So it feels like we finally have enough to ask the question properly: what actually works for selling ACEOs?

This isn’t what the TikTok ACEO accounts say works. Not patterns noticed from the sidelines. This is what the the actual numbers are telling us: every sale, every timestamp, every listing, telling us what buyers are choosing, and when.

I’ve been curious and somewhat skeptical about this for a while. A lot of the “how to sell ACEOs” content out there is confident but vague about its sources… Is it real insight, or is it just observation dressed up as expertise?

So we crunched the numbers on our data, and here’s what we found.

Disclaimer: all of this is based on TinyGallery data, so it reflects how things perform on TinyGallery, and may not translate directly to other platforms, like eBay and Etsy.

Sealed Offer vs. Live Bid vs. Direct Purchases

Anyone who’s sold on eBay knows this feeling: you put your heart into a piece, list it, and then watch the bid fizzle out at <$2… This happens constantly in the ACEO market — genuinely incredible work profiting pennies because the auction momentum wasn’t there that day. On the buyer side, this is great! What a deal! But this weighs on the artist after time.

When we first started TinyGallery, sealed offers were our attempt a solution for this. The philosophy behind sealed offers is simple: it only takes one person to value your work. You don’t need a bidding war, you don’t need momentum, you just need ONE buyer to show up, and a format that doesn’t punish you when they’re the only one.

We weren’t sure if sealed offers would actually make a difference. It was one big experiement that resulted in lots of skeptical TikToks made about this bidding style, and understably so! We were skeptical, too 😂 But today we’re revealing the results:

……………………………………….

SEALED OFFERS
Avg Sale: $8.35 || Avg Days to sell: 6.3 days
Based on 291 sold

DIRECT LISTING PURCHASE
Avg Sale: $7 || Avg Days to sell: 9.6 days
Based on 419 sold

LIVE BID
Avg Sale: $5.83 || Avg Days to sell: 5.6 days
Based on 189 sold
……………………………………….

Sealed offers sell for more!! On average $2.52 higher per piece than live bids. They take slightly longer to sell than live bids — about a day more — but the price premium more than compensates. Just be patient! :)

Live bids are the fastest format if speed is your goal. Direct listings sit unsold the longest and land in the middle on price. If you’re just starting out and don’t know how to price your artwork, try both!!

TLDR: If you’re trying to maximize what you earn per piece, lean into sealed offers. If you want quick turnover, try live bids.

Subjects that Sell: Frogs, Flowers, and Little Creatures

Animals win. Frogs, birds, fish, cats, ducks. Cute single-subject animal pieces are the backbone of the market. Pair that with botanical work, mushrooms, moons, and tiny fantasy scenes and you’ve got the dominant cluster.

We also conducted a visual analysis on photos from the sold listings, and a few patterns stood out. The pieces that sell tend to have one clear subject, a strong readable silhouette, saturated or high-contrast color, and minimal background clutter.

When it comes to style buckets, Wildlife leads at 493 sold pieces, followed by Abstract (351), Fantasy (302), Botanical (214), Still Life (202), Portrait (181), Fan Art (159), and Landscape (147).

For mediums, Acrylic dominates (378 sold), then Watercolor (293), Alcohol Marker (135), Ink (89), Mixed Media (88), and Gouache (66).

Some title signals that show up over and over in sold listings: pokemon, japanese, bunny, frog, duck, kitty, mushroom, floral, dragon, stars.

That said, please don't take any of this as a reason to start painting subjects you don't love in mediums you don't enjoy! The patterns are real, but they're averages. What they can't measure is the difference between a piece made with genuine enthusiasm and one made because the data said frogs sell. That difference shows up in the work, and the collectors notice! ❤️

When people buy (and when to post!)

Purchases cluster into two windows:

⏰ Time of Day:
8 AM–11 AM PT in the morning, and 5 PM–8 PM PT in the evening.

📆 Days of the Week:
Best day overall is Monday. Worst day is Saturday.

The single busiest moment over the last month: Monday at 6 PM. Which tracks to me… it’s the end of the day on a Monday, people are still checked out from the weekend, so they do a little scrolling…. and suddenly a tiny frog appears. 🐸✨

One important caveat though: Sundays consistently have the most listings posted. So Monday performing well may (at least partially) be a result of that.

What we do feel confident about: If you’re a collector, Sunday + Monday are the best times to browse. That’s when the highest volume of new pieces are in circulation, and some pieces get snatched in seconds! The records for the fastest selling pieces are:

1. Yugi — Shea devaro — 0m 59s

2. Tooth Fairy — xandria browning — 1m 28s

3. starry blue — Parker Saliman — 1m 32s

4. Moth Study - Blue 01 — Kodama Market — 2m 11s

5. Bald — Shea devaro — 2m 30s

6. Pb — Shea devaro — 2m 43s

7. For Annie — Salmon Hat Studio — 2m 45s

8. “Mish bundle” — Jade Camacho — 3m 34s

9. 🎪 — Shea devaro — 4m 00s

10. Black Cat on Cat tree ACEO — Kapowdraws — 4m 40s

And if you like to do art drops, plan for Sunday morning or weekday evenings (Monday through Thursday, 5–8 PM PT) are your best windows. Avoid late nights + Saturdays.

TinyGallery Community Quality + Trust

As volume grows, these have stayed remarkably low across 1,240+ sold listings:

• Cancellation rate: 1.0%

• Refund rate: 0.6%

• Dispute rate: 0.1%

For a marketplace selling low-cost handmade goods at volume, that's incredibly good! Zero fraud cases. No bad actors. It tells us the community on this platform is self-selecting toward people who take it seriously, and that's not something we take for granted, and something we’re trying really hard to maintain!

TinyGallery Platform Growth

Here are some awesome stats on TinyGallery’s growth:

• 257 unique buyers (~2.8/day), almost entirely through word of mouth!!

We’ve run a couple of small Facebook ads, but the majority of this has come from artists and collectors sharing TinyGallery organically. Buyers are steadily trickling in, platform trust is compounding, and we’re starting to see a behavior shift — people are checking TinyGallery alongside eBay, especially when they want something that feels more personal and directly connected to the artist.

• 970 new seller follows (~19/day)

This is actually one of the strongest signals on the site. When artists are followed, it means people aren’t just browsing, they’re choosing specific artists to come back to. TinyGallery is starting to feel less like a marketplace and more like a place you return to support your favorite artists. A place you check daily to see what’s new. A place that nudges you to follow artists beyond the platform so you don’t miss their next drop. (Also… should we add a commissions feature?)

• 2,700+ new unique visitors (~56/day)

We started tracking this on Feb 16th (anonymized, GDPR-compliant), and since then, there’s been a steady flow of new people landing on TinyGallery every single day. The chart isn’t spiky, and it’s not driven by big ad pushes, leading to superficial data. It shows we have a consistent stream of new collectors finding their way in, which is exactly what we want at this stage!

Shipping: don't overthink it

The sweet spot is simple: somewhere between free and $1.99.

Listings in that range sell at or above the marketplace average. And despite what you might expect, there’s no real evidence that offering free shipping and eating that cost yourself actually moves the needle. Low paid shipping performs just as well.

Where it starts to hurt: $2.00–$2.99 shipping underperforms the marketplace baseline noticeably. At $5.00 or above, less than half a percent of sold listings land there, and nothing above $5.00 has sold at all.

So basically, free to $1.99 is the safe zone, $2–$3 is where friction starts, and $5+ is where listings stall.

That said, shipping is ultimately your call! If you’re sending a higher-value piece, tracking is worth considering. I’ve also heard people talking about Letter-Track and PirateShip for cheaper tracked shipping. Sellers are responsible for undelivered shipments, so the decision comes down to your own risk tolerance. The trust numbers we shared earlier in this issue are genuinely encouraging, but they’re community-wide averages, not a guarantee on any individual order. Use your judgment!

A few more things…

• Do you want TinyGallery to expand to your country? Vote in the poll before it’s closes! Every vote counts (especially for EU countries, which we may be able to roll out together) 🌎

• We’ll be selecting our Pro Artist Giveaways and sending out emails on April 30th! Reminder: you must respond within 48 hours to claim the prize. Here’s our feature on April’s Giveaway, Peerless Watercolor’s Dry Sheet Watercolors.

As always, feedback on the site is very welcome! Feature ideas, things that feel missing, anything you’ve been wishing the site did… I’m all ears.

Also curious: is there any data you want to see next? Drop a comment and let me know.

I’ve been playing around with Peerless Watercolors over the past couple weeks (Cassie sent me a few samples along with the Pro Artist giveaway kits 🥹), and I genuinely didn’t realize how portable watercolors could get!

If you haven’t heard of dry sheet watercolors before—same. I only found out about them this year. They’re basically highly pigmented sheets you activate with water. No pans, no tubes, no mess. Just color, waiting to be used!

And because my brain immediately goes into “what’s the smallest possible version of this?” mode (maybe this has something to do with running a site for tiny art…), I made the world’s tiniest palette inspired by Peerless’s own travel palette,:

• index card

• washi tape

• a few color swatches (cut from the larger dry sheets)

• a plastic ACEO sleeve

It lives in my purse now, along with one of those water-fill travel brushes, which means I can paint literally anywhere. And sometimes I forget it’s even there because it’s so small… and then I remember, and get excited all over again. I’ll pull it out at a café, or the park, or the airport, and just make a tiny painting on the spot.

There’s something about removing friction that actually makes me use materials. Not in a “I should practice more” way, but in a “I have 10 minutes and want to make something small and sweet” way.

And I love how no-frills this setup is. It’s just pigment on paper, taped to a notecard, tucked into plastic. It reminds me a bit of those altoid tin palettes you see everywhere, but even simpler. Slightly primitive, in the best way. Like… I can make something beautiful with almost nothing. No elaborate setup, no expensive materials. Just color and a little bit of time.

(Which feels very aligned with the whole TinyGallery ethos. 🙂)

Peerless also has a bunch of other really fun products, and I already know I’m about to go down a small rabbit hole building out my ideal tiny kit.

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2. Why these feel different than your typical watercolors

A few things I noticed immediately:

• The colors are shockingly vibrant (one tiny swipe goes a looooong way)

• They layer really cleanly, even on small surfaces like ACEOs

• They feel low pressure (no squeezing paint, no “wasting” materials)

Also—this is me holding myself accountable—I’ve been trying to actually watch tutorials instead of just collecting them like Pokémon cards.

A few I loved from Peerless’s YouTube channel:

• A pastel mixing tutorial using primary colors (very Easter-coded, very satisfying). Btw, this is Cassie, the co-owner of Peerless!

• A simple tulip painting (very on theme for spring!)

• A tiny travel watercolor booklet (!!)

If you’re also someone who hoards tutorials and never watches them… this is your gentle nudge (I’m talking to myself).

And here are some super simple instructions on how to use dry sheet watercolors on their site.

3. If you can’t wait for the Pro Artist giveaway…

I’d honestly just head to Peerless’s website and build yourself a custom palette!

They have a “build your own” set where you can pick 8 colors for $15—which is wild for the quality you’re getting! And they have over 80 colors to choose from on their site!

Also, supporting a small, long-standing art supply business just hits different. There’s a care there you can feel when you recieve your products. ❤️

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TinyGallery things you should not miss 👀

A few quick things:

💌 A tiny new feature I’m excited about 🎁

You can now send an ACEO as a gift on TinyGallery, with a custom note included!

I keep thinking about all the ways to use this:
- a birthday card, but it’s an original painting
- a holiday card that feels a little more special
- a little “thinking of you” for a friend across the country

It turns these tiny pieces into something you can share, not just collect. :)

If you’re a seller:
You can enable this in your settings! You also have the option to charge extra if you want to offer upgraded gift packaging (custom cards, extras, etc.)—just make sure to include photos/details so buyers know what to expect if you’re charging extra!

🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚 Easter egg hunt (live now!) 🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚

Okay this one I’m SUPERRR excited to tell you guys about this one!!

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want TinyGallery to feel… and I keep coming back to this idea of it being a tiny little world on the internet. One where things aren’t perfectly optimized or predictable all the time….there’s a bit of surprise, a bit of play.

So I hid little Easter eggs (filled w/ money) across the site. It’s an Easter egg hunt, but for adults! In the form of little secret promo codes tucked away in the site that give you $ off your purchases. Also disclaimer: the promo codes only work with card payments, not wallet!

You have to wander a bit. Click around. Follow your curiosity. (Which feels very aligned with how I think collecting art should feel anyway!!) There’s a super special egg hidden in there as well with a BIG prize inside…

It’s basically an adult Easter egg hunt. And yes, I will absolutely be doing more things like this. :)

Tap into your inner child for a minute and go explore! 🐣 Only one use per promo code. Promo codes are valid until the end of the day (April 5, 11:59pm PST)

🗓 TinyGallery Tuesday — April 14
For one day: 0% platform fees.
Every dollar goes directly to artists. (We love to see it.)
Refer to our last article for the full event details!

🌍 International seller voting is open!!!!
We’re deciding which country to open selling to next (!!)
You can vote here—one vote per person.
And if you have artist friends internationally… send them over. The more demand we see, the faster we can support it properly!

🥹 A small milestone

On April 3rd, we hit 1,000 listings sold on TinyGallery.

That number feels surreal to write!

Each week, I’m seeing more new collectors find their way to the site, and more orders being placed every day. It’s still small, still growing, but it really feels like something is starting to take shape.

Thank you for being a part of it!

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Actually, one more thing…

If you’ve tried dry sheet watercolors before, I’m so curious… how do you like them? What does your setup look like? What have you painted with them?

And as always, thoughts, feedback, ideas about the site? You can comment below or email me at tinygallery.io@gmail.com. I genuinely love hearing from you, and I’m always looking for ways to make the TinyGallery community feel even better.

Next week, I’m planning to share a little behind-the-scenes: what I’m seeing on the site, trends in what’s selling, peak purchasing days, all of that. TinyGallery has been live for almost 3 months now! If you’re a numbers person (or just curious), you might like that one.

I’ve been thinking a lot about fees lately. (Always on the mind if you make tiny art.)

Specifically: what it means to sell a $1–$20 original artwork on the internet in 2026.

Because when you actually break it down — materials, shipping, platform fees — the margins get thin fast. To be fair, platforms need to make money. That’s how any of this works.

But most of them weren’t built for tiny, low-priced original work like this.

So you end up in this situation where an artist sells something for $0.99–$4 (which is a very normal ACEO price) and by the end of it, they’re barely making anything.

Sometimes it honestly feels like they’re covering part of the cost just to get the piece into someone’s hands. Like… they’re paying the buyer to take their artwork.

Huh??

So we’re trying something new this month…

🤍 TinyGallery Tuesday

For one day, TinyGallery takes nothing. Every dollar goes directly to artists.

We’re calling them TinyGallery Tuesdays — and the first one is happening:

April 14th

Mid-week felt right. Also, “TinyGallery Tuesday” just sounded good lol. Something to spice up your week.

Not a sale, not a promo — just a day where the typical structure shifts a little. So mark your calendars!!

✶ The Rules (simple, but important)

On TinyGallery Tuesdays, all sellers receive 0% platform fees on eligible sales for the day.

Here’s how it works:

• Valid from 12:00 AM PT to 11:59 PM PT on the announced date

• Applies to all orders completed during this window (artists - make sure you time your bids + sealed offers appropriately in the days leading up to it)

• Payment must be successfully completed during the window

Includes:

• Listing + bundle purchases

• Sealed offers accepted and paid during the window

• Live offers accepted and paid during the window

An important note:

• Offers made before the window are only eligible if they’re accepted and paid during the event window

A few housekeeping notes:

• Times are based on Pacific Time (PT)

✶ Want to make the most of it?

I’ll be honest — these only work if people show up! So if you’re planning to list something, or you already have pieces up: tell people about it!

Post your work! Share your listings! Send it to a friend who collects tiny art (or who doesn’t yet, but would totally love it).

I’ve seen this firsthand: the more people discover TinyGallery, the more they come back. It compounds in an impactful way. In fact, we’re already seeing more repeat collectors week over week! I kind of want to do a proper deep dive on this soon — I’m sure there are some interesting patterns in the data.

(Also, selfishly, I want this day to be exciting!!!)

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🌈 April Pro Giveaway: Peerless Watercolors

Quick reminder (and a little nudge if you’ve been on the fence about Pro):

Our April giveaway is with Peerless Watercolors — those incredibly vibrant dry-sheet paints you might have seen around… or maybe not yet. They’re a hidden gem for sure.

We’re giving away:

15 sample kits (each with 6 different colors)

Eligibility:

• Open to TinyGallery Pro subscribers with an active subscription through April 30th, 2026

• Must have an active Pro subscription by April 1st at 11:59 PM PT

• One entry per person

Winners:

• Selected at random

• Notified via email on April 30th

• Must respond within 48 hours to claim

A few quick notes:

• Items may vary slightly

• You’ll need a valid email on your account

• Accounts must be in good standing

• Once shipped, delivery is out of our hands (standard small-team logistics reality)

We’re doing a full feature on them next week — their story, their process, the paints themselves. I’m really excited to share more!

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🌍 International Sellers (how we’re thinking about it)

This is probably the most requested feature right now.

And the answer is: yes — but slowly.

We’re planning a country-by-country rollout rather than opening everything at once.

Not because we don’t want to open it globally (I do, very much!!). But because each country comes with its own layer of:

• tax compliance

• payment handling

• ongoing maintenance

And TinyGallery is… still just me. A one-woman band.

So instead, we’re going to do this in a way that actually holds up:

• We’ll run a poll to gauge demand by country. We’ll announce it in a newsletter and host it on the TinyGallery site.

• Prioritize countries with the most interest

• Roll them out one at a time, properly

Which also means:

If you’re outside the U.S. and want to sell here — tell your friends!!! The more artists we see from a country, the easier it is to justify doing the work to support it well. And subscribe if you want to be notified when the poll goes out!

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So, quick recap:

• April 14th — TinyGallery Tuesday (0% fees)

• Peerless Watercolors samples coming soon

• International seller poll on the way

And let me know — what do you want to see more of on TinyGallery?

Features, ideas, things that feel missing… I’m all ears. Drop a comment below.

This is the very first TinyGallery note. Which feels a bit like opening the door to a studio that’s been quietly humming for months. Brushes in jars. Paint on sleeves. A few hundred tiny paintings stacked in little piles.

I’ve been wanting a place to share what’s happening around TinyGallery beyond the marketplace itself — the artists we love, the materials they’re using, and the small ideas we’re experimenting with to make the space better for artists and collectors.

So this is that. Casual notes. Community updates. The occasional art supply obsession.

Think of it like a tiny studio newsletter.

(And if this landed in your inbox by mistake, you can unsubscribe anytime with the link at the bottom!)

Let’s get into it.

🎨 Brand Partnerships (and Sample Giveaways!!!)

Usually I like to save the best for last, but I’m too excited about this announcement!!

One thing I kept noticing while spending time around ACEO artists: people care deeply about their materials.

When you’re painting on a 2.5 × 3.5 inch surface, every pigment, brush, and scrap of paper matters. A lot. There’s nowhere to hide on something that small.

So we’re starting something I’m really excited about — monthly brand partnerships with independent art supply companies we genuinely love.

Each month we’ll partner with a brand and send some sample kits to TinyGallery Pro sellers so artists can discover new materials and art brands to support. Who doens’t love free art materials?! And these aren’t cheap freebies — they’re art supplies made by independent art businesses with a high bar for quality.

Think of it as a little materials discovery club.

(Also: supporting thoughtful small businesses alongside small artists just feels right.)

🌈 April Giveaway: Peerless Watercolors

We’re SO excited to introduct our very first partner: Peerless Watercolors — and honestly, I could not think of a more perfect brand to start with.

If you’ve spent any time around watercolor artists online, chances are you’ve seen those tiny little sheets of intensely pigmented paint tucked into travel palettes. That’s them.

Peerless has one of those stories that makes you pause for a second.

The paints were originally developed in 1885 by a chemist named Chaz Nicholson (yes — 1885). The original purpose? Coloring black-and-white photographs back when photography was still finding its footing. How cool is that!

Turns out watercolor artists quickly realized the paints were something special. Bright, portable, and incredibly concentrated. And just like that, a photography tool quietly became a beloved watercolor medium.

Today the company is run by Cassie and Dalton, who took over the family business in 2019 — making them the fifth stewards of Peerless paints. Still small. Still handmade. Still run by a tight-knit team who genuinely care about getting vibrant, portable colors into the hands of artists.

For April, they’ve generously partnered with us to give away:

15 Peerless watercolor sample kits to TinyGallery Pro artists.

If you’re someone who likes sketching on the go, painting outdoors, or just keeping a tiny palette nearby for spontaneous art moments… you’re probably going to love these.

Winners will be selected randomly from Pro sellers and announced next month.

We’ll be show some sneak peeks of their products soon on social media, so keep your eyes peeled… 👀

💡 Free Idea (for artists):
If you win a kit, try making a “tiny color study series” — one ACEO per color. A grid of mini paintings built from just a single pigment. Simple concept, very collectible.

Collectors love seeing process experiments like that.

✨ TinyGallery Days (0% Fees)

Another experiment we’re starting soon: TinyGallery Days.

For one day only, all seller fees drop to 0% — for both free and Pro sellers.

No platform cut. Artists keep everything.

We’ll announce these about a week in advance so sellers can plan listings (and let any ongoing bids wrap up beforehand).

My hope is these days feel a little like a miniature art festival. New pieces appearing everywhere. Collectors wandering around discovering artists they haven’t seen before.

Also… let’s be honest… it’s fun to occasionally break your own fee model.

🎟️ Free Credit Drops for New Collectors

TinyGallery has been growing mostly through artists inviting other artists. Which I love — but it also means we want to bring more collectors into the ecosystem.

So occasionally we’ll run Free Credit Days.

Example:

$5 TinyGallery credits for the first 50 new collectors who sign up.

Just enough to place a first bid or pick up a tiny piece.

Sometimes all someone needs to become a miniature art collector is that first painting arriving in the mail.

(Ask anyone who owns an ACEO. They multiply. Quickly!!)

🌍 Opening to International Sellers

One of the most common emails I get is some variation of:

“I’m in Germany / UK / Canada / Ireland / Greece — can I sell here yet?”

Short answer: very soon.

We’re working through the logistics of payments, shipping expectations, and making sure the platform works smoothly across borders.

But the goal is simple: TinyGallery should reflect the global miniature art community, not just one country.

If you’re an international artist who’s been waiting — stay tuned.

🏆 Weekly Tiny Challenges

We’re also introducing something small but fun: The Tiny Challenge. (Thanks Ninthhouseoracle for the idea!)

Each week we’ll share a prompt — and artists can create a miniature artwork inspired by it.

At the end of the week we’ll select a few favorites to feature across:

• the TinyGallery newsletter

• the blog

• and our social channels

Not a competition so much as a creative nudge.

It’s a weekly excuse to make something tiny. :)

A Small Thank You

If you’re reading this, you’re probably part of the early TinyGallery community.

Which means you’ve helped shape this cute little corner of the art internet already — whether you realized it or not.

Artists listing their first ACEOs. Collectors discovering artists they’ve never seen before. People building tiny bodies of work.

It’s been really special to watch.

And honestly… I’m excited for what happens next.

One question before I go:

What kinds of things would you actually enjoy seeing in these notes?

Reply in the comments or send me an email — I read everything!!

More soon. 🎨