Ask Sam: How to Deal with a Cheapskate

Q. What do you say to a "person" who offers you a ridiculously low amount for a painting?

Q. Dear Sam,

What do you say to a "person" who offers you a ridiculously low amount for a painting? Especially one that you have spent many hours working on. Looking forward to your very 'diplomatic" answer....

Sincerely,
Annoyed

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A. Dear Annoyed,

If someone has offered you a certain dollar amount (this can be either high or low)  for your painting, than I'm guessing that you haven't priced your paintings. 

My question to you is this: How come?! You should know better! I think that this whole issue could have been avoided if you had priced your paintings.

OK, so let’s assume that you have never sold a painting and before now, it had never crossed your mind to attach a dollar sign to something you made. Fair enough. I was there once.

If I had been put on the spot with a question like: “Oh my gosh, I want to but your painting! I’ll give you $55!” Then I would have immediately said: “I’m flattered! (Even if you were not flattered) “Can I get back to you?”

At the very least, this would have bought me some time to compose an appropriate answer.

OK, so let’s say the time for that is over and done with and you were left with your mouth gaping open at the ridiculously low offer.

Here’s what I would say:

Dear so and so, I am flattered (there's that word again) that you liked my painting enough to buy it. To be perfectly honest, your request caught me a bit off guard because I haven’t put much thought into pricing and selling my work.

That said, since we last met, I have done some research into what other artists are charging for similar works with the same amount of experience that I have.  As a result, and because I am looking to establish my professional painting career, I feel comfortable selling the painting you are interested in for no less than X amount. 

Once again, I would like to sincerely, thank you for your interest in my work. As an emerging artist, your interest was very encouraging.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Peace out cheapskate!

OK, you might want to leave out the cheapskate part.

On another note, let's talk about why someone would offer you a horrendously low price?

Here are some suggestions:

1. Ignorance
They honestly have no idea what a piece of original art costs. They are used to going to HomeSense and you can't get mad at them for that. Educate them lovingly.

2. They’re family
Gotta love ‘em! To them, you’re still just “Jenny from the block”. They don’t take you seriously and probably never will.

3. They’re friends.
Gotta love ‘em! Please refer to above.

4. Lastly, and not likely, they’re mean and hateful and they want to undermine and humiliate you. 
Well, if that’s the case then I say you should not be hanging around those people. If there’s no way to get rid of them, at the very least please choose not to be offended.

I hope this helps!