Minor grumble

[spark]

So today I posted up a few journals on the sites where most of my customers find me, asking about interest in a plush pattern project I'm considering. (It's not worth my time to bother if only a tiny handful of people want one, so I need to know if there's demand before I go ahead and develop a pattern other people could use.)

I asked *specifically* if people would buy a pattern if I made one available. Ie. "would you buy one", worded exactly like that.

And YET AGAIN people instead answer the question "do you think that other people would buy this?"

LOOK YOU PEOPLE, if I wanted a market analyst who would give me advice about the behavior of customers other than himself I WOULD HIRE ONE. I didn't, because I'm doing my own market research by surveying YOU, MY CUSTOMERS, the people I want to know about. SO ANSWER FOR YOURSELF and not for other people!

The last time this happened by the end I was ready to scream because more than half of the responders said that they were sure SOMEBODY ELSE would pay several thousand bucks for the thing I was selling, and it didn't even crack $1k, and I was getting really pissed and frustrated with the people, some of whom were literally arguing with me that they were certain my expectations were set too low and it was bound to make me tons of money, there was no way at all it was even possible for me to make less than it was worth. Which was extremely cruel, since the huge number of people doing it had actually started to convince me maybe they were right, and then I got disappointed hard time when it sold for just barely enough to be worth bothering with at all.

SO QUIT TELLING ME OTHER PEOPLE WOULD BUY SOMETHING. You have no clue what other people would do, and even if you did that's not what I asked you! Just answer the damn question and tell me if YOU would buy it or not!

(Yeah, I know, none of these people are being rude or sucky, which is why I put it over here. They're nice people, trying to offer helpful opinions, but they're also driving me NUTS and their answers are totally worthless and useless for my purposes. And this happens EVERY SINGLE TIME that I have a potential new product and I ask if people are interested. I'm getting really sick of it.)

[Teskeria]

so when they say that respond with, 'So Idiot1, Idiot27, and Idiot 92, you are saying it is not something YOU would purchase. is that correct? If you state other people would, I will take that as my deduction is correct.'

Or better yet, just stop at the first line. don;t even ask if it is correct.

[spark]

He he he. Some days I wish! But snapping back over minor stuff like this isn't really going to do my business much good, sadly.

I did get a number of useful replies this time around (unlike some previous attempts!) so I'm a little more chill about it today. Last night it was really driving me up the wall though.

[Seshat]

For what it's worth:

If I had the money (and I don't), and you posted a pattern for something I/my family & friends would want, I'd buy it.

The crucial element, however, is the bit in brackets.

[Aethian]

For what it's worth:

If I had the money (and I don't), and you posted a pattern for something I/my family & friends would want, I'd buy it.

The crucial element, however, is the bit in brackets.

Ditto to this. It kinda hurts when I say that you could make quite a bit on something and then get yelled at cause you don't. There have been a lot of things I would buy from you but I just haven't had the disposable income to do so. And since you've pointed out its worthless to say I might know someone who would buy why should I show them the item?

[spark]

*blinks* I'm here to VENT. I wouldn't say something like this to a customer, that's kind of the point of this site, to say the things that bother us but that would be cruel/rude/assholeish to actually say to somebody.

And I think you've misunderstood what I'm saying. It's NOT worthless to say "I know so and so who would love this" and then tell so and so about it. That's the best thing ever!

What's worthless is "I'm sure somebody somewhere will buy it." Especially since that's basically a lie. How can you be sure of that? I've been selling this stuff for eight years now and I'm never sure what somebody will buy and what will sit in my studio for years waiting for somebody to take it off my hands.

I remember making a kitsune tail set that everybody raved about, people were saying it was the best idea ever, it was awesome, I was sure to make lots of money making these. Then I sat on the original prototype, despite doing everything I could think of to find a buyer, for THREE YEARS before I finally sold the thing at cost. So all those people who raved about it were pretty much worthless to me. None of them actually gave me a penny or did anything else to help me.

That doesn't mean they're bad people, or worthless *people*.

This is just something that frustrates me and I'm venting about it here, because I have to vent somewhere, and this is the place for such venting. I'm sorry if this hurt your feelings somehow, but if I can't vent here, where the hell am I supposed to vent?

[PepperElf]

I rather understand.

One of my friends has an extensive wedding dress collection she's been trying to sell for at least 2 years. Every time she plans out an event to try to sell them off, things fall through. To the point where it just gets frustrating... and the dresses are pretty much taking up the entire basement of her home.

about the only positive thing was that she didn't actually have to buy them - her mom dumped the collection on her and pretty much said, "do what you want with it".

and there's no bridal stores in town. Yeah she's the only name in the game in over 30 miles and she can't move her product.


So yeah, i can understand not wanting to take a risk on something that's going to cost you a lot.. only to have it sit and take up space.