Pricing

Pricing is always a tough question for me.

The most common policy I hear about pricing is something like, "double the price of your beads, charge $10 -$20 per hour for labour, and add in over head". That always bugs me. It means you'd pay at least 4 or

5 times as much for an item made by someone who doesn't know how to shop, and who is new, slow and makes errors. Or you'd pay me more for labour because I have poor dexterity.

So because I have poor dexterity and so am slower I have a different approach. My minimum price has to be what I could replace the item for. It doesn't matter if I charge 2 or 3 times the price I paid, if I can't replace the parts for ten times that if something happens and I need to replace the item. And by shopping wisely I should be able to get most of the parts for a third of what it would cost to buy these things at the LBS. Next I try to sell higher end things because it takes the same amount of time to make $10 profit on $5 in beads, as to make $40 in profits on $20 in beads. Except for the lampwork. I figure that I usually get at about half of what I'd have to pay the artist to replace a set.

And of course, my minimum is going to be doubled by the store owner. This means a necklace with $25 in lampwork and $15 in silver would sell for $180, with $90 going to the retailer and $40 going to me. If I do the work to sell it retail (at a craft market or eBay, for example), I need to put that same retail price on the piece, though I can apply a discount. That's important, because you must not compete with whoever you sell your jewelry to wholesale.

I don't know how this is going to work out. At this point though, I'm also just wanting to liquidate. Because I need to buy more SILVER!!

Tina