It is my understanding that galleries/shops “keystone” the prices we give them and usually multiply the wholesale price by 2.3-2.5 to cover shipping and handling costs. Of course it is up to individual shops to make these decisions.

I’m in the minority with Brandon — “my prices change depending on where/how they’re being sold,” too. For the last 10 years, I’ve sold most of my pots from my showroom and website; occasionally from shops/galleries, and a few in exhibitions. I’ve never done wholesale, and just a few retail craft shows. It’s probably worth mentioning that making pots isn’t my full-time gig or only source of income.

Here’s my ever-evolving approach: Pots in my showroom are the least expensive — that’s essentially the baseline price. The same pots on my website are generally about 10% more, to help pay for the time and expense of shooting and editing photos, posting items online, managing inventory, fulfilling orders, packing and shipping (Brandon’s 20% is probably closer to a break-even adjustment). The same pots in local shops or galleries are slightly more expensive, perhaps another 10%; in a gallery or show that I have to pay to ship to, a bit more again.

So for example, the most expensive pot at my sale last weekend was a large lidded jar from my most recent salt firing. It was easily my favorite pot of the group, and I would have been happy to send it to the best quality exhibition I could get into. From my showroom, it sold for $100; if I’d posted it to my site, I would have marked it $110-125; if I’d sent it to a first-rate gallery like AKAR — not that they asked, mind you — more like $140-150.

But as I said, I don’t have much work in galleries, and it may be true that they don’t appreciate it. However, I think that whether they’ll show my work or not probably hinges on more important factors. I don’t think a reasonable gallery owner in another state would care that much that someone can drive to my showroom and buy it for less, or save a few dollars to buy it from me online and paying to have it shipped.

It seems to me that the idea of undercutting a competitor suggests equal value; the price of an orange is only marginally related to the price of an apple, so to speak, because they’re not the same thing. I think it’s a mistake the see a pot in one venue as equal to the same pot in another venue.

Likewise, it doesn’t make sense to compare prices to things that aren’t equally acccessible: the price of a widget in New York doesn’t necessarily relate to the price of a widget in California, unless the difference is so great that it’s cheaper to ship from the other coast than to buy local. With heavy, fragile things like handmade pots, location matters.

Aaron said, “It is not fair to the customer to vary prices that much,” but — at least in my case — I actually think it might be more fair. Buying that jar from me directly takes the most effort/expense from the average customer. Buying it online is easier and adds all the beneifts of web shopping — infinite selection, from any location, anytime, in your underwear, etc. (Those are offset some by the negatives — shipping cost, shopping from photos instead of actual objects, delayed gratification — but the history of e-commerce says we’re all getting used to taking those things for granted.) Buying from a gallery like AKAR is easier still, if you happen to live near one, and adds a variety of perks: an selection of quality work from a wide area, a refined retail experience, regular business hours, perhaps some prestige (if you’re into that kind of thing).

So while the customer online or at the gallery certainly doesn’t want to pay more, it seems entirely fair to me that they do so — they’re getting more in return, or at least avoiding the “costs” of buying direct.

Communicating that to customers is probably a much harder trick to pull off; perhaps it’s best to explain it from the perspective of extra costs to the potter, as Brandon did. Or, as in Ron’s anecdote about the Utah potter (Bennion, perhaps?) who marks them with the gallery price and then makes the local discount explicit, treat the gallery price as the norm and the others as the exception. I like how that inverts the standard assumptions.

Brandon and I come from the same pottery philosophy (or whatever you call it) so I don’t disagree with what he says at all. As a matter of fact it’s similar to what I did for years and I really had no problems or arguments from anyone.

Wow Kim, that’s a lot of galleries. It seems you’ve got a pretty good handle on it, and I’m sure it’s taken a lot of work on your part to get where you are.

Amy, the whole pricing thing is huge. We had a big discussion on it here not long ago. I’ll see if I can locate the post and direct you to it.

Aaron, thanks again for you input. I used to hate the idea of wholesaling. I just wanted to do retail all the way. But what you say is true I think, it’s the way business is done in the US. I think we as artists may be slow on the uptake sometimes as far as doing what we need to to make money. We aren’t known for being very good business people in general and I for one have always been a bit too romantic about the whole thing.

I’ll just note a couple examples here about ‘undercutting’ the galleries. I once asked a well known, successful potter about how she felt about pricing her work out of her studio vs. the gallery price. Her answer, “They are my pots I’ll do whatever the hell I please.”

I know of another potter who gives 10% off as a ‘reward’ for those folks who make it out to her rural studio to buy pots.

I’m pretty sure (not 100%) that two very well know Georgia potters had what was referred to as ‘One Price’ This was the price pots sold at the studio. Basically you paid the same price regardless of if you were a gallery or a customer. If you were a gallery you took the pots and marked them up. When I bought pots there in the mid 90′s they were very affordable.

There is a Utah potter who does something similar. His pots are marked at gallery prices but there’s a sign hanging in the showroom that says since you are buying directly from him you get a 50% cut. (I’d say 99% of his business is right out of the showroom and he’d rather hit his thumb with a hammer than deal with a gallery)(which probably has kept him pretty sane).

Hannah I still don’t understand VAT so I’m gonna go look it up.

i could just straight up charge $24 for mugs…but i wouldn’t be able to sell them here for that price so my prices change depending on where/how they’re being sold.

so that’s my take on that…if i did almost exclusively wholesale then things would be different, but i choose not to work that way right now, things may change. ron may convince me otherwise.

I’ve had people buy my work before now but then I find out that they are struggling to sell it. This tends to be small gifty type shops which although the owner loves what I do price wise it just doesn’t fit with the restt of the things they sell and the type of thing that their customers are looking for. You know my £20 mug against 6 tartan toilet roll holders for £3.99. I did trade fairs for the last couple of years and am getting much better at spotting that sort of gallery/shop and then putting them off in a gentle sort of way. I have also considared putting a recommended retail price on my trade price list because some of these smaller gifty type shops don’t mark up the full 100% that others will and that my trade price is designed to deal with. The bigger places in teh UK of course have to add VAT onto all their prices too which can be a bit scary when you see the final price.

I have started issuing a contract of sorts to people who are new to me, especially if it is SOR work. If people are buying outright then the first order I have a minimum order and they have to pay by pro forma invoice,, ie up front once the pots are ready and then once payment is cleared I send the pots on. After that, 30 days payment Ron like you. I think it is perfectly reasonable to ask them to agree to a contract too, it shows that they are going to work for you not just get their free display if they agree to it I think.

Was there anything else? Sorry can’t remember, brain fried now. This is a great series Ron, keep it up.
h

I’ve been working on a post on my blog about selling. For me the biggest question (because I have a non-pottery job and am only trying to defray expenses rather than live on pottery income) is how much I should let my desire to sell dictate the sort of work I produce. I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

I also struggle with pricing. I do mostly woodfired work, and find that people tend to price particularly high for woodfired pieces. Do I have an obligation to other potters to keep my prices at the market level? I’m sometimes tempted to lower prices just to get the stuff out the door. But I also understand the importance of not undervaluing the market as a whole. Any comments would be appriciated.