Shipping your work: packing, pricing and not losing money on it

The packaging decides almost everything

Two works of the same size can differ by a factor of ten in shipping cost, purely because of how they travel. A canvas taken off its stretcher and rolled in a tube goes as a long, light parcel. The same canvas framed behind glass needs a wooden crate, and a crate is heavy, bulky and handled as freight.

So before you think about price, decide how the work travels. There are really only four answers: flat in a stiff envelope, rolled in a tube, flat in a cardboard box, or in a wooden crate. Everything else is a variation.

This is also a decision you can make at the moment you paint. A canvas you keep unstretched until it sells is far cheaper to send, and many buyers are happy to stretch it themselves — or you offer it both ways at two prices.

How to pack each kind

Rolled: roll the work face out around a tube rather than face in — that way the paint layer is stretched slightly instead of compressed, which reduces cracking. Interleave with acid-free tissue, then slide the roll inside a wider tube so nothing touches the wall. Never roll work that is thickly impasto or more than a few years old and brittle.

Flat in a box: two sheets of stiff card either side, corner protectors, then a box at least six centimetres larger in every direction, with the gap filled so the work cannot shift. A work that moves inside its box will arrive damaged, however much bubble wrap surrounds it.

Framed behind glass: tape the glass in a criss-cross pattern so that if it breaks the shards stay put rather than slicing across your work. Then treat it as a crate job unless it is small.

A crate: plywood sides, battens at the corners, foam inside, and the work suspended so it never touches the wall of the crate. Building one takes an afternoon and about thirty euros in materials — much cheaper than having one made, and it is a genuinely useful skill.

Why the carrier bills more than the work weighs

Carriers charge on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight — the space the parcel occupies. Divide length by width by height in centimetres by 5000 and you get the volumetric weight in kilos.

A crate of 100 by 80 by 15 centimetres has a volumetric weight of 24 kilos even if the whole thing weighs eight. That is the number you pay for, and it is the number most artists forget.

It also explains why a tube is such good value: long and thin has a low volume, so a rolled canvas often costs less to send than a small box.

Roughly what it costs

Within your own country, a tube or a small box is usually somewhere between ten and twenty-five euros. Within your continent, expect to double or triple that. Intercontinental, a box of a few kilos lands somewhere between fifty and a hundred, and a crate runs into the hundreds.

Above about a hundred and fifty centimetres on the longest side, or thirty kilos, ordinary parcel services stop being an option. That is the point where you call an art shipper and ask for a quote — which is a perfectly respectable answer to give a buyer.

Add insurance for anything valuable. Standard carrier cover is usually a token amount and specifically excludes fragile and artistic goods, which is exactly what you are sending.

Pricing it without losing money

You have three sensible options. Charge shipping separately as an estimate, build an average into the price of the work, or offer free shipping within your own country and charge for the rest. All three are used by professionals, and the second is more common than people admit.

Building it in has one real advantage: the buyer sees one number and does not stall at checkout over an extra amount. It has one real risk: a sale to Australia can quietly eat your margin. A middle path works well — build in what a domestic sale costs, and charge the difference for anything further.

Whatever you choose, say clearly what is included. A buyer who discovers shipping afterwards feels tricked, even when the total is fair.

When the estimate turns out wrong

It will happen. A crate to Canada that you priced at a hundred and twenty turns out to be two hundred and forty, and you cannot absorb that.

The honest move is to contact the buyer before you send anything, explain what the real cost is, and offer the choice: pay the difference, or cancel and get a full refund. Most people accept the first, because they have already decided they want the work. Almost nobody minds an honest message; everybody minds a surprise.

You are always allowed to cancel a sale you cannot fulfil at that price. Refund promptly and completely, apologise once, and correct your estimate for next time. A cancelled order costs you a sale; a shipment you lose money on costs you a sale and the money.

Sending outside the EU

A customs declaration goes on the outside of the parcel, stating what it is and what it is worth. Declare it as an original work of art with the correct value — under-declaring to help the buyer avoid duty is fraud, and it also voids your insurance at the moment you need it.

Original art often falls under a favourable customs code, and in many countries it carries a lower import rate than manufactured goods. Look up the code for your medium once and keep it somewhere you can find it.

Tell the buyer in advance that import duty and local VAT are theirs to pay. This is normal and universal, but a buyer meeting an unexpected bill at the door will remember it as your fault.