Don't sell yourself short

"Noooo, come back and place a higher bid!"

My exhibition the other night was a success, but not profit wise. I'm actually in a financial crunch now because of exhibition expenses. But like I said before, the experience is really what made this exhibition worth it, and I took a lot of lessons with me from this experience. One of those lessons; don't sell yourself short!

In my case, the starting bid was set too low. I figured that a starting bid should be low as it is the starting bid. But one thing I learned about low starting bids is that it leads to low ending bids. The thing about photographs is that it isn't a common item that a person would go about purchasing regularly. So when it comes to selling photographs, the seller needs to almost guide the buyer by setting the price. Most people don't know how much a framed photograph should cost, so the starting bid should somewhat reflect its worth. The starting bids for my photographs began at an average of $10, under the assumption that a starting bid should start low. Instead the starting bid should have begun at around cost to ensure that I could at least break even.

So to anyone out there planning on selling their work, don't self yourself short. If you are confident that your work will impress, then set the price to reflect that confidence. It doesn't matter if the buyer is impressed, they won't buy high if you start them at nothing.