Ebay and Pricing...

[adammelo]

I'm a free lance painter and i usually just stay at home and paint, having recently gone out to look for work, ive applied to over 30 places, and nothing, ive called and walked in and gotten referals and still nothing not even mcdonalds.

I was wondering how much my hobby would make on ebay and what the process is like.

So my question is how much does something like an acrylic painting sell for on ebay, how is the thing shipped and whats the process like. Examples?

It be verrrry helpfull as i cant even afford life essentials anymore..

[Bentley]

Paint gay nudes, those sell for the most on eBay.

[adammelo]

Well, my best thing to sell now for money, is a man jumping off a 2 story building. Essentially leaping to his death, its large and in black and white...

[Bentley]

Probably won't sell, or get very little. Heed my prior advice on what to sell on eBay.

[DavePalumbo]

with the exception of established artists with good name recognition and history with some sort of collector's market (fine arts or illustrative), originals on ebay do pretty poorly as far as I've seen. Like, "not worth the price of the materials" poorly. I'm sure there are exceptions, but overall it's pretty bleak. Even name artists often sell at a heavy discount.

But hey, why am I telling you this, go check it out for yourself

[dbclemons]

Go there and look. You'll see plenty of acrylics as well as all other types, some with a few bids, most with none.

Some artists I know have links to an eBay portfolio from their own website where they redirect viewers to make bids, instead of relying on just random browsing, and claim to do well that way, or at least I see "sold" on their blog. Most of them don't expect to sell anything for more than a few hundred dollars if they're lucky, so they crank them out small and cheap. I also know many others who tried and found it a waste of time and money. There are no guarantees.

Personally, I don't like the idea of my work being randomly displayed next to some five year old's tiny ACEO, endless fan art, and soft-core porn. Catagories are arranged by type but not by quality.

[Black Spot]

Could you try selling posters of your art?

[MiniGoth]

The average selling price for art on eBay is zero dollars.

The second most common is five bucks or under.

[J Wilson]

If you were looking for artwork, would Ebay be the first place you'd think of? Maybe if you were looking the cheaply furnish a motel, but otherwise I kind of doubt it.

Honestly, if you need money, keep looking for work. Take a hard look at your job approach and see if there are things you can do to improve your chances. More positive attitude, haircut, clothes, etc?

Art is great, but unless you are established in some area, it's hard to make a living at it right off the bat. It takes time to get going. Hoping something sells on Ebay won't feed you regularly.

[DavePalumbo]

though I agree with J Wilson, I will add that if you are going to give selling online a shot, you'll probably do much better on Etsy, and try maybe with prints which you can keep low priced and shoot for volume.

Between Ebay and Etsy, it's like deciding whether to put your art in a garage sale or a DIY gallery space when it comes to the sort of customers they attract