From my experience of craft fairs, the only stalls that are consistently busy are the coffee stands 🙂

My bits were £15-25 ish and took 1-2 hours each to make start to finish. so, combined with their uniqueness’, the attractive price meant they sold very well indeed.

But at those prices how can that be viable? I could sell my clocks at £50 each, but I would need to either employ someone on minimum wage or accept am happy to work for minimum wage.

I think it is all about perception. Clothing is a great example. Stick a great label on a garment, market it well and it will sell for 3 times that of a non brand item. The item 3 times the price is most likely no better made.

I went on a business course and the instructor told a story about a seamstress who was told to double her prices, but she was worried about losing half of her customers. Net result was same turnover, but half the work load.

Stick a great label on a garment, market it well and it will sell for 3 times that of a non brand item. The item 3 times the price is most likely no better made.

Thats not strictly true though. A ‘brand’ is about dependable and repeatable quality. A logo doesn’t magic up saleability. You get a reputation for quality and that becomes your brand and you and your work has to live up to it to maintain the values of that brand. With something ‘non-brand’ you take pot luck – if its shit you’re not surprised, but if its good how would you know how to get another one as good – if its unbranded you’ve no way of knowing. Its worth looking at the history and origins of ‘branding’ and branding and packaging soap powder in particular, to understand where that value comes from.

This is my point of getting your work seen in the real world in order to make webs sales. If, in the flesh, your work is dependably and repeatable of quality then someone would confidently make a web purchase. But without that reputation a buyer doesn’t know whether to trust a photo.

This is my point of getting your work seen in the real world in order to make webs sales. If, in the flesh, your work is dependably and repeatable of quality then someone would confidently make a web purchase. But without that reputation a buyer doesn’t know whether to trust a photo.

I agree 100% with what you say. I will have a look at the Craft Councils site.

Just a few minor comments

The ideal web sell is an XT rear derailleur. I don’t need to find what the quality will be or what it will look like, I already know, so online is fine.

Unique and online are much harder bed fellows. So I think face to face would make more sense

(random thought stick a vid’ on a clouding funding website and say that if you get 100 orders you’ll do then for £70. Insert your own numbers

My brother inlaw lives on a barge making dolls house furniture. He will then travel own to London for the weekend and sell at specialist fairs in posh london boroughs like Chelsea. He recons it brings in less than minimum wage but living costs are low so he accepts that compromise. Online sales are usually from people he knows