i have been buying mini rolling pins and decorating them, but they wont sell

POPPYOSCAR

Sugar_Coated_Owl wrote: »

I think with the right marketing/promotion it could be successful. The OP does something similar to what I do but I must admit I'm a perfectionist. I'd gladly give the OP some advice on marketing/promotion if she wants. Blogging is where it's at right now.

The key to success for most.

If a certain company can actually sell an item that has nothing in it but an empty space and packaged as "well you said you wanted nothing" then..............

Sugar_Coated_Owl

I agree the OP needs to work on her rolling pins if she wants to sell them. I think she's just young and starting out. With a little encouragement she could make something of this.

System

soolin wrote: »

I doubt it, the costs would be too high even if buyer was paying pennies for the pins.

assuming someone was willing to pay say £5 for a personalised pin (and that is £1 more than the OP is already trying without any takers) the postage costs will be £2.20 2nd class without packaging. That leaves £2.80 for the pin. From that the listing cost would be 15p, the FVF approx 28p and paypal fees (assuming OP has a micro account) 30p.

That leaves a net figure of £2.07 before packing costs from which OP has to buy all materials and make money

I don't see that as a viable option at all especially when these items are not likely to be fast movers, so all the 15p listing fees would remain payable even if item failed to sell.

£5? I think thats too cheap. £10 is a fair price

Sambucus_Nigra

berbastrike wrote: »

£5? I think thats too cheap. £10 is a fair price

We live in completely different worlds, if you think £10 is a fair price for a kitchen rolling pin.

I hope you will PM the OP and send your cheque off today.

Sugar_Coated_Owl

£10 for a rolling pin?

POPPYOSCAR

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Did the pottery company lure you in with badly painted pottery on the walls?

I've just googled 'paint a pot' and the ads on the first website that came up are selling their workshops with well made and well finished products.

http://www.paint-a-pot.co.uk/special-events.html

If they put badly made products up there, do you think they would sell their workshops?

That website is the opposite of proving your point!

The pictures they show of items that can be made look quite naive in their appearance to me.

No one is saying that the OP should not up her game and improve on her product anyway. Practice makes perfect.

We should be encouraging her, not making disparaging remarks.

soolin

Let us not mistake advertised goods with actual sales. As I said earlier I get dozens of websites advertised on facebook selling pages every day selling all sorts of homemade crafts, but that doesn't mean they are selling anything.

I think it is extremely cruel to encourage someone to do something that is almost certainly doomed to failure. I could not be that nasty to someone.

Sambucus_Nigra

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

That website is the opposite of proving your point!

The pictures they show of items that can be made look quite naive in their appearance to me.

No one is saying that the OP should not up her game and improve on her product anyway. Practice makes perfect.

We should be encouraging her, not making disparaging remarks.

No - it is disproving your point that you don't have to know what you are doing before teaching other people to do it.

Starting up a training company with no ability to do the thing that you are training people to do gives trainers a very bad name.

soolin

berbastrike wrote: »

£5? I think thats too cheap. £10 is a fair price

OP is currently offering them for £4 a go without any takers. I am not sure as to the wisdom of increasing the price.

I run a business and sometimes it does pay to increase a price on a non seller to increase its perceived value, but there needs to be a market to start with.

art_for_arts_sake

Sugar_Coated_Owl wrote: »

Look here. There is a market for this type of thing.

That doesn't prove anything, just that someone else is trying their hand at selling personalised objects, and to a high standard by the looks of it. To the OP, I'm sorry, I don't wish to sound mean or spiteful, but trying to be as constructive as possible if you want to succeed in business it helps to have a USP, or unique selling point, and you need to word at perfecting your skills. I suspect a lot of personalised items are made to a high standard by pieceworkers or even foreign labour working for the entrepreneur with the original ideas.

A s my name suggests I was a professional artist for years and managed to scrape a living from it until computerisation of my industry knocked any prospect of making any money well and truly on the head. I've been down the route of trying to make an income from personalised products without any success. My wife has had more success in selling her watercolours than I've had. It really is the luck of the draw what appeals to people, though better connected people seem to have more success in these kind of things, it really is who you know sometimes that counts. I think it's cruel of people to delude you with false hope. If you enjoy making things do it for your own pleasure, but don't expect to profit from it immediately. Practice makes perfect. Go to nightclasses in something you enjoy, it'll make a huge difference to your perception of your own skills and you'll pick up a lot of skills along the way.