Hi you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, I just have a question! You know a lot more about charms than I do, I was thinking about opening custom charm commissions and ordering the charms from Vograce. I think production, if I had 6 charms/slots, would be around 40-ish dollars if I include shipping? Maybe 50? I’m wondering if you have suggestions on how much I should price per charm. At first I was going to charge just $50 per charm, $65 if someone wants two characters, but then again, I don’t want to undersell myself at all, I’ve seen artists charge from $90 up to $105 per charm commission. but I wanted to ask your opinion first. I’m always afraid to price high because a lot of people complain if anything is over $50 when it comes to artwork, but then I have this habit of underselling. One time I only charged $10 for full body full colored artwork and I really burnt myself out making almost 30 of those, it took me eight months to complete them all... and I’m afraid of repeating that mistake with charms too. I’m experienced with drawing and ordering charms and experienced in drawing commissions, but I’ve never done custom commissions for physical items before. Thank you for taking the time to read this!
(disclaimer that i haven't done charm commissions before either, but i've been thinking abt it a lot so i've been paying attention when it's discussed on the art discords haha)
to establish a starting price for the art alone, just time yourself and multiply your hours by at least minimum wage as usual (i'd start with $15/hr). then add in production/shipping cost, then consider adding in extra based on other time factors (in the bulletpoints)
in the end i'd expect at least a $100-$200 starting price for charm commissions, especially if you're drawing the charm fully custom each time. the exception is if your process is relatively quick and easy, like if you use a simple style that's quick for you or a pre-posed base that you only need to make adjustments to. in this case i could see the starting price go down to $50-$100. so if it turns out that the price you calculated based on your hours is higher than what you think your clients are willing to pay, cutting down your hourly rate should be a last resort; i'd suggest first trying to see if you can make your process shorter and faster by offering a more simple or limited design. or you can offer designs that utilize art assets you've already drawn beforehand, and just cleverly select the customizable element of the charm
other things to think abt:
consider adding to your initial time estimate by accounting for time spent formatting your files, placing the order, quality checking, etc. plus the normal commission stuff like time spent on revisions. charm commissions also often mean extra time spent messaging the commissioner compared to digital commissions (explaining choice of clasps/finishes, communicating production/shipping status, etc) so you may want to account for that extra correspondence time too
personally i wouldn't heavily discount multiple characters. maybe a 10-15% discount, but tbh no discount is normal too. if the characters are separate, they're as much work as 2 commissions, and if they're interacting, that interaction takes extra effort to plan and pose, so it's still the work of 2 commissions
bc the difference in cost is small and it adds a lot of value, i'd definitely offer the charms as double-sided. it'd be no extra work, just the same image on both sides, where one side's flipped. you could offer an alternate expression for the other side of the charm for an additional cost
if the character is asymmetric and the commissioner wants them to be correctly asymmetric on both sides of the charm, charge extra (or alternatively don't even entertain this as an option, some silhouettes are difficult to flip for this)
you could consider offering a discount if the commission is of a character with enough demand that you can reprint and sell the charm separately
remember to update your tos to cover the details of physical charm commissions 👍
and on the production end of things, these are what i immediately thought abt:
how many copies of the charm will you give commissioners by default?
how much will you charge for additional copies of the charm?
how many copies will you actually order? (do you get extra to account for flaws, or order exact amounts)?
do you cover shipping cost to the commissioner, or does the commissioner cover it?
what happens if the package gets lost or damaged--either on the way to you, or on the way to the commissioner?
what happens if the charms come in and they're flawed?
can your pricing setup cover the occasional need to order replacement charms for the scenarios above?
