Cat,

You are very correct that it is almost impossible for independent artists to come to an agreement on anything. But the 3 moth rule means there is no appearance of collusion either, which is just as important.

If there were a contract out for bid right now and I announce on this forum that I would do that type of job for $XXXX.XX. Then everyone else interested in that job could make sure that their bid is not less than that (silly I know, but that is how bid rigging can happen).  This usually only becomes a problem when there are a limited number of suppliers, which does not apply in most areas of the art market. But I can think of a few specialty area where this could in fact happen.

So the trade commissions has set rules. Follow the rules or get in trouble. Period.

Now what you do with other people in a none public forum is none of my business...

The data from the GAG book and the AMI survey is usually at least one year old.

The restriction of waiting three months is really not much of a burden. You probably just managed to get paid for the job after three months, so you know what you actually made and can make a fair assessment of how you did as a business matter.

I made a Database back in the late 1990's christened the "Nicholson On-Line Art Survey" in Honor of the work Trudy did in doing the price guessing events at GNSI Conferences, and while not wildly popular it did serve as an eye opener about real job prices, the fairness of those prices, and salaried job compensation. We welcomed reports on both good and bad job experiences, all anonymously. I think we had a couple hundred entries before I lost the server access.

These days, we could reactivate it if we had someone willing to wade through the process of recreating the database and web access. The GNSI could certainly host it, and maybe even help with development, it is more an issue of time and manpower.

Britt


On 5/7/14, 10:56 AM, Catherine Wilson wrote:> Bruce, pretend for a moment that I don't know anything about politics, economics, or physics, and 
> just tell me what the hell is going on. (That was a joke.) But really I don't how its price fixing 
> if there is no fixed price. 300 different people of different levels of expertise working for 
> different employers paid different prices.
> How would that be price fixing and the AGA Handbook for Ethical Pricing not be?
> 
> Sorry, I just gotta know.
> 
> All best,
> Cat


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