Value your work. Play the long game. Embrace abundance.
These are the meta principles that I believe both creators and collectors can benefit from in the emerging Cryptoart Renaissance.
This post will zoom in on a strategy derived from these principles called UP ONLY Pricing. I believe that UP ONLY benefits both creators and collectors, and I choose to work with those who honor this principle.
What is the UP ONLY Pricing Principle?
For creators, UP ONLY means that you sell each new NFT you mint for at least your average sale price to date.
For collectors, it means that you only sell pieces on the secondary market at or above the artist’s average sale price to date.
This means not accepting bids or listing pieces for under the artist’s average sale price aka the price floor.
For example, let’s say you’re a creator who has sold two pieces to date, one for 1 ETH and another for 2 ETH. Your price floor is now 1.5 ETH, and UP ONLY Pricing dictates that your next sale be for at least this amount.
UP ONLY applies to artists who have sold one or more NFTs to date. I’ll explore pricing strategies for artists who haven’t sold yet in another post.
Why UP ONLY?
The top reasons to honor UP ONLY Pricing:
It respects your work’s value and benefits both you and your existing collectors. Lowering your price floor devalues both your past and future work. It makes it harder for you to sell future pieces at higher prices and for past collectors to resell your work. UP ONLY pricing ensures that your price floor continually rises.
It necessitates GROWTH. To attract higher prices in the long run, you must grow as an artist, grow your audience, or grow your relationships with collectors.
It embraces abundance. We are in the midst of a financial and artistic renaissance driven by crypto, and in particular, by Ethereum. This is a profound value creation event meaning more and more of the world’s capital will live in crypto and the Ethereum economy in the coming years and decades. UP ONLY Pricing embraces and capitalizes on this abundance.
Is UP ONLY Always Best?
I believe UP ONLY should be the go-to, default pricing strategy, and I choose to collect from artists who respect it. I also honor UP ONLY as a collector by never selling a piece on the secondary market for under the artist’s average sale price.
Ultimately, artists—and collectors on the secondary market—decide how to price their pieces and may experiment with different strategies.
How Can I Sell My Work for Higher Prices and What Should I Do if My Work Doesn’t Sell?
See this post which goes more in-depth and answers additional questions on UP ONLY pricing such as how you can raise prices, how to handle limited editions, and what to do if your piece doesn’t sell.
Thanks for reading. You may check out my collection here.
Thank you so much Ben - this is a great strategy! I will definitely follow it :) since my first NFT were sold artificially low (I was forced to accept a bid which I thought was too low as I set a timed auction) I have room to grow prices I think! :)
Thanks so much Ben! I'll be taking into account this strategy once I start to sell my works. I have only one question, what happen in the case of the artist sell his work on different platforms?? The prices on tezos and eth are not the same, but in my case I'm going to sell different kind of works in each platform. Do you think that this could be a contradiction or it is ok if I apply the principle in both platforms according with their different markets? Thanks so much! Greetings from Havana!!