The OBO Sale room.
Like many painters I had a storeroom piled with paintings of all sizes in frames and out, experiments and finished work which I had driven thousands of miles and shown at many fairs and festivals. So when it came time for my annual studio sale I mailed 800+ postcards to friends and patrons with a special offer. I told them they could take what they wanted from over 300 paintings and put as much as they felt was fair in an unmarked envelope as payment. I called it an OBO (Or Best Offer) sale. I had to explain to many friends to ignore the marked prices and that I had paintings that were not doing me or anyone else any good. My main goal was to make room for more paintings and I was not attached to the money in any way. People were thrilled ! They took bags of paintings, telling me they could never have afforded my paintings before. They called friends and neighbors and new faces appeared. I think about 250 paintings are now out in the world being enjoyed by friends. They payed less than 20 cents on the dollar and I put about 8000 in the bank. It was a total win-win event. The secret was non-attachment. I honestly just wanted to get some space to make more paintings. Now it is time to get back to work.