Do your cheaper prints outsell your limited editions?
Last weekend at a local show I watched someone pick up one of my mid-range open edition prints without hesitating, then set down the limited edition version of basically the same Shenandoah overlook shot after looking at the price. Got me thinking about my own sales over the past couple years.
For a long time I assumed limited edition signed prints would carry more weight with buyers. And sometimes they do, especially with collectors who already know what they want. But honestly, my smaller open edition prints on lustre paper have outsold everything else by a wide margin. I spent years trying to push the premium stuff before I figured out that most people walking into a booth or browsing online just want something they connect with at a price that doesn't make them flinch.
I'm curious what the rest of you have found. Do your lower priced prints move faster, or have you had luck building demand for limited editions? And is there a particular print medium or paper combination that your buyers seem to gravitate toward? Metal, canvas, fine art paper? I'm still experimenting and would love to hear what's actually working for others.
Something that shifted how I think about pricing at shows was realizing the limited editions aren't necessarily there to outsell everything else. They can serve as an anchor. When someone sees a signed limited edition at a higher price point, the open edition next to it suddenly feels very reasonable, almost like a relief. I noticed this with my own floral prints. The moment I started displaying a few larger, pricier limited editions alongside my smaller open editions, the smaller ones moved faster. Not because anyone stopped wanting the premium work, but because the contrast made the decision easier. So now I think of the limited editions less as my main revenue and more as something that quietly makes the rest of the table work better.