Fairs and markets

[Rightarm]

    I have been kicking around the idea of selling, at the Covered Bridge Fest. here in Indiana, in October. People come from all around to look at covered bridges. I guess I take them for granite. My problem is, how do you put a price on something you have made? You don't want it to be over priced, where it won't sell. And then again, you want to get what you think it's worth. This is a county wide event. But a little town right to the north of me is where the real craft making folks are at. The rest are mostly trinkets. Dave

[Spartan scroller]

Oh Boy, now you've done it Righty.  There are as many different ideas about pricing as there are college bowl games at the end of the football season.  You just gaurenteed this thread will now go on forever! But seriously folks, what do you feel your per hour labor rate should be and then add to that materials  and "Bob's your Uncle" there ya go.  The hard thing for me is pricing a piece that took me a while to do but really wasn't that hard versus a complicated piece of fretwork that took about the same amount of time.  I think the fretwork should be worth more so the per hour rate thing goes right out the window.  I've heard of some pretty famous scrollers who figure about 33 cents a minute.  That's close to $20 an hour.  Of course the venue makes a lot of difference too.  Is this event a flee market type affair or a fancy art fair type of thing.  Probably somewhere in between. And presentation makes a big difference.  If you were doing fancy portraits of a covered bridge, stack cutting them and selling them unframed you might charge say $25.  If you put a real nice frame and mat around it, may be somewhere on the order of $75 to $135 bucks.  Will the clientele at this wingding have that kind of dough? There are lots more theories on this so get ready for information overload.

[daneklund]

I think there is a whole can of worms opened up here.  As far as fretwork goes, someone once told me or it was in another forum somewhere that they initially estimate their price to be $0.50/hole drilled.  that kind of falls apart on really simple pieces.  I cut out a loon once with many, many,(did I say many) holes in it for the back feathers and the piece should have been priced higher than what that rate figured out to because the cutting took so much time.

[jimbo]

Pricing depends on really how good you are at your hobby, a newbie as I am will take a lot longer to cut something than someone with many years experiance, I have been doing woodcraft for 8 years mainly woodturning, when I first started it took me about 3 days to turn a small bowl that I wanted to sell for $20 no profit there, now it takes a bout 40 mins and I do a better job, I try and make a small profit but most of it goes back to my hobby that is how I was able to afford my saw $1300NZ, an expensive piece of equipment, I am hoping it will pay for it self by the end of my selling season when it starts, most pros sel in galleries and retail check thier prices and 1/2 their price and you have wholesale this what I work on plus 10% for my stall fee
Jimbo

[jowshu98]

Well I started to reply to this thread last night up until I dropped my laptop and broke the screen!! Anyway I've followed some great advise from another scroller (jediscroller) on another forum in order to generate my pricing. So far it's worked out fairly well and I know I'm covering everything that needs to be as well as my profit. The basic formula I follow that jediscroller laid out is as follows: time+materials + 30% (for wholesale price) + additional 35% (for retail price). Time is counted in minutes and is based on whatever you establish for an hourly rate (please don't sell yourself short). To factor my time I track all time including, prep, cutting, and finish. Also be sure to accurately figure all materials including packaging materials / bags etc.

Pricing is never easy and there are always times when you run the numbers and say "I'll never get that" or "That's not enough" and at these times you just have to follow your gut and do what you think is best and comfortable with. The formula doesn't lie though so I tend to use the price first and let the market decide, just as any business would. It all comes down to knowing the numbers.

Don

[jimbo]

The quality of your product counts a lot as well when pricing, as far wholsale is taken from cost price which is cost of marerial, labour, tax's, gst. machinery, power, facilities and you have to work out that cost thenput your mark on, if you have to pay for a site to sell your goods that would have to be worked out on a % I work on 10% so if it costs $80 for my site I will have to take $800 anything over that is extra profit, after you have done a few shows you can tell aprox. how much you will take
Jimbo