Go die in a fire

[spark]

Had a horrible day today. Did the local Saturday craft market, which usually is a good source of a little extra income. Made nothing at all. This has never happened to me. Even on freezing days when it's poured rain the entire time and maybe ten people have stopped by my booth I've always managed to make a sale. Today it was sunny, gorgeous, and packed. Probably a thousand people went by, and at least a hundred or so stopped to look at the stuff, and nobody at all bought anything! What the hell!

So I come home all pissed off and, after collapsing into bed to sleep for a while, as I got about two hours of sleep last night, I get up and check my messages... to find this locally furry who'd stopped by my booth has messaged me to tell me that I should be selling $expensiveitem at my booth, they'd sell great!

FUCK YOU. You wouldn't spend five lousy bucks on an adorable little finger puppet, you fuckwit, and you think I need MORE EXPENSIVE THINGS?!!!! You know absolutely nothing about selling. You know nothing about what the market is like, you know nothing about what people buy, and you know nothing about running a business, and you did nothing whatsoever to help me on a day when that lousy five bucks would have made my day, so you can just jump off a cliff.

Even on a good day I hate people who try and tell me what I should sell and how to run my business, they're usually full of crap, but on a day like today it was the last fricking thing I wanted to hear.

[RavenStarr]

Question. How did he get your phone number?

Also I don't get why someone would tell you to sell more expensive items, when they are a cheapskate themselves.

[spark]

Not phone messages, online messages. They sent me a message on a furry site we both frequent.

And people do this all the time! "WOW those are so cute, I wouldn't buy one I don't have any money but I just KNOW everybody else would buy one!" I have no idea what goes through their brains, but it's a really freaking common thing for people to do.

[RavenStarr]

Oh I gotcha. I forgot about online messages.

And yes you have to wonder what goes on in people's brain. But then again do we really want to know?

[emax4]

If it's not too late, maybe you can get a Google Voice number and use that on your business cards and/or website. The number is one you make up yourself, and if someone keeps harassing you over your prices and products, you can ban them on that number.

[Seshat]

I suspect that what goes through their minds is Wow, I wish I could afford one of those. I bet people who can afford them would buy them. I'll let the seller know.

Because, of course, the seller doesn't have any idea what her actual demographic is like, and what they can afford, and want.....

[ShinyGreenApple]

I'd bet money that they just want you to carry it so they can come and gape at it every week.

[Kanalah]

Ugh I hate people like that.

I had a friend of mine who also sells on Etsy tell me that she charges $40 for $0.40 worth of materials, and that my quilt prices should start at $450-$500 for a baby quilt. Yeah so not happening. I'd never sell anything. While I thanked her for the complement that yes quilts are art, but I couldn't charge that much for a small quilt. Just because one business model works for one person/industry doesn't mean it works for all of them.

*Cookies and a nice cold drink for Spark*

[spark]

I actually really wish I could go even cheaper somehow, but I haven't been able to think of anything I could make so quickly that it would be economical to sell for $1 or so each. Even the simplest four-piece puppets I do still take 20-30 minutes each. To be able to sell it at $1 and be worth making I'd have to be able to make it in literally 10 minutes or less. And that's without considering supplies, though I do usually have plenty of scraps.

[Midnight12]

if people could only apply the rule of does it REALLY need to be said to real life as well as online forums crud such as the business advice would stop.
Sadly it is not as such. much hugs and baked chocolatey goodness.
I have advice, you should do what YOU know is best and ignore the rest, even me if it means doing so.

[manybellsdown]

I'd bet money that they just want you to carry it so they can come and gape at it every week.

So they can come sigh over it and say "gee I wish I could buy this? Discount? Discount? Diiiisssscoooounnnttttt???"

[spark]

So they can come sigh over it and say "gee I wish I could buy this? Discount? Discount? Diiiisssscoooounnnttttt???"

Hah! Yeah. XD I don't mind hagglers, so long as they're a.) polite and b.) not completely moronic with their offers. (10% off, probably, 20% maybe if I'm feeling generous or you're really good at it, but 80% off? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeahno.)

Somebody who's too cheap to spend five bucks isn't going to find anything they can buy at my booth, no matter how hard they haggle.

[Opalin]

offers hot chocolate. Sounds rough. But yeah, people who won't spend 5$ shouldn't be telling you what items to carry.

[Record Store Tough Guy]

Ugh I hate people like that.

I had a friend of mine who also sells on Etsy tell me that she charges $40 for $0.40 worth of materials, and that my quilt prices should start at $450-$500 for a baby quilt. Yeah so not happening. I'd never sell anything. While I thanked her for the complement that yes quilts are art, but I couldn't charge that much for a small quilt. Just because one business model works for one person/industry doesn't mean it works for all of them.

*Cookies and a nice cold drink for Spark*

You'd be surprised. The first con we went to we priced our DVDs at $10. We hardly sold any. The next one, two weeks later, we upped the price to $15. We sold out our entire stock. A lot of this has to do with perceived value, and also what the buyers *think* something should cost. If they find something cheaper than it seems like it should be, they might think it's not worth spending even the lesser amount on, or that there's something wrong with it. (We sell more buttons for $1 apiece than anything else, though.)

The beauty is that you can always lower the price if it's not moving. No reason to sell yourself short. Some money is good. More is better. XD

[HermitIX]

After reading your post all I can think of is “Hey I know how you can get more people to your booth…” and “You know what I want but personally can’t afford…”

Arg!

On the subject of something possibly made quickly and cheaply what you can sell for almost nothing. How about oddly shaped pouches. You could lay the two fabrics out pin them together and sew the three sides together all in one go before cutting them out. Then all you need to do is the draw string part. If you sew wavy or something instead of the typical square pouch you would get shaky ones. Also a really long pouch could be sold as a wine bottle holder.

I am going to go back to the shadows now.

*poof*