Support artists by buying at Auctions
GV Art Auctions Organization to support American artists has created an auctions website to benefit artists now.
The problems artists have!
I have met and spoke with at least a couple hundred artists over the past year. I’ve noticed that they have one major concern: to sell their artwork. Selling artwork is usually not an easy task for an artist. One must be knowledgeable and persistent with marketing and promotion to even get noticed. What artist has time for that? Most of them have full-time jobs to pay their bills. They paint, draw, and sculpt in their free time. Marketing and promotion is so very time consuming that most artists are overwhelmed by the task and skip that step. Some artists have the finances to hire an agent to promote their work for them; however most artists are looking to make money and not to spend it on their career. Showing artwork in art galleries is a great way to add to one’s resume and gain some exposure. Unfortunately, the exposure is fairly localized.
Solution?
Art Auctions. Why not? Artwork can get viewed nationwide rather than in just one city. Auctions are fun. Who doesn’t like the feeling of being the winning bidder? Or the feeling of making money on a piece that you have created?
In my experience with auctions, I have found that auction sites each have their own set of rules, fees, commissions, etc. Some sites are not completely clear in what they charge for commissions. Often, they explain a sliding scale (which is confusing BTW) and charge fees to list an item. Sites like ebay are great in some ways (such as the number of viewers they get) and not so great in other ways (millions of non art-related products, listing fees, confusing commission scale . . .). What we have tried to create is an auction site dedicated to art and art-related items ONLY. Listings are FREE. Memberships are also free. Why do we not charge for listings, you ask? Well, we created this site to help artists, not to dig into their pockets. We want to encourage artists and collectors to use our site, so basically everything is free until an item gets purchased. Our commission from the auctioneer is a simple 12% of the final selling price. That’s it. Have you ever looked up the fees from ebay? Holy itemized list of charges from every angle, Batman! Here’s a link to their page of fees– http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html
Note to Artists
Please try us. There’s absolutely no risk and no charge if your item does not sell.
How to list an item:
1. Register as a user. You will be sent an activation link to your email.
2. Sign in and create a Profile. You personal information is kept private. We require registration and profiles for this purpose. You privacy is important to us.
3. In the “auctions” menu, select “new auction”
4. Fill out the fields, upload images, set prices, etc. You may provide tags to optimize searches.
5. Save.
——you now have an item listed with us——–
Auctions last for 7 days. You many republish expired auctions simply by logging in, selecting your expired auction, and click “republish.” You may also cancel your active auction at any time for any reason.
Note to Collectors
When you bid on/purchase an item listed on our site, you are helping to support artists. Since our fees to the artist/auctioneer are simple and minimal, the artist receives nearly all of the profit. Why do we do this? We’re artists too. We know how difficult it can be to create quality artwork, promote our artwork, and find buyers. We’re sensitive to this. We want to support artists who create quality works. We require everyone to register with us (free) and log in to view the auctions. This is solely for the privacy of the artists/auctioneers. Our users’ privacy is important to us. Please visit us and see what we have to offer. You may find a new piece of artwork for your home!