Jewellery pricing advice please!

[ASC1951]

My limited experience of arts/crafts markets (i.e. Camden Lock about 20 years ago) tells me that a lot depends on who is on the other side of the stall. It wasn't a babe-v-munter issue, more that people who were enthusiastic and had made the items themselves generally got a better price than people who had obviously just bought their stock in.

Many of them didn't display prices, either. That stopped the customers pawing over everything and gave the stallholder the chance to assess the customer and do a bit of haggling.

 

[Night Train]

My limited experience of arts/crafts markets (i.e. Camden Lock about 20 years ago) tells me that a lot depends on who is on the other side of the stall. It wasn't a babe-v-munter issue, more that people who were enthusiastic and had made the items themselves generally got a better price than people who had obviously just bought their stock in.

Many of them didn't display prices, either. That stopped the customers pawing over everything and gave the stallholder the chance to assess the customer and do a bit of haggling.

The interaction would also give the chance to assess what customers liked and disliked so that future items can be more focused on what people are looking for.

 

[ASC1951]

Yes, that's what I found. Stall holders who just laid their stuff out as if they were in a shop, and behaved like a shop assistant, didn't do very well. People go to craft fairs because they want that interaction.

 

[Arch]

Yes, that's what I found. Stall holders who just laid their stuff out as if they were in a shop, and behaved like a shop assistant, didn't do very well. People go to craft fairs because they want that interaction.

Absolutely. Fortunately, I do have a little bit of experience of the stall holding side, as I have a friend who sells Shetland yarn and knitted items, and I've helped her out a few times. It's hard work doing it properly, but interacting and enthusing (up to a point, not too intrusive) pays off. I usually find I've lost my voice by the end of a day, just from saying "hello" and then talking further with people who show an interest.

Wow, thanks everyone for your input and compliments! I've been asking around a few places and I think suggestions are averaging a little under ttcycles' suggestions. As this is a bit of an experiment for the charity, and we've been given the stall, we can afford to go a little low, to gauge the market, and if it takes off, I'll do some more research browsing at craft fairs and online. It's all been a bit of a rush. I'd like to have more stock to hand, but I'm fitting making it all in around my proper job there!

The big cost is time. All the main 'ingredients' are things we've got for nothing here and there in the course of recycling, and the fixings are very cheap when bought online in bulk . But the time taken to make something ranges from 10 minutes for a pair of cable earrings, if I'm nimble with the pliers to an hour or more perhaps for the wooden ones, depending how much sanding is needed. The belts (I'll post pics of those later, promise) vary a great deal, because I'm working and improvising with hand tools, and depending on the depth of tread and strength of casing it can be hard work punching holes and getting the rivets through - some work like a dream, some are right pigs! If I was doing it 'professionally', I'd look to investing in heavy duty punches and rivet drivers, but that's a big investment. (And it's one I would like to make one day, to do this sort of stuff for a living, or partial living at least).

Someone elsewhere made the point that some people will look at stuff and think "Well, I could make that at home..." and the odd thing is that with our environmental hats on, we encourage that - the reuse of materials instead of landfilling them. But I guess that a great deal of jewellery could be made by people at home, if they could be bothered - anything that involves threading beads on things for example, and these days it's dead easy to buy the fixings and materials. Some poeple want to have a go, but hopefully, a lot just want someone to do it for them!

 

[oldfatfool]

Anything from the cable £2- £3

Wood earings £3 - £4

Belts £8

 

[rich p]

It depends on how much the metal clasps and attachments cost dunnit?

 

[Arch]

It depends on how much the metal clasps and attachments cost dunnit?

Belt buckles, about 50p each. Clasps, ear hooks etc, fractions of a penny each....

 

[coffeejo]

Best of luck with it.

 

[rich p]

Belt buckles, about 50p each. Clasps, ear hooks etc, fractions of a penny each....

Blimey, cheap as chips!

£5 to £15 then IMHO

 

[ttcycle]

Good luck- I hope it takes off! Always fun making things! Seems like the cost of fittings up there is massively cheaper than down here - you can spend a fortune on things like that.

 

[Red Light]

If your main cost is time think of it along those lines. So if the wooden earrings take an hour, even at minimum wage that's £6 before materials costs. The other thing you need to think about if you are going to do this again and next time the stand has to be paid for is how many do you need to sell to cover the cost of the stand before you make any profit. If you start low it will be difficult to raise prices in future but if you start a bit high you can always discount them on the day and people like getting some money off. Finally as a charity you could go for make a donation pricing i.e you don't have a price but rather a minimum and tell people it is a charity and pay what they think is appropriate. You will get some people that try to abuse it (which is why you need a minimum in mind below which you politely decline with a come off it) but most people will tend on the generous side.

 

[Arch]

Good luck- I hope it takes off! Always fun making things! Seems like the cost of fittings up there is massively cheaper than down here - you can spend a fortune on things like that.

Ebay! And bulk buying. My local craft shop prices things like ear hooks at 8-10 p each, whereas online from an Ebay shop, it's a couple of hundred for a quid...

Red Light, it's a good point about how sustainable this is in a real market situation. We'd hope to sell some stuff at the centre (we have a tiny 'shop' where we selling recycled stationery and eco-themed books and compost caddies etc, but it's very low volume, because people don't come the the centre to shop generally). There's also been an idea in York to set up a combined charity shop where we could rent a shelf or something, but that's taking time to come to fruition.

I think when we see how this event goes, we'll have a better idea of how much time we want to invest in having stock to hand. We do have themed events every few months where we could set up our own little stall.

 

[Ludwig]

Jewelery is a highly competitave markewt particularly at crafts shows. I can't see anyone going for the plastic cable ones but the wood ones are quite nice especially if you can engrave some writing or a pattern and I would price them at about £5.00. You need to make them in volume to get the price down. Doing craft fairs is a bit of a dead loss by the time you have paid out for your table and fuel and standing about time etc.

 

[Arch]

Well, after all your help, I thought I'd update you all!

The good news: the stall took just over £200 on the day.

The interesting/hmmmmm news: Only sold one pair of the wooden earrings, and that was to my colleague who was helping. Did sell three or four pairs of cable earrings - three to one lady who couldn't decide on colour scheme, and we cut a deal on the three she was trying to decide between. Also sold a couple of cable bracelets, and a necklace.

We started with the wooden ones at £10, and the cable earrings and bracelets at £5, and necklaces at £8. At midday, a bit worried our prices were high, we changed to £8, £4 and £6 respectively, but that I don't think it made a difference. There were a lot of other stalls with jewellery of all sorts, and a quick look round suggested a wide price range, with us nowhere near the top end. Possibly it just wasn't a jewellery audience, or there was so much that people got choice-sick...

The big seller was my bike tyre belts - I made a dozen, and we sold the lot at a tenner each. That's cheap compared to the other sellers I've seen (velo-re do them for £40, but with additional decoration), but I'm still perfecting my technique. Interestingly, the people who bought them, and many of those who just looked, had never seen the idea before, and thought I'd come up with it myself. Of course, it would be the belts that sold - they take the most work the way I've been doing them, with chain links as rivets. In fact I have a commission for two more already, one from a colleague and one from someone who came to the stall when we only had one thin one left, and wants a more manly one for her husband.

So the bad news is, I don't have any left to photograph! I will be making more, and my friends at Bike Rescue are apparently happy to let me have old tyres, so that's a good source.

So. I'm a bit disappointed about the wooden earrings, but can only assume it just wasn't their day - also, I could work on displaying them more strikingly. Funny, since it's been those that everyone has said they like.

Talking of which, our other best sellers? Twigs. I asked one of the volunteers to make me a jewellery tree out of a real twig in a base, and when he'd done it (using dogwood for the coloured bark, and a sawn slice of a log for the base) it looked so striking we decided to make some extra to sell as minimal Xmas table decor. We sold 8 at £3 each, at least three of them to other stall holders who needed display material!

My colleague had been chatting to another stall holder who said she'd taken £40, so we've done pretty well. Attendance seemed good, but I suspect people were being careful with money, and there were lots of stall to choose from. The location at the racecourse is an odd one, out of town. I think if it could have been at the Guildhall (and it was a council run event, so you'd think they could have it cheap), it could have been rammed with Xmas shoppers.

Our next step is to think about how we can sell stuff on a regular basis - we have a tiny 'shop' area at the centre, but it's low footfall, so we're perhaps going to look at selling (or at least advertising) online, or seeing if any local shops/galleries might take them.

Thanks again everyone for your input and encouragment!

 

[summerdays]

Well done!!!

Looks like you could concentrate on belts and put the price up a little!!! I'd certainly be buying one at £10 ... like I said I would possibly of paid £20 for one!!!

One of the ones I saw on-line was one where the rubber had worn right through to the underlying fabric and that made the belt quite interesting and unique!