At ArtiGras in Jupiter this weekend a woman came up to my booth and said that she would give me 750 for a piece marked at 1000 then told me to think about it and she would come back after dealing with another artist.
She stated that she and her sister have been buying art all weekend and have done their part in supporting the arts. Maybe by squeezing every artists for every dime, she thinks she is supporting the arts.
She came back and said what do you think of my offer. I said that I would give her a 15 percent discount but she didn't think that was enough and began to tell me that she is on the board of the West Virginia Coalition for the Arts and I should be thankful that she would take my piece back to WV and tell others about it. She also would not pay the sales tax. I said no thank you and she began to talk to me like I should be so lucky that she liked my work. She claimed to be a shrewd negotiator but would not come up on her price. and I did not come down on mine . We should not be giving our work away just to make a sale.
I asked her if she paid full price for every dress or clothes at a department store and she said oh no I never pay full price. I asked if she pays full price for groceries or bargains with the grocer too.
For someone who is supposed to be an advocate for the arts all she does is rip artists off from charging a fair market value for their art. I told her she should be ashamed of her self for treating artists that way as an advocate.
She walked away. at 5:20 when the show closed at 5 and did not have any 2d art in here hands. Bye Bye, See ya, don't let the gate hit you on the way out.
Replies
Get around easily or I'd blab more . I was at arti graw too and now thAt
I see your pic I believe you were close to me. You were near south
Entrance? On iphone now horrible at text so will write more and review
Arti graw when I get personAl hotspot working!!!
A friend of mine had a similar type patron at his booth this weekend. Woman asked for a discount, begging, cajoling and claiming she didn't have any money. They finally reached an agreed on price. This was a very inexpensive pair of earrings. She pulled out a $50 bill. Artist said, Never mind, I don't want to sell this to you and turned away.
LIKE!
Good one :-)
Thanks for doing that Jim. I'm sure it must have been very hard, with the adrenaline flowing, to actually make the point and educate... I understand the impulse to ask about discounts for sure, as stories pop up every day encouraging consumers to barter at every turn. But what they don't teach is the reaction to have when your below par borderline offensive offer isn't accepted. Have some class and grace. Don't argue with an artist and turn it ugly. It's completely out of line and could possibly cause someone to walk on by without looking, by no fault of the artist.
I deal with art patrons every day...and this is a very common practice. The term staving artist has been applied to every artist and patrons sometimes think that we have to lick their boots and like it.
Fortunately, I know we all have clients who are glowing examples of the mutual respect great patrons and artists can share! People are odd sometimes aren't they??
Yes they are.
Luckily there were no other patrons around as the show was closed and I tried to be polite for a while until it just became humorous.
The other artists and I had a good laugh after she left
Woo hoo, Jim! You are having fun at the art fairs, aren't you? Good for you, sticking to your guns. How are you feeling now? Wish you had done it? Still steaming? or just telling the story?
Not steaming, Laughing, We had a good laugh while packing up with the other artists around me. Glad I did it, she needed to be put in her place. I will sell the piece another day. It was an award winning piece so no problem selling it.Will just make it more expensive next week
Ah Florida shows I get more hagglers down here then anywhere else.
She is from West Virginia so they must be bad there too