I'm Matthew Lyles Hornbostel, and my work is having a growing impact on eBay.
Here are some of my current listings, embedded in this page:
Here's the thing, though - I've been okay with having slim or no profit on many of these items, even taking losses on auctions early on. It's a strategy known as a 'loss leader' strategy and in effect it means you could land some amazing, genuinely fantastic deals on items and services that'd normally be normally far more expensive.
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Or click this link to see all of the items I have listed on eBay, sorted by how close they are to ending. At the time of this writing, August 5, 2017, over 30 listings are active, including over half a dozen items now being auctioned, all with starting bids under $5, and often under $1, with free shipping for all US buyers!
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"Incredible! So special! Great work! Thank you!"
"Better than described, fast shipping...just love it"
"Fast but generous with his talent, great sense of light and color, communicative."
Most of these listings are fixed price, and a few (on average one every 2-3 weeks) are
auctions beginning at a ridiculously low opening-bid price of $0.99.
Items
include acrylic and gouache paintings on canvas, colored pencil art,
and two typers of pastel art (oil pastel and pastel pencil) and sizes now
range from 9"x12" to 24"x36".
I've gone from a mere handful of
ratings on my eBay seller account, to over 200, and at the time of
this writing 100% of them - every last one - are positive.
The
basic idea of these
auctions (or fixed-price listings) is that I'll create an artwork
(portrait, pet portrait, landscape, cityscape, whatever) based on
whatever you want. Sometimes customers will give me a
simple description like "I want a view of San Francisco and the Golden
Gate Bridge" and I make something like this:
and sometimes they're very particular about what they want
and will provide a list of reference photos for objects, pets, or
people they want arranged in the artwork, or the 'mood' they want the
work to evoke. One recent customer asked for an image of her deceased pet in heaven, and I painted this:
Yet another asked for a recreation of a classic Leloir painting, "Jacob and the Angel", and the result was this:
For anybody who is interested in buying art from
me, take a look at the sortable Still Art section of this website (especially
the parts from 2015 onwards) for examples of my work.
Then, if you like what
you see, and like the fact that all the original handmade art I sell
online, even the huge items, are currently still very reasonably priced, click this link to visit my eBay profile.
I'm
currently working diligently to keep things moving forward, and freelance gigs,
eBay sales and Etsy sales are the three major ways I accumulate the
funds needed to keep these websites running, and [with whatever is left
over] make progress on my video, games, and other projects. If
you want to see my bigger projects *done* then please buy something
from me on eBay or Etsy. Most of my video productions and game
dev projects cost between $100-$1100 with a per-project average of
around $275.00;
miniscule compared to big 'studio' productions but still somewhat
costly. The way I figure it, if there are no sales on these shops
my web network will gradually collapse - if they stay at the level
they've been at in early 2016, around an item a week, the network will
remain stagnant, with
slow or no progress but intact, and at a rate of 2 per week we'll see
moderate growth. At 3 or more items/week? In that scenario,
things begin to accelerate massively. (And that is what is now
happening, or at least starting to) If you
want projects like
Panoramic Worlds or Vivid MiniGolf or my old videos online faster, this
is by far the best way to make that happen. Note that in May
17, 2016, I became really swamped with orders on eBay. Demand
increased to the point where I decided to raise prices of
fixed-price items by about 7-15%. Further increases are possible over time but prices also go down from time to time depending on demand for the work.
Small artworks [9"x12"] are usually about $9.99, medium size [12"x16" or 12"x18"] $14.99, Large [18"x24"] $24.99, Huge [24"x36"] $44.99. But the actual pricing fluctuates and is frequently lower.
In summary: If you want
this website to survive and thrive, or if you just want a great bargain
GO ON. LOOK AT THE OTHER VENDORS.
The
top vendors ranking highest on online search engines, sell acrylic
works on canvas made to order - portraits and pet portraits, typically
- and they're good, but they are $130 minimum, for 12" x 16" paintings!
My price for the same service is typically $14.99, and you'll be surprised
by how good the results usually are.
You can even grab a HUGE
item from my shop for $44.99 and amazingly, it's still tremendous value
compared to every alternative out there.
So, if you want an outstanding deal on a portrait or
Visit my eBay shop today!
Or visit my own official shop, which has some amazing bargains and unique product options found nowhere else!
Consider a painting or pastel art piece as an affordable gift for a family member, friend, or loved one to commemorate and celebrate a special occasion. Or as a way to decorate your home or apartment and make it look amazing. If you've got any reason at all to buy an artwork, this is a good opportunity. And even if not, you may still want to bookmark this site and keep it in mind for later.
Finally, if you are unlikely to ever buy handmade art [for whatever reason] but do like the idea of seeing my games or videos being completed, you have a few helpful options of quick things you can do that'll make a big impact on my production efforts, listed on this page.
Thanks for reading.