holiday craft fair question

One thing you might want to think about is not undercutting knitters who are actually trying to make a living selling their work; do your prices reimburse your costs and your labor at a reasonable rate?

Well, I guess my costs. I don't count my labor. As for cutting others' prices, well, I have no idea what they charge, and quality and style count for a lot, too. I can only judge my own work and make these decisions accordingly. Next time, I will try to extricate myself from my table long enough to see what others are charging! Thanks for the input. :)

We can go to Wal Mart or Michaels and buy hand crocheted doilies for a dollar or so; they were made in China (or somewhere) with sub-optimum thread, but the work is nice. We KNOW that the people who made these (and as far as I know, there is no machine that can crochet!) were paid less than a nickle a piece. Now I crochet fairly fast, but I couldn't make one of those things in less than two or three solid hours.

But can we, who have spent hours and years learning our craft and using good thread, sell our wares for what anybody else doing handcrafts can? No. We can't...because people can go to Wal Mart and buy a doily for a dollar.

............well, 'people' can. I'd rather eat worms.

Pricing is one of the biggest problems handcrafters have; here's a quote from "powerhomebiz.com' about pricing specifically aimed at people like you and me; the handicrafter (or "fiberartist.." Fiberartists can charge more!)

your products right. How to price the products is often a challenge for craft business owners. You do not want to price yourself too low that inadequately covers your costs; but you also do not want to overprice yourself out of the market. The key is to price for profit. There are several ways to determine the right price for your products. First, add up all your costs, including raw materials, labor, overhead (rent, heating), licenses, marketing expenses, profit, and others. To compute your labor costs, decide how much you (or your employee) will be paid per hour to produce products, then multiply this hourly rate by the number of hours a week that will be spent producing crafts. Add your labor cost to the cost of materials per piece, and then divide by the number of products produced in a given time period to get the price per piece.

Second, you can approach other retailers and artisans offering similar products. Research the marketplace and compare prices in stores, galleries, and on the Web. If your price is more than similar products, you may need to reduce it by cutting hourly price, finding less expensive supplies or by increasing your production time. If your price is significantly less than similar products, you may want to consider raising your price.

WOW! Thank you for all that VERY useful advice! :D Wendy

I suggest you check out what other people are charging for the same sort of items, and charge the same or nearly the same. If you undercut fellow sellers that's really not fair to them since they may be doing it for their actual income and not as a what-the-heck sort of thing. And if you wind up making more per item than you feel is reasonable, give the money to charity!

myswendy spun a FINE 'yarn':

myswendy. . .

The handcrafter's rule of thumb, is: cost of materials. Multiply by three. Add ten percent Total Voila. ............. And for me personally, that's if I'm in a generous mood. If I buyer ticks me off, I'll double ^that^! :D

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---> avast! AV: Outbound message clean.> Virus Database (VPS): 071202-0, 12/02/2007> Tested: 12/3/2007 11:08:38 PM> avast! - (c) 1988-2006 HAHAHHAAAAAAAA! Ok, can do. Thanks everyone! Wendy

It's a very sensitive question for those who sell their work to make extra or all their income.

I've heard that tripling your yarn costs is considered fair, regardless of how much labor it takes to produce something. There are also variations on that as well. However, buying a skein of cheap acrylic and taking a few hours to produce something at only triple the cost of the yarn is pretty much underselling your labor. I think $10 for a scarf is too low an amount. I charged that for a plain cheap acrylic scarf 20 years ago, because that's what was fair then. For a scarf I can crank out on the knitting machine and finish in an hour now, with a more expensive yarn ($9 skein here), $20 is still underselling labor, (not just knitting time, but finishing) but not nearly as much as if I only sold it for $10.

So there are more factors you have to figure in. How much do you think your labor is worth? If your fancier things are being made for charity, fine, but drastically undercutting others work I think will hurt your blue collar community in the long run. If you want to make things for another craft sale and still keep your prices down, consider making things that are equal to those you saw others selling and sell them at equal prices.

Leah

Hmmmm....It seems to me that the quality and type of goods ranges widely. I am not trying to purposely undercut anyone. And the creative patterns and styles I choose to make are because, well, it's fun! I am not trying to churn out goods for sale and high profit. I don't believe the folks at these local sales are relying on their crafts as their main source of income, any more than I am. Thanks for your input; I honestly do appreciate it. I'll reread everything and work it out.

Wendy :)