Too Expensive for You vs Too Expensive, Period

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sararini's avatar
By
sararini
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Friendly reminder not to tell people their adopts are too expensive. Saying it's out of your price range - that's okay. But don't come to us, we who are selling adopts for hundreds of points, and say we need to lower our prices. Because if you think about it in real money, it's pretty darn cheap. Starting bids never seem to exceed $10.

Friendly reminder not to be afraid to raise your prices. You put hard work into your adopts, you deserve more than a mere 20 :points:/25 cents.

Friendly reminder that to SOME people, this isn't just a hobby, something they do for fun. It's something they want to pursue a career in. And sometimes adopts are their only source of income. Twenty five cents a piece wouldn't put food on the table even if you slaved away, making a ridiculously impossible amount of adopts.

Friendly reminder that, hey, I have the right to be charging minimum wage. We all do. In fact, charging minimum wage for our art would be the right thing to do. If my starting bids were the minimum wage in my state, in points, that would be 1,500 points each, $18 each for two hours of work - each. But we don't because we know there are people who can't afford it. We cheat ourselves so others can get what they want.

Sorry for the ranty post, but all of these professional artists I look up to are always saying not to underprice yourself. They say it just makes it harder to actually sell your stuff for a decent price - and they're right, because once you start charging a buck or more for a design, it's seen as too expensive because people are already used to buying adopts for so little.

I'm constantly torn between charging a price that's right and fair for the amount of time I spend on my stuff, or underpricing myself just to make sure I do make a profit, even if it's a smaller amount than I'd like. I don't really do commissions anymore because I don't usually enjoy them, and since I always charge so little, it's never worth it. Three hours of work for a dollar or more is just completely unfair.

I don't know where I'm going with this. Just because we're drawing ponies, just because we're not up there with the pros, working for film and video game companies, does not mean we cannot charge a respectable amount of money.

Someone commented on my auction saying they were too expensive. I'm not mad. I'm used to that by now, and I understand. But I've been wanting to talk about this for a long time now, and that comment gave me the little push I needed.

I understand if my adopts are too expensive for you, but they are not too expensive, period.
© 2014 - 2024 sararini
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yggdrasiles's avatar
yggdrasiles
The main issue with me is that whenever I raise my prices, they never sell. I personally don't consider my prices expensive? (10-50 points, and rarely more expensive). It's a bit disheartening and I start to wonder if my adopts aren't as good as others... Either way, saving up is rather difficult.