What is a timed print drop? When you release a print that is only available for five days. You have a countdown timer on the top of the page. All the language related to the sale is about scarcity. The potential buyer has to make their mind up because this is going to be gone soon and won’t be available again for at least a long time, possibly never. This increases conversion rates because it nudges people who really want to buy over the line.
Permanent collections do the opposite of that. A permanent collection is a set of artworks that are always available for sale.
Of course having a permanent collection can work really well for some people. For example, we work with an artist who draws beautiful illustrations on old maps. He does a whole lot of cities in the United States and Europe and stuff like that. So if you’re from that city or you have some kind of connection with that city, maybe you’re giving an anniversary gift to your partner and that’s where you met, you may buy a print of Lisbon or something like that. So it kind of works for him to have a permanent collection because you want to find the city that means something to you. Also, he does timed drops as well for the major cities because most people have been to London, New York, Paris or there’s a high proportion of your followers that will have some kind of connection with that place. So with the major cities of the world he will do timed drops.
There’s other people like that for whom permanent collections make sense. We work with an architectural illustrator who has illustrated lots of modernist and postmodernist architecture, 20th century architecture, and different movements as well. He has a permanent collection because if you’re an architecture fan or someone who’s into that kind of design culture, you would want to find the design style that appeals to you. But he does time drops as well for big statement pieces.
So we think that permanent collections are Ok in certain circumstances and they do not necessarily detract from the timed drops, but what’s important is that the timed drop is something different, a bit more grand or unusual. Using music analogy here but it is the same way that bands have album tracks and radio tracks.
