Art Fair SourceBook Ratings and Rankings
AFSB Ratings are determined based upon the Net Average Sales using Gross Sales reported by artists at recently completed events.
Artist Reports are submitted via mail on AFSB Feedback Cards distributed to artists at AFSB participating events and by online Artist Event Reports submitted online on the AFSB website. As a subscriber to the SourceBook you can see all the Artist Reports, both online and mailed in (starting in 2015), for any event in your subscription by going to the Detail Event Page and clicking on the VIEW/ADD REVIEWS in the top right corner.
The Net Average Sales for an Event are computed by taking the Gross Average Sales reported by artists and subtracting the application fee, space fee, and $200/day per diem expense for each day of the show. This helps to level the playing field between shorter duration and longer duration shows.
There is an overall Rating for an event which is used in our Search Listings Parameters. Ratings codes are assigned as follows:
| Net Avg Sales | Rating Code |
| >$9,000 | 10 |
| $6,000 - $9,000 | 9 |
| $3,000 - $5,999 | 8 |
| $2,000 - $2,999 | 7 |
| $1,500 - $1,999 | 6 |
| $1,000 - $1,499 | 5 |
| $500 - $999 | 4 |
| $250 - 499 | 3 |
| $1 - $249 | 2 |
| Less than $1 | 1 |
| No NET calculated | 0 |
We also break down the ratings into three categories; FA=Fine Art (2-D art works + sculpture), FC=Fine Craft (3-D contemporary crafts), and TC=Traditional Crafts (country and traditional, loving-hands type crafts). These categorical ratings can be seen in the Historical Data section of the Event Detail Page.
AFSB Rankings are also determined by the Net Average Sales. Events are ranked in both Fine Art and Fine Craft categories. We simply sort the shows from best to worst for net average sales in each category. So, the #1 show in Fine Art is the event with the highest net average sales of fine art in a given year. The #200 show in Fine art would be the lowest performing event for sales of fine art out of the 200 we currently received sales data for, and rate and rank. Same is true for the Fine Craft category.
How to best utilize rating and ranking numbers when Searching and Sorting Events.
First, you need to know where you fit into the two categories (fine art vs fine craft - see above definition). Then sort the list of events in the geographic areas you are exhibiting within by the ranking column that applies to your work, FA(fine art) or FC (fine craft), and simply work your way down the list starting with the top ranked shows for sales in your category. This means you will be targeting the top-selling shows in your field. If you've decided to consider an event because of it's ranking, you should also carefully read the editor's commentary to look for clues as to whether your style and price-range of work has historically sold well at a particular event.
Keep in mind that there are shows for which sales of one category of work (fine art or fine craft) are very strong, but sales of the other category are not. You can tell by the separate ratings and ranking.