Christiane Doré 09 Jul 2005

Oh! I forgot. Is the finish is UV and waterproof?

Jessica Morgan 09 Jul 2005

Oh! Reminds me of another question...how will the prints be packaged? Will you put them in wrap, or plastic envelope, or on boards to protect them?(Just wondering, it is nice presentation and I have done that with mine in the past)Just wondering. Thankyou.

Brian Gryphon 09 Jul 2005

It would appear, from a quick reading of the materials you have posted, that we have no control over the size or finish of prints. As a specific example, I would want to restrict any of my open edition prints to the same size I sell; 8"x10" -- others may have min or max sizes. And I am sure some of us would like to restrict which finish may be used on each piece we offer.

That's all I notice now... I will certainly review your pricing and terms more closely to see if I have any other questions.

ArtWanted.com Staff 09 Jul 2005

Actually, just the opposite. You have full control over what sizes and finishing options you want to sell on our site. If you only want to sell glossy 8x10s and nothing more, this is fine with us. You simply select these options when you upload your images.

We will have additional information about the printing paper and materials used when the program launches. We will be offering both tube rolled or mounted with gallery wrap options on the canvas prints.

Angela Drysdale 10 Jul 2005

Should an artist not see a proof before it is printed?

Richard K 10 Jul 2005

Hold it hold it... your telling me that if Artist A (a novice artist) sells his 8x10 for $12.95 you make $5 and he makes $5, but lets say Artist B (a seasoned and famous artist) sells a limited edition 8x10 for $202.95, he makes $100 and YOU make $100???

I dunno if thats fair to the higher priced artist...

It takes me months before I make a decent sellable render, and if I have to give up 50% of a high price, (as comapred to someone who sketched out something in 2-3 hours) I dont want to sound demeaning, I love the print idea but that pricing system will simply NOT work.

(I know the 202.95 price on a 8x10 is unlikely, just using it as an example that for higher priced artwork, AW is making more money for outputting the identicle service as the low priced artwork, this is hardly fair)

ArtWanted.com Staff 10 Jul 2005

As far as proofs go, we encourage all artists to order at least one print/proof of their own artwork when they upload it to our site. Use this color print to make any needed adjustments to the files. As you can imagine, we would quickly go out of business if we were to print & ship out a free proof for every image that is uploaded to the print program. However, for those of you that want a proof of your artwork, we offer the proofs/prints at our lowest base price for the artist.

As far as the commission structure goes, we have seen many other successful programs with an exact (or very similar) structure. As the retail price increases, so do our own expenses and this is why we have structured it this way. Percentage commissions on art are as old as art itself is.

We will be the first to admit that ArtWanted.com is always evolving. What we do today, may not be what we are doing next year. If the print program doesn't work like we plan, we will make changes to the program. This is our first go around at this, so we will just have to see how things run and we will make changes down the road, if needed.

Brian Gryphon 10 Jul 2005

I agree that percentage fees are standard... for example, AW charges 15% of the selling price for artwork we produce and ship directly to the buyer.

And most, if not all, commercial galleries have percentage fees on all material displayed. And 50/50 is common, although not the only arrangement. Of course, when they show a well-known (and higher priced) artist, they are expected to use the higher income on more promotion (or fancier promotion) and bigger openings, etc.

Perhaps some artists would be more comfortable with a 2 tier system. Something like, if the selling price is more than $50.00 over the base price, AW will charge a smaller percentage (35% ?) since they pretty much promote the entire site, and don't do additional promotion for specific, higher-priced, artwork.

As for using this for Limited Editions... can we specify an edition size that you will control? If not, will we have reports frequently enough that we could pull a piece once the edition size is done?

As you can see I am like the idea, but my anal-retentive detail-oriented personality is in control ;-)

Richard K 10 Jul 2005

I like Brians Idea, I mean I'm unlikely going to price my prints "high", but some artists here who do some spectacular work would be pricing higher than the average-joe artist.

And the Option to control some prints for "Limited Editions" would be neat.

Alexis Baranek 10 Jul 2005

I do like the idea you have presented here but I'm somewhat curious - OK - on the commission issue - one artist sells a print that has a base price of $10 (just keeping it simple) and wants a retail price of $20 - you get $5 and he gets $5 (plus you get the first $10 that is the base price). Now you would have sold it to the artist himself for $10. But when you sell it to someone else for $20 you keep a total of $15. Now a better known artist sells a print with a base price of $10 for $100 - now you get to keep a total of $60 (base price plus 50%) I'm confused as to why your cost to sell it to someone else for $100 would be so much more than to sell it to someone else for $20 - enough more to justify your now getting $50 above base instead of $5 above base for providing the same service? Just trying to understand. It would seem like the artist buying prints of his own for base price is a much better deal.

Gayla Drummond 10 Jul 2005

I've had a store at CafePress for about 4 years now, and their base price includes cost of materials, printing, image storage, and labor. Anything over the base price is the shopkeeper's income

Perhaps you should consider upping the base price to cover storage/labor costs, and not just materials.

That seems to be the main stumbling block for many. =)

Kevin Faulknor 10 Jul 2005

Must say I am a bit skeptical, but I am going to give it a whirl.

Gayla Drummond 10 Jul 2005

Oh, me too. I think it's great that AW is going into this. =)

Hyperborea 11 Jul 2005

Apart from the discussion about prices, formats and commission we would like to add the following to this discussion;

As far as we can see, there is NO WAY to check how many prints of an artist AW has sold! So what we all basically say when we join the print program is " Go ahead by printing my work and sell it to the customers, I'll be waiting to receive my commission without knowing how many prints are actually sold ".

This seems like 'giving away your work without ANY CONTROL of the numbers'.

Willem & Madeleine

jennifer blenkinsopp 11 Jul 2005

I have thought the same thing William, but cannot mention anything else on here, as my last message was deleted, about the price issue, which I have already mentioned twice on this thread, a set price for all artists is a fair way, novices or proffesionals are getting the same prints,Richard also put this up, why was his message not deleted, this is a post for comments, and if you have anything to say to me regarding my concerns ,I appreciate that you put it on here so everyone can see, and not email me to give me a ticking off.

ArtWanted.com Staff 11 Jul 2005

We have been reviewing your comments about artist commissions and thinking of a way to make a compromise for those artists that do charge a lot more than the default price for their artwork.

We have decided to lower the ArtWanted.com commission if the retail price is at least double our suggested retail price. If this is the case, ArtWanted.com will only take a 25% commission after the base price and the artist will keep 75%. We hope this change will be great news for those that wanted to charge a lot more for your prints on our site.

As far as order tracking goes, we will have a real time tracking system inside our members area for all prints purchased from the artist. You will be able to login at anytime and see in real time how many prints are being sold off which images and your commission. You will always know how many prints have been sold of your artwork.

Angela Drysdale 11 Jul 2005

Maybe I missed something - but I can't find the prices for canvas prints.

I would be able to upload high resolution while I am in Europe in August (although I did not want to step in right at the beginning); if not, we still need the forwarding address and procedure for sending images on CD.

ArtWanted.com Staff 11 Jul 2005

Nope, you didn't miss anything, it has not been posted yet. Pricing for canvas and the other products will be released in August. :-)

ArtWanted.com Staff 11 Jul 2005

If you wish to send a CD of your artwork to us, please mail it to the following address:

Art Slam / ArtWanted.com
90 West 500 South #406
Bountiful, UT 84010

Be sure to lebel your file names by either the ID number found in the URL (Ie 123456.jpg) or by the exact file name found on ArtWanted.com (ie 20661_212006.jpg). This will make sure that we upload the high res version to the correct image on your portfolio. Also be sure to include payment for $1 for each image that is on the CD for our processing fee. Thanks.

Angela Drysdale 11 Jul 2005

Now there is a small problem again!

How would I include $$$ s with my CD? Courier Sevice (which would have to be used) does not allow inclusion of cash and I am sure you would not like a cheque in Kenya Shillings:-D

For "remote" people like me there would probably have to be an online billing/paying facility with paypal or creditcard.

Just another little logistics hurdle, which you can hopefully bypass.

It would be much easier, if I uploaded from Europe or a faster connection in Nairobi but there may be other artists who would prefer to send a CD