Now I have been on here a LONG time but the is really grinding my gears today.
'No madam that sale item is NOT going to become any cheaper and no neither is my P&P. ’ I’m a gnats whisker from saying I won’t be selling to you … after 100s of online this is the first p&p issue on here or on E… !!!
I am of course be super polite and have taken the time to explain pricing but I have also said I am actually reverting all my sale items to original prices TODAY I have been thinking about not doing ANY sale prices at all and this has just pushed my to do it.
I find it really rude when people ask for a price reduction of handmade things. It isn’t a mass produced item and haggling actually shows they have no regard for the time it takes to make or your skill and and artistry.
I once had a buyer approach me at an exhibition for an ink drawing I had exhibited. We agreed a price but when it came to collect the drawing and pay at the end of the exhibition he tried to haggle me down.
I told him I don’t haggle on my artwork (I was actually quite offended that he would denigrate my work by looking for a bargain- you can go to B&M for cheap ‘art’) but he still tried to haggle.
As this was happening another exhibitor was listening and came to my defence and said that my work was worth much more and actually made an offer on my work but as the man really wanted the piece they ended up trying to out bid each other and in so doing the other artist got the buyer to bid higher than my original asking price.
The work I sell on Folksy is as cheap as I could reasonably sell it for and couldn’t afford to put a sale on. I think a lot of us on folksy are the same. We’re not making millions by over pricing but actually just about scraping by, by pricing reasonably (some far too low, I think). I think you did the right thing in not letting her knock you down.
I totally agree this is why I don’t do sales. Thing is once you get known for doing sales people expect to try and haggle with you… I mean would they do that in a bricks and mortar shop ie down at Tesco’s, or House of Frazer etc etc.
This was my response :
"Sorry but there will be no further reductions. In fact today I will be revising prices on all my stock , removing sale prices and reverting to original prices . I do not anticipate any more sale prices in the near future - I have decided to fully commit to charging what my unique and handmade items are worth, I won’t try to compete with the likes of Primark on price LOL
My postage charges cost cover postage, packing and travel cost to PO, and a proportion of my hourly rate.
Any revisions to prices are at my discretion and I tend to apply them to orders from my lovely regular customers, orders over £100 and wholesale . Frequent customers get the odd freebie too
I hope that helps explain my pricing policies . Thank you again for your interests in that … " etc
I am now taking the sale prices off my listings and I think she has gone away … I think trying to chip more money off an already reduced item is really quite rude…
I have been doing this long enough now not to jump through hoops for every single sale - I just make what I make for a fair price , usually items eventually find their home - it’s not like fabric goes off LOL
Since there are so many sellers in Handmade charging almost nothing…you are going to look expensive even if you are charging just normal prices. So, I think, the problem isn’t the buyers looking for bargains. We all do. The problem is the sellers making a mockery of Handmade.
I have to agree with what you say @BelaFarCrafts some sellers in online shops seem to give their beautiful handmade items away, at such cheap prices. Such a shame when you consider all the hard work and time that goes in to making a unique piece.
Good point. I don’t charge nearly enough for my time, but I have to guess what people will pay for an item, and make the best of it. If I’m smart, I get the materials and a relatively modest hourly wage. If I get it wrong though, it’s disastrous.
Example - I’ve got one bag priced at £140 that took me over 30 hours to make. Take off about £20 for materials (it’s pure scottish lambswool, handspun) and assume time is 30 hours - that’s a lofty wage of £4 an hour. If I charged minimum wage, that would take it to £216 labour alone. If I charged the rate I can charge for my professional skills (as a bespoke designer/dressmaker and bridal alterations specialist), I’d be able to earn £450 from this one bag alone.
Yeah, right.
How…depressing.
Hats off to anyone managing to stay polite when encountering such brass necked requests!
It might be considered rude, but nowadays you could say it’s normal. Everything is about discount shopping and free shipping. Everything for £1 or even less than £1. Sooner or later Handmade will fall into that kind of shopping too…if we don’t stand our ground.
The reason they do this is often 2 fold A they only want to cover their material costs so they can go buy more materials and/or B they think they have to price low in order to compete with the mass produced cheapo stores.
Both these reason just make it harder for everyone else as we get a rush to the bottom and lower the expectations of the customer ie It’s really sad and very frustrating.
I know I fall into the trap of thinking ohh I want to charge one figure but end up lowering my expectations.
I have realised over time that the balence of prices is critical - you need to invest time in that AMAZING item that may be hard to sell due to the price you charge but if that brings people in to buy your bread and butter items then that’s ok, you have to treat that item as your pull item . The issue arrises if you only have items at one level of pricing and they are ALL high effort high cost - then you really need to be very slick at findng your customer base.
My mice are an example https://folksy.com/items/6942041-HOLLY-The-CHRISTMAS-Vintage-fabric-Mouse- of one of my steady sellers - very occasionally I get asked at fairs if I can do them cheaper and I always reply - nope because I have sold 100s online/overseas at that price ( £9 ) plus P&P - I then say iI CAN do 3 for £25 … and that works just fine LOL
I have some very cheap things that I can produce quite quickly for real life fairs but I only sell them in sets online, not worth it otherwise - that works pretty well .
If I only made cheaper/easier stuff then creatively that would be most unsatisfactory but expending huge amounts of effort on a small number of highly priced gorgeous things demands a differnt type of audience and platform that this one I think, At least for me.
BTW My regulars and high spenders DO get priority when it comes to extras and discounts … but not some random person who thinks they are on that well known auction site … no more sale prices for me … tweaking them upwards now!
My beach bags are discounted right now because I don’t want to store them over winter. I’ll do the same if I have any Christmas decorations left in January. Things that sell all year round don’t get discounted.
I recently had somebody approach me about wholesale prices for one of my bestsellers. Well I don’t churn them out by the hundreds, it’s just me in my spare room not a factory, but I looked at what quantity I could make in the timescale at what discount. I guess they weren’t impressed that I couldn’t halve the price for them, because I haven’t heard back.
But it did make me realise that I haven’t raised my prices at all on many items for three years, and the price of Harris tweed just went up 6%. Time for some tweaking.
I’ve got to the stage where if a person thinks my products are too expensive then it’s because they are not my audience. I’ve researched my prices carefully and I know they are good prices for my products, some lower than they should be. I’m not being paid for my time with the prices I set.
An example of peoples expectations with cost of handmade is a scarf that I made and showed to someone before I listed it to get their opinion. I asked how much they think I should charge. The price they suggested would have left me with £2 after the cost of the materials and fees were taken. To get minimum wage then I would have to research patterns and yarns, choose colours and order them, make the scarf including any extra embellishments and attach said embellishments, block the scarf to shape it, photograph it and list it in 16 minutes. I decided to charge more
I think most people who come to folksy expect to pay a bit more for the better quality handmade brings.
It frustrates me a little bit when I see folksy shops charging just the cost of the materials or sometimes less than the materials would have cost. It makes it harder to sell at higher and more reasonable prices. Though I appreciate some people just want to sell to support a hobby and not a household
I agree. There are new people selling nearly every day, undercutting those that already there. I would like to put my prices up but I’m worried that I won’t sell anything at all if I do because there are plenty of cheaper choices.
It’s really sad and very frustrating.
