What makes pricing in the art business unique compared to other businesses?

Art pricing is exceptionally flexible and advantageous. There’s virtually no price competition because art is so subjective—it’s very difficult to compare apples to apples, so you won’t get price-shopped the way other products do. You can set, raise, or lower your prices at any point without consequences. You can easily create scarcity through originals, limited editions, and open editions. You can also have extreme price point variability in a single business—selling originals at $20,000, limited editions at $10,000, embellished prints at $5,000, and prints at $1,000, all without additional manufacturing needs or inventory concerns. This price anchoring effect means even expensive pieces that don’t sell make your lower-priced work seem more valuable. Your work can also appreciate in value over time, which is rare in most markets.

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Asked by synthesized from teaching · Answered by Patrick Shanahan and Nick · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-08-19