DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am a fine artist, with a studio attached to my home. Friends and visitors often ask to see the studio, and I am happy to oblige. Sometimes, a visitor will ask how much a particular piece costs.<\/p>\n
This puts me on the spot. I usually say, \u201cWell, I would normally charge $300 for that painting, but with my \u2018friends and family\u2019 discount, I would charge $150.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a few occasions, I\u2019ve had a visitor who looks aghast and murmurs something to the effect of, \u201cI didn\u2019t think it would be so expensive.\u201d <\/p>\n
Miss Manners, I do not know how to respond! I have already halved the price (which is never outlandish to begin with), and am now made to feel I\u2019m being greedy or unreasonable. My reaction has been a strained smile and some breezy comment about how the piece was particularly time-consuming, etc., but by then the atmosphere has changed, and is difficult to undo.<\/p>\n
Am I being rude? Should I have declined to discuss prices in this context? I suspect my guest has been rude by implying my work is not worth the (discounted!) price. How can I handle this situation more politely in the future?<\/p>\n
GENTLE READER: Although the studio is adjacent to your home, you keep it separate for a reason (less paint in the yogurt). Miss Manners wonders if your guests need more space between their slightly impertinent question and the implied sales pitch of your answer: They may have asked the price out of mere curiosity. <\/p>\n
Either tell them you have not yet set a price, or, if you think they are serious about a purchase, tell them that you would sell it to a commercial dealer for $300 — with an emphasis on the word \u201ccommercial\u201d that invites them to ask a further question.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com<\/a>; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com<\/a>; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am a fine artist, with a studio attached to my home. Friends and visitors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-213731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}