Do people question selling prices ?

[Premiershipman]

This has been touched on occasionally in other threads but as my wife and I are planning on doing a craft fair in about a months time, I will be looking to sell some welded items at the stall along with our other craft items.

Do people who sell their artist's wares find that many people question their prices ?

It's really awkward to price some items when taking into account the time to create and cost of materials etc.

I know my wife thought her craft items wouldn't sell unless they were cheap, but I argued that if they were sold too cheap then you would end up stupidly busy for no money.

Thankfully she listened, and she still gets orders for items and makes a bit of money out of them, but not loads.

Is it me, or is art the hardest thing to value, is it a case that if you make it too cheap then you undervalue yourself and your skill ???

Any thoughts ?

Shady

 

[oddbob]

I used to regularly do craft fairs in the 80's, mostly as a promotional thing for the furniture making that I did at the time (had a portfolio and several miniature 'apprentice piece' examples on show for people to peruse) ...but I also made some bits and pieces (jewellery boxes/chests etc) to sell and draw people's interest.

Pricing can be an issue, most people go to craft fairs to wander and look, rather than part with their cash, but a trick I soon learnt was to have two levels of items on sale. Have elaborate, dare i say, stunning pieces of work at realistic (by that I mean not cheap!) prices for people to drool over ...then have a range of far more affordable, simpler pieces, clearly done in the same style. Those that love your 'proper' work will frequently walk off with the less expensive bits and bobs to sort of 'buy in' to what you do.

 

[andy m]

We went to Malvern spring garden show last year. Many of the stalls were as oddjob mentioned. There were stunning pieces there not to everyones taste but good work all the same. Many of the sellers had what I would call bread and butter items, some they had bought in to sell on maybe just to cover their overheads. Those items draw people in, some of which may spend more. Also I would say we are in a deep recession, people are still spending money but they are trying to spend wisely.

 

[pondman]

I used to attend quite a few craft fairs and have to say they are hard work, its very difficult knowing what to sell your items at but you have to price them right so that you don't lose. you can't really charge 25 £/hr for things unless you're in a really nice area and even then then that would be difficult. Like the other two comments said you need a range of items that people can see, that shows what you are capable of making in case you get an order for something but you need the economic stuff between £5-£15 If you can make even smaller cool looking things people will snatch them up, the people who ran the stalls I did always said that if I could make things at between £1-£5 they would disappear. I'm not really interested in doing that so I didn't. You've also got to be careful because if what you are selling is art you could be damaging your reputation in the long run by selling at an craft fair. Thats the advice I was given anyway. Try be clever, judge your audience according to what area you're in and see if you can attract people with banter. I never had one person try barter with me, I wish I had because people love to say how amazing your work is but then just leave, its a bit soul destroying. Its an art and takes practice and patience. I hope this helped, good luck!

 

[pondman]

This is on of my tables, try to make it stand out so that people want to have a look

 

[Premiershipman]

Cheers everone, It is awkward, the missus has her items at varying prices for the small stuff. I had thought about doing spark plug keyrings for about £3-4 as a small item and maybe other keyrings as well. Then do bigger items like metal insects and others.

We'll have to see, as you mentioned it can be a bit soul destroying to not sell anyhting ut i am thinking more of a long game by having plenty of flyers, posters and business cards to generate interest for the facebook page and then the website when done.

 

[pondman]

As a marketing tool they're great, its even good to bring out the out going sales man in you. For the most part I enjoyed it until I got too busy to lose a day. Good luck!!

 

[Premiershipman]

In some respects the craft market will be a good way to promote the company, i am planning on printing plenty of flyers and getting business cards printed to hand out like confetti !

We will include them with any sales and also include some little sweets with each purchase as a little quirkly thing to remember us by !