A friend of mine paints reproductions of old masters, and I sold her recreation of Vermeer’s “Girl in a Red Hat” for her on eBay for $350.
Thanks, Fear Itself.
SkyBum, fessie, Fear Itself, and all others who’ve had success selling art on eBay:
How the heck did you do it? I’ve been watching for several weeks, and it looks like nothing sells there. But I figured I’d put one piece out there just to see what happens, plus maybe people who looked at it there might follow a link to my site.
I’m a very analytical kind of guy, and I totally over-analyze everything, like the paths people walk through my site, which pieces get the most attention, where they come from, what pix get sent as ePostcards, etc., etc. So, I’m able to see who views the eBay ad, and who follows the ad to my site. And in 24 hours since I’ve posted it, exactly one person has viewed it and didn’t jump to my site.
Which could reflect the quality of my work, but I think there’s more to it.
a) It looks like statistically no art ever even gets bid on, like 1 in 50 pieces.
b) There is just a ton of stuff there. In my category (Limited Edition Prints from 1950+), there are over 17,000 pieces for sale.
c) In my particular case (abstract art), there really aren’t any key search words I can include since there’s really no subject, and the artist isn’t a name anyone will search for. But I do need to think more about this; I suspect it’s key to success in cutting through the noise.
How did you do it? Did you have to place things many times? I wonder if each of you didn’t face the hurdle I have in #C above, in that metal art has fewer sellers and distinct forms (i.e. more searchable), and Vermeer is a known name and searchable.
On the positive side, I am starting to get some regular traffic from various art sites I’ve posted a few things at and shmoozed a bit at.
But it’s becoming clearer that for today at least online isn’t a good primary vehicle for moving art. I really need to do more work at getting into better galleries.
Bill & All I just dropped by to say Good Bye for now. Phil & I leave Saturday from Vancouver BC on The Radiance of the Sea for Hawaii. We’ll be gone for just over 2 weeks. I now have to pack every thing we own. and then go shopping 
Also, I have been invited to participate in a faire in Dec. Its not big but gotta start somewhere. My mother-in-law uses a cane I painted for her, and someone saw it, thence the invitation. Its in Sequim on the Olympic peninsula. At least its a pretty place.
I’ll touch base when I return.
Bill Hi, I’ve never been so grateful for my easily keyword searched niche market as when I read the words “17,000 pieces for sale”. I think you’ve already identified the biggest hurdle to finding buyers. Sounds like time to get more creative in your category selection. I’d suggest starting with one of the less abstract pieces, such as one of the florals, and start searching other categories. Start by drilling down in the “Collectibles” category. I’ve seen limited edition prints and such show up there before, and now I understand why.
Oh, and are your materials archival? If so, I’d suggestion mentioning it. Some people are fanatical about the topic.
Well, it’s official: selling Bill H. masterpieces on eBay is not a path to riches. Not until my true genius (cough) is realized anyway.
I started off with a stock ad, and after three days got zero views, so I shelled out an extra $20 to make it “featured”, which put it into a higher viewing category, but still flooded amongst the other billion “featured” suckers like myself.
The bottom line: 17 people actually looked at the ad in 10 days, and not one bid (the minimum was $1). I haven’t figured out how many of those 17 actually visited my site, but I’m not optomistic.
I’m sure part of it is the quality of the art itself, but hell, it was amongst tons of other good stuff there, including artists such as Picasso for example, and hardly anything got a single bid.
So, I’m not putting much stock into selling anything through eBay. I have had some good luck with people visiting the site from other pointers (Google ads, postings and discussions at art/gallery sites, etc.) but eBay just doesn’t seem like a winner.
I just keep thinking that if I were a serious art buyer that online would be an ideal way to find good stuff and good prices, but no: the real market seems to be in physical galleries for today.
Bill & all I’m back from the land of sun and sand… Oh my its good to be home. Now I know how Dorthy felt!
While I was gone, the jury wanted to see samples of everything I was planning to sell at the Christmas fair. Since its in My mother-in-law’s town, they went to her to get samples. She had one large painting Of flowers I did, and one small, horid thing I did a month after I got my paints. The small on is all she showed them, so my paintings are out, but my stained glass and canes are in.
Bill & Selkie I don’t think I showed you the canes. I’ll take some pictures. I go to junk stores & buy old wooden canes, then paint them with flowers, cloudes or other fancy stuff, put on a new foot and tada, new cane.
I’ll let you know how it all works out.
I have 44 e-mails to answer right now, though. Talk later.
Bill H, OUCH! Thanks for taking the bullet on using eBay to promote original art. Those results are certainly not encouraging.
picunurse. glad to have you back. Congrats on your admittance to the show, even if your paintings weren’t accepted. C’est la vie. Will look forward to seeing your canes. SWS is indeed the person I mentioned who does stained glass, but she never did get back to me about your work. Hopefully seeing your message on my Yahoo group will spur her into action.
Oh, I forgot to mention something. I went to a couple art auctions onboard ship. They sell some wonderful things Duty Free so I can afford to buy I bought 4 artist enhanced lithos and won one. Of course I wanted the 30 Peter Max they had, oh and the Erte’s wanted to come home with me, but that $3000 range made my nose bleed. I can only hope that the artists I did buy will one day be as sought after.
I now have 2 Fanch Ledan’s, one Jean-Claude Carsuzan, 2 Emile Bellet’s, 2 Littorio Del Signore’s and one Richard E Williams. Now if only I could get a Bill Hunt my heart would be at peace.
Bill We’ll talk.
picunurse, good to have you back, no doubt rested and tanned and happier. And thanks again for the kind words. If it’s any consolation, feel lucky you only get 44 emails in a two-week period. I’d guess I receive 80 non-spam emails each day.
Tan, yes, happier, yes, rested? Nooo. I need a vacation to recover. We were ready to come home on day 10. In fact, Phil called the kitties from the ship. $17.50 to talk to the answering machine, and say “Hi Max here kitty, we miss you…” I walked in to the room about then and put a stop to THAT nonsense!
His parents live in a small town about 100 miles from here. They are having an art fair and Christmas sale in December. It’s a juried sale, I was flattered to be asked to submit some examples. I sent them my $25 and got a letter back saying the preview of my work would be sometime in November.
I go happily off to vacation and they go insist that my mother-in-law give them what ever she had to be judged. She’s as much of a mom as I have now days and would put my doodles on the frig if I let her. Of course she has every “first piece” in any media I’ve ever done. They, of course rejected my paintings. because she gave them the truely first painting I ever attempted! I wrote a letter giving them another chance to see my real work. wish me luck
Big luck, picunurse! I’m sure you’ll do great.