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Probably unprofessional this time

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  • #16
    Quoth Moosenogger View Post
    How big are they? If they're palm-sized (you can hold one in the palm of your hand) then I'd say $35 is pretty fair considering they were hand made. If they're bigger (think basketball sized), then I think they're cheaply priced.
    They're larger than palm sized, yes. A bit under six inches across not counting tails or anything.
    The best advice is this: Don't take advice and don't give advice. ~Author Unknown

    Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. ~Cicero

    See the fuzzy - http://bladespark.livejournal.com/

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    • #17
      Could you price like...$45 for one, $40 ea for two, $35 for whole lot?
      In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
      She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

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      • #18
        Quoth Der Cute View Post
        Could you price like...$45 for one, $40 ea for two, $35 for whole lot?
        I do the same amount of sewing per item whether a person buys just one or one hundred. So why on earth would I want to price them so that sometimes I'm going to get paid less for that time?

        This isn't an item I bought that I'm selling, this is my time to sew it, that's what somebody is paying for. When you get paid for time, do you give you boss a bulk discount if he employs you for more hours in the week? No! In fact the exact opposite, you get overtime if you work lots of hours. If somebody wanted to order a whole lot of these, I'd be so sick of sewing the same thing over and over and over by the end that I'd definitely want to charge extra rather than less!
        Last edited by spark; 02-24-2012, 06:07 AM.
        The best advice is this: Don't take advice and don't give advice. ~Author Unknown

        Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. ~Cicero

        See the fuzzy - http://bladespark.livejournal.com/

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        • #19
          Quoth spark View Post
          I do the same amount of sewing per item whether a person buys just one or one hundred. So why on earth would I want to price them so that sometimes I'm going to get paid less for that time?
          It is not simply a matter costing the materials and the time to make them. There is also the cost of marketing the items. The philosophy is that it each sale has a cost associated with it. Thus if you sell multiple items at once, the cost of marketing them is less than if you sold them individually. Therefore, selling multiple items should have a savings over selling the items individually.

          However, the above only works if you have a factory turning out the items, and you are selling very large numbers of the items.

          For an individual craftsman, the cost of marketing is a small factor in the final price. Thus any saving from selling multiple items would be in cents, not dollars.

          Please note that my pontificating is due to me consuming a bottle and a half of wine. And I feel it is a very good wine.
          "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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          • #20
            Quoth Ironclad Alibi View Post
            However, the above only works if you have a factory turning out the items, and you are selling very large numbers of the items.
            Yes, that was kind of my point. The economics of hand-crafting work nothing like the economics of retail.

            And I don't "market" as such anymore. I don't really have to, so I don't bother. The link in my sig here is pretty much the extent of my marketing anywhere these days.

            My main non-sewing, non-material expenditure I would like to be paid for is the time spent sending e-mails back and forth to hammer out the details of some fussy person's project, and that's not really covered by bulk pricing either, since it's always somebody wanting to order some single, perfect, just-like-it-is-in-my-head item.
            The best advice is this: Don't take advice and don't give advice. ~Author Unknown

            Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. ~Cicero

            See the fuzzy - http://bladespark.livejournal.com/

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            • #21
              *sighs* You have me missing Pinky. Pinky was a gift my sister gave me when I was really young. A cute brown bear with a pink nose.

              Um I mean..how about those Nicks? Lets go race some cars and all that jazz...

              Here is the closest I can come to 'pinky', but pinky was a lot lighter brown, and not so..fuzzy. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Plush-Chocol...-/330373374180. Sorry..just remembering the past.
              Last edited by Mytical; 02-24-2012, 08:25 AM.
              Engaged to the amazing Marmalady. She is my Silver Dragon, shining as bright as the sun. I her Black Dragon (though good honestly), dark as night..fierce and strong.

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              • #22
                Slow down there.
                It was a thought - and I was thinking "Ok, bought 1234 yards of this plush stuff. If I make one thing out of it, I really can't get the most out of it. Plus, this plush color was on big sale, so if I make lots of them, I'll make some money."

                That was the idea behind it. But I see your points about smaller manufacturing.
                In my heart, in my soul, I'm a woman for rock & roll.
                She's as fast as slugs on barbituates.

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                • #23
                  Quoth Der Cute View Post
                  Slow down there.
                  It was a thought - and I was thinking "Ok, bought 1234 yards of this plush stuff. If I make one thing out of it, I really can't get the most out of it. Plus, this plush color was on big sale, so if I make lots of them, I'll make some money."

                  That was the idea behind it. But I see your points about smaller manufacturing.
                  The thing is that I get these sorts of "thoughts" from people all the time. Constantly. Everybody has some idea about how to "improve" my business, and none of them actually make what I make, sell in the ways that I sell, or have any experience in what I do. It's why my signature says what it does about advice. I don't mean any offense here, but I don't post to this site looking for business advice. It is, in fact, the LAST thing I want. I post here to blow off steam about idiots, and that's as far as it goes.

                  If you really think you have some kind of bang-on terrific idea for a plush making business, you're perfectly free to start your own, I don't mind competition.

                  (And why would I buy so much of a fabric that I'd need to give away my time in order to get rid of it? I could just sell the fabric, unsewn, if having it around was a problem. I'd rather do that, or just store it until I can use it, than waste it trying to make some kind of sale deal that would make me work extra time for no extra pay.)
                  The best advice is this: Don't take advice and don't give advice. ~Author Unknown

                  Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. ~Cicero

                  See the fuzzy - http://bladespark.livejournal.com/

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                  • #24
                    When I was first reading this I though the EW was demanding a $35.00 dollars set be marked down to $10.00. Which is really rude, and an insult to your talent. Your stuff is always amazing.

                    But yeah, wanting to pay $2.00 dollars for a $35.00 dollar plush?! That is just horrible. I mean that is just beyond insulting. Totally unacceptable.

                    Now if you will excuse me I need to find an additional $200.00 dollars in my budget for "awesome plushies."
                    Hinakiba777- Student of Divinity-Always trying to get laid.

                    Annoying student=I pay tuition here so I pay your salary!
                    Desk Worker=I pay tuition here, too. So I guess I pay myself.

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                    • #25
                      $2 per plush is fine--if they are being made on machines by poorly-coordinated children in China. These are not.

                      Once again I find myself thinking there is something about the internet that makes people act in ways they wouldn't if the encounter was face-to-face. I know the magazines and newspapers are chock full of articles on how to haggle these days, but I can't help but think if the OP had a physical store, people wouldn't come in, look at the prices for her handcrafted merchandise, and then demand what's close to a 95% reduction in the price.

                      Or maybe they will and have, in which case I'll just cry, I guess.
                      Last edited by Irving Patrick Freleigh; 02-24-2012, 10:30 AM.
                      Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

                      "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

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                      • #26
                        Quoth Irving Patrick Freleigh View Post
                        $2 per plush is fine--if they are being made on machines by poorly-coordinated children in China. These are not.

                        Once again I find myself thinking there is something about the internet that makes people act in ways they wouldn't if the encounter was face-to-face. I know the magazines and newspapers are chock full of articles on how to haggle these days, but I can't help but think if the OP had a physical store, people wouldn't come in, look at the prices for her handcrafted merchandise, and then demand what's close to a 95% reduction in the price.
                        Well, I have a booth at a local craft market. I will admit that I get *fewer* of this sort of nutbar there, but some people are shameless, even in person. I have actually had people tell me that my prices are ridiculous and I should charge less, right to my face.

                        I think my favorite was the lady who scoffed at my wooly slugs. (They're little strips of scrap fabric, cut into a slug shape and with eyes glued or sewn on the front. They wiggle when you pet them. Very cute.) "A dollar? For that? It looks like it took you five minutes!" And then stuck her nose in the air and stomped off. The funny thing is that they do take just about exactly five minutes to make, yes. And cost about $.30 in materials. So $.70 for five minutes, times 12 five minute intervals in an hour, comes to $8.40, a perfectly reasonable wage for my time.
                        The best advice is this: Don't take advice and don't give advice. ~Author Unknown

                        Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. ~Cicero

                        See the fuzzy - http://bladespark.livejournal.com/

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                        • #27
                          That's an outrageous price. And when I mean outrageous, I mean you should be charging at LEAST $50 or MORE for those things. They are so adorable! *squees*
                          Eh, one day I'll have something useful here. Until then, have a cookie or two.

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                          • #28
                            Quoth Der Cute View Post
                            Could you price like...$45 for one, $40 ea for two, $35 for whole lot?
                            The other thing is that a lot of the retail establishments that do this get into the higher quantity of raw materials by selling those few more by giving bulk discounts. Therefore they get a better price from their supplier. We have one product at work that we give discounted unit price for buying 50 so that the customers order in 50's rather than 30 (which is what they immediately wanted) and that helps to keep us above the threshold for buying in by the 1000's which is significantly cheaper. This product also has a short shelf life so we accept smaller orders that normally wouldn't be worth our while to keep stock rotation up.

                            With fabric and a home business it isn't going to work like that. The economies of scale are never going to kick in to make it worthwhile.
                            I am so SO glad I was not present for this. There would have been an unpleasant duct tape incident. - Joi

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