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Pricing Guidelines For Turned Items
I’m writing about this subject only because of the upcoming holiday season. Many folks who don’t sell anything the rest of the year, often look to make a few bucks around the holidays due to high demand for gift items such as pens, bowls, kitchenware, etc.
The punch line here is that an item is only worth what someone will pay you for it.
I’ve been selling all my life including during high school and college. Price is almost always a consideration unless urgency is the primary motivating factor. A man whose house is on fire doesn’t much care what you are going to charge him for water. Other than situations like that you have to decide what price you are willing to accept for your work. If no one is willing to pay your price, you might consider making something else.
Economics teaches us that the higher the price of an item, the fewer will be sold. The lower the price for a given item, the more items will be sold. Finding a price in the middle that you are happy with is the hard part. I just wanted to share some thoughts based on real-world experience of how I arrived at my prices over the years. If you want a detailed discussion, here is an excellent article much too voluminous for this newsletter PRICING ARTICLE, INC. MAGAZINE.
We have all seen formulas using the cost of materials + shop overhead + consumables + insurance, etc. For small home-based craft businesses, you can throw that all out the window. Even researching similar items on Etsy, Shopify, Big Cartel, IndiMade, Zibbet, etc. can be grossly misleading as to price. What you don’t know is how many (if any at all) they are selling at the stated price. You might be lead to believe that they are making a fortune while the truth is that they haven’t sold anything all year at the advertised price.
The selling environment has a huge impact on what folks would be willing to pay for your item. At a yard sale, your bowl might bring $5. At a fine art/craft fair the same bowl might bring $100. The trade-off is that there is no hard cost to hold a yard sale while you will have booth rental and possibly other fees for a craft fair which might be from hundreds of dollars to over a thousand dollars.
It is easy to get fooled into a false sense of real world value due to the huge amount of time a particular piece may require. You might have spent years perfecting this specific artform. Almost no one shares your sense of urgency or your understanding of the difficulty required to make your pieces. The kiss of death is when you actually sell that first item for a high price. You might never sell another one. It was a fluke and isn’t sustainable.
The flip side is that your prices are too low and you can’t make them fast enough. Raise your price a little at a time until sales slow down. That is likely the sweet spot for pricing. Decide if you are happy with the price for the amount of work and material cost involved or if you should move on to another item.
On the Woodworking Show Circuit, we offered Laser Cut Christmas Ornament Kits. I made samples of finished ornaments so customers could better visualize the end result. We were almost driven crazy with people asking how much the samples cost. They were only for display and were not for sale. Finally, I relented and posted a price tag of $150 each thinking no one would ever pay that much for one of my ornaments and I really didn’t have time to make replacements. We sold 12 ornaments at $150 each in the first season.
Here is the good news, there are items out there that everyone appreciates, pens, utilitarian bowls, kitchenware, Christmas Ornaments (seasonal), cutting boards, baby rattles, etc. and are willing to pay a fair price for quality hand made craft items day in and day out. You just have to find the ones you enjoy making over and over and figure out a selling venue that suits you. We fall into the small cottage industry type of business, not some multinational multimillion-dollar business. The rules are different for us. Remember that wherever you go, there you are.
Here is my inspiration for this week’s message:
1Chr 21:24 NIV But King David replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
Prov 20:14 HSBC “It’s worthless, it’s worthless! ” the buyer says, but after he is on his way, he gloats.
Luke 10:7 NIV Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
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Tis the season!
These are some of the Christmas Ornaments I sold for $150 each mentioned in the article above.
Laser Cut Christmas Ornament Season
Is Here Again!
Introducing 4 Brand New Designs for 2019
There are numerous offerings for different combinations of kits on the website. There are only two which will offer you the correct pricing.
If you have decided what you want and can't find it, include a note in the comments section of your order and I'll make sure to include your choices at the discounted prices. Or, just call the office at (770)312-9087 Eastern or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Merry Christmas!
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