Why Copying Other Artists’ Prices Can Backfire

 If you’ve ever found yourself scrolling another artist’s website or Instagram, seeing their prices, and thinking, “Okay… I guess I should be around that,” you’re not alone.

This is one of the most common ways artists try to get their footing with pricing. It feels logical. If someone else is selling work that looks similar in size, medium, or style, it can seem reasonable to use their prices as a reference point.

The problem is, pricing does not live in isolation.

When you copy another artist’s prices, you’re not just copying a number. You’re copying an entire context you may not actually share.

Price only makes sense inside a market context

Two artists can make work that looks similar on the surface and exist in completely different economic worlds.

One artist might be selling primarily through local art walks or community events. Another might be represented by a gallery or selling through a network of collectors. The same size painting priced at the same number will not function the same way in those two environments.

This is why pricing always has to be grounded in your actual market context, not just what you see online. If you’re unsure how to locate yourself honestly, this post can help you clarify that layer first:

Figure Out Which Art Market You’re Actually In

Without that clarity, copying prices often creates misalignment. Either the number feels inflated for your current buyers, or it quietly undercuts what your work actually needs to sustain you.

You don’t share their positioning, even if your work looks similar

What you see publicly is rarely the full picture of an artist’s positioning.

When you see another artist’s prices, you’re not seeing:

• how long they’ve been selling at that level
• what their demand looks like behind the scenes
• how many repeat buyers they have
• what relationships support those prices
• what context their work is usually presented in

Pricing is shaped by positioning. The same number carries different weight depending on who is used to seeing and buying work at that level. This is why price is as much about narrative and context as it is about size or medium.

If you want to understand how positioning shapes pricing more deeply, this post walks through that layer:

How Market Positioning Shapes the Price of Your Art

Copying prices skips the signal layer entirely

Pricing is influenced by a whole set of signals the market can actually see. Things like visibility, exhibitions, press, placement, and demand all shape how a number is received.

When you copy another artist’s prices, you’re skipping over that signal layer and assuming your market will read your number the same way it reads theirs.

That’s rarely true.

This is also why formulas alone can feel incomplete. The method you use (square inch, linear, hourly) provides structure, but the number you arrive at still has to be interpreted inside your own context. If you need to ground yourself in method choice first, this breakdown can help:

Square Inch vs Linear Span Pricing for Artists

Borrowing numbers can distort your relationship with your own work

One of the quieter ways copying prices backfires is internal.

If you adopt a number that doesn’t actually fit your current market or personal sense of value, you may start to feel strange about your own work.

You might:

• feel embarrassed to say your prices out loud
• start hiding your work or avoiding conversations about it
• feel resentment when something sells “too easily”
• feel pressure to perform a version of yourself you are not ready to inhabit yet

These reactions are not random. They are signs of misalignment between the number you’re using and the context you’re actually operating in.

What to use instead of other artists’ prices

Instead of copying prices, use other artists’ pricing as broad information, not instruction.

You can notice patterns without adopting numbers.

Better reference points are:

• your actual buyer behavior
• your current market context
• how consistently your work sells
• how your body responds when you say your prices
• whether your pricing supports a sustainable practice

These are far more reliable signals than someone else’s price list.

Tools can help you calibrate without comparison spirals

One reason artists copy prices is because they’re trying to reduce uncertainty.

It feels safer to anchor to someone else’s number than to sit with ambiguity.

This is where having a structured way to explore pricing can be grounding. Being able to test different methods and multipliers in a tool like The Art Price Lab lets you see how numbers behave without anchoring your sense of value to someone else’s public pricing.

Let your pricing reflect your reality, not someone else’s snapshot

Other artists’ prices are snapshots of their context, their positioning, their market relationships, and their timing.

Your pricing needs to reflect your reality.

That reality will change as your market context changes, as your visibility evolves, and as your demand shifts. Pricing becomes much steadier when you let it be responsive to your own signals instead of borrowed from someone else’s outcomes.

There is nothing wrong with wanting reference points. The problem starts when those reference points become substitutes for understanding your own position.

Pricing becomes clearer when it’s grounded in your context, not copied from someone else’s.