Direct contact from collectors?

[jac1961]

This comes up occasionally among glass collectors, so I thought I'd throw it out here and get your opinions.

If I see something posted here or somewhere else on the net that I like and I've got the $, even if it isn't listed as "for sale" I'll send an e-mail or pm to inquire about it. Vast majority of the time I score and buy it and the artist seems pleased. Other collectors have told me stories about never being answered or getting the run around.

What do you artists think? Don't bullshit me, tell me what you really think.

[Shatner]

It's fine with me. In fact, I prefer to make for/sell to a collector than just a smoker. I know the piece will be cherished and much more appreciated. Just make sure they really are of age!!!

[p.j.]

some will respond, some will not. i know some artists who post pics of their work after it is sold. i know in the "backrooms" people sell shit all the time, but a lot of artist go thru a distro and most of that stuff won't be sold there. it will be bought and then resold there.

i would respond that those kind of requests, but i would steer you to shop that sells my wares.

[NUBBLET]

a collectors $ will pay for more oxy or rent just the same as a shops will . I take the money I can so I can continue to do work in a field I love . Beats flippin burgers . Same thing w a piece sold to never use , right on I got paid they own it and can do what they feel . In a way its an honor to have someone do this .

[petto]

Depends on the request. I don't need some minor hitting me up for a "tobacco" pc and then getting busted. Maybe I am a little paranoid but you can never be to careful. Usually I direct them to shops that carry my stuff. If the peeps come with recommendations or have the hook up from another custie then its cool.

[Julian]

I've done a fair amount of retail bead and art shows, and of course you meet collectors in person.

Galleries and dealers like it if you primarily sell through them, but there's nothing wrong with selling directly to individual customers too. Don't charge the public lower than retail prices, of course, and everything should be fine.

You should receive retail price if you're doing the work to retail an item. It's time consuming to deal with individuals selling items in smaller quantities, but it's worth spending the time to do that. It depends whether you'd like to spend more of your day dealing with customers or blowing glass.

[Aussie]

Selling to redistributors (i.e. galleries) makes me keep my prices too close to the bone (ie just scratching through with a minimal profit) because they keep gouging the price lower and sure won't bloody budge from their 100% mark-up if it gets too expensive for the customer. If I sell directly to a customer, I can bump the wholesale up a bit, while still keeping it a lot lower than the final gallery price. I increase my pocket money and the buyer will get it at a much better price than from a gallery. The only one who loses out on that deal is the middleman and don't even get me started about middlemen and necessary evils and people making money off the sweat of our brows while doing nothing much pro-active (I'm generalising here, some of my buyers actually do go the extra mile and then some, but they're not the ones I complain about) ....
So, if you haven't guessed by now, I'm all for direct selling :)

[JBob]

sure why not? theyre moneys green, lot of times they come back for more then one piece any way, and other little trinkets for there buddies once they see it. Unless im being bombarded on a completely irrational level by someone ide sell direct all day if i could.

aussie has the formula down :)

[bowlpusher]

Im all for selling glass. To whomever, however. Flip that shit. Collectors seem to offer a unique situation where you can charge slightly less than retail, but not wholesale. Custom is TAXED tho. Nothing worse than getting a request for a power wand and they only want to spend $30. Aussie does have it down.

[mer]

profit isn't my biggest concern so you can take this with a grain of salt but... I will not answer these requests unless I recognize the person and know they are legit. I have had great experiences, especially with European buyers. I have had more horrid experiences though. in my experience most buyers are pushy and impatient. they will make specific requests that are unreasonable or change what they ask for.

when I was making work this way I would demand full payment in advance. I would not deal with anybody that wasnt known to my friends. I would pretty much act like a primadonna and walk away from anybody who didn't like it. polite, but steadfast. I've heard nightmare stories and been glad to avoid them. distributors and stores do pay less but for that money they shield you from a lot of annoying situations.

[slave]

tell me your nightmare stories.. right now I'm pushed to sell to whoever has money custom orders or otherwise.

Do to a situation with my old production company I have yet to figure out. My sales are currently extremely limited... pushing me to explore all and other avenues. If you have any suggestions on being more careful I'm all ears. but.. I've have bills to pay on top of needing food (unfortunately).. and if posting pictures gets me solicited sales I really want to bite.

[mer]

we should create a database of legit buyers. it's as easy as making a password protected tumblr acct and then having whoever you invite to the group leave feedback. having it private sidesteps a lot of drama.

the worst incidences i've seen/experienced were buyers who would want to design their pieces themselves with no knowledge of glass. buyers who decide they don't like their custom piece and refuse to pay. general impatience paired with complaining or threats to drag your name through the mud. in one instance a kid paid my buddy with his moms credit card and then claimed to be underage in an effort to blackmail dude into giving him extras. some kids write stupid shit in the "notes" field of the paypal transaction getting the account shut down. some kids back out on their dibs in auction sites. some kids seem happy and then go online to express dissatisfaction instead of coming to the artist when their satisfaction seems to change. even the most charming of them want to get to know the artist. figure 12 emails into your hourly and see how sweet the money is lol. there are many problems.

on the plus side, you can get a bit more than wholesale. most of these problems can be sidestepped by the diva bit. decide what you are willing to deal with and don't bend a bit. walk away if you don't like the deal. compromise begets compromise. there are scads of these kids so having one huff off isn't a big deal as long as you are polite and you keep your records. always email, never phone.

in the end, for me, distributers are worth their cut if they are cool. i don't like being told what to make. i don't care for strangers and my correspondence is maxed out already. good distributers or stores are worth their cut and a bottle of whiskey at christmas.

.02

[mark206nj]

I started out in glass on a whim. That turned into a hobby (a very expensive hobby) and now has further morphed into selling my work.......not to make a profit to "live" on but rather to further my addiction to the medium. As such, I do almost ALL of my sales as direct retail and 99% of that is through word of mouth from people I have sold to in the past. I'm fairly sure that a vast majority of us have started this way.

I have had requests from people via this site and glasspipes.org for custom work and I insisted on payment up front. If they had a problem with that arrangement, I would take a payment of 75% up front and ship the piece after the customer has seen pics of the finished work and has sent the remaining balance. This seems to work out fine and even if they flake out after the piece is done and they fall off the face of the earth, you have compensation for the glass, oxy, gas and some of your time (and you can always try to sell the piece to someone else).


In my first year or so of working I had a cousin who wanted a certain piece. It involved some skills and tools that I did not have as of yet. So I rached out the several other artists to do the final assembly. I was going to use all my glass, make all the sections, and all they had to do was to asseble the finished piece on a lathe. Most of the artists I conntacted didn't even have the manners to respond. The rest (except 1) just straight out said no. Ok, I couldn't see treating a collector that way, but as a fellow artist (albeit fairly new), that was an eye opener.

[STROKER]

[QUOTE=mark206nj;663488]

I was going to use all my glass, make all the sections, and all they had to do was to asseble the finished piece on a lathe.QUOTE]

this statement is a bit harsh but i think you got this mixed up quite a bit.

i have been devoted to my new lathe for a few months now and i can say first hand that there is never any "all i have to do is assemble on the lathe.

it takes alot of skill and time to do multisectional work on the lathe, especially one with worked sections that must be placed correctly and made to flow in the piece. it has to be very carefully orchestrated or its a waste of time.

imho it takes far more skill to assemble the piece on the lathe full of reversals and combs than it does to actually do the prepped reballs.

i can twist reballs all day long that look spot on, but it only takes a second to ruin it while installing on the lathe.

i have mucked up a good amount of nice prep on a shitty planned build on the lathe. or a foot flare gone bad or a joint that breaks as i am about to put in the kiln...

just saying, in defense of the spinners. the end result would have been more theirs than yours after they did the build.

prep is important and i am not downplaying it, but the assembly of said piece is what makes or breaks the look.

[Mecha]

the worst incidences i've seen/experienced were buyers who would want to design their pieces themselves with no knowledge of glass.

This.

Even worse are the ones that couple this trait with absolutely no fucking taste.

Out of all custom requests I have had over the years, maybe two or three would have looked decent as finished pieces.

If the average customer had the vision for a nice piece, they would be some sort of artist themselves. People that make nothing aesthetically pleasing even in hobby generally suck at it. And I mean, they really, really suck and their ideas are just total rubbish.

Oh, and then of course the assholes that will waste hours of your time working out a design with you that you actually think could work only to tell you that they want to spend about $45. That is the absolute worst as you already have more than they are willing to pay for the finished piece in time designing it and now you get nothing at all.

So yeah, the diva route is key. Like, sure I will do custom work, BUT I have to have absolute creative control over it and will only take vague suggestions into consideration.

Unless, of course, it is something stupid like a spoon with a sports team logo on it. Those are easy money when they come around.

[J proper]

^^^ Agreed ^^^

[p.j.]

we should create a database of legit buyers. it's as easy as making a password protected tumblr acct and then having whoever you invite to the group leave feedback. having it private sidesteps a lot of drama.

the worst incidences i've seen/experienced were buyers who would want to design their pieces themselves with no knowledge of glass. buyers who decide they don't like their custom piece and refuse to pay. general impatience paired with complaining or threats to drag your name through the mud. in one instance a kid paid my buddy with his moms credit card and then claimed to be underage in an effort to blackmail dude into giving him extras. some kids write stupid shit in the "notes" field of the paypal transaction getting the account shut down. some kids back out on their dibs in auction sites. some kids seem happy and then go online to express dissatisfaction instead of coming to the artist when their satisfaction seems to change. even the most charming of them want to get to know the artist. figure 12 emails into your hourly and see how sweet the money is lol. there are many problems.

on the plus side, you can get a bit more than wholesale. most of these problems can be sidestepped by the diva bit. decide what you are willing to deal with and don't bend a bit. walk away if you don't like the deal. compromise begets compromise. there are scads of these kids so having one huff off isn't a big deal as long as you are polite and you keep your records. always email, never phone.

in the end, for me, distributers are worth their cut if they are cool. i don't like being told what to make. i don't care for strangers and my correspondence is maxed out already. good distributers or stores are worth their cut and a bottle of whiskey at christmas.

.02

this is why mer is our fearless leader....repped for the time you took to explain it