Pricing Reference Guide! *Art Tips*

[AvidLebon]

How much should I price my art at? How much would people actually pay for my art? Should I charge more for line art than I do for colored art? These are all common questions by gaian artists starting up their first shop- and our most requested topic for tips.

How do you determine the value of your art? Our next Gaia Tips will be focusing on just that; if you have any tips to share please comment with them here!

If you have examples of your own work and how much you charge for them that would help other artists set their own guidlines as well. I especially encourage you to include thumbnails with links so that viewers can see the art along with the price (line art is this much, chibi art is this much, head shots of this quality are this much, but quickies like this I charge this much.)

Please share, and may we have another successful tip session! biggrin  

[~purple Jesseh~]

I look around at other shops to see how they value theirs.
Sometimes I post in the pricing subforum, but it's not normally accurate there.
The price of my art depends on my schedule, if I have a lot of time I put the price lower.
If I'm really busy I make the price higher, or do bribes.
I only do bribes right now so I don't have much to link to.

In terms of categories...
Couples are generally x2 of the single price, if not more.
Coloured in comparison to lineart kind of depends on how well you colour.
Say, if it's just flat colouring then it wouldn't be too much of a price jump.
Otherwise you can price coloured at about x2 of lineart.
Chibis are generally less than your normal style, but if you spend more time in chibis than normal then go ahead and price them higher.
Just think about if it's worth it to spend that much time for that much gold.

Not sure if that helps at all...  

[sammea]

I think it depends on the current market on Gaia, and btw this is my opinion on pricing, not me quoting it from the pricing bible. If there's a huge influx of gaia gold, arts should cost more (cuz gaians has more money and it'll be an advantage for them and a disadvantage for us). Basically at this point, gold value decreases and affects artist as their works will be considered 'cheaper' (more affordable). This also works vice verca.

As far as how much you should price it? I think we all should make an experiment. Set a price and if there's too many orders, you placed yours too low and if there's little orders, you placed it too high (of course I'm ignoring some factors such as your marketing, concepts ect).

This is the basic ratio that I use;

lineart:
bust : halfbody : fullbody : couple
1 : 3 : 6 : 12

CG
bust : halfbody : fullbody : couple
2 : 5 : 10 : 20

so following this ratio for my example, if I had a bust lineart at 300gold, I'd have my CG halfbody at 1500gold.

However, people prefer raising specific categories prices because they're more in demand. Which makes perfect sense. If the value of the service is high, then I suggest a higher value of gold in return! XD

Hope this helps!

 

[Masquanade]

I think a good thing to ask yourself is "what is the lowest amount I'm happy with for doing my art." Because no matter what- you have like the work you're doing is worth what you're getting paid. You don't want to feel unmotivated because pricing. That being said you also don't want to have unrealistic goals that your art is worth a lot of money. It's easy to say "Yeah I want to get paid xxx in gold for this." It's always best to start small and work up. You can always change your prices later.

For instance if your art is selling really fast and is very high in demand, that means it might be a time to raise it. Likewise if you're art isn't selling- you might try lowering.

The thing I do in my shop is bribing. Now there is two types of bribe shops on Gaia The type where the artist opens up and a lot of people put in bribes, but then the artist picks the three they like the best. I do the other type of bribe which is I have a base price for my art, which is the price I will be happy doing my art for. However if they want me to do something more complex or a couple- they can "bribe me" for more gold to do it. But this can also show how much people are willing to pay for your art. In my shop I offer really nice little mini chibis, however people often bribe me twice the amount to do them- because that's how much they believe it's worth. If I wanted to- I could raise the price of these knowing that people out there would pay for it.

But that's just my take on it and I don't know how helpful it is. sweatdrop  

[78 mm]

I agree very much with what Masquanade said about charging at least an amount that you're happy working for, as well as the bribe methods :3

I have a very practical method of charging, and it's universally applicable from newbie shop owners to long-time pros.

Dollar-to-Gold Conversion
This method is recommended especially for artists who are at least good enough to be commissioned in real life. If you're not confident, it probably means you're not ready yet.

Think about how much your art would be worth in dollars. If you're not sure, think about how much you're willing to work for per hour. $5? $10? $50? Then convert this figure (make sure it's in USD) into gold using a dollar-to-gold value to obtain a gold price.

I use the sealed envelope as a conversion guideline because it's a pretty stable item and isn't very prone to fluctuations. We can buy a sealed envelope for $2.50, and sell it for 83,000 gold on average. That makes the Dollar-to-Gold value 33,200 gold per dollar. So let's say you're a mid-level artist and are willing to draw full body cleaned-up sketches for $10 per hour, and you take, on average, 1 hour to complete a piece. Then the dollar-to-gold conversion would suggest that you charge 332,000 gold for it.  

[Pandan-chan]

I agree with the paying the least amount that you're happy being paid for; however, some people overcharge because they believe that they deserve that amount. Yes, that piece may have taken you hours on paint, but consider the quality of the art overall. Personally, I recommend going around to different art shops and looking at the quality and the prices that they have. Look at the ones that have been around for awhile to get a better perception. (i.e. The shops with many pages and posts) Then, comprise an amount that is reasonable to your quality.

Another idea is to set up a temporary bribe shop to see what Gaians will pay for your art. It gives you a general idea as to what they will pay when you put all the amounts together and find the average.

Some Gaians worry about inflation on Gaia and whether or not to raise their prices. If you are going to raise your prices, don't do ridiculously so! It is called overcharging. D: You'll defiantly scare everyone away.

If you want a steady stream of business in your shop (with more slots), set the prices at the least - average amount you would pay. If you want a slow stream of business, set your prices at a more than average to the highest amount you would pay.