One of the things I have never been good at is pricing my items. However, I noticed something this past weekend during Art in the Park. People will pay what I think is an outrageous price for one titem, but won't pay what I think is a reasonable price for another item.
I'll give you an example.
I had several crocheted cotton washcloths for sale. I priced them at $5 each. That is, $5 for one washcloth. I sold two of them. Now mind you, I can make 2 2/3 of these washcloths from a single ball of cotton yarn that cost me about $1.89 after tax. That's a pretty hefty profit for 2 washcloths if you ask me. I'm just saying. :P But yet people didn't even flinch at seeing that the washcloths were $5 each.
Now we have one of my favorite bracelets that I've made. (Go on, click it, you know you want to. I'll wait.) Now that bracelet right there is $20. The materials alone make up half of the price of that bracelet. Yet when people asked me how much that bracelet was, they were shocked to hear that I wanted $20 for it. They would quickly put it down and leave our booth. Yet when I talked to another jewelry artist who was selling at the next booth over from ours, she said that she had bracelets she'd made with beads she bought for $3 at Walmart, that she had maybe $5 worth of materials total in these bracelets, that she had priced at $35 or more, and the same people who refused to buy my $20 bracelet were more than willing to go to her booth and pay what she asked for a bracelet that she said herself, was worth less than the one I had made. She was in shock as well.
Now I will say that maybe, just maybe, $10 for my time to make that bracelet isn't quite fair. After all, I don't think the bracelet took me more than 10 minutes to string together. But when I attempted to price it less than $20, I was told that I wasn't charging nearly enough. And another bracelet that I had made (this one which I sold to a friend of mine) had beads from the same company, same store, but were $2 less in price, and my friend refused to pay less than $20 for that bracelet. I know, because I tried to knock it down to $15 since she is my friend, and she refused.
But yet people weren't willing to pay $20 for the playing cards bracelet. How can it be that people will pay $5 for a single crocheted washcloth with less than $2 worth of yarn in it, but won't play $20 for a bracelet with $10 worth of beads in it? I just don't get it.
I can never guess what will sell at shows. And what sells at one might not sell at the next one...it's funny like that.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I can think of is that a wash cloth is a need and a bracelet is a want???
Hmmm. This woman in the other booth, was her jewelry a similar style to yours? If it was pretty different, then personal taste may have been more of the issue.
ReplyDeleteI have pondered this thought to the point of it making me twitch in a corner..lol. I think it almost impossible to make sense of the purchasing habits of people. I have a formula that I use for pricing my items,...and I try to stick with that. Otherwise I would be pricing my things different for every venue I attended depending on the type of clientele. I used to sell perennials from my front yard a few years ago. I found it so interesting that people who would pull up in a luxury vehicle would dicker about prices and hated to pay out more than a couple of dollars for a high dollar item. But then those who would pull up in a old beater of a car would not hesitate to purchase $100.00 worth of flowers at a time. I also agree with the other comments as well that perhaps it boils down to the difference of a want or need,..and style preference.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking that it may have been the want vs. need thing myself. Although the gal in the booth next to ours had very similar jewelry to what we were selling.
ReplyDeleteI will say that the playing card bracelet lady seemed upset that I didn't have spades or clubs - she wanted those. I *could* get them if I shopped on Etsy, and I've considered it, but I haven't been able to get them elsewhere. LOL