Pricing

I'm in the midst of a quandary about how to price my goods. I try to set a price that I would feel comfortable paying as a buyer but also pricing high enough to make a profit on what I'm selling, not that I've been selling much of anything lately anyway. Some of the things that I make don't cost a lot to make and don't take a whole lot of time, but if it's priced too low, does that make people feel like it's 'cheap'? As in poorly made? Do buyers see a perceived value in things that are priced a little higher? I see things on etsy that I know exactly how much it costs to make and exactly how long it would take to make it, and then I see what to me is a fairly high price for it, and then I also see that buyers are buying it, so it makes me wonder. A good example is a necklace like this:

Very pretty and priced (and selling) at 39.00. Now, I'm not sure how much the chain costs, lets say less than 5.00, and I know the flower is less than 2.00, because I've bought some from a seller on etsy. So, all you have to do to make this necklace is drill a hole in the flower, put in a jump ring and put in on the chain. You may also have to cut the chain to length and put a clasp on it, but I'm thinking 10 minutes to make, and that's a stretch at that. So, let's say 7.00 in supplies and 10 minutes of labor and you're making a pretty good little profit at 39.00 a pop. Now, would I spend 39.00 on such a simple little necklace? Um, no, but that's just me I guess.

Well, I have my own version of this necklace, where I've sugared up the flower with glitter, but used a ball chain which is cheaper than other chains. So, I had this necklace priced at 8.00, thinking that buyers would jump at it, being such a reasonable price, but then got to thinking that if they'll pay 39.00 for a necklace like this, maybe 8.00 is just way too cheap and they need to see a higher price before they'll buy. So, I've raised the price to 12.00, feeling kind of like I'm ripping buyers off with such a high price (to me anyway) for such a simple easy to make necklace.

I went through my shop and raised the price by a dollar or two on a lot of things yesterday, so we'll see if higher price=higher percieved value or not.

I'm also thinking of getting away from just jewelry and trying some other ideas, like the embroidered hoops in yesterday's post, but it's hard to spend money on new supplies when money is so very tight right now. I know over the course of my etsy career I've wasted huge amounts of money on supplies for things that didn't sell or didn't come out the way I had envisioned. Good thing I can write all the mistakes off on my taxes, though!

What I'm Working On

There are so many cool collage sheets with so many cool images on them that I find it hard to resist buying them. So I haven't. Resisted buying them. The best part is that you get them almost instantly because they are sent to you by email, and you can save the collage sheet and use them over and over again. So, I'm trying out these collage sheets on wood pendants, similar to the ever popular scrabble tile pendants, only bigger. I also have some plastic game tiles that are the same size as the scrabble tiles that I'm using for pendants.

However, scrabble tile pendants are a dime a dozen these days, with entire shops devoted to scrabble tiles and those shops selling at rock bottom prices. How to put a spin on the pendants so that they won't just blend right in with the other 200,000 scrabble tile pendants on etsy?

Solder around them!



This way I can add a charm at the bottom of the pendant, and also don't have to use those expensive pendant bails (about 50c each) that everyone else uses.



I don't like using resin to seal these, it's just too messy and also the fumes are very toxic and you're supposed to work outside or whatever. I've had no luck at all the few times I've tried the resin and have either ruined the pendant because I touched it too soon or didn't get all the bubbles out, or have gotten the resin in places that it shouldn't be, like the arm of my sweater. I'm using diamond glaze, which has its own issues with bubbles, but at least I don't have to use it outside! I've tossed quite a few pieces in the trash because of the bubbles, but I'll keep trying.

I'm also trying my luck with domino pendants, again, soldering around these, no charms though, the pendants are pretty big without any extra stuff on them.



One of the collage sheets I got is this one of the Mexican loteria images, sized just right for dominos. Again, I've had to toss a few because of the unpopped bubbles, but I got a whole box of these dominos for cheap cheap cheap over at Target.

So, that's what I've been doing the past few days.