thursday, june 04, 2009
The "Shipping" Debate between Galleries & Artists
Today I had an interesting conversation with a gallery owner. I was ready to ship an order he placed in Philadelphia in February at the Buyer's Market for American Craft. We discussed the bad market & in his 28 years in business, he'd never seen it so bad. Selling was a "bitch" & he, like 3 other gallery owners I've talked with this week, were wanting & needing the work but apprehensive about sales that may never happen. But that's not the gist of this writing.
He mentioned that lately, the artists seem to be charging more for shipping. For those of you who don't know, the galleries pay shipping & that's one of the many reasons artwork is marked up. Okay - back to the story. So he mentioned that he felt it was inflated that the ceramic artist he just got a shipment from charged 10% over & above the UPS shipping charge.
I offered an explanation & he got enlightened, not angry. I charge 15% & that includes the carrier charge. His order was for around $550. & would take 2 boxes @ 4.50/each, 1/3 bag of peanuts @ $6., cardboard sleeves for the clocks - 5 @ $2./each then probably $20 or so shipping for each box. All this, plus the time to pack, tape, input shipping info, print the labels & get it to UPS.
All of a sudden, the cost wasn't so outrageous, charging 15%. It even looked like a "deal". To him, not me. Maybe I should charge more. Just explaining it was exhausting.
Comments:
07/21/2009 - Live a Colorful Life
This was such an interesting blog post. I have just been struggling with how to figure out shipping prices that cover our costs and don't make doing business with us seem cost-prohibitive. Glass is heavy and takes extra care in packing for shipment. I'm a quilter and buy a lot of fabric. It seems to easy to just put the fabric in a ziplock bag and then in a prepaid USPS box. They have no idea how lucky they are!
Post a comment