are a lot of nice options these days for displaying non framed images, which can save you probably 100 bucks.

Congratuations on being juried into The Best of Nature show, David. This is pretty awesome!

Regarding pricing, I won't tell you what you ought to charge for your work. However, in my opinion most art offered for sale in galleries (and art shows) is over priced. The end result is that people come and see the artwork on display, and actually like something that they would want to purchase but sadly cannot afford the steep price tag. At this point I don't know if the greed of the gallery directors and/or the vanity of the artists is actually worth the trouble they take to put up the pieces on display. May be it is...

"The end result is that people come and see the artwork on display, and actually like something that they would want to purchase but sadly cannot afford the steep price tag. "

In this economy, this is certainly true. In better times, when folks have more disrectionary income, sales, at even higher prices, are easier to realize.

"At this point I don't know if the greed of the gallery directors and/or the vanity of the artists is actually worth the trouble they take to put up the pieces on display. May be it is... "

Could be. However, galleries and their artists do have overhead costs to meet, something I know that you know well. For the artist, there is a 'soft' cost: all the unpaid time, effort, and materials that brought them to their current level of 'artistry' and skill. For myself, If I sell an unmounted 12x16 print for $225, and think about all the things that went before, I am greatly undervaluing (in dollars and cents) my work.

I would hope that gallery owners, art fair promoters and the artists themselves would establish commissions that would meet their long term business goals. But, there will always be greed; everyone wants their piece of the pie, but some want the plate, as well.

--P

When it comes to pricing, it's a difficult thing. I look at it strictly from the business side of things. How many photos are realistically going to sell each year? How much do you need to make to make it worth the effort? How much does it cost to produce the prints? You also need to factor in income tax (the greedy government will take much of what you earn), business tax, etc.

In the end, when you see a photograph selling for 5k, or 10k, it is not so absurd. Lets say I sell a print in a gallery for 5k. That gallery will likely take around 50% which means my take is 2500. It costs me about 1k to produce that print, which means I net 1500. The federal and state government will take about a third of that. What am I left with? About $1000. If I sold 30 prints each year for 5k each, I might make as much as someone who works at 7/11 full time.

Photographers such as Peter Lik who might sell some prints in excess of 40k have a lot of overhead they must cover.