Sometimes at craft markets, very cheap handmade products are offered for sale. This can be extremely frustrating to someone trying to charge a fair price for their work.
One of the great frustrations about selling sewing and needlework - or indeed any handmade products at a craft market, is finding yourself near another person selling similar goods for a much lower price. This has happened to me several times - and whilst watching the hoards of people clustering around another stall, and looking at the stark emptiness in front of mine, the temptation is to slash my prices and hang a 'Sale now On’ poster from the rafters! When I find myself in this situation, I need to give myself a reality check – and remind myself why my prices are set at the level they are and of course, to ask myself whether I really want to give all my work away for nothing! I always stand firm and, because I do spend a lot of time working out the correct pricing levels for my work, I feel quite happy to grit my teeth and walk away rather than compromise myself.
I’ve noticed that cut price ‘handmade’ goods typically fall into two camps – there are those which probably made up from ready bought, manufactured components and therefore need minimum of time or skill to produce; and those made by someone who is “just doing this for pin money – to help fund my hobby…”. And both of these are equally frustrating for someone looking to charge a fair price to reflect the time and effort put into making a quality hand made item.
Both of these types of sellers of cut price handmade goods damage the market, and are probably as bad as each other – however the second group never cease to frustrate me. I have seen people selling beautiful hand embroidered pictures which would have taken hours of work for just a few dollars, because the maker just wanted to cover costs to buy more materials. These people probably buy fair trade coffee, and use fair trade beads, will moan about cheap imports coming in and damaging the local economy, yet see nothing wrong in compromising the market for handmade goods.
Rather than just a rant – I do have a suggestion. Why not use the beautiful handiwork to help good causes. Charge a fair rate for the products but give the difference between what you want and what you charge to charity. As far as I can see this is a win win position! The crafter gets their pin money, a charity gets some extra money - and importantly, the market price for handmade goods is maintained.
What do you think...?
