How much should I charge for hand made cards and jewellery?

rosieandjim_4

Hi I have starting making cards they cost me approx 45-50p to make I only sell at carboots, what should I ask? also started jewellery? any ideas would be grateful thankyou.

tru

I worked it out by deciding how much per hour I'd like to earn. I'm not revealing my profit :lipsrseal but here's an example - you want to earn a profit of £10 per hour and you can make 4 items per hour. Each item costs 50p (a cost of £2 per hour). To make £10, you need to sell for £3 each.

That's just a starting point, you'd have to take into account the cost of the pitch too (just work out the cost per hour of that). And when your biz takes off, keep in mind any paypal fees, etc if you decide to sell online. Then when you're doing really well, there's tax and NI to think of too.

I'll stop now, I'm getting carried away

Jo_F

Oooh this is one question that a lot of crafters bring up, there is a formula somewhere that someone worked out, but I can't remember where it is.

Most of us set ourselves an hourly rate, for most it's around £10 per hour. Then you work out how much the compnents have cost you, so say it costs £1.00 for the bits, and took you half an hour, then you would come up with a price of £6.00.

Some of us price down a little on smaller things, (earrings) and then price up a little on larger items (especially if say a necklace took a lot of fiddling with)

I made a necklace yesterday that also included 5 hand coiled wire beads, I took a stab and said about £35, then we sat down, worked out how much the 28 yards of wire cost me, all the Swarovski beads, the findings etc, it took two hours to make and I think the actual cost and time came in at about £32, so I wasn't that far out.

rosieandjim_4

Thanks for all your replys, will have a think.

Elle00

Wow, I don't know where these people are selling to charge this much! I rely on the fact that people repeatedly come back to me because I sell great cards at low prices. If I was to start charging £3 per 30p card, I'd rarely sell one.

At carboot sales, I used to take along my 20p - 40p makes and sell them for 95p each. I'd also do triple packs for £2 that contained simple 25p each cards.

For cards I sell regularly, I spend twenty minutes on each card and they cost about 50p each to make. I sell them for £1.40 each.

Luxury cards, or made to order, I spend an hour each on and about £1. These I sell for £3.50 each.

So my hourly wage is about £2ph. I'd love to earn £10ph for making cards but don't see it as likely! To be honest, I see cardmaking as a hobby first and foremost, it's unlikely to ever make me rich.

By the way, handmade jewellery rarely sells at carboot in my experience. I used to sell 50p base cost earrings for £2 each and was lucky to sell one or two each time I went. The things that sold the best were the pewter charm bracelets I did. I literally bought cheap charms off ebay, whacked them on some cheap bracelets (time to make - five minutes) and sold them for five times their value.

tru

Just to clarify - that was just an example, I don't charge £3 for 1 card

I can make 10 in an hour, unless it's made to order then it depends on the design.

Jo_F

As most of my jewellery is not simply sticking beads on pins and then hanging it from an earwire, I do tend to charge a lot for them, but then the woven necklaces can take a couple of hours each to make, the necklace that I made the other day had to have the beads made for it before I could even start adding the crystals, designing the finished piece and then putting it all together

Elle00

Jo_F wrote: »

As most of my jewellery is not simply sticking beads on pins and then hanging it from an earwire, I do tend to charge a lot for them, but then the woven necklaces can take a couple of hours each to make, the necklace that I made the other day had to have the beads made for it before I could even start adding the crystals, designing the finished piece and then putting it all together

I'm not implying your jewellery is cheap, what I'm saying is that people who go to car boot sales will not generally pay £10+ for a piece of jewellery considering the kind of bargains they have gone there for.

Please don't make assumptions about my jewellery either. I happen to be a very shrewd buyer when it comes to laying my hands on beads and findings.

Jo_F

I wasn't making assumptions about your jewellery either, I would not do that to someone that takes the time to make their own goods.

I think the biggest problem is that people at car boot sales want everything for pennies, and generally don't appreciate the time and work that go into making things.

I guess this is why most car boot sales don't allow new goods, you are just never going to get anything back on them.

I started out doing carboots with my jewellery (and it was cheap and cheerful stuff then... of this I will freely admit), and the stuff just wasn't selling, people just didn't want to pay more than 50p for things, that's why I stopped doing it and started going to craft fairs.

mrs.maverick

To be honest, I wouldn't sell good quality stuff at a car boot. I used to split my stock and take the good items to craft fairs, agricultural shows, etc, and then the cheapies or stuff that wasn't shifting went to the CB.

wigglebeena

I happily pay a fiver for a really lovely card from a gallery, but probably wouldn't at a carbootie. You just go with a different mindset (and not looking for cards). If your cards are really nice why not take them round a few galleries and gift shops to see if they will consign? Worth a try, and the prices they charge you'll probably wind up with the same profit for less work.