Making & Pricing Handmade Goods for Craft Fairs

When I lived in Los Angeles (before Evan,) I did about 4 craft fairs a year. I haven't done one for several years because of Evan's health situation, but now that I have some time to craft (er, thanks, recession?) I plan on selling at one fair this holiday season as of right now, on November 14 at a neighbor's church holiday bazaar. Over the years, I've learned a lot about how to choose and craft for a successful sale, and I'm happy to share my knowledge in the hopes that it will help someone.

Choosing a Craft Fair
If you would like to do a craft fair or church holiday bazaar there are several factors in deciding whether it's worth doing. It's important to weigh your personal motivation for participating in a craft fair. Are you more concerned with the crafting/enjoyment aspect or whether it will make money? If profit is the primary goal, following are some important things to consider before you sign up to do a craft fair. (You can ask the organizers if this information isn't provided in the vendor materials.)

• What's the location? Is it a well-known venue? How's the traffic there? And parking?
• What's the fee? If they charge a booth or table fee, that should be factored in to your prices as well as your time sitting at the table working the show.
  
• What is the expected attendance? Shows that are annual well-known shows are the best.
  
• How many vendors and what kinds of items are they selling? They should be items similar in style and price to yours. Your items should fit in.
  
• What's the promotion? How are the organizers getting buyers to the event?
  

What to Make & Sell?

I try to make a variety of items that fit well together, in a similar theme and style. Ideally, you want someone to look at your table as they walk by and have it make sense instantly, drawing them in to stop and look at what you are selling. Small things always do well for me.

Pricing

I get asked often, how I price my wares? This is a tricky question to answer and there are so many influences affecting pricing. Most people come to craft fairs wanting to buy and support the artists, but especially in this economy, are on a budget.

There is a lot of competition for consumer dollars out there I think this is partly the Culture of Cheap in which we live, where junk turns precious as soon as it is put on clearance for a dollar. It has made shoppers entirely too price sensitive, so that some people walk in to a craft fair expecting prices for handcrafted items to be on par with those made in factories in China. It's also eBay's fault, for creating a marketplace where it's all about getting something for the lowest price.

Another factor, driven by the artist, is self-esteem. Why is it that so many craftspeople, particularly women, undervalue their time? As someone who sells partially for a living on etsy and is constantly undercut by people who are hobbyists and have someone bankroll their crafting, or who don't have enough confidence to price fairly...I hope you decide to please pay yourself fairly. Here is one formula I follow.

I add up these two amounts:
Hours to make item times my hourly rate (at least minimum wage)

AND

Cost of materials to make the item. Include estimated costs for all fractional components as well, such as thread. Unless you received these components for free, they need to be included.

This sum equals your cost of goods, but not your selling price. You should raise this amount ideally by double, which is full retail price and, ideally, the amount at which you should price the item at the craft fair.

If this price you calculate seems unreasonable to you, or a quick survey of the competition (I look on etsy.com and artfire.com) and asking your friends if they would pay that amount results in a resounding "no!" then it may not be worth your time to make and sell the item in that competitive field. Of course, you can choose to discount the price a little, but please, do not drop it below the cost of goods and lose money just because you are afraid people won't pay the price. You will be surprised what they will pay (within reason of course.) But shoot for the high end.

One way to present attractive and competitive pricing is to offer discounts for volume purchases. For example, I charge $1 each for my bottle cap magnets, but I offer 6 for $5, which encourages more money coming in and more items going out the door.

As for what has sold well for me, small gift items priced mostly under $15 have been my most successful sellers. Often, I sell hundreds of my lowest priced items (ornaments and magnets,) making up in dollar volume for any higher-priced items.

Wishing you luck in your crafty endeavors!