I've been selling my jewelry for years now. When I sold my first piece, I was very apprehensive to put a price on it. I had not seriously thought about ever selling my creations. I had no clue of what my prices should be. How much is enough? Would they think I was priced to high and not want to buy? I still get that way today. Most of us probably do. We make hand beaded jewelry and other hand made creations for the love of it and not necessarily to turn a huge profit.
The price "issue" still seems to pop up frequently. But really, how much is enough or too much? There really is no straight answer to this. There is actually no set standard for pricing hand beaded jewelry. There are only suggested guidelines to follow. And I can guess the same is true for other hand made creations.
There are a few factors that go into pricing a hand beaded piece. This could be the reason for pricing differences among the hand beaded jewelry industry. Cost of materials, cost of labor, technique used and overhead are the general factors.
There are many sources available for a jewelry artist to get their supplies. Recycling, the local craft/hobby store, the local LBS, and online suppliers are the most popular. The cost of supplies will vary depending on who you purchase from. One of our jobs is and should be to find the best quality supplies at the lowest cost.
Cost of labor is how much you feel your time is worth. Techniques used also factor into this. If you are using a technique not widely known or difficult to master, it will be worth more than a simpler technique used, per hour. There are some techniques used that actually take many hours or even days to complete just one small piece, and some that will take less than an hour. And that is even after these techniques are fully mastered.
The overhead cost factor. The cost of having and maintaining a website, advertising and shipping supplies, just to name a few things. These add up too. I have had debates with people on this topic. These are expenses and do factor into the price of the items.
Well, the questions still remain. How much is enough? And, how much is too much? When I first asked this question, the answer I got most often was to "price like others who make similar items, so you don't start a price war. You don't want to be much higher and definitely not lower than your competition". Well, I thought that was strange. If I have a large amount of competition, why not be lower? There are a lot of people selling items similar to mine. This IS competition. If I sell at a higher price then my sales would go to them, right? Well, according to some, not always. I have seen others advise people to raise their prices on their creations! Evidently, the theory is that customers will buy the higher priced item over the lower priced item, because they think they are getting better quality. Also, they will supposedly attract a better clientele.
What do you think?
1 comment:
Pricing is hard. One thing I learned in pricing my artwork when I was painting is you really do have to price high. I had a painting in a prestigous hotel gallery in Hawaii for $150.00. It was small and did not sell so I was going to lower the price. A successful artist friend of mine walked in while I was changing the price and she told me to double it. Double it?! It did not sell at $150 it surely was not going to sell at $300...it sold the next day. For my jewelry I use a formula materials plus hourly labor and I double that for wholesale. This helps to pay for all the time I spend ordering and receiving supplies, marketing, packaging, etc...I am still a starving artist so maybe I am not charging enough for labor, who knows?
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