selling online

Can anyone give me any advice at all for selling online? What are the costs and pitfalls etc? Does someone have experience of doing so successfully. I am a complete tyro.

I have a gallery online at http://waxpaint.tripod.com if anyone is interested to look and provide me with some critique.

It depends on how you choose to handle payments. Through a third party? Try 20%-60% - the latter being charged by online galleries. Totally not necessary if you look for non-art related online payment processors. I see you are in Australia... not sure if Paypal can help you... If all else is too expensive or not available, remember folks still pay for things via money order and check. Give 'm a postal address.

None that I can think of...

What's a tyro??

neat word, huh? - a baby beginner.

Do you get (m)any problems with people not wanting to pay before receiving, or requesting and receiving your art but then not paying?

Jeff

I don't send *any* art without getting paid - excepting relatives - not excluding friends :-o. Even with payment plans, the total must be received before I send any art. If someone were to request to see the original before making a decision - I'd still demand the full 'pre-payment.'

The more you sell, word gets around that you deliver. Unless you

When selling over the internet I'd request FULL payment in advance of sending the product just as any other mail-order business does.

On the other hand, my policy when I get a rare commission from someone I don't know is to request a third payment before I even begin, a third before shipping the finished work, and the remaining third upon receipt and approval. The two-thirds is already banked and non-refundable while the one-third is considered refundable if the work is not approved. I include shipping, insurance and taxes in the original price quote.

Unquestionably. Can't imagine paying very much for any work online unless I know that artist's work from first-hand experience or it's some reputable big-name artist. Of course those who would pay 'reproduction' or 'poster' prices are not going to quibble about texture and such.

I gather from the way you address yourself that you are NOT in the USA. I buy or acquire 'picture cartons' used by moving companies in the USA. This is typically a two-part carton that has one half inserted into the other and then taped shut. Padding is done using both foam blankets and foam peanuts. Caveat - I always frame my works before shipping even if it's only a throw-away frame that I make myself. Rigidity is what I'm shooting for. Also a frame allows me to wrap the entire painting in a polyethylene wrap before inserting into the carton.

There are several good books/booklets on building shipping crates for art works, but I've never found it necessary to use anything heavier than the moving cartons mentioned above.

Do not send glazed work. It is better, safer - and cheaper in the long run - to remove glass and have the work re-glazed at its destination.

Generally: use loads of bubble wrap. I mean loads. Molly-coddle the work. Perhaps guard the face of painting with an extra sheet of corrugated cardboard. Then I fashion an outer casing from fruit boxes, cut to size with a Stanley (craft) knife and joined together by a sticky parcel tape. It is their eight sturdy corners that do the protective job.

Hope this helps. Jiri Borsky