sandyrowell329 asked:
My wife and I are really into making things, but they are just sort of piling up on us. We just enjoy the process of making, whether it’s with wood, clay, metal, whatever… Anyone have any good ideas how we could turn this hobby into a little extra money?
Francisco
My wife and I are really into making things, but they are just sort of piling up on us. We just enjoy the process of making, whether it’s with wood, clay, metal, whatever… Anyone have any good ideas how we could turn this hobby into a little extra money?
Francisco
Tags: Arts Crafts, Extra Money
Of-course take a pic of ur collection n put that in E-bay…
You have to know your market. Are these flea market type items, or are the fine craft items?
Find out what people want - go to art galleries in your area and ask the owners what people are wanting or asking for. If you have a co-op art gallery in your area, join it and see how things go.
There are also art fairs which I would recommend checking out, just to see what other people are doing.
A lot of people sell their crafts on this site I believe.
You could advertise them on Craigslist or e-bay. Set up a booth in your local flea market, or sell them at a yard sale.
What I do with mine is give a few away for free, and then wait. I made names and painted them, and I gave a few away, and ended up receiving many orders for more. To me, its like pushing drugs, you give a few samples for free and when they come back for more, that is when you start charging.
One thing you have to figure out is what you will charge for an item. What I did was let my friend help me decide what the stuff I was doing was worth. i had fun making the stuff, and all I wanted was the cost of materials, but she said I could get more, so I let her decide how much to charge people. It would cost me about $1 for the material, and I would charge $30 for the item. It took a lot of time to make, so that is how I got away with it.
Farmers Marcket for sure.
Hope I helped!
-Le Cha Rouge
Lots of sources and forums to sell your stuff. Lots of people said Ebay- sure, that’s a source, but some don’t like the fees associated, and handmade stuff tends to get undervalued.
Etsy.com is a ebay type place specifically for selling stuff by crafters- but it’s slow trade at times. The fees are low though.
Pay attention in the craft and fabric stores, and the newspapers, for upcoming craft fairs and art fairs. Get yourself a booth at a few of them, take all your stuff, and then track the items that sell the best over several events. You might find a certain type just flies off the shelves. However, this can vary from year to year- the newest hottest popular thing this year might not be next year.
Depending on the types of items, scifi/fantasy and/or anime conventions may be just the place to sell this stuff. Most have artist’s rooms where you stuff can be sold for a small comission.
Also look around for indoor flea markets and especially for craft markets that will sell stuff on comission. Usually your high tourist area of your city has one of these type of shops.
When selling, try not ot undersell youself. Set a price for your time- whatever you value yourself at per hour and use that as a base guideline for price.
The formula I use is this -
Number of hours it took to make the item
Cost of materials- even found materials cost you in time to find them
Cost of shipping
partial cost of advertising and/or booth fees (cost of fees divided by number of items)
15%-20% markup so you actually make a profit. Some peopel don’t like to add this last- that’s up to you.
Good luck and most of all, have fun. When it stops being fun, time to stop trying to sell in that venue.
Well there’s more money to be made than just letting them pile up in a corner of your home.
Locally check for fairs that have craft tables for rent (usually a booth or site is pretty reasonable) if it’s a finer more original work than you’d get better money at a Juried Arts Fair. You have to know the area and what people look for and are willing to pay. For a while I did christmas ornaments, for my 25 dollar 2 day space rental I made about 300 dollars … it started as something I painted for me, I didn’t paint them for the fair I just painted so many that I had to get rid of them somehow. They were those little plaster / ceramic ornaments found everywhere, I sold a lot more because I enjoyed the tiny detail and got so many compliments because there were other tables where the ornaments were painted for speed. I considered mine little works of art, I didn’t do it for the profit it just worked out that way.