I sell art prints on eBay and Etsy. Not your usual standard art prints from a department store, packaged and matted or framed, but vintage illustrations removed from old books that I find at yard sales and thrift shops.
But this is not about the business of killing books and selling off the illustrations, but about the psychology behind the sale. And why people will buy them.
I sell these book illustrations at a huge profit. People ask me “but why would they pay so much for a picture taken out of a book, when they could buy the book for much less and take the pictures out for themselves?”
And there it is. In that question, lies the crux of my selling point. It’s a convenience factor. The factor that has emerged, bloomed, and grown alongside the internet, and because of the internet. The factor that has opened up huge opportunities for people such as myself that can find a market in this. The TIME factor. The emerging Service market.
Why would they pay so much for a picture out of a book? Because it’s done. It’s finished. It’s prepared for them. They can see exactly what they’re getting, they don’t have to mess with disassembly.
It arrives in the mail, packaged neatly in a nice archival sleeve, with a cardboard insert to keep it from bending. It’s ready.
In the book THE $100 STARTUP by Chris Guillebau, he references the “give a man a fish” parable and advises that this is NOT good business practice. You don’t want the man to learn how to fish, you want to SELL him the fish. And you want him to come back to you when he needs more fish.
We, of a certain age, have a hard time understanding this phenomenon, where people will throw money at convenience rather than taking the time to do it themselves.
I get that. And I can work with that. Of course, I try and be frugal when it is necessary. But I also weigh the prep time involved in a project against all the other stuff I have to do around it.
Say I’m decorating a kid’s room. Or I am furnishing a restaurant. Or re-doing a church social center. I am making a hundred decisions about color, furniture, lighting, ambiance, and decor.
I want a vintage illustration of a little girl feeding horses. I want a charming picture of an old English pub. I want one of those dramatic black and white Gustave Dore bible illustrations with Jesus in it.
Do I want to go research a book that might have those pictures, buy it, and dismantle it to remove one picture? No, I don’t. I just want the art. I’ll pick out a frame when I have it in my hands. Right?
Think about it. What can YOU provide that will make life easier for busy moms? For a restaurant owner wanting authentic decor? For a church pastor on a limited budget, decorating his social room? For a gardener. For a daily commuter. For a schoolteacher.
Have a look at my eBay shop OldPaperShop and see what I am doing.
Then have a look at my Etsy shop OldPaperShoppe and see what I do with the rest of the book!
Here’s a link to that book I mentioned above, available on Amazon (of course) The $100 Startup
Cool, eh?
Shoot me a comment, I love to read people that are reading me…
