Twice in as many days, we’ve had browsers in our galleries who, before even requesting specifics about the pieces for which they’d evinced interest, inquired about a discount. Frankly, when this sort of thing happens, and mercifully it happens now with ever less frequency, I know that a sale is definitely not in the offing. There was a time that outlets for designer type inputs- furniture, fabrics, plumbing fixtures- almost invariably offered some kind of discount, that basically functioned to provide a margin between a wholesale and a retail price. That said, I never felt our galleries functioned as a warehouse distribution center, so the notion of a wholesale discount always perplexed me. Lately, though, times being the way they are even wholesale merchants are happy to sell retail.
But this isn’t just a sign of hard, albeit ameliorating, times. The internet, and the ease with which a virtual shop can serve the needs of customers, makes shopping so simple that, where formerly designers and others shopped for their clients, now their clients shop for themselves. Additionally, in the art and antiques world, the proliferation of online databases makes it imperative that any retail gallery be price competitive. To mark something up in price, just to mark it down in order to provide a discount, will now result in a lost sale. Before my better collector clients reprove me for implying that price is what sells the better quality material, I have to say that not all our sales are to my loyal cadre of collectors. We do have the frequent one-off sale, and that buyer is invariably price sensitive. And before my loyal clients become too high breasted, I will remind them that they are, too. Bottom line- whatever you have, no matter how rare or fine the quality, it better be priced to sell.
Mind you, when we do have pricing discussions with clients, when the discount becomes the primary focus, Keith McCullar and I move toward, shall we say, palaver truncation. When the client, though, discusses with some degree of familiarity prices of similar pieces sold over the course of the last several years, that is a horse of a different, and very pleasing, color. This signifies that we have a knowledgeable collector who, along with price, will happily discuss the relative merits of pieces recently sold compared to a piece under consideration. For that buyer we have oodles of time. Note I said ‘buyer’, because that is what the astute collector is very likely to become.