How Do You Buy and Sell Art in the 21st Century?

How Do You Buy and Sell Art in the 21st Century? Of course, the traditional ways of selling art still exist: galleries, shows, contests, catalogs, etc, but in recent years a new way to sell art has appeared. It’s called print-on-demand, or POD. In a nutshell, print-on-demand is a form of printmaking that works via the internet. The artist uploads digital copies of their work to a POD site, then, as they make sales, has them printed and shipped.

At this time, it only works for 2D art. So, sculptors, you’re out of luck, unless you intend to sell prints of photographs of your 3d sculptures. However, with the advent of 3d printers, that may change in the not too distant future.

The prints are made using high end ink jet printers which can print to an array of fine papers and canvases. Some POD services also print to merchandise such as coffee mugs and t-shirts. Most of the POD sites on the web also allow the artist to maintain an online gallery. Patrons can visit the gallery, order prints, and have them shipped directly to them. The artist need not do any work after uploading the image to their gallery.

Here is a quick breakdown of the high level pros and cons. There are many more, but these are some of the big ones.

Print on Demand Pros

• The biggest one is that artists have an online market that requires little or no money to put online. The whole world can visit this online gallery.
• The artist does not need be involved in the transaction. Patrons can order prints without having to contact the artist. However, that does not mean the artist has to be completely hands off. Nothing stops the artist from using the POD site to order their own prints to display in brick and mortar galleries or art shows, or from just being the middle-man in a sale.
• The artist does not need to make a huge up-front investment ordering a series of prints.
• For patrons, there is also the professional customer service of the POD company. If there is a problem, they don’t have to deal directly with the artist. Plus most sites have 24/7 customer service.
• Also, the nature of POD makes it so that there is no limit to a series of a particular work. A work need not ever be “SOLD OUT”.

Print on Demand Cons

• Much like a brick and mortar gallery, POD sites take their cut of the sale, and they have most of the control over the price. They can be a bit on the expensive side to print an artwork.
• Because they are generally inexpensive to maintain a gallery on, there is a huge number of artists using them. Competition is high, and it can be difficult for artworks to be found by patrons.
• Because, by the nature of the business model, prints series are unlimited, there can be a perception by patrons that the prints will be less valuable.
• Because artists will not necessarily have any interaction with buyers, they will not be able to maintain mailing lists and contact information for their patrons.

This has just been a quick overview. There is a lot of information out there on POD and hundreds of POD sites. Coming soon, I'll share with you info on some of the top POD sites. For now, you can check out my gallery on my favorite POD site, Fine Art America: Daniel Eskridge on FineArtAmerica.com