This is a follow-up to my post about selling your work in consignment shops, where I discuss some recent and not-so-recent experiences with consignment shops. I want to discuss some positive aspects and some negative aspects that I’ve personally experienced. Your mileage may vary.
The Good
My first foray into selling artwork in a consignment gallery was in my stepdad’s picture framing store. He has several artists represented in a few different mediums. Despite what you normally hear, my experience with mixing family and business in this instance has been great. If anything, I’m the one dropping the ball by not maintaining my inventory levels consistently in his store.
The Bad
The second consignment store I sold through was a gift shop that focused on North Carolina makers and artists. Calling it “bad” is relative since it has been blunted by a subsequent, much uglier experience with another consignee. With this consignee, the contract was clear, fair, and, most importantly, adhered to. They had an inventory system that I’d love to see other consignment galleries utilize for several reasons. First, their system allowed for a unified SKU that their bookkeeping and mine could both use to easily understand what had been sold and how much the payouts would be. They also paid on time, using the same payment system every month, so I didn’t have to look in several places to figure out if the money had come in.
Really, my only real issue with this shop was the staffing issues. They had one or more people working in their store who either constantly made off-color remarks about particular items or completely ignored incoming customers and didn’t tidy up and reset the retail spaces as described in their contract. It was disheartening to walk into the place to check stock only to find hanging items laid on a shelf and otherwise askew or out of place, and everything covered in a week’s worth of dust.
The Ugly
The third consignment store was another gift shop, although they titled themselves a gallery. My experience with them has been the worst so far. I’m a person who believes that contracts should set the expectations of business relationships as well as provide for likely contingencies, not just try to protect or disenfranchise any one side.
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To say that this place is run by ego and ineptitude is putting it mildly. I signed a contract, and the terms of it were broken at least 75% of the time because I usually wasn’t paid on time. Is money my only concern in these relationships? Of course not, but it is a business relationship, and part of that is to make money.
Act swiftly when you encounter 🚩🚩
-me
The primary issue, however, was the lack of proper inventory management. I’m not telling you what to do. I know there are plenty of people in sole-proprietor “micro-businesses” that try to skirt the fringe of legality to hold onto extra money. I’m not here to judge that. What’s a red flag for me is if your consignee swaps payment methods from month to month to avoid transaction fees or mischaracterized payouts to try and avoid financial reporting (why else would you do this?)
It got so bad that, at one point, I actually had to send an invoice to them! After speaking with other artists, this kind of thing is apparently par for the course, and they’re the punchline to many jokes in the local artist and gallery community. Most people who have worked with them have lost respect for them and are either still owed money, never received all their items or displays back when they left, or are in some other situation that should never have happened.
After trying to work with them for nine months to clear up inventory count discrepancies, I ended up accepting a one-time payment far below the amount of what I was owed for the missing inventory just to be done with my dealings with them. The thing is that their business could be so incredible, but they’ve shown the artist community who they are. When I pulled my work, what I got back was about 80% damaged in some way that prevented sale. I had to repair and resurface so much of the work. I took photos of everything and kept every chat log, screenshot, email, sales report, delivery report, and all other documentation in case they ever wanted to make an issue of me telling about my experiences. I won’t name them, but I’ve got all the receipts to make it very costly if they ever wanted to try any nonsense. Now they’re showcasing AI images as “art,” so I’m really glad to be done with them.
The Friend
The final experience I’ll discuss is mine with a consignment gift shop owned by a good friend. I’ll admit I was nervous about mixing business and friendship, as if those relationships go wrong, it tends to go horrible.
Thankfully, being upfront and candid is the foundation of this friendship, so the expectations set in the contract, combined with my friend’s commitment to keeping the professional side as well maintained as the personal side, have kept this experience what I expected from the start.
Communication is fantastic, replies are prompt, payouts are on time and correct, and unlike the previous experience I’ve written about above, inventory management gets the attention it deserves.
Update (Dec ’24): A combination of things, including really shifting the direction my art and art business is going has led me to transition out of consignment as a whole.
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Summary
Perhaps it’s unhelpful to recount my experiences, but if for no other reason than to get it off my mind, I’ve written this post. My key piece of advice is to always maintain clarity in your business relationships and never overlook red flags. In fact, don’t just acknowledge them—act swiftly when you encounter them.
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