ladyvean asked:

I recently did my first doll repaint and I am planning on bringing it to a table I am going to have at a little local art show, but I have no idea what to charge for it. I don't want to charge so much that no one buys it, but I also don't want to undercharge for all the time and work I put into it. Any advice?

ladyyatexel answered:

This is so tricky, I feel you.  So far I’ve had people excited about my dolls, but no one actually buying them, so there’s a really tricky place where people are still seeing a 10-20 dollar doll no matter how the face looks. 

It’s difficult to find people who appreciate the time spent, but it’s also hard to sell you first efforts because they’re not going to be as good as your later ones AND they take more time because you’re learning.  So it’s sort of this unfortunate hard place between charging less because it’s going to be an early effort and charging more for the time.  

Honestly, I took the hit on the time for my earlier ones when I chose prices for them and decided my ‘payment’ for the older ones was gaining the skill I could later charge more for.  It’s not really an ideal situation, and you shouldn’t make a habit of undervaluing work because it contributes to the wider world’s misunderstanding about the actual investment value in art, but when you’re selling first efforts, it’s hard to do anything else.  You’re asking people to risk a little with first efforts that the quality won’t be as good as something you can do later or that it won’t be as stable as you thought or some other surprise. 

this was how it was with my plush Garak.  He’s adorable, but he took a solid week of 8-10 hour days because I’m not actually a seamstress or anything.  People wanted to buy him or commission one, but even if the next one took less time, people aren’t paying 300+ for a plush.  It’s just not a price they accept for that sort of thing.  I’d have to get much better/faster at it before I could try to sell them.

Dolls that have been rerooted or redressed sell better than just a face repaint.  If you have the resources to do either of those quickly, you might try to do that too in order to add some value to the buyers.  

I’d advise scrolling through relevant searches on etsy and answer to yourself honestly if you think the prices shown are what you would pay.  In the end, almost no one cares how much time you spent on it but you, just how it looks (even though it’s only going to look good with time spent).  You’ll find some patterns and sweet spots with the sales there that might help you decide at least what the minimum you’d accept is, and that’s always the best place to start.   

i don’t know if any of that is helpful, but good luck!