Digital BW, The Print

This editions idea matches my current thinking. It means you can keep
printing popular images, but it also means that the people who buy in early
retain the prestige of owning a print from the first edition. Similarly, the
most valuable collectible books are usually copies from the first edition.
 
Darren.

-----Original Message-----


Steve/Rick/Anyone:

What about this -- what if you thought about an Edition in the 
same way that a publisher/author thinks about a book? What if 
you had a "first printing", and then if the demand was there for 
more copies prints, then you could decide to invest in a "second 
printing"?

You (anyone) could have a "first run" of say, ten prints. You'd run 
all of those ten prints at the same time. That would be the "first 
run of the edition". The CofA would note this, that the first run 
would contain ten prints, and if that sold out, you'd then authorize 
a second run of another ten prints. And so on and so forth until 
you reached the total limit on the Edition of say, thirty prints. At 
that time, the artist would "retire" the image, and would 
guarantee that no more prints would be made of it IN ANY SIZE, 
in any other form, in any other color.

In this approach, the buyer would be "hedging a bet" in a sense, 
that he would own one out of possibly only ten prints. Yet he 
would also be made fully aware at the time of purchase that 
there was a potential that the full edition of thirty would be run at 
some time, whether that was three years, or thirty years. 

In addition, the upside for the photographer is that he would not 
be forced to invest hundreds of extra dollars for paper and ink, all 
on the front end. This method seems like a good balance 
between "print on demand" (could there BE a nastier term?), and 
running the entire edition all at once.

It seems from several responses on this list today that you guys 
think I'm trying to restrict your income by injecting these ideas, 
when, in a sense, I feel like I'm opening up opportunities in the 
long haul for your income to go up. In that, the overall perception 
of your business would be strengthened. Right now, I'd say that 
there are many savvy buyers/investors out there who know how 
the game is played -- ie, there's always that chance that they'll 
pay top dollar for a print, under the guise of a limited edition, only 
to be informed later that a whole NEW edition has been 
introduced "in a new color", or "in a new size". Who on this list 
can look me in the eye and tell me that's not a questionable 
business practice? (Whether it's done every day is no 
justification, either).

Hell, given this behavior, there's no wonder that the prices are 
staying low; photographers seem to be their worst enemies.

-----

I am asking ALL of these questions under the heading of: "I don't 
know and I'm trying to learn", so please read them with that in 
mind. I'm a commercial hack, and all this art-talk is new to me. 
And, as you can see from my writing, no words are over three 
syllables, so keep your responses simple.

Thanks very much,

MT, http://marktucker.com/ <http://marktucker.com/> 





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