How do you price art?

I know that the cost of many luxury* goods can be stressful to conceptualize so here is a cost breakdown of how much each set of dice takes to complete on average, why I priced it that way, and how to price your own work! I hope this helps clear things up!!

As far as things go, dice are a necessity for TTRPG's and many TCG's, however, historically art has been a luxury or heirloom item rather than a basic need**. By fusing an object needed for entertainment (something I consider a basic human need) and art together, you create functional art! I personally try to price with accessibility in mind due to the inherent nature of the product I produce being "useful", that does not mean I will undercharge for my work! It does however mean that I am committed to providing goods at a varying price-point as to ensure that the community I provide a service to is able to indulge in my work not only in a visual, but also tactile way :D

A struggle I have faced is charging a "livable" wage for my work and have thus ended up creating almost a formula for pricing to help ease my mind a bit.

I strongly believe that functional art should be priced by taking into account the time that it has taken to achieve that status of being an "artisan" + materials/upkeep/hours. So, with that in mind, this is how much a dice set costs me to make:

I split the cost into set-by-set costs and buy-in costs for extra clarity

Base materials:

• Resin: I use unicone resin! A gallon of it costs $89.99 which overall makes about 90-100 sets of dice so that's only $1 per set
• Paint: a set of acrylic paints will last practically forever sooo, we won't count it into the cost of each set, its part of the buy-in at $25
• Glitters, alcohol inks, mica powders, bits, bobs: I have lost track of overall how much I have spent on art supplies but a set of basic glitters is a buy-in of $10, alcohol inks are expensive and a set will be $50, mica powders are about $20 for a variety pack. Besides that, all other art supplies I splurged on and have spent well in the thousands for oops...

Tools:

• Master dice (without a resin printer): mine cost me about $150, sanding polishing them took an average of 2 hours per dice. That is $15 x 14hr = $210 in labor. Buy in is: $360 and if you want to have cores for your dice, double that
• Mold Maker: completely optional but makes the process easier and costs $20, I have 2 at a buy-in of $40
• Silicone molds: I use bbdino or dragonskin silicone and each mold lasts for about 20 sets and costs $20 to produce. I put cores in most sets so that's an extra mold that is also $20. All together that's about $2 per set
• Pressure generator: mine is the makita quiet series 2gal, it cost a buy-in of $300
• Pressure pot: buy-in of $274.99 if you don't want to make it yourself! I have both a DIY and bought one but have discontinued my $100-ish DIY one
• Gloves, masks, pipettes, stirring sticks, silicone cups: you're looking at an upkeep for all of these materials. Gloves are $10 a case of 100 (50 uses), 50 of the masks I use are are $22, pipettes and stirring sticks are cheap as all hell and can be re-used a lot so its a buy-in of $10, silicone cups last for about 20 sets and are $10 for 10. Overall the upkeep is like a $1 per set

Time:

• Prep/Casting/Cleanup- $15 x 1hr = $15 per set
• Polishing - $15 x 1hr 30min = $22.5 per set
• Painting - $15 x 30min = $7.5 per set

Other Costs:

• Shipping materials: $10 for a bag of recyclable packing worms aka $1.25 per package and $29.99 for a set of 50 boxes which comes down to $0.6 per
• Packaging: $18.99 for 12 jars, so about $1.6/per set
• Rent: the space dice equipment occupies is about $200/month of my space
• 3-D modeling: I learned blender for this lol which was many hours
• Website upkeep/fees: $36/month-ish
• Sublimation printer + transfer papers: buy-in $200 for the epson ecotank-2800 plus a buy-in of $12.99 for 20 sheets which lasts a while (ink lasts ages too)

Overall the cost-per-set including labor is: $54.45
Overall the buy-in for me was: $1,963 plus a monthly upkeep of $236

Average sets of dice cost the buyer about $60-$95 while 1-of-1 or bespoke sets cost about $125-$300

*"Luxury" is a term used to describe an artisanal good that cannot be mass produced here. I am not referring to luxury products such as designer when I refer to luxury here. Those, while being a luxury are a display of opulence rather than a display of artisanal experience and artistic taste (usually).

**One can argue that art IS in fact a basic need and I am inclined to agree as it is an inherent byproduct of experience and emotion which are both very deeply human. And to clarify, the creation of art is a necessity just as much as consumption of art is. This is the hill I will die on <3