I noticed that Brian Auer is selling his prints on ebay. I’ve seen some other photographers do that too, and I wonder about ebay as a vehicle for selling “fine-art” photography. Yes, you are auctioning off your work, but ebay is no Sotheby’s. It rather has a bit of a the feel of a flea market. The pages are functional, but do not show off the work in a very classy way. And yet, it’s got a lot of eyeballs there, so it’s a more ready made market than hanging out your shingle on a personal web site. I also know there are lots of people that will pay higher prices on an auction site than they would on a regular e-commerce site because they think they are getting a deal. (This is how so many copies of the open-source GIMP image editing software are sold, even though it’s freely available elsewhere.) It’s also all set up for e-commerce, so no hassle setting up your own system.
What are your thoughts about selling photography on ebay?
