his disgust.. and mine
poor dude.
he has a bad taste in his mouth, and so do i.
i was contacted yesterday through one of my etsy shops by a woman claiming to be an artist. her profile is blank, and she has nothing listed for sale. she has 2 feedback. suspicious? yeah. but..but..she said she was very interested in my work. oh, lawdy, i was so grateful. WoW!! she liked this and this and that, too. oh, and she really wanted that!! and her mother’s birthday is the same as mine..aw!! sweet, right?
hold on, the best is yet to come..
she liked everything soooo much that she wanted me to cut all my prices in half..now, get this..so she could buy it, double the price and sell it. ???!!! i couldn’t make this stuff up. she told me she was going to double the price and sell it!! i mean, really. wtf?? could you be anymore insulting, lady?
her husband owns a gallery in chicago, she said. and there is overhead. so i should cut all my prices in half and sell everything to her. and, she would be back for more when that was gone. i bet she would! clearly, the woman has big balls…if you can even believe the story. it has scam written all over it. i was waiting for her to tell me she needed to wire me money (har har), what’s my bank account number? heh!
so we went back and forth for a while. i asked her, why i should do all the work while she makes all the profit? some of the stuff i have listed doesn’t even cover the cost of material as it is..my prices are not high. has she bought paint lately? or gesso? she wanted me to discount $2 and $3 books, which literally took HOURS to make. ???!!! lady, i’m not making any money now. i just love to do it. sheesh! i’m just trying to make a little bit so i can keep buying art supplies. i don’t count my time. damn!
i asked her if she’s an artist, where is her stuff? i want to see it, and i expect her to cut all her prices in half for me, so i can buy. i need stuff to sell. i have overhead to pay. maybe i should have asked her to contact dick blick and all the other art stores for me. have them cut all their prices in half, then maybe i could afford to work for her. heh!
the thing that got me was she told me she had contacted 5 people so far, and they all agreed to her scam. i’m the only one who was having a problem being devalued and slapped in the face, evidently. i told her i was very sorry to hear that. they must be starving or just plain stupid. when their fingers are worked to the bone and their checkbooks aren’t showing any profit whatsoever, and they can’t afford to buy art supplies, i hope they figure it out.
ps: i know galleries need to make money. i’m not questioning that. i’m just saying, if this was a legitimate offer, her approach absolutely sucked donkey balls. “you need to cut your prices in half, so i can double my money”. um, yeah.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
There are a LOT of scammers out there. They play to our hopes of getting our art to a wider audience. I find it quite disgusting.
She probably does not even own a gallery.
Ick.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
yeah, that’s what i thought, too. she never gave me her name, the name of the gallery or anything. it was highly suspicious. if she had given me that information, i may have thought about it.
i know galleries make 50% profit, so i still would have said no. but at least i’d know it wasn’t a scam.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:34 pm
If she is legitimate, her approach was definitely not a very professional one. Not giving you her name or the name of her gallery is very suspicious too! Weird. Most galleries/venues take anywhere from 20%-40% and wouldn’t ask you to slash your prices. I have had galleries/venues ask for my wholesale prices for my journals which I am happy to give them. But no one has ever outright told me to slash my prices! That’s ridiculous.
Good thing you’re vigilant!
July 4th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I have been approached by a gallery once or twice, and they were very up front with me. My name is… My gallery is… This is what we’re looking for…
This woman, I keep calling her a woman only because of her etsy screen name..i assumed she’s a woman, told me nothing. I don’t know her name or gallery. She only told me, “i want double my money back, so you must cut your prices in half”. The wording was very poor and struck me on such a bad note, especially for someone who later claimed she’s been doing this for 32 years.
I told her I’d rather sell my art to someone who loved it and appreciated it..not someone trying to make a fast buck off my hard work. No thanks!
July 5th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
craziness indeed - it never ceases to amaze me how ballsy and idiotic people can be, sheesh…