Overall pricing of GFX

Hey Sythers,

Some thought just came to my mind: why are the current graphic prices so low? Every shop seems to standardize their prices at the following rates:

-thread layout: $10,-
-signatures: $5,-
-avatars: $4,-

Some ofcourse a little less, others a little more. Anyways, it all comes down to the following:

how can a graphics artist do their work for these ridiculously low pricings? A proper thread layout takes at LEAST an hour or two to call it a design. A signature takes at least 45 minutes to make something unique.

I don't want to accept the possibility that the graphic artist is using lots of templates and isnt really designing anymore. Are they using repetitive effects causing them to cut down their queue? Cause you really can't call it a GFX Artist anymore then...

Your thoughts on this?

 

People have to charge incredibly low for a reason. People on forums are not prepared to pay/don't have enough for a standards costing peice of work. People don't want to pay $15 for a Signature unless they play an important role on the forums. And if they do spend that much (which most don't) they go to the top end artists, who charge this much for a basic signature.

 

Tbh it is just for show. Most of the shops will give u a very very basic signature for their shown price.

 

This is due to two factors:

This is not real life, clients do not own major businesses raking in lots so they are not willing to pay out lots

This is just a forum, a lot of the designers lack the skills to do advanced work
(this does not necessarily mean that the more it costs, the better the quality is however)