Hiya,
I have recently sold a piece, similar to what I am now listing, in a exhibition and I am now looking to sell online. I set the price in the exhibition as £85 but the gallery takes a chunk (35%!) of commission. Is £85 on Folksy too much? Am I being unrealistic to expect that much? Looking for opinions really.
Don’t ask how long these take…I don’t want to add it up!
Thank you in advance.
Also, I know the picture is dark, I am working on making the sun come out!
I can’t seem to be able to find your shop.
However you need to work out how much it cost to make the item, add on all other costs such as listing fee’s commission, paypals fees and the vat on these costs that will give you the price it will cost you in materials and fee’s.
You’ll then have to decided how long it took to make and add something on for all your expertise and time plus you’ll need to decide how much profit you want.
This is the whole “wholesale price” versus “retail price” conundrum. You don’t really want to be undercutting yourself at the gallery if you want to retain a good relationship with them. But I’m not an expert in this area, so there may be people with more advice to give you out there.
Sam x
Wow, that piece is amazing, and, I can imagine, incredibly hard to photograph.
Think of the work you are doing when you sell online which otherwise the gallery would have done for you. You have to take pictures (many many pictures to get a few decent ones it you’re anything like me), edit them, upload to create the listing etc etc. When your item sells you have to package it up and take it to the PO and stand in the inevitable queue. You have to pay your percentage to Folksy and to Paypal. You have to spend time publicising your online shop so that people know it’s there.
Don’t you think the value of all that work adds up to (at least!) 35% of the price of your item? I do.
Thank you guys, I think the pricing thing is almost the most difficult bit. I suppose if someone thinks it is priced too high then they won’t buy it. Value is subjective. Might just stick it out for a bit and see what happens.
And yes Helen, I take hundreds of pictures and I am still not happy with the one I have picked. Think better lighting and a better camera would help. Maybe just a nice expensive studio set up 
Does £85 seem reasonable for your piece of work - yes most definately. Does Folksy sell many pieces of art for £85 (or more)? Only they could tell you.
When I’m buying art (and certain other things like gemstones for my work) I’m prepared to pay more in a gallery/ shop as I’ve seen the work and know what I’m getting. When I’m buying online (from someone for the first time) there is a degree of apprehension about what am I going to get so I’m not prepared to risk as much money. Once I have bought from someone and know what I’m going to get I’m prepared to pay more for follow up purchases.
Not sure if that is any help to you and your pricing conundrum.
Good luck
Sasha
Yes, Sasha has a point there, I sometimes put my more expensive pieces in my shop here but I don’t really expect them to sell unless to someone who has seen my work in person elsewhere. But all the business cards I give out point to my website which in turn points here as my ‘shop’ so I think it’s worth listing them. I think it’s a balancing act between doing the sort of work you want to do, and finding the right place to sell different things. There are things that I make because I know they will sell, and things that I make because I want to and sometimes they sell but not generally online. The first to a certain extent pay for the second.
I would say list it at £85 so as not to upset the gallery. If it sells then the % goes towards all that extra work that Helen said, and if not it’s cost 18p to exhibit the work.
I see no problem having a few items in your shop that people covet, even if they can’t afford them right now.
As someone who has sold more expensive items on here, I see no problem with selling your artwork for £85. With art, if someone falls in love with it, they will buy it. 
I really appreciate all the replies, its great to have a sounding board.
As I don’t do Facebook or Twitter I feel it is important to have work ‘out there’ on the internet, so I am going to leave my listing as it is.
It’s quite satisfying just to see the number of people who have looked at the listing, like a virtual gallery!
Does anybody do much with Pinterest? I used to use it alot but it seems to have changed recently.