Help help

[sholio]

Okay, so ... tomorrow (as mentioned on my original fiction blog), I'm doing a local craft show where one of the things I'm going to be selling is original handpainted greeting cards. And I am really not sure how to price them. Here are few examples of what I'm selling:









They are pretty simple in design, and each one takes me, I don't know, about a half-hour to 45 minutes. I was thinking of selling them for $5 each, but my husband thinks that's way too low, since each one is an original little painting on good-quality paper. Maybe $8? $10? I'm worried about pricing myself out of the market if I go too high, since greeting cards are kind of disposable in most people's minds. I was looking on Etsy and other places, and I can find very few similar products; most cards available are prints, so I'm not sure what the market value might be for such a thing.

Hmmmm. Suggestions? What do you think is a fair price?

Comments

[veleda_k]

Those are really lovely!

I'm thinking, and at work (Barnes and Noble) we sell cards a bit like those by a local artist, and they're priced at a little over six dollars. I don't know how the different situations affect things, though. (She's selling through a large store, and you're at a craft show.) But people buy the cards we sell, so there's that.

So, I don't know, but I've given you all my experience on the matter.

[sholio]

Thank you!! That is very helpful, because my big problem here is that I'm having trouble finding similar things to get an idea of how other people price them, so that's a very useful data point!

[ratcreature]

I agree that $5 is too low if it's an original and it takes you more than half an hour to make them. I suspect $10 might be too much, being something of a psychological pricing border too. $7-8 could work, and if you have a bunch of them, you could do a slight discount if someone buys three or something, like $20 for three.

[sholio]

Thank you! I'm leaning more towards $8, and I'll see how they sell tomorrow and, I guess, adjust my pricing in the future based on how it works out.

[astridv]

5$ for originals sounds way too low. It would be okay for prints. 10$, I'd say. It's still not enough, but probably borderline what people would be willing to pay.

I really like the one with the berries in particular.

[sholio]

Thank you! ♥

I think what I'll probably do is try it at $8, and see how they do; if they seem to be selling right and left, then I guess I can get away with bumping the price up a bit.

[springwoof]

can you make several prints of each? that way you could sell them at a slightly lower cost each, and the buyers wouldn't fret over buying way-expensive greeting cards.

The problem is that, you're right, greeting cards are considered somewhat disposable. If I knew this was a little original work of art, I wouldn't want to actually send the card to anyone (who might--gasp!--throw it away) so much as mat and frame the thing. But then, they're priced too low for original artworks. Limited prints would fix that problem, and allow you to hit a sweet spot on price.

Besides, if other folks are like me, they'd want several cards of *each* image.

[sholio]

Yeah, I think that I'm going to try some printed cards next! They sold pretty well at $8 each, and it was a good way of doing "product testing" to see what people like best, since I had a bunch of different designs. (Birds. Everybody loves birds, apparently.)

[krait]

Those really are lovely!

I suggest starting at $8; if you get no interest, or interest but no sales, go down to $6, or offer a 2-for-$12 break and see what happens.

Or even start at $10, if they're larger than the average card (the greeting cards I own tend to be smallish, like 3x5 to 4x6; if yours are 6x8 or something, I'd say go a little higher with the price!)

[sholio]

Thank you! <3 I ended up pricing them at $8 and sold most of them at that price, so it seemed to go well.

[nny]

Those are ever so pretty! And I'd weigh in on the pricing thing but it's confusing from the UK. ;)

[sholio]

Thank you! <3 <3 <3 Yeah, different pricing issues on different sides of the pond. *g*