Earlier this summer I exhibited at the Art and Air fair in Webster Groves, MO. (It turned out to be a good show for us)
Shortly after opening on Friday evening a middle aged man brought one of my pieces up to me (with a look and tone of, I know I'm going to get this at a reduced price) said, "Is this your best price?"
Without even thinking much, instinctively, I quipped, "Yes, because it's my best work."
He bought it.
How would/have you responded in the past?
Replies
Yes, it's MY best price, what's YOUR best price?
You could knock 50 cents off for him (Sr. discount) and make the sale, unless you're rolling in sales and don't need the sale, got lots of buyers.
Well LOL, if you have lots of buyers perhaps your prices are too low. Or you are selling so much you can insult people at will.
The way I'm now seeing artists is that half for the group believe it's OK to insult buyers with snarky remarks and believe if OTHERS cut a deal THEY are the ones hurting sales for everybody.
I'm sort of surprised how "hard" many people artists have become. I'm looking at art fair people a little differently now.
I guess I didn't see these comments as snarky. The artist certainly has the right to stick to his/her price.
Yes he/she does.
Snarky replies? Hard? I think some people just don't like to negotiate and don't consider it "fun" at all. Many people enjoy negotiation or haggling. To the snark-ers, haggling feels like arguing. To the bargain seekers, it seems like sport. I lived in Haiti for a year and so I learned to negotiate as part of shopping.
Deleted.
Shows in the Midwest seem to be on the honor system and pretty lax. I would not mind at all with having the tax collected after a show - be done with it right there. Now I just add up all sales every 3 months and pay with a CC.
Little did I know that sales I had in galleries were tax free for me. I was paying them anyway!
Hal, I think your response was perfect. Only the "I could go higher" response would be better. I don't like to give discounts on my work for two reasons: 1) I have a fair price on it to begin with and 2) it wouldn't be fair to my other customers who do pay full price.
If a customer asks me for a discount I will usually tell them I will give them one if they purchase multiple items. Recently, a woman offered me a considerably lower price for an item, and I told her I had too much invested in time and materials to let it go for that. She left, then came back and bought the item at full price with her credit card. (I think her original offer may have been the amount of cash she had on hand.) Then she made me another offer for cash on a second piece including tax. It was a reasonable offer, so I accepted it. By the time I figured the tax, it was a very small discount.
When I hear people offering discounts of 10% or more for cash purchases, I figure they are cheating on their taxes. When people question my charging sales tax, I explain to them that I run a legitimate business. I am a CPA, and cheating on my taxes would probably cost me my license to practice. It's not worth it to me. I think a lot of artists, especially at small shows, probably don't even have a tax permit. At one show, a woman from the Indiana DOR came to my booth and demanded to see my resale certificate. I don't carry it with me, but fortunately I had the permit number written on the back of my receipt book.
I did try including the sales tax in my price, which is certainly an option. The software I use requires me to put in the net price, so that just makes too much work for me. I am going to have a sign in my booth from now on that says "Sales Tax Added to All Purchases". If you include sales tax in your prices, you may want to have a sign that says sales tax is included in your price, just so people can see that you do pay sales tax and it is part of your cost.
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