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Author Topic: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?  (Read 1325 times)

Colorado_CJ

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Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« on: September 30, 2019, 11:49:12 am »

Hello everyone. Not sure if this is the right place to post this.

 I am a long time amateur photographer and also an astrophotographer.

Through the years, I've made a few prints for relatives and friends (landscapes, senior pictures, etc...), but now I have a question about the markup for selling landscape prints to the general public.

I normally only post my images to forums like these, or to my own personal facebook page. But, yesterday I posted some images taken on a weekend hike in RMNP to a few landscape type facebook pages.

Well today, I am getting quite a few requests for selling prints.

I really don't know where to start, or how to price them. What is the best U.S. based printer? What should my markup be?

I thought of selling my images for many years since there are always local art fairs (I live in a pretty art centric area of Colorado), but I never have bit the bullet yet.

For those interested, here are some of the photos I posted that are getting the requests: https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=132293.0
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2019, 12:10:29 pm »

...  a few landscape type facebook pages....

Which ones?

As for the markup, i never used it as a method. What matters is the price the market (people) is willing to pay. It could be 20% over the cost of printing, or it could be 2,000%, or anything else, below, above, or in-between. What people are willing to pay is a million-dollar question in itself. Hard to answer without experimenting. One way is to see what similar prints are going for at art fairs. My 20x30 canvases in limited editions of 50 were going for $400. My matted prints on 13x19 paper, open editions, were $75, for instance. Hope this helps.

Colorado_CJ

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2019, 01:46:39 pm »

Thanks for the information.  Kinda what I though, no real set pricing.  I'll set a conservative price first to see if there are many takers. 

I posted on a few pages, namely Colorado pages like "Rocky Mountain National Park", "Colorado Wildlife/Nature Photography", "Now THATS Colorado" etc..

I woke up this morning to about 10 requests for prints. 

Kinda nice!
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Rob C

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2019, 03:41:26 pm »

Let's have a look at it from a little distance: some years ago I was offered a show in a local gallery for a period some months ahead. I said okay, exactly when - I need to get stuff done for such an event. We'll give you a definite date soon, they said.

I went to see a framing service here, and asked them about framing a set of around thirty A3+ prints (I think it was around that number, but it was a while ago, but enough of them to bring in any volume discount price I might get.) They quoted me €40 a pop.

I began to get suspicious as the weeks went by and the people didn't contact me with a show date, so I sat on the frames order. Just as well. They had changed their minds about photography, and had reverted to painting and sculpture only. Which is fair enough, but it would have been the decent thing to do to advise me... I only discovered the truth by bumping into the gallery owner's daughter in the street.

But, the point is this: how much more (or less) do you imagine your time, work and prints to be worth than freakin' frames, whether you are the one supplying them or not? The relative values your create remain crystal clear to the buyer.

As for raising your prices later, forget it. The thing I learned when I started out in the photography business was this: you cannot raise your prices from where you started with the same people; they think you are cheating them. Your only route upwards is by dumping low-value customers and going for the higher fruit. You have to try to start somewhere near to where you hope to arrive, or you will at best stand still, but most likely lose money.

If your living does not depend on it, why even think of starting for pennies?

It's not going to be easy and neither is it impossible.

MattBurt

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2019, 04:24:30 pm »

I mostly agree with all that has been said here. Those are nice photos too - I saw them in one of those FB groups. Congrats on the interest they generated!

If you get the prints at cgproprints in Longmont, you can save shipping by picking them up in person if it's feasible for you. Their prints are decent quality but not great (they look nice but the hardware is kind of cheap). I think they are a good place to start without having to pay too much up front.
This could also give you more flexibility to raise prices in the future if you go to a higher quality printer. That gives you cover and a tangible change in your product to credit for the increase.

I'd charge 2-4x the print costs in general.
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Chris Kern

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2019, 05:31:59 pm »

What matters is the price the market (people) is willing to pay. It could be 20% over the cost of printing, or it could be 2,000%, or anything else, below, above, or in-between. What people are willing to pay is a million-dollar question in itself. Hard to answer without experimenting.

If your living does not depend on it, why even think of starting for pennies?

Case in point (actually, both points):

A while back, my wife, who took up clay sculpture in retirement solely as a hobby, produced a piece that both of us and her instructor at a local community college all felt had turned out rather well.  She decided to enter it in a contest conducted by a statewide art federation and it won a prize.  The contest terms required that it be exhibited in the federation's gallery either with a listed price or as "price on request."  We wanted to keep the piece, so I recommended that she ask so much that there was no chance anyone would buy it.  But she thought that would seem presumptuous for an unknown amateur artist, and had the gallery mark it "POR."

The gallery received an inquiry and the manager called my wife, who set what we thought was an outrageous price: twice what I had earlier recommended as a way to allow us to keep the piece ourselves.  Sure enough, the inquirer said that was rather more than he was prepared to pay, and walked.

A couple of days later, the gallery manager called again and told my wife the piece had sold at the "outrageous" price.

It may be possible to anticipate some markets with a fair degree of accuracy—commodities, for example—but the value of art is ... ahhh ... in the eye of the beholder.

RSL

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2019, 07:40:19 pm »

If your living does not depend on it, why even think of starting for pennies?

Exactly! When I was selling out of galleries in Colorado Springs, I set my own price based on what I thought the prints were worth. Of course, the gallery take was 50%, which is more or less normal, and which my wife's art gallery charged her consignors. I always did my own matting and framing, which I enjoy doing.

You aren't gonna make a fortune unless you become famous, and to become famous you've gotta do something idiotic, like Rhine II that catches the spirit of a really outrageous market. But if you don't depend on it for a living the selling process is just plain fun.
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #7 on: October 01, 2019, 12:12:38 pm »

Even more fun is to just give 'em away. When I walk into a friend's home and see my stuff hanging there, it's worth way more to me than the paltry returns available on the art market. 

I walked by some impressively large (3x6 feet) gallery wrap canvas prints the other day at an art stall at a ferry terminal.  $200 or so, USD. That's basically doing all that work for free, but with none of the satisfaction of seeing the results later.  Most of the images were obviously shot "to market", with over saturated colours, excessive clarity use and well-worn subject matter.


These two VW owners for example, friends of mine who live on opposite sides of the continent, each have this image on their walls. For extra provenance, I shot it from inside my VW.

Also, their canvas prints have the top 10% cropped.  :)  This is an easily accessible, old, low-res file.

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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #8 on: October 01, 2019, 12:20:51 pm »

Even more fun is to just give 'em away...

That just amplifies the perception that photography is worthless.

Peter McLennan

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2019, 12:51:33 pm »

That just amplifies the perception that photography is worthless.

I think the more accurate interpretation would be "photography is worth less".  A fact demonstrated by the law of supply and demand.

That image has, however, considerable worth to my friends.  Maybe not to you, or to Instapost, but to them and me, it's considerable.  In other words, not "worthless".
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2019, 12:57:47 pm »

... That image has, however, considerable worth to my friends.  Maybe not to you, or to Instapost, but to them and me, it's considerable.  In other words, not "worthless".

I wasn't talking about that particular image, but about "give them away" if it relates to fine art images. Your image is more of a family (and friends) album image (and nothing wrong with that or giving it away). Or perhaps it could be worth six figures to VW for their personalized version of the Windows XP wallpaper ;)

Rob C

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2019, 01:40:25 pm »

Giving it away is the factor that, along with digital, screwed the stock library industry.

What happens between friends, of course, is irrelevant to the situation. But when photographers look for, and are willing to accept a good commercial screwing, the damage spreads far and wide.

It's one if the more selfishly self-centred aspects of shamateur photography.

:-(

RSL

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #12 on: October 01, 2019, 02:41:13 pm »

Even more fun is to just give 'em away.

It's a good point, Peter. I made a few bucks on my prints, but what's been a lot more fun has been to put the stuff on my web and see what kind of traffic it gets. Over the years the traffic has been pretty satisfying.
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #13 on: October 01, 2019, 03:28:50 pm »

An even better alternative than selling is renting.



I rented this six-foot wide gallery wrap image to a corporation for a year.
Just like it's better to hunt wildlife with a long lens than a rifle, it's better to rent images than sell them.

Kinda like Adobe's subscription model.  :)  (ducks, runs for cover)
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Alan Klein

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #14 on: October 03, 2019, 01:23:43 pm »

Even more fun is to just give 'em away. When I walk into a friend's home and see my stuff hanging there, it's worth way more to me than the paltry returns available on the art market. 

I walked by some impressively large (3x6 feet) gallery wrap canvas prints the other day at an art stall at a ferry terminal.  $200 or so, USD. That's basically doing all that work for free, but with none of the satisfaction of seeing the results later.  Most of the images were obviously shot "to market", with over saturated colours, excessive clarity use and well-worn subject matter.


These two VW owners for example, friends of mine who live on opposite sides of the continent, each have this image on their walls. For extra provenance, I shot it from inside my VW.

Also, their canvas prints have the top 10% cropped.  :)  This is an easily accessible, old, low-res file.


Peter, That's a nice shot.  It has a certain balance that's very peaceful.  If you take the cars out, it starts to look like the Microsoft Windows desktop photo theme shot they used for years.  The guy who sold that shot made some decent money on it out of the blue.

Alan Klein

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #15 on: October 03, 2019, 01:25:32 pm »

An even better alternative than selling is renting.



I rented this six-foot wide gallery wrap image to a corporation for a year.
Just like it's better to hunt wildlife with a long lens than a rifle, it's better to rent images than sell them.

Kinda like Adobe's subscription model.  :)  (ducks, runs for cover)

Peter,  That's an interesting concept.  Can you give more details?   Did the rental pay for the cost of the print?  Could you re-rent the image or was it "damaged" or faded from use from the renter? WHo suggested this method?  You or the buyer?

dgberg

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2019, 09:41:16 am »

I make the money on the whole package. Print, mount and frame charging only .10 a sq. inch for the image rights.
Very easy to figure out too.
Example 16x24 DS metal print $109 plus $38.40 for the image = $147.40
Canvas on gator in a nice frame is a big seller and the amount I get for the image is secondary to the print, mount and frame. But it all adds up.
Literally no one buys just a print and takes it home with them.

Peter McLennan

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Re: Average Markup for Selling Landscape Prints?
« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2019, 11:09:34 am »

Peter,  That's an interesting concept.  Can you give more details?   Did the rental pay for the cost of the print?  Could you re-rent the image or was it "damaged" or faded from use from the renter? WHo suggested this method?  You or the buyer?

The rental cost exceeded the print cost by a wide margin. I do all my own printing, stretching, etc.  The image returned undamaged and now hangs in my living room.

The corp has asked for more.  Like all good business deals, everybody wins.

The VW image was shot in the Palouse.  Very close to where the Microsoft wallpaper image was made.
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