Putting your art work 'out there' through ATC's(Art Trading Cards)

ARTCARDSWANTED.COM

ACEO's(Art Cards Editions&Originals otherwise known as ATC'S(Artists Trading Cards)were traditionally used to trade between artists but have become a collecting phenomena in their own right with non-artists. The official size of ACEO's is 2.5" x 3.5" (64 x 89 mm). artcardswanted.com is a site where people can trade cards or artists can create cards of their own art work for promotion purposes or for sale to art card collectors(either way it boils down to promotion). Art cards can be sold as a limited edition, open edition(no limit to the amount printed)or Originals(the actual blank card is painted by the artist as its own piece of art work. There are art card trading conventions all over the world. Many collectors/artists sell their cards on ebay.

PRO'S

This is an excellent way for artists to promote their work in a field growing in popularity every year. This site offers a free gallery set up of your art work. simple upload of digital files of your art work. Statistics available to see which art work is viewed the most. you can receive payments with paypal. You can create your own limited edition cards limiting the amount printed.

CON's

There is one major flaw in my view with this site. Although the set up is free and hosting your gallery of cards on their site is free and they charge no commission on your sales, you must actually buy your cards first before you can sell them. Either the cards are sent to you and you deal with the sales or they store your cards(ie. keep the digital file on their drives and then print out cards as required)and then mail them. Essentially then they make their money from printing the cards and the artist paying them up-front. To be honest this site is a good idea but lets face it, none of us like paying out for something we are not sure we can sell/and how many. I'm not sure why this site doesnt take the same route as other sites such as thumbtackpress.com, cafepress.com, art.com(refer to previous posts)by charging a base price for the printing/production etc and letting the artist tag their own mark-up price on the artwork.

SUMMARY

Good way to promote your artwork in a growing field but would be much nicer if we didn't have to pay up front. Give us a mark-up option!