I cold called one local arts/crafts gallery yesterday and I also know the owner of a local photo/framing/equipment store, so I called him as well. Arranged to meet with the owners of both this morning...

Anyways, I took these samples to both places...



Score 1 - Arts/Crafts Gallery:

After being told "we don't work in 2D art" by the arts/crafts gallery owner on the phone, I pushed the issue and just asked her to simply take a quick looks at my work before deciding, she agreed. They are now planning on purchasing an undecided amount of matted/signed 8x10s and 8x12s to sell. Delivery date on that deal is mid-March. We're working on the details of what shots, how many, and the price. We threw around the number of them buying around 25 to start with, but it could be more or less. 25 would be a nice start considering the price will probably be $25-$30/each.

This store also wants to setup a display for my postcards, but won't sell them until I have at least three different ones, time to get 2 more (or more) finished. I've been wanting to do it anyhow, this will be good motivation.


Score 2 - Photo Printing/Framing/Equipment Store:

Stopped by here second and showed my samples to the owner. He seemed pretty damn pleased and wanted to sell them ASAP. I gave him the 10 samples and set the prices at $50 for an 8x10 matted to 11x14, and $60 for an 8x12 matted to 12x16. He takes $15 commission from each sale. 75/25 is a DAMN good deal for this type of work. Hopefully they'll sell. He's also now selling my postcards. Sold him $10 worth (40 cards) to get started.


Damn productive morning photographically. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that this is only the beginning.

- Scott

Originally Posted by Stime187

Damn productive morning photographically. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that this is only the beginning.

- Scott

You know it is, nice kill. Way to get out there and hustle your work, I don't have the time or patience to do that.

Yeah, it was hard to be so shamelessly self-promoting. But it also felt good to hear some of the comments of the people I took them to.

Nice Scott!

Originally Posted by Stime187

They are now planning on purchasing around 25 to start with.

wait, so they're buying them. That's awesome.

Originally Posted by Stime187

$50/$60 He takes $15 commission from each sale.

Nice, that's awesome!!!

Dude, here, the 2 places I've been considering both take your work on commission... And they take 60% I believe... So I have to pay for all the printing and matting supplies up front, and I don't get any money until they sell. That's why I haven't made the time to go out and do this as it's a lot of $$$ up front for who knows what in return down the road... Your deal sounds much better as Store #1 is BUYING them, and store #2 is at least giving you 75% (and might be buying them up front too?)...

Great work. You're motivating me now too.

good job scott!!!!!!

<--- daniel is jelly

Yeah, I'm pumped, Ben.

Store 1 IS doing purchase upfront and not consignment which is GREAT for me.

Store 2 is doing consignment but at an AWESOME rate of 75/25. I'll see how these two do then hopefully work on securing a couple more stores in some of the nearby small touristy towns.

- Scott

Yeah, I need to mat up a few of mine and go to the few galleries in town again...
I'd love to have either of your situations (up front but less margin, or killer margin).

Congrats dude, can't wait to see how well they sell.

Hopefully they'll do good in the gallery once the season hits (May). But the framing store is kind of a shot in the dark, not sure how he's planning on displaying/selling them. But at $15/each, I'd think he'd at least try to sell some.

We'll see, I'll keep this thread updated with anything I find out/do.

They (the stores) are a little higher. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing. But I sell a matted/signed 8x10 (to 11x14) for $45 and m/s 8x12 (to 12x16) for $55.

Although, I'm not sure how the art/crafts gallery will price them.

- Scott

Nice work Scott, good job getting out there and making things happen!

Congrats dude, thats awesome.

Sweet, and you earned it.

Nice, my boy, nice. Now I just need some sellable shots and some tips from you, lol. One of these days...
Reed

Originally Posted by Reed Goodwin

Nice, my boy, nice. Now I just need some sellable shots and some tips from you, lol. One of these days...
Reed

It'll happen. I just wish the photography part was the hard part. The business end is the real pain.

Any updates?

I'm wondering how this is working out by you just going to crafts stores and selling your work.

Well, the first store (Store 1) is looking more and more like a fall of 2008 option. The woman that runs/owns it is flaky to say the least.

Store 2 has done rather well, I think they've sold 7 prints to date for me, so a few hundred bucks, which is rather good considering they are NOT out for sale. The store doesn't do that type of stuff, so these are sales made by them showing them to customers.

The BIG news is the new Store 3. It's a big time nature art gallery on the main street, downtown area of my town, the biggest place in town for this type of art. There will be an entire display with 15 different 12x18 matted (to 18x24)/signed/finished prints of mine and two large framed ones in the fall of 2008 in their store. We've already gotten all the details nailed down there, so it's actually happening. We may even do a solo show of my work to kick off (albeit later) the deal sometime later on. The split at this venue will be 62/38. Mine being the larger cut. I'm VERY pumped about this, it'll finally be a chance to get my work in front of REAL buyers.

But yeah, hope that sums it up. I should've updated this more as I went.

Hrmm..I gotcha.

I think I might try to earn myself and a buddy back in the states some money while he's between jobs. I figure that he can use my photos (if I even have any good enough to print/sell) to frame and pass around while we split the profits. I was looking at what types of stores you were marketing to. I guess that nature/landscape photos are the only real option for this kind of thing?

I think any types of shots will work, but what seems to work for me personally is living in a scenic area (western NC) and marketing good shots of that area.

Originally Posted by Stime187

I think any types of shots will work, but what seems to work for me personally is living in a scenic area (western NC) and marketing good shots of that area.

Been thinking of doing this since tourist season is upon us in Duluth. There are so many photographers around here that have their stuff int he galleries that they are flooded and work gets lost in the mix.
I should do it anyways though. Glad this got bumped.

The beautiful thing about my area (the Great Smokies) is that it's an EXTREMELY popular tourist/photo destination but I genuinely don't believe ANY photographer has done a very good job capturing truly special images of it. I think I'm personally about as close as anyone in that regard, which may sound arrogant, but I can't help that.

That potential to do something better than anyone else has done has a large monetary potential in my opinion, one that I'm going to pursue with a newfound intensity once I make it back there.

NICE JOB! Congratulations!!

Originally Posted by Stime187

The beautiful thing about my area (the Great Smokies) is that it's an EXTREMELY popular tourist/photo destination but I genuinely don't believe ANY photographer has done a very good job capturing truly special images of it. I think I'm personally about as close as anyone in that regard, which may sound arrogant, but I can't help that.

That potential to do something better than anyone else has done has a large monetary potential in my opinion, one that I'm going to pursue with a newfound intensity once I make it back there.

You certainly have the necessary talent, good luck with it

Originally Posted by thomps6s

Been thinking of doing this since tourist season is upon us in Duluth. There are so many photographers around here that have their stuff int he galleries that they are flooded and work gets lost in the mix.
I should do it anyways though. Glad this got bumped.

Shawn, go for it.

I'd hit up the little coffee/mom&pop shops along 61 on the north shore. There's a ton up there that could be pretty lucrative.

A day of driving up the shore with some framed prints to display/sell could be pretty profitable. Heck, even just the scenic drive between duluth and two harbors would be good to hit up.

Cool.

My buddy back home is putting together a web site for us (www.modernmuseum.net, though still not reserved) to host some of our photos in a custom gallery.

He's also going to print some of his and my photos and take them to a nearby store. He's already confirmed that they will display them and take part of the profits, which is cool by me. I think they're mainly looking for nature and landscape style shots, which I don't really have a lot of, but we'll see how things go.

congrats, and way to go on pushing the idea in the first case.