I plunked a rather crude dry point into a local arts auction with a minimum bid of $80 and it sold!  It went late in the auction, only about half the people were still there and the auctioneer misplaced it and in the mad scramble to find it and put it up for bid, she failed to describe the medium or read the artist statement.  It still sold.  It sold when those around it didn't.  Granted, the proceeds won't buy a week's worth of groceries.  It barely covers the cost of the promotional material I put out there but by God, it sold.  Yay.

Things I learned: Poignant and funny artist statements sold better than listings of the artists accolades.  This was not a group of folks interested in investing.  They were interested in decorating their houses with art that held a story.  I also learned that slapping a minimum bid on the piece tends to get you the minimum bid.  The highest selling pieces were those that started at $20 and went up into the hundreds.  I guess there is a risk to that.  Some of them ended up sold for $20.  Not many, though.

 Any observations from the savvy community out there?

 -Marcia

MEMBERS COMMENTS VIEWING 1 - 2 OUT OF 2 COMMENTS From: JANSONartGALLERY 04/14/2008 03:08:16 From everything I've learned about pricing art so far is that pricing it low to start is not such a good thing. I'm not talking starting price for auctions but rather a price for a normal sale. I think a very low price tells the public that the piece can't possibly be worth more than the marked price. And / or if the artist only values it at x well.... He/She knows more than me about the piece so it must be true. Art is funny like that. Art's perceived value is romanticized. So artists... Lets create a novel by telling our stories well! From: alston 03/30/2008 04:38:08 Congrats on the sale ! ! And thanks for the info.