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Frugaldom

princesspoppypop wrote: »

Has anyone ever ran a stall at a craft fair??? If so how did you find it and did you make much money after stall fees taken into consideration??

How else do people sell their crafts??? Ive been selling to friends and family.

Ebay doesnt really seem to be a good place and Im not so sure how many people will visit craftmarket.co.uk although it is advertised in many of my crafting mags.

I'm afraid there is no hard and fast rule about stalls and craft fairs as it would depend on location, time of year, what the event was in aid of, cost of stall, take into consideration your public liability insurance and travel/set-up costs etc, etc, etc.

With regards to eBay, I also use eBid online auctions, as it's free to list items and you can link up to it from your own website really easily. Websites - I registered via a points/cashback site to use Microsoft Office Live and it gave me a free domain name and a free website, which I am now working at getting organised and linked to my eBid stores - all for FREE :j

Luna69

princesspoppypop wrote: »

Has anyone ever ran a stall at a craft fair??? If so how did you find it and did you make much money after stall fees taken into consideration??

How else do people sell their crafts??? Ive been selling to friends and family.

Ebay doesnt really seem to be a good place and Im not so sure how many people will visit craftmarket.co.uk although it is advertised in many of my crafting mags.

I have only every done a couple of craft fairs when I first started selling cards more seriously about 11 years ago, they were okay, back then there weren't as many card stalls or people making cards as there are now. I couldn't do them personally that much myself.
We have a local monthly craft fair , which I haven't been to in ages to look around, but by all accounts they are inundated with card makers and the ilk that they are crying out for something different. I applied years ago for a stall when there was only one other card stall that was different to what I designed, but I ended up not doing it in the end.
My partner and I are looking at it again for something different that we do, but still not 100% sure about it still yet.

I mainly sell online, at the moment on ebay until my website is redesigned, I don't make a fortune but I do sell a few,despite only having a handful on right now.
I haven't tried ebid yet, although I think I did sign up.

I used to have a store on another craft market type thing, but it doesn't exist now. I paid £20 every 6 months I think, or was meant to, but as it happens only ever paid once and had the shop about 1 1/2 years or thereabouts till it closed. I did sell a few from it, but nothing major,probably done better on ebay personally.

It's difficult to know what to do at the moment unless you have something unique I think.

Luna69

stourbridgeguy wrote: »

Hi there first post so play nice, not throwing hard objects they hurt when they hit sensitive areas

Well here goes, I have a dream of living full time on a narrowboat but alas no cash. My aim this year is to save about £15k, this is intended to purchace said boat.

I used to produce soap etc, which I used to sell in a shop I was in partnership with, sadly no more. I have decided that unless I get off my !!! and do something I am going to be stuck in rented property untill me dying day.

The dream stops being a dream this year, I have started by already getting a domain name and web hosting, am spending time building the site at the moment.

The main reason I have decided to post in this thread is that I noticed earlier on that some poster broached the subject of Soap Making and were put off by the certification proccess. I use products that are pre-certified melt & pour soaps, along with lip balms, shampoo's.

I aim to do my first Craft Show at Easter so I am in the proccess of building up my stocks. My main aim is to amass as much money as I can to enable me to reach my goal, this, along with a tighter budget should get me somewhere near my target. In the long term I aim to continue to work full time and also run the soap making etc from the boat to enable for me to work part time by the time I am 55, so this is a year challenge and also a 7 year plan.

Hope this has been helpful to those who have no natural crafting talents, if you wish to google Melt & Pour Soap and good luck.

Take Care

Dave

x

Not 100% sure about this, but I'd looked into making bath products to sell a while back and I'm sure I was told by a few people that you still had to have the items you made tested regardless of whether or not the materials you use have been pre-certified?
To check the levels of oils used etc are correct? Is this not the case?

Good luck with it all though, sounds like a good plan and goal.

misspixierocktastic

Hi everyone
Does anyone here use etsy at all and to those that have. how have you found it ?

Frugaldom

misspixierocktastic wrote: »

Hi everyone
Does anyone here use etsy at all and to those that have. how have you found it ?

I've never heard of 'Etsy', so am off to do a quick search now in case it's something I can incorporate into my own little cottage industry style business.

Anyone interested in setting up and selling online, I can recommend the current offer available through the eBid online auctions. (It appears to be running for the next 48 hours). £49.99 for lifetime Seller+ membership lets you sell online using all their facilities free of charge - online invoicing, listing in their auctions, automatic inclusion in the Google thingy (sorry, forgotten the name :rotfl:) plus no listing fees or final value fees unless you opt for extra features on thier site. All this and a proper online store (up to five stores, to be exact) plus loyalty points for selling through their site. Yes, I am an avid fan of this site and yes, I am making part of my income from it now, so I may be a bit biased, but I also earn part of my income from eBay, Amazon and my own websites. If you are producing anything for sale from home as part of your business or cottage industry then I think it's only fair to say that we need to cover all options and all opportunities for self-promotion. £49.99 for lifelong advertising and peoviding you with an extra 'shop window' through which to offer your goods is great in my book :T

wigglebeena

I've sold a few items on Etsy. It's something where you get back what you put in, I think: I've put precious little time and effort in and got correspondingly little back. The listing is pretty cheap though.

I think if you want to sell (really sell, a decent income stream) on there, you need either mad skillz (like, be a real craftsperson and take it seriously, learn your craft) or crazy crazy out there ideas! The nutser the better: anything that makes you think, oh, that's just unhinged, that would never sell - that's probably the thing that would! Of course a mix of both would be great too.

kat81

I love this thread, I've always wanted to make laundry/tote bags and think this thread has given me inspiration to set the wheels in motion :-)

Frugaldom

Go for it, Kat81, and don't forget to keep us up to date

princesspoppypop

I have found when visiting craft fairs there were loads of card and jewellery stalls. The stuff was quite expensive and the people were snooty.
My craft items are neither of the above and are unique items I am working on. They do take quite a long time to make but I enjoy making them. Im going to have a look at E-bid but also about setting up my own website, but it all looks complicated.

Frugaldom

princesspoppypop wrote: »

I have found when visiting craft fairs there were loads of card and jewellery stalls. The stuff was quite expensive and the people were snooty.
My craft items are neither of the above and are unique items I am working on. They do take quite a long time to make but I enjoy making them. Im going to have a look at E-bid but also about setting up my own website, but it all looks complicated.

Hi Princesspoppypop, if you sign up (free) at officelive.com then you'll be entitled to a free domain name and build your own free website; that would let you link to your eBid shop if you set one up. I can't remember where I first signed up but I know I got points as well - it may have been via themutual or ipoints