Craft Show Prices/Help Please

[Mark Stewart]

Hi there folks. I am having a delima, and need some help and what better place to find help than here anoung fellow sawdust makers. I have my first craft show comming up soon and I have made these orniments www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/Christmas_Orniments.JPG Please remember they are just off of the saw I will sand and paint all 100 of them tomorrow. But I am not sure what to sell them for??? I am fine with pricing my scrolled pictures but I am not sure what to do with these. Any hepl or advise will be appreicated. :nah:
Thanks Mark
p.s. I have added some turnings to my gallery as well.

 

[DaveO]

Material + time + profit (overhead included). I am not going to specify an amount because if I did those it would take me at least 3 hours and a whole sheet of plywood to get it done = $200

Dave

 

[JimmyC]

Material + time to construct + profit (overhead included) + cost of selling (booth cost + wage for salesperson, even if it is yourself)
Dave

Just adding a few more costs.

 

[ScottM]

I would rather cut and finish then price. I hear $10 to $20 an hour plus materials thrown out alot when talking craft shows. That figure is for hobby folks and not professionals. To make matters worse you need to look at the clients. A craft show where people pay admission to look around usually bring in folks looking to buy where a craft show and farmers market tends to bring the bargin hunters. How much time do you figure you have in one ornament?

 

[sawduster]

Not sure what your market is like , but I am very rural here and usually do only local shows . I leave my ornaments natural and display them like this :

I charge $5 each or 3 for $12 . Sometimes I sell them all , sometimes hardly none ....people are finicky :BangHead:
Packaging them in plastic with a " handmade by ... " card would command a bit more money but is more trouble than I want to go through :mrgreen:

Hope this helps

 

[ScottM]

To Robert's point, multiple piece pricing is great. People love a deal and when they think they are getting a deal they tend to buy more. I have found that 3 for $10 or 5 for $20 works better for me then an odd dollar amount.

 

[Mark Stewart]

Thanks folks for all of your input I will consider all Thanks again Mark

 

[Mark Stewart]

Thanks for sharing your orniments very nice work. Mark

 

[WoodWrangler]

I bought some similar about three years ago on 1/4 ply and painted white/red/green for $4/ea. I think the lady offered a bulk quantity special, but I don't remember what it was.

 

[cskipper]

Mark, i hope you stack-cut your ornaments - makes the prices you might be able to sell them for a bit more reasonable (not suggesting you lower your prices, just increases the cost/profit ratio). Unless you love to paint ornaments and/or are really artistic, I wouldn't put a whole lot of time into that part of making ornaments for a craft show. People want bargains and in that setting seem to be less interested in paying more for really artistic ornaments. it seems like the natural wood sell as well there. In a different venue the other would make more sense.
If you are really artistic, or just write/print really well, take something to write names/dates on the ornaments at the time of purchase. Seems like there's nothing better than "having one with my sister/aunt/mother's name already on the gift. Realize that you might need someone else helping with sales, and never personalize until you have the money in hand.

 

[christopheralan]

You need to know everything you can about the show. Do you have to pay to get in, what type of setting (dirt parking lot vs. beach vs. inside the local mall). What end of town?

With this info, you can better judge. So many people get a high from talking you down, and trying to make a deal, just for the thrill of doing it. If that is the type of show, I would avoid the show all together.

But for a nicer show, where that hopefully won't happen, I would go for $5 each. Have pics of you doing the craft, or even better, demo (aka keep-working on the things) infront of them. They will see that they are truly hand-made. Sell the un-finished ones for $3, and if possible, have a "paint your own" area set aside. That, I think, will draw a crowd, with kids and adults, with hopefully alot of, "Mommy, I want to make my own, too!!"

Also have pre-cut lace of different colors people can pick to hang their new craft.

Lemme know if this helps.

 

[cskipper]

Good suggestions.